Goodbye letter from Borders employee(s) (?) spills secrets of bookselling trade

[PSPS]

Goodbye letter from Borders employee(s) (?) spills secrets of bookselling trade

A large handwritten poster (purportedly) from a laid-off employee of the defunct bookselling chain Borders entitled "Things we never told you: Ode to a bookstore death," reveals several key truths of bookselling (and some cranky griping):



From: http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/goodbye-letter-from-borders-employees-spills-secrets-of-bookselling-trade.html

[Hardrada]

1. I am familiar with the book biz and sympathize 100%.

[wtmusic]

2. Quick question: I'm looking for a book called, "I'm Above Retail (But Cashing the Check Anyway)"

Ring a bell?

[progressoid]

9. +1

[Beartracks]

12. LOL - Love the pic in your sig.

Way too true sometimes. Oh, if there were money in correcting Wikipedia typos... lol

========================

[LoZoccolo]

14. !

:thumbsup:

[Odin2005]

3. Uh-oh, all the shallow idiot fans of Nicholas Sparks Romance trash will be flaming that person.

[Missy Vixen]

73. Ooh, more broad brush generalities!

Do you go out of your way to offend?

I might also mention that Nicholas Sparks does not write romance novels, according to Romance Writers of America's definition.

:eyes:

[frazzled]

4. Pretty cranky is right ...

It doesn't really reveal any secrets of the bookselling trade. It reveals secrets about what employees really think about customers ... most of which are valid complaints. But hey, that's the nature of retail. Does it really feel better to be on unemployment because you don't have a job at Border's anymore? Maybe because you were so dismissive of your customers and their pedestrian reading habits and snot-nosed kids that no one wanted to come there anymore? Just wondering.

My recollection is that a fair number of Borders employees were not possessed of great literary knowledge themselves, either.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Now that I think about it, the manager of one of the Borders always creeped me out.

It was like he didn't like it when you showed up with a laptop and started working on something in the cafe section.

Really obsessively weird.

[Tunkamerica]

10. Did you come in often and never buy anything?

[The Backlash Cometh]

48. That's the weird part.

I always bought something, even if it was just a water, and I only went about half a dozen times because he started hoovering almost from the first day.

[tblue37]

94. Do you really mean that he was vaccuuming around you? Or do you mean

that he was hovering around you and just had a momentary typo attack?

Either one would drive me away--I am just curious about which one you actually mean.

[The Backlash Cometh]

100. To give you an example, I sat down at a table which consisted of

two smaller tables. The day before, someone was sitting there without any problem. But when I took the table the next day, he came and pulled the tables apart. The room wasn't even crowded. And, there was no need to separate the tables since people have asked to sit down on the other side with no problem.

[tblue37]

103. "Hovering" then, not "Hoovering"? I thought perhaps he was deliberately

running a vaccuum around you while you were trying to read or work in peace. That is also a kind of harrassment, and I have seen people use it to abboy other people.

And I have lived in parts of the country where "hoovering" is a synonym for vaccuuming. Since hoovering around you while you sat there would be harrassment, too, I really wasn't sure which you meant.

[The Backlash Cometh]

112. Thank you very much. I appreciate the correction.

[geardaddy]

127. "abboy?"

:hide:

;)

[tblue37]

190. annoy. I can't type--and I have clumsy fingers. When I am hurrying, I make typos and

don't always catch them before the window for corrections has closed. I don't know why DU has such a tight window for correcting our posts. It's the only site I visit that has such a window, so I often make embarrassing mistakes and then find out about them when it is too late to do anything about it.

The reason I asked whether the poster meant "hovering" rather than "hoovering" is that "hoovering" also makes sense in context and I wanted to know what the guy who was bothering him was actually doing. When I read a story I like to visualize the events, and I had an ambiguous visual.

[geardaddy]

192. I know. I figured it was a typo.

:hi:

When I read that poster's comment on hoovering, I knew they meant hovering, but I went where your mind did and imagined the manager vacuuming around the poster.

[Warren DeMontague]

106. I get that alot, actually.

[The Backlash Cometh]

113. ha-ha.

[OnyxCollie]

191. He probably thought you were going to steal something.

Come into the cafe with a bunch of magazines, open up your laptop.

Pack up your laptop (with magazines) and leave.

Shrink in the music section was about 3%. Shrink in the magazine section was about 15%.

[Tunkamerica]

8. Not just Borders. I worked at B&N for years and it was exactly the same.

I was always as helpful as I could be with the person who came in looking for a book with a blue cover that they had seen a few weeks before with no other clues. Plastic wrap torn off nude art books sitting on the men's room floor. An empty package of hotdogs?! in the same stall.

[ribrepin]

107. yuck

[Kurovski]

116. "Toilet Book" as hazardous waste. (nt)

[OnyxCollie]

170. When I worked at Borders, I caught a black teenager

who had jerked off onto a men's magazine and left it on the floor of the bathroom stall.

I made him pick it up and throw it into the trash.

I should have had him take the cover off so it could be sent back for credit.

[Glassunion]

175. Was his color somehow indicative of his action?

[OnyxCollie]

176. Are you trying to start a fight?

It was an accurate description. Sorry if you don't approve.

Actually, I don't give a fuck if you approve.

[Glassunion]

180. No not trying to start a fight.

You are the one who took the time to mention skin color, I was simply asking if that fact had anything to do with the actions of the individual.

