A closer look
Borders bookstores totally dominated the retail literature market in the 1990s but made the incredibly fatal economic decision in 2001 to completely outsource their entire online sales operation to a minor internet startup called Amazon. Instead of building their own digital infrastructure, Borders executives gladly handed over their digital customers to Jeff Bezos, completely failing to realize they were actively feeding the exact apex predator that was perfectly designed to destroy their physical business. While Amazon used the data and cash flow to rapidly expand into the unstoppable e-commerce juggernaut that currently monopolizes everything, Borders slowly bled out and eventually filed for total bankruptcy in 2011. It remains one of the absolute funniest examples of corporate suicide in economic history, resembling a highly successful chicken farmer hiring a pack of hungry wolves to guard the henhouse because he thought building a sturdy fence sounded like too much work
