In a much anticipated move, Borders has lowered the price of the Kobo Reader down to $129, cutting $20 off the price so that it is now $10 cheaper than the Kindle 3 WiFi.
Borders also cut the price of the Aluratek Libre by $20, making it just $99. These new prices will go into effect tomorrow, September 1st.
If you want to get one these devices from a retail store, make sure to call ahead first. It seems that some Borders stores are anti-ereader and refuse to make any effort toward selling ebook readers, at least where I live. I gave up trying to find a Kobo Reader to review. Funny story, the last time I went to Borders I honestly overhead one of the employees say something along the lines of, “Damn ereaders are going to put us out of business”. I guess that explained why they didn’t have any on display.
In addition to the Kobo and Libre, Borders sells Sony Readers too. And they just started offering the Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet and Cruz Reader for pre-order, as reported on last week.
In other Borders’ news, they just announced that they will start a new Rewards loyalty program starting September 1st. Here’s the key information from the press release:
Consumers can now choose from two forms of Rewards — a free, enhanced Rewards program, or the new “Borders Rewards Plus” program, which for $20 per year delivers savings on nearly all Borders merchandise, and free shipping on virtually all online orders. Borders is the only major bookseller to provide consumers with a choice of loyalty programs.
To celebrate, members can earn “Borders Bucks” twice as fast beginning tomorrow though Sept. 6. Typically, members earn $5 in Borders Bucks for every $150 they spend annually, but during this period, Borders will double the spend to bring the member closer to the $150 threshold faster. For example, if a member spends $50, Borders will double that amount bringing the total spend to $100. If a member spends $75, Borders will double that amount bringing the total spend to $150, resulting in the member receiving $5 in Bucks.
Just went and looked and its still 150
The prices get lowered tomorrow. Weird way to do it, issue the press release saying they’ve got lower prices and then not doing it until the next day.
That is weird! The Borders here has a big display for eReaders, a table with computers so you can log in to their ebook store, and they have a Sony and a Kobo reader chained to that table for customers to play with. Must be something that varies from store to store.
I’m hoping my Borders will get one of the new Sony readers that was just announced when they are released…