[OnyxCollie]

183. I'll only use the word "individual" now.

And I'll be less descriptive when I write posts so as not to offend the delicate sensibilities of other DUers, such as those DUers who see racism around every corner.

[CopingBarker]

186. A buddy who works in loss prevention told me about some black girls ...

that would crap on clothes and leave them in the changing rooms.

True story. Does it matter that they were black? No, but it does tell the complete story.

Now, when he told me about the guy who would sabotage toilets in the department store and then return later with a little fish scooper and tupperware container to "harvest" the turds he didn't mention the color so I assume the dude was white.

Yes, another true story.

Now I'm going to lunch and try and forget about these horrible stories I had forgotten about until today.

Working retail sucks.

[Glassunion]

187. It's funny the media works in exactly the opposite way.

When you hear a story about a dude punching the crap out of an 80 year old lady here is how it works.

If they are black they will describe the person as being in their late 20's, 6ft tall, short hair and what they were wearing.

If they are white they will describe the person as being white, in their late 20's, 6ft tall, short hair and what they were wearing.

[caraher]

20. Employees knew their stuff at the original Borders

Back before it became a chain, the Ann Arbor Borders was staffed mainly by under-employed PhDs who had to pass two rigorous exams to work there, one on general knowledge of books and one in a specialty. They also didn't carry many magazines at all in those days, or even have a cafe - but they did have plenty of spaces to read.

It's sad for me to lose Borders twice, even if toward the end it was pretty much indistinguishable from B&N

[MorningGlow]

78. Too true

I worked at a Borders when it was part of the Borders brothers' chain, before it got sold to Kmart. I remember being terrified of screwing up the test when I went in, dying for a seasonal job (afterward I was picked up FT), even though I majored in English in college. It was HARD!

We used to joke that only employees with master's degrees were allowed to unload the truck (there were plenty of workers who qualified).

[Tesha]

22. Wow -- you must have shopped at different Borders stores than I did.

At the three stores I routinely shopped at, I always found
the employees pleasant, knowledgeable, and more-than-
willing to help me even when my question(s) were, by self-
admission, "stupid".

Then again, maybe the problems you encountered weren't
due to the Border's employees?

Tesha

[Hassin Bin Sober]

102. Maybe you were easily dazzled. My eight year old nephew thinks I'm the smartest man in the world.

[Renew Deal]

5. I like it.

:bounce:

[Poll_Blind]

7. Are those really "Secrets of the bookselling trade"? Doesn't seem like secrets at all.

The real secrets of the bookselling trade are how publishers royally fuck over authors. There. Those are some secrets. I wish I could provide a link but I listened to an audio recording (I believe it was a recording) of Philip Dick and he had spent a good deal of time investigating some of the methods his publisher(s) used to fuck him over. Incredible stuff. I think he mentioned, for instance, that one of his publishers immediately pulped the entire first run of a new book coming out so they could immediately go into second printing, because they (contractually) had to pay him a far lower percentage of royalties on subsequent runs.

PB

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. All due respect

and I have no doubt that publishers fuck over authors, but using a Phillip K. Dick "investigation" of the matter is a little hilarious. The dude was a genius, to be sure, but also a professional paranoid. Indeed, nobody has chronicled the experience of late 20th century paranoia as well as Dick - it's like the purpose of his entire corpus. So I'd take a PKD "Powerful forces are fucking me over" rant with just a wee bit of salt.

:-)

[Poll_Blind]

16. LOL, oh I agree with you. Definitely, heh heh. That was just the first example that....

..came to mind.

PB

[Ikonoklast]

58. Here's the salt you'd need to take along with a Phillip K. Dick 'theory'....

[CopingBarker]

182. LOVE Phillip K Dick

And, paranoia aside, I'm sure he's exactly correct.

I imagine the recording industry is just as bad.

[JI7]

11. there is nothing secret about that, and many complaints are common to other jobs

that involve dealing with customers . like parents who don't watch their kids, returns.

[Initech]

15. It's definitely no secret about Oprah.

What Oprah thinks is good doesn't necessarily make it good. And I can think of about 100 different examples.

[MorningGlow]

79. In the Kitchen with Rosie

Goddamn, that stupid book gave me nightmares when I worked at Borders in the '90s.

[Kurovski]

118. Sis got it for mom...not one recipe was prepared.

A lot of pictures and paper.

Lucky fuckin' cook who wrote it. The Oprah bounce was always to the freakin' moon.

What a weird chick.

That she brought George Bush on her show was a socially irresponsible act. Creepy self-satisfied foolishness. "Oh look-me! Me so fair two bode sides!!! Great spirit shine big on big O heart, so full love!!!" :D

[OnyxCollie]

171. For me, it was the Anne Geddes books. nt

[lbrtbell]

17. Some of these lines hint at a major attitude problem

I've worked in retail, and am appalled at some of what's written here. "The customer is always right," even when they are hostile. If one can't handle dealing with people, retail isn't the right job for them. I was usually able to calm hostile customers, because I always tried to put myself in their shoes. People usually become hostile for a reason, and many of these reasons are apparent in this screed.

