Borders Books & Music to Open Store in San Francisco, Calif.

Business Editors

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 2003

Borders Books & Music(R) will open a 23,000-square-foot store in downtown San Francisco, Calif., in February 2004. The store will be located in Mission Bay at the intersection of 3rd Street and King Street in the Mission Place urban development project. The new Borders will offer South Beach residents, students, commuters and tourists a comfortable place to explore a vast selection of book, music, DVD and periodical titles. Cotenants include Safeway, Wells Fargo Bank, Amici's and many others in a pedestrian-friendly retail plaza supporting eight residential buildings. The store will include a Cafe Borders that offers a variety of gourmet coffees, teas, beverages, desserts and light food items.

The Mission Bay store will be Borders' 19th in the San Francisco Bay area market. Nearby Borders stores are located in Emeryville, San Mateo, San Rafael and downtown San Francisco. The new location was selected based on a variety of factors including demographics, the strength of the tourist industry in the area, the retail synergy of the development's cotenants, traffic patterns, the availability of parking and the attractiveness of the site.

"The Mission Bay store is in a cutting-edge development that combines upscale housing with retail space," said Cory Bol, district manager for the new Borders location. "It's a great location adjacent to the new Pacific Bell Park baseball stadium that will attract area residents, daytime commuters, tourists and students from the University of California at San Francisco campus."

The Mission Bay store will offer corporate discounts to schools, libraries and businesses in the area. Free events like lectures, author signings, musical performances, children's activities and 'Benefit Days' that support local charities will be held throughout the year.

Borders is an industry leader in selection, customer service and convenience. Borders stores offer up to 200,000 book, music, DVD and periodical titles, as well as cutting-edge service technology through Title Sleuth(TM) self-service computer stations located throughout the store. Title Sleuth allows Borders customers to easily determine if a particular book, CD or movie is in stock at the store they are visiting or at a nearby Borders location and offers access to more than 15 million used, out-of-print and hard-to-find titles worldwide. For Borders.com and Amazon.com shoppers, "In-Store Express Pick Up" service combines the ease of ordering online with the convenience of paying for their purchase and picking it up the same day.

Exploring contemporary books and CDs by innovative authors and artists is easy with Borders' "Original Voices" program - featuring the works of more than 200 contemporary authors and illustrators from around the world in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, young adult and children's picture books throughout the year. For those unsure of what they're looking for, Borders' "We Recommend" titles and reviews are displayed throughout the store and knowledgeable booksellers are happy to suggest titles well suited to each customer. In the multimedia section, Borders B-Listening(TM) lets customers preview nearly every CD in store and view trailers of DVDs. In addition, Borders' experienced buying staff recommends music and movie titles everyone should have in their personal libraries through in-store "Borders Essentials" lists.

About Borders Group

Borders Group (NYSE:BGP) is a leading global retailer of books, music and movies. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., the company employs 32,000 people worldwide and operates over 425 Borders domestic superstores; 36 international Borders stores located primarily in the U.K. and the Pacific Rim; 36 Books etc. stores throughout Great Britain; and approximately 755 Waldenbooks stores in malls across America. Teamed with Amazon.com, the company also offers online shopping through Borders.com (www.borders.com) and Waldenbooks.com (www.waldenbooks.com). More detailed information on the company is available at www.bordersgroupinc.com. Information on Borders stores title selection, events and locations is available through www.bordersstores.com.