physics - 5:53 am on Mar 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

sever its relationship with Amazon.com and start its own online retail site.

What they should be doing is looking to increase their revenue from the coffee shop, perhaps by making it bigger (though the one I frequent is already pretty big with some large tables), adding more outlets, and adding a more full service restaurant. Go ahead and raise prices on coffee, most of us cheap skates will pay them so we can still read books while there.
Also, make it easier for people to get on the wifi for a reasonable price: pay for your coffee, clerk asks you if you want to use the interenet, you say yes and get x hours of internet access for $x charged to your CC that you paid for your coffee and pound cake with. x must be low enough that the average person who will pay $4 for a latte can afford it.
Take advantage of the cheap skates and rent books (if people want to take them home) like Blockbuster rents movies ... if they can do it with books in the airport then you guys can do it.
They get a good chunk of my cash for coffee and snacks but there is no way they are ever going to get anywhere near as much book money from me as Amazon does. Amazon books are usually 30% or more off, I get 5% affiliate kickback and 'free' 2 day shipping with my Amazon prime membership. Borders considers a 25% off list price sale a special event. Plus I guarantee their web store will not come within an order of magnitude of Amazon.

I'm all for them cutting some of their brick and mortar dead weight but they should focus on what their good at and keep their 'super affiliate' relationship with Amazon.