I have been hearing rumor of that very thing for the last year. I don't think it's going to go very fast or to the whole division. And that's kinda what the article I read eludes to. I still think it's stupid that we are so radically changing our product line. WE CANNOT BE COMPETITIVE WITH DVD/CD'S!
We just cannot compete with the big stores on that so why take up half my front with the sh*t!? I don't think I'll ever be a Borders Express though, at least not in my time.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/5/148590-8805-031.html

Call me Nostradamus.... I had it almost right (I said "outlet" instead) when I posted about this back in March.... http://www.bordersunion.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=789&highlight=

For the record I don't care... I'm only an employee of Waldenbooks for another week or two. My store is closing up. Fun fun fun. Not big enough to sell CD's & DVD's I guess.

The smaller Borders are called small-format stores. The one in downtown Detroit is like this. I'm thinking these stores aren't going to be near Best Buy so won't be competing with them. If they thought they could compete with the big box stores, they'd build a regular size Borders nearby.

Wake up and smell the coffee everyone. All the signs are there: My guess is that all Waldenbooks will be a thing of the past in the next five years.

Now that I'm an unemployed Waldenbookseller (my store was closed just a few weeks ago), I've had some time to wander around this website. And I've noticed more than a few posts by former Waldenbooks people whose stores closed when the leases were up. Smells a bit like a trend to me. The articles in the papers said "some" Waldenbooks will be converted to Borders Express. It didn't say the rest of them will remain Waldenbooks...

In my area two Waldenbooks have been closed in just six month's time: a decently busy stand-alone and a mall location. Both shut down "when the lease was up". In my store the landlord apparently wanted Waldenbooks to commit to a five-year-lease and corporate refused those terms. That tells me they have other plans for the chain in less than five years.

I think they're going to give this Borders Express idea a try in a couple spots but continue to use every excuse to shut down as many Waldenbooks locations as they can. I bet it will be open season on Waldenbooks.

I for one thought the Borders Express idea wasn't a bad one. Most customers are surprised to learn that Borders owns Waldenbooks; some try to use their B&N discount cards at Waldens. And people are confused by EGCs that have Waldenbooks in big letters on the fronts and "Borders" in tiny letters on the back. It's the same company, so why not just act like it. I found it pretty ridiculous that we at Waldens were discounting the bestsellers 15% while our parent company 8 miles up the road marked them down 35%. It would make sense for the Waldenbooks customers to know they're shopping in a Borders-owned store and enjoy the same discounts that the Borders customers have. But wait, when has Borders ever done anything that made sense.

The Waldenbooks that I work for is changing over in about a week. Apparently it takes one night to demolish and the two following nights to repaint, that is all I heard(I took the call the other day). Possibly a small music section, a different store layout, and I think that is about it.