If one has multiple copies of a book, say 5 or more, they can take up less shelf space cover-out than side by side, depending on thickness... which allows you stock a larger, diverse inventory while still having copies in stock for the popular titles. Also, if a book is a very popular book, it's worthwhile to have it cover-out so that folks can quickly locate it. That doesn't mean the store focuses only on mass market, but instead focuses on customers: some want the popular item, so make it easy for them and not be out of stock on these, and some want more depth, so try to stock as deep as you can on the shelves.

For many stores across many industries, having enough stock of popular items subsidizes the ability of the store to stock rarer and less-often selling stock.

I feel the same, B&N sucks royally for anything but best sellers. The borders next to the school where I went always had an pretty good computer, math and science selection. Their weekly coupons were awesome. 30% on any books. But I just went back (I moved about a year ago) and they don't seem to be receiving a large amount of new stuff. The shelf were all screwed up ( I feel odd saying this but I help keep that computer section in order ;p Python stuff next to oracle crap is a mistake ;p).

I probably spent 30% of my student loans on books at borders because I'd have a hard time waiting to get home and buying from amazon. Plus like you said the 30% coupons made buying from amazon a waste of time. They changed that for borders bucks which I think was a major mistake. Bring back the coupons.

The cover/spine out is a marketing thing by the publisher.

Cover out sells a lot more books, so the publisher will insist on certain books being displayed like this, or prominently on 'new book' stands.

Sometimes the publishers pay for this service, but more often it's blackmail - "put our new diet book cover out or you will get the next Harry Potter book a week later than Amazon"

Cover-out can also be the sign of a bookstore lacking inventory to fill the shelves. I've seen it happen to a bunch, some of them which had ambitions & were anything but mass-market.

Borders was a revelation when it opened. I'll miss it if it disappears.

I didn't know that, are they still sending out these coupons?

The last coupon I got by e-mail was around the end of December. Ordinarily they came out once or even twice a week, so it feels as if they've finished doing this.

However, this site lists some current coupons: http://www.dealigg.com/story-Borders-Coupon-Code-Discount

Yes, I received a 33% off one item coupon yesterday. They sent 50% off one item coupons around the first of the year.

I never buy anything at Borders without a coupon.

Me either. And they come out all the time on their twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/borders

The Barnes and Noble in Clear Lake, TX (near NASA) had a 30'x8' wall of programming and sysadmin books, and 3x that when you take in general computing, math, and science. I loved it. "Corporate" had them rearrange the store a bit, and the selection is (or looks) a bit smaller now.

Borders in San Antonio has a large selection of said topics, and I'm impressed. The only thing about Borders that bugs me is the lack of sitting areas.

I wonder if their demise would actually be good for a lot of independent booksellers whose customers would avoid B&N.

I live in Austin and if I want a tech book from borders, there is usually 0 inventory here. There is something about those San Antonio Borders, though. They seem to have all of the books in stock. Are they that much larger than the stores in Austin? Or is SA a growing tech hub?

There's only one SA borders that I know of; one got closed down within the past year. Huebner/I-10 is the open one.

I know several datacenters are in San Antonio. MSFT, Rackspace, etc. Also, the NW side has a medical center, a university, and several banks (USAA's HQ is a mile away from it).

In short, the NW side is an affluent area.