I HUGELY enjoy browsing in bookshops. They can be inspiring places, stacked full with knowledge and culture.

The smell of newly- printed pages fuses with the whiff of freshly- ground coffee (most bookshops house either a Starbucks or a Costa Coffee franchise), while mellow jazz rhythms provide a sonorous backdrop. It’s a pleasant way to pass an hour or so, and offers a sensory experience that surfing online for e-books doesn't replicate.

So, if they’re so good, why are bookshops struggling to stay in business?

The pending demise of bookshop chain Borders UK may have come as a surprise to many customers, but the harsh reality is the business has for years struggled to compete with its rivals.

This time last year the retailer, which operates 45 large, mostly out-of-town, stores in Britain hired a new chief executive who was set the task of turning around its fortunes. At that time, Borders had suffered a big drop in sales and pre-tax losses widened from £10.3m to £13.6m. Its operational side was deemed inefficient.

Just a few months ago, the turnaround plan culminated with the sale of the business to a management buyout team.

Originally part of a US group of the same name, Borders was founded in 1971 by brothers Louis and Tom Borders as a second- hand bookstore. The business has since embarked on a programme of organic growth combined with a series of acquisitions, including the purchase of Books Etc, during the 80s and 90s.

Despite its obvious ambition to become a big international player, the firm’s business model seems flawed, particularly in its failure to fully embrace the digital age.

The principal reason the chain is struggling to trade through the festive season could be the ultra-competitive state of the book market. The ending of the Net Book Agreement, in 1995, set in train price competition that has put nearly all independent booksellers out of business. Now that the small booksellers have all gone, it looks as if chill market conditions are costing bigger players dearly, too.

All high street book retailers are suffering. Waterstones, for example, has seen a downturn in sales.

High street stores are losing out to Amazon and the supermarkets. Go into a Tesco or an Asda and you will find the works of best-selling authors like Dan Brown and JK Rowling sold as loss leaders.

Casual observation of Borders’ store at Speke’s New Mersey Retail Park seems to support the idea that, in its dash for growth, the company took on too much space for the amount of sales it generates.

The market share of the large book chains has declined almost in direct proportion to the growth of Amazon’s. Electronic book readers like Kindle haven’t helped either.

But the ultimate reason for Borders’ possible demise, I suspect, is that it has not adequately competed online. Its website is too tricky to use, compared to Amazon.

Nor are Borders’ troubles purely a function of the economic cycle.

While the trigger for the current crisis might well be the lack of availability of credit insurance to its suppliers, this problem has only acted as a catalyst to bring about an end that looks pretty inevitable sooner or later.

Shoppers taste the books they want by visiting high street premises, but then go home and spend their money online at much cheaper prices.