As you've no doubt heard, Borders is officially closing its doors, which of course includes the location in Eau Claire. Considering the lack of any other large area bookstore, the loss of Borders is a relative bombshell from many locals. 

 Around 10,700 employees will be out of work after the shutdown. Many sources blame the closing on the success and cheaper prices of Amazon.com as well as e-readers and their e-books. This in turn, coupled with a general waning of interest in books, has lead to the downfall of the large book store chain. 

Even big bookstore juggernaut Barnes & Noble have been feeling the economic pinch and are barely hanging in with help from their marginally successful Nook e-reader.  

On the positive side, the gap that Borders will be leaving presents local entrepreneurs with a great opportunity. Until a big bookstore/coffeeshop swoops in to fill the vacum left by Borders, our smaller, exisiting bookstores and other shops that happen to sell books might be able to move more merch. 

There's been some discussion on the matter over here.