For instance, what difference does it make if a book becomes popular because of a movie, Oprah, or anything else? Who are they to determine whether Nicholas Sparks or anyone else is a good writer--good is in the eye of the reader. And, while I think Glenn Beck is a fucking idiot, I would maintain a professional, impartial attitude if I worked at a bookstore. If people are reading, and buying your merchandise instead of ordering it at Amazon.com, quit being an ungrateful whiner and appreciate it.

WTF is that quibbling over, "I'm looking for a ____"--that's how you ask someone for help finding a ____ in any kind of store! Learn colloquial English, for heaven's sake!

If a customer threatens to shop at a rival store, you should try to settle their complaints fairly, not just say (basically), "Fuck off, go to Barnes & Noble, see if we care." Well, they did, and so you're out of a job. Wow, you showed them!

And OMG, OMG, somebody's reading Playboy! If it bothers you that much, don't sell it. Oh, wait--you don't sell it anymore. Problem solved.

Mocking your own merchandise by pretending the non-fiction books are fiction...well, there are no words to describe that level of stupidity. Why stop there? Become a car salesman, and say, "I can't tell our cars from the lemons in the supermarket across the street."

The only two legitimate complaints are the ones about kids wrecking the children's section, and not being able to find a book based simply on the color of the cover.

The rest is just a lot of whiny claptrap, making it painfully clear why people left Borders in droves. The only thing sad about this is that these people will be getting jobs at McDonald's, where they'll screw up orders, and then urinate on someone's sandwich when someone complains about it.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. Sorry, the customer ISN'T always right.

While s/he may be the customer, they are wrong at times. It is nice to have that archaic notion as a guide, but, when taken to heart, it is actually not very wise.

[druidity33]

95. try putting THAT

on your application for a retail job and see if you get that job.

:shrug:

[Behind the Aegis]

101. I doubt I would be asked.

It is a stupid and, actually, a poor business practice to think "the customer is always right."

[druidity33]

109. I've been asked a variation

of that question for nearly every retail job application i've ever filled out. I can only gather you've never worked retail. Whether what you're saying is true or not, and it is, you still can't say it out loud or in front of management.

Also the, "If an employee uses a stamp from the register or some office paper from the back, is that stealing?" question.

As an "at will" worker (read: peon) you can get fired for just about anything. Not "helping" a customer is reason #1. You think that customer is going to leave the store and never be heard from again? Nope, they'll complain to somebody higher up the first chance they get...

I don't work in retail anymore (and don't want to), but i tell ya, there are shitty people everywhere who will try to make your life miserable, trick is not to let 'em.

:shrug

[Behind the Aegis]

114. I worked in retail for years and have never been asked that question.

I don't work retail any longer. Don't equate "the customer is not always right" with not helping the customer. Since you don't seem to be understanding this, let me try...

Your store's policy on returns is "must be within 30 days, have a valid receipt, and only store credit or an exchange is allowed." This is at a sign at the checkout register as well as on the receipt. Customer Asshole comes in (within 30 days and has a valid receipt) and demands a cash refund. Do you give it to him because "the customer is always right"? OR do explain it is not store policy and you would gladly exchange it or give him store credit?

[druidity33]

155. well

that's a pretty darn specific "example". Honestly, if the complaint seemed reasonable and the items were intact and in working order, i'd probably bring it to the Manager/Management and see what could be done (Of course after having pointed to the sign and the receipt first). If the customer were willing to wait for a check from Corporate, i've seen them accommodated. I used to work at a Camera shop and have dealt with this exact situation.


So,... what's your point again?

:shrug:

[Behind the Aegis]

161. The customer isn't always right.

[druidity33]

165. Of course they aren't

but the "problem customers" sure seem to get the benefit of the doubt most times, don't they? And Management bends over backwards to honor ridiculous requests... so they may not be right, but they get special treatment anyway.

That's really all i was trying to say. The canard that "Complaints will get you nowhere" doesn't apply to retail, because if you raise a big enough stink, Management always buckles. A gift card, 10% off, free umbrella, whatever...

[Kurovski]

119. The customer isn't always right.

Great way to go out of business.

Having worked with the public i know full well that it really means: "Make the customer think they're right" businesses should have plans in place for customers who like to steal services and product through manipulative deceit.

[Behind the Aegis]

163. "Make the customer think they're right"

That I would agree with.

[Glassunion]

169. Sometimes it is good to just fire the customer.

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

[Sherman A1]

19. Precisely

Retail is hard work, but just like any other job out there, certain things are a given. The customer may not always be right, but they are always the customer and it is by their choice of shopping with your store that you have a job.

[Blue_Tires]

24. The 'Playboy' point was indicating something deeper, imo

Because if someone is reading it in the store, then clearly they swiped the mag off the shelf and tore open the plastic cover...

A few years back we had a "bitch about the big bookstore"-thread and some DUer who worked at one gave us some incredible insights -- One of the unpleasant jobs her staff had to do from time to time was go into the bathroom stall and retrieve a stack of sex books; hoping the pages weren't too sticky to re-shelf...:puke:

[Odin2005]

34. EWWWWWW!!!

:puke:

[Blue_Tires]

36. Found the thread from the archives

Not *exactly* the way I remembered it, but a good read nonetheless...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5157954#5160252

[Odin2005]

38. I am one of those people the OP of that thread hates.

i like just chilling at B&N all day! :rofl:

[Blue_Tires]

42. Lot of colorful names from the past in that thread

and some people like JVS, HughBeaumont and myself are in it, too...

