BAM!’s plans to expand into the northeastern US fell through yesterday, dashing the hopes of the customers and employees of those stores.

Books-A-Million had submitted a bid last week to buy the inventory, fixtures, and equipment for 30 Borders stores.Unfortunately, lawyers for the soon-to-be second largest US bookstore chain told the bankruptcy judge yesterday that they couldn’t work out a deal with Borders.

Clyde B. Anderson, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President said, “we worked exhaustively in an effort to acquire these stores and reach agreements with all of the parties whose consent was necessary. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful.”

The exact details were not released, but it had been hoped by many that BAM! would be able to acquire the stores and thus prevent communities from losing an employer, community resource, and in some localities their only major bookstore.

The deal would have saved around 1,600 jobs. The liquidation of Borders stores began on Friday, with all stores scheduled to close by the end of September.

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