Not ethically problematic at all, economically problematic for Borders, certainly. As another poster pointed out, Borders offers the same products as online bookstores except with a substantial markup. Markups need to be justified with some sort of value-add, what's the value-add for Borders? Quick access to books? That's a dubious advantage in the age of Amazon Prime and e-books, especially when weighed against the disadvantages of physical bookstores such as time wasted waiting in line, time wasted making a trip to the store to pick up a specific book that it turns out they don't have in stock, etc.

Borders is a retail store heavy company, and they haven't made any significant changes in their store in response to competition from online stores. That's a huge red-flag and is nobody's fault but theirs.