Why we are all giving insight again to a topic we gave insight to 5 and a half years ago, I don't know:yoiks:

[JVS]

37. Also the comments about people returning books and kids wrecking the kids section.

If you're letting people damage merchandise, you're bad for the store. Same if you're letting people return used stuff. It's not respecting the store's property.

[Blue_Tires]

46. agreed

but I think the chain was trying to bend over backward to appear 'family friendly' or whatever so unruly kids and indifferent parents got a lot of leeway, especially when the staff was occupied with a bunch of 'quick question' customers...

As for the returns, I don't remember the full economics of it, but a good portion of the costs for damaged/returned/unsellable books is taken by the publisher, iirc...But I'm a traditionalist, I guess--If you want to borrow something short-term, just go to the library; which also works so much better for those term papers instead of trying to fit 15 heavy reference books and your laptop on that little starbucks table...

Ironically, I used to work part-time for the local library system (which was very good and well-funded before teabaggerism came into fashion), and guess what I had to help install? Children's play centers! (In a library! Not even an especially large library!) Library admins were deciding to copy the big bookstores to get more people in -- Another local system even opened a coffee shop in the lobby...

[Warren DeMontague]

105. and while the two people the corporation is willing to pay to run the entire place are off policing

the kids section, what happens?

I'll tell you what happens: Whiny, impatient fucks stand around the REST of the store pissing about the crappy service and demanding that they be waited on yesterday.

I think you're a litte quick to assume that anyone is 'letting people damage merchandise'; your average retail drone is stretched pretty fucking thin as it is.

[truebrit71]

30. I have worked in retail as well and no, the customer is not always right...

..but the thing that makes me :rofl: is that in your rant about people having piss-poor attitudes, you demonstrate exactly the same thing...

Have a nice day :hi:

[lynne]

33. The customer may not always be right but they do pay your salary -

- so you take their attitudes with a grain of salt and remember they call it a "job" for a reason. Of course, this is something that these employees no longer need to worry about.

[WolverineDG]

69. If someone can't tell the difference between "fiction" & "non-fiction,"

they should never be hired to work in a bookstore in the first place.

When Borders opened in San Antonio, I went down to apply because I love books & knew quite a bit about a few different genres. I didn't get the job. Why? I was told I was "too smart" to work there.

:wtf: Well, I guess hiring stupid people worked out really well for Borders.

dg

[Throckmorton]

71. Are you sure you didn't apply to be a cop,

In New London, CT?

[GreenArrow]

72. I think the disctinction is that there are many

areas classified as non-fiction: history, philosophy, math and science, nature, cooking, psychology etc. I think the complaint is due to the lack of specificity of the question.

[WolverineDG]

75. How difficult is it to ask a follow up question?

such as "what type of non-fiction are you interested in?" It's not rocket science.

dg

[GreenArrow]

132. I guess it depends.

It's probably easy enough the first few dozen times, and then becomes aggravating. I could see where that could get annoying. I don't want get on the his/her case though; he/she just lost job and needs to blow off some steam.

I can tell from personal experience that it's equally annoying to ask for specifics and then have the employee not know.

[JVS]

108. But to be confused by the request is strange for someone who works there.

They just need to say "We categorize by various topics, such as X, Y, Z. Are you interested in a particular area, or do you just want to browse?"

It's an unspecific but not a confusing question. Now "Where are all the books with trucks?" is confusing.

[GreenArrow]

134. I suspect it's simply a request that one

just gets tired of hearing, given that it carries with it an implication that the person asking the question is likely to have many more no-specific questions of the same nature; i.e. don't know the author or title but it has a blue cover.

[sweetloukillbot]

162. The staff knows the difference

It's the customers who don't understand that 90% of a bookstore is non-fiction and maybe they should be a little bit clearer about what they are looking for. From experience, "non-fiction" means "biography" to most of the general public. But if a customer asked me where the non-fiction section was - I'd wave around the entire store and say "what exactly are you looking for?"
And frankly, I was damn good at knowing our inventory, knowing what was the latest title on Oprah, knowing where to find books, making sure my customers had the best possible experience in our store, and I still agree with 100% of that list. Just because I think someone who reads Nicholas Sparks has no taste and I think it is bad parenting to let your child run wild in the children's section doesn't mean I didn't do my job to the best of my ability and didn't treat my customers with respect. Even the people who I knew were using the store as a lending library and were messing up the porn mags and erotica.

[DearHeart]

195. Absolutely true!

I don't understand why so many responses to this thread are so negative and bash the employees. They must've recognized themselves in that list!:hi:

[DearHeart]

194. Unfortunately, there are customers who do NOT know the difference

between non-fiction and fiction. I have personally had to explain the difference.

[Warren DeMontague]

76. re: the customer

[Behind the Aegis]

104. LOL!

[Kurovski]

121. HEEHEE!

:D That's adorable. We're all a pain in the ass to somebody. But that is the reality.

The key is to live in denial of human frailty.

[Warren DeMontague]

126. I've been on both sides of that equation, myself.

Stuck in a crappy retail situation catering to a seemingly endless series of a-holes, AND been an exasperated customer dealing with detached, hipster employees (not so different from who I once was) thinking they're 'better than all this'.

It's important to see both sides IMHO.

[Kurovski]

131. The thing is even when you are "better than all this" you still have a job to do.

Booklovers and educators alike actually hurt inside when they see folks go for the easy reach and follow like sheep. It's easier for a teacher to inspire, a seller has to sell. I wouldn't be so hard on the passionate ones who did their duty yet still were cast aside by the same corporate mindset that leads everyone of us into simplistic mediocrity in an effort to keep the stock numbers up.

But that's the world we live in. Make it easy and fun. But the greatest pleasure comes when we challenge ourselves no matter what level we're at in life. But Corporate message is kick back and go easy "you deserve it".

You deserve it...the whole selling point...you deserve it, without even trying.

[Warren DeMontague]

133. The majority of my retail experience was different. I was involved with a hip, indie company

very anti-corporate, catering to an alternative crowd, where intelligence and creativity were, encouraged or at least not stifled.

Still, that being said, long-term? 60% of the customers were just there to do their thing, 30% were super cool, cool enough to become friends outside the store... but that other 10%... the soul-killing 10%... Oy Vey.

[Kurovski]

135. it's always ten percent or so.

What always made it easier to deal with the 10 percenters was when the business knew they'd be there and had a plan to handle them, and management backed you up. but it's always important to treat the most savagely dreadful individual with politeness and understanding (even of the incomprehensible). Rarely does one have to call the police, but, well...(people just don't understand what it's like till they do it) I've endured physical assault because i gave a bill to a gentleman who requested it first, while his friend wanted it.

Not everyone is healthy or functions out of a sense of decency, they go out in the world looking for trouble.

And some people just make it a game to steal (used returns, unwarranted complaints, whatever.) A smart business tries to please them without giving away the store, or protects themselves with reasonable policies.

[Warren DeMontague]

149. Let's just put it this way:

After about a decade or so, whatever small amount of natural misanthropy I had to begin with had been nurtured, watered, and allowed to blossom into the full-blown wonder it is today.

[Kurovski]

152. LOL

:D You're mistaking your sense of humor with misanthropy, or so it seems to me.

A fine distinction, to be sure.

[Blasphemer]

81. I agree

Having worked in retail under much more stressful conditions, the writer definitely has an attitude problem and would have probably jumped off a building if he or she ever had to work at an understaffed dollar store.

[Kurovski]

122. It could also be that they loved their job and are bitter that they're losing it.

And are now getting it off their chest.

The buying and return habits of a portion of the public they report on would be more to blame for a store closing than the complaints that were probably kept under wraps.

Employees in dollar stores are terrifically poor at customer relations. Rude even. (experiences spanning seven towns and three states) Bookstore employees don't have the luxury of non-chalance regarding customers.

No one should have to be happy about being "abused", but neither do I believe any employee of that bookstore would have been as bad as a dollar store employee without getting fired. Never saw it.

[Kurovski]

138. I don't know about the New York market, and I'm sure your store did great!

:D :thumbsup:

[laundry_queen]

96. I once had an English prof

who thought that other English profs who looked down on popular books 'pretentious idiots' who were too blind to recognize that even a poorly written book has entertainment value and improves literacy. He declared he loved ALL books, not just those that were deemed 'literature' - said there was nothing WRONG with books that weren't literature, they simply served a different purpose. He told us if we felt like reading Danielle Steel then by god, go read it - no one should make you feel guilty for READING. He said those particular English profs were ruining every single English major coming out of the University and making them into literature snobs. LOL.

I'm reminded of him when I hear people declare certain books or authors stupid or terrible. "Good is in the eye of the reader" - yes.

[Kurovski]

140. It's true about any kind of reading at all. It keeps the mind active,

TEEVEE is passive, and a wee creepy...in a way. Hypnotizing.

Profs, however are tasked with stretching our minds so i wouldn't automatically say someone was pretentious for urging that we grow our minds with a challenge. Even with a little--or a lot of--chiding. The best coaches seem to be total assholes when they get tough on a team. Whassa difference? Everyone accepts that as a way to move an athlete beyond what they thought they could do.

Crap is crap, why pretend otherwise. There are standards and it would piss me off if shakespeare was compared with Ann Coulter. I still love to read old richie Rich and little lotta comic books. But they're just ridiculous shit that i enjoy.

I wouldn't worry too much about turning majors into lit snobs...America is falling plenty behind the rest of the world when it comes to education. University and college are supposed to be higher learning.

[Cid_B]

111. Agreed.... sounds like a crap employee...

eom

[geardaddy]

128. Customer is always right?

Nah.

I worked at a major department store for seasonal work and some woman dropped a X-mas ornament in front of me. She then had the audacity to ask if she could get the item at a discount.

[Lucian]

141. In my experience, the customer is never right.

I worked at Walmart for three years and I've had customer after customer try telling me something was one price when it clearly wasn't. Customers are stupid. They don't understand how to read a shelf label. Or, they try being cute and saying something was in one spot instead of another so they can get a better price for it. Apparently they think they can get a $50 for $5.99 because it was in a spot that's marked for a doll. Get a clue, people! Microwaves don't magically show up in a toys section! And they certainly aren't $5.99! Maybe a customer put it there because they didn't want it, idiot!

Gah! :banghead:

And my biggest complaint was that a customer would just walk into a store and ask me where this, this, and this is. Hello! Where do you think dog food would be? Hmmm...lemme guess, is it in the freezer section? Or is it in Men's clothing? Oh, I know, it's in Pets, idiot!

Retail associates don't get paid enough to deal with stupidity.

[Dorian Gray]

166. LOL

You're obviously a people person.

[Lucian]

168. I can be if people aren't stupid or lazy.

[Glassunion]

146. I'm sorry... The customer is NOT always right.

In fact, they are wrong quite a bit. The only difference is that there is what I call the "Great Lie" that must be perpetuated between customers and service employees. This is where the customer knows that they are wrong and the employee also knows that they are wrong. However the employee has to pretend that the customer is right, and work quite diligently to quell the customers fake pout-rage, and make them feel that they got something over on the business to satisfy them so they will come back. It is a delicate balance. The instant it costs me more(in money or my employees faith in me) to try and keep the customer I will side with my employees.

Let me give you some real scenarios about customers that my wife or I have had, and you tell me if the customers were right or wrong.

- Wife unlocks a dressing room for a customer, she checks it to insure that there is no merchandise inside and leave the door open for the customer. 5 minutes later the customer buys some of what they tried on and left the rest on the rolling hanger for her to put back on the sales floor. So far so good. She returns to the dressing room to check for product and insure it is locked back up, however she now has to clean the dressing room as it was used as a bathroom(if you know what I mean). Was that particular customer right when they took a shit in a dressing room? Would you believe me when I tell you that it happens at least once a week in my wife's department store where there are public accessible bathrooms within 20 feet of the dressing rooms? There are people who get a kick out of doing this to their servants.

- Customer comes in and orders a sandwich, pays for it and leaves. Comes back 5 minutes later to let employee know that they screwed up. Employee apologizes, makes a new sandwich AND refunds the customer their money as that is our policy. Customer however still pout-raged begins to berate the employee using such phrases as "fucking stupid bitch" and "retarded c-word". Was this customer right? Again, there are people who get a kick out of doing this to their servants. Was I wrong for firing the customer?

- Group of 12 come into our steak house without reservations on a Friday night. Are they "right" to demand their money back on their check because it took an hour and a half to seat them and another 25 minutes for their entrees to get to the table after ordering? Even though they were warned that it would take an hour and a half to seat that many. Is 25 minutes too long to wait for 9 steaks, 2 seafood dishes and a chicken dish? Were they also right to not tip the waiter at all on a bill for over $500? Were they right to demand their money back on food that they all ate? There are people who do work quite hard to get something for nothing.

- Is the customer right when they demand to be served alcohol when they cannot produce ID? Personally, I don't give two shits that you have a Harvard Law degree with a minor in applied sciences. If you don't look old enough and you cannot show me ID, you don't drink. Period.

- I have never minded customers asking for items that we did not have on our menu. We had extremely talented chefs in our kitchen, however is the customer right when they demand something that is beyond our abilities? Are they right to be pout-raged when a steak house cannot make sushi? Sure we have fish on the menu, but that does not mean we can make sushi. Is that customer right in demanding that they not pay for their meal because they could not get what they wanted? In all honesty if there was a sushi joint in the area I would have run to get her some, but there was not.

- How about the constant complainer? If every time you visit our establishment, you have to write the corporate office telling them how bad the experience is and that the entire staff should be fired perhaps your expectations are too high. Thankfully my wife's company fired the customer.

The phrase that the customer is ALWAYS right, I think should be retired. The problem is that this can build animosity between your employees and your customers. If your employees feel that you will not support them and force them to appease abrasive and abusive customers, you actually lower customer service by killing the morale of your employees.

When I run into the problem of customers that I cannot get back or do anything with, my loyalty is with my employees. My employees have to deal with this crap every single day. No matter what there will always be the unreasonable, demanding ass hole customers. When it’s a choice between supporting my employees, who work with me every single day and make my product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free meal because my employee had the audacity to ask the 16 year old at his table for ID when she ordered her Bikini-tini, whose side should I be on? My employees make my business the success it is. If I have to lose 1 out of maybe 200 customers to keep my employees happy and let them know that I have their back. So be it. My employees are not serfs that have to be "programmed" that the customer is ALWAYS right. I have to value my employees... If they think that I won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.

Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer "always right" is counter-productive.

Using the slogan "The customer is always right", an abusive customer can demand just about anything. Using this logic they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes my employees' job that much harder, when trying to make them happy. Also, this means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back. Think about it. How much time and resources go into an abusive, irate and unreasonable customer compared to a happy customer? I want my people giving everyone top notch service.

Sure there is a cost to replacing a lost customer here and there. But it is far more expensive to recruit, replace and train an employee then to keep one happy. Maybe I'm just fucking crazy, but I have a theory... I put my people first. I train them, empower them to make their own decisions with our customers and simply watch them put our customers first. Been working for years quite successfully. I have near zero turnover and hundreds of happy customers.

[Kurovski]

153. Thank you for taking the time to type this.

You are the type of employer who gets it. There's no reason to self-destruct because of a few of society's miscreants and petty grifters.

That is how loyalty, trust, and a great organization is built and maintained. The right employees hired are happy to serve in such an atmosphere.

I read every word. May you always have success. :toast:

[Glassunion]

157. There a lot of employers that "get it" and there are more and more waking up all the time.

Take a look at the Fortune 500 Best Companies to Work For list. Also notice how they are also the most profitable companies to work for. A lot of employers are waking up to the fact that happy employees = profitability.

It is a simple model...
1. Take care of your employees
2. Give them ownership of their actions and decisions.
3. Don't manage them... Lead them.
4. Profit.
5. Share the profit and go back to step one.

Hell... I don't own the company, I'm just a leader in it. Would never dream of leaving. Most of my team has been with us more than 10 years. Me... Been with the company for 18 years and I'm not even 40 yet. This is going to be my only employer until I retire.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

160. Thank you

Sometimes, telling a customer or two to get lost is better than letting them walk all over you.

[sweetloukillbot]

164. A few others who were apparently "right"

The guy who would take a stack of gay erotica back to the furthermost corner of the store and spend 4 hours back there. This happened at least twice a week for the five years I was at Borders.

The lady who would return book one in a series and exchange it for book two. Then bring that back and exchange for book 3, rinse and repeat.

The kid who would grab a stack of 3 CDs and camp at our listening station for 3 hours.

The lady who got upset when I told her that Boney M's version of "Mary's Boy Child" was out of print and there was no way I could get it for her. "But I hear it on the radio all the time!"

The lady who saw Dr. Andrew Weil on TV and wanted all of his books. When I told her he wrote several on psychedelic drugs, she said she didn't care - she wanted EVERYTHING he wrote. She then got upset when I gave her a book on the effects of magic mushrooms.

The guy who wanted a copy of the Turner Diaries, but not the fucking Jew edition. He also wanted to know where our Skrewdriver CDs were.

The lady who came in breathlessly saying "Did you know there are people picketing Barnes and Noble because they sell child pornography? Where's your photography section?" She then proceeded to pull out every book from the photo section leaving a book called "Naked Babies" by Ann Quindlen sitting on top.

[Glassunion]

177. What's the problem?

The guy who would take a stack of gay erotica back to the furthermost corner of the store and spend 4 hours back there. This happened at least twice a week for the five years I was at Borders.
Would you rather he spent his 4 hours in the foremost corner instead?

The lady who would return book one in a series and exchange it for book two. Then bring that back and exchange for book 3, rinse and repeat.
When she was done with the series did she at least have the courtesy to return the last book so you would have a complete series?

The kid who would grab a stack of 3 CDs and camp at our listening station for 3 hours.
Would you rather he stole the CDs?

The lady who got upset when I told her that Boney M's version of "Mary's Boy Child" was out of print and there was no way I could get it for her. "But I hear it on the radio all the time!"
You could have called the radio station and had them send you a copy... You were just being lazy.

The lady who saw Dr. Andrew Weil on TV and wanted all of his books. When I told her he wrote several on psychedelic drugs, she said she didn't care - she wanted EVERYTHING he wrote. She then got upset when I gave her a book on the effects of magic mushrooms.
To me it seemed you failed to explain what psychedelic drugs were.

The guy who wanted a copy of the Turner Diaries, but not the fucking Jew edition. He also wanted to know where our Skrewdriver CDs were.
If you are looking to buy the "bible of the racist right" why the hell would you want the "Jew" version? Where exactly were the Skrewdriver CDs?


The lady who came in breathlessly saying "Did you know there are people picketing Barnes and Noble because they sell child pornography? Where's your photography section?" She then proceeded to pull out every book from the photo section leaving a book called "Naked Babies" by Ann Quindlen sitting on top.
And?

Everything was seething with :sarcasm:...

Here is a riddle... If the customer is always right, this would imply that the employee would always be wrong. What happens when that employee who is wrong becomes someone's customer? Are they suddenly and magically right or are they still wrong? That is the problem with absolutes, they usually are not.

If I may quote Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars: "Only the Sith deal in absolutes" Funny the odd catch 22 that statement creates. You have a Jedi making an absolute statement, declaring that only the Sith deal in absolutes.

[OnyxCollie]

172. When the phone is ringing constantly

because there aren't enough people working; and the back room is backed up with skids of books; and every goddamn plushie is laying on the floor of the kid's section; and there's a soiled copy of Maxim on the bathroom floor; and someone wants a book that was previously on the front table that was green and 1" thick; and some ancient money customer who somehow managed to drive to the store in her Jaguar to buy a book that she doesn't know the title of, and doesn't know who the author is, and only knows it exists because she wants it, you'd develop an attitude, too.

I used to laugh when people said, "I love Borders! I think it would be a great place to work."

[Phentex]

21. Dear Borders Employee: Want to help me?...

Please ask your boss to make a store directory at the entrance of the store to help me find a book. It would say:

Go past the displays of new arrivals and best sellers. Go past the magazine section but don't enter the large children's section in front of you. Take the stairs up and weave your way through the Hello Kitty note pads, recyclable bags, temp tattoos, sticker collections, scrapbook supplies, gift wrap and ribbon section, key chains, and small toys section. Go through the DVD section of TV shows and latest movies releases. Don't stop at the help desk with three people waiting because the self-help kiosks aren't working. Go past the racks of board games, puzzles and origami kits. If you are thirsty at this point, stop by the cafe for a coffee but don't sit because you might take up space that the laptop loungers need. Oh, the pastries look good! Look at the cute little bags chocolate drops!...Keep going through the music section, past the 2 reference book shelves and THERE YOU ARE! Books. Possibly find the book you came in for, the one the online directory said you had four in stock at this store. Take it back downstairs and wait in the long queue. As you move through, browse the bookmarks, candy, more key chains, squirt toys, pens, book lights, greeting cards - good lord, I might NEED that gargoyle toothbrush holder! and then hear the words "I can help the next person in line!"

(Be asked if you would like to save $4000 TODAY by signing up for their loyalty club PLUS membership which can be yours today when you pay here and then go home and register your account which is different from your old loyalty account so don't try and use the same email or phone number of your old account.) Not part of the directory...I got off track. :)

[Lizzie Poppet]

63. Perfect!

It's being driven home to me in this thread just how lucky I am to live withing walking distance of Powell's City of Books (possibly the largest brick-and-mortar bookstore in the world) here in Portland...

[dixiegrrrrl]

188. Ok..now I am envious.

I love living in a teeny town miles and miles from any size city, I love living the bucolic life.
truly,
but
I would, just once, love to spend a day wandering thru Powell's.
Even tho I can order online from them, tis not the same.

I miss "real" bookstores.

[xchrom]

23. Refreshing. The public always gets to comment about retail workers -

Nice to see retail workers return the favor.

[HughBeaumont]

25. Saw that on Facebook. One question . . .

. . . if they were so "left leaning", then how's come Republican "books" (really, just the same Rove boilerplate with different words and faces) were so prominently stocked and displayed in their own sections? How many times did I have to come in there and be confronted with dozens of SarUh Failin's new cry for attention or Glenn Beck's cry for help?

[jeff47]

50. Because corporate decides what books go where, not the store employees. (nt)

[MilesColtrane]

57. Corporate mostly determines what is prominently displayed.

Store managers may get a small, special section to feature what they want, but decisions like the layout of the store and what to put in the window are made by those in suits in offices far away.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

90. I worked at Waldenbooks during the post 9/11 right-wing boom

If it was on the NYT bestseller list, and sadly many of these compiled pieces of used toilet paper were, it had to be prominently displayed. Plus we got more copies of those than others, meaning a "face out" display was needed to fit it on the shelves.

Didn't stop openly hostile right-wing nuts from coming in claiming we were a liberal company ('cause you know, book people are egghead libruls) and hiding all the books by Coulter, Hanitty, Limpballs.....etc.

The same people the snobs of DU are now saying we should have been kissing ass of.....

[HughBeaumont]

98. I never understood the thing about the right wing and the dozens of books their heroes had out.

You know, because all of the media they own and spew their boilerplate cue-card talking points on isn't enough, let's now invade the print world with the same propaganda in the same book, only with different authors and their uncredited ghost writers.

Those would have to be some awfully dumbed down books to accommodate their target audience.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

99. They are delusional, sick people.....

...who need constant "preaching to the choir" affirmation to support their wacko theories and beliefs.

The ones looking for Michael Savage's book were the worst. The only time I ever asked a person to leave the store was a Savage Nation fuckwad ranting and raving that we were all pushing the "sodomite agenda" because we didn't have Weiner the Insane's screed on hand when he crawled out from Mom's basement to get it.

[CopingBarker]

185. Because they sold

Which obviously drove the poster-writer crazy. Who would buy G Beck's stupid book? People that like his books and have the money to spend on them, regardless of how lame they may be. You're in the business of selling them thing they want to buy and not being a little self righteous snot about it.

But now you're out of business and out of a job, but at least you don't have to deal with those idiots anymore ;)

[WilliamPitt]

26. That's not the "book biz"

That's retail in a nutshell.

[Kurovski]

136. Yeah, the original author(s) call it an ode. Boingboing slapped their own title on there.

editor should've thought that one through.

[Blue_Tires]

27. I'm guilty of the 'quick question', even still...

and the "Summer reading list" being put off until the last weekend is giving me nightmarish flashbacks of pretty much every grade from 2-10, even though I always used the library:scared:

as to the 'daycare' quip, I'll never understand why they stopped catering to mostly adult customers just interested in buying books...Once Borders/B+N got too loud, too crowded and too busy I stopped going -- IMO the bookstore is NOT a place to:

1. Serve as a daycare (already noted)
2. Be the weekly meeting place for heated cosplay anime discussions
3. Be some kind of brainiac's singles bar (Starbucks)
4. Be a library (how many times have I seen the last copy of a book I was searching for, except the pages were dog-eared and the spine broken?)

[bigwillq]

28. EPIC!

How awesome! :bounce:

[Courtesy Flush]

29. I'm so glad I'm a CPS worker

Because working in a bookstore seems like such a nightmare. They must be scarred for life.

:sarcasm:

[Z_I_Peevey]

74. Indeed, these delicate flowers have been through too much.

I pray they can find paying jobs more suitable to their superior intellects and skills.

[AsahinaKimi]

31. I have a close friend who is an ex employee of Borders

I am sure she will find this amusing.

[lynne]

32. Replace "books" with any other retail object and you've got the complaints of -

- any retail sellers. Not exactly "secrets". More like griping. Can't say that I blame them seeing as they're out of a job and all.

[JVS]

35. Some of these sound like reasons they went under in the first place and this worker lost a job..

If they knew people were returning books after reading them, they should have protected the well-being of the store by refusing to take the book back.

Letting kids run wild and destroy the children's section destroyed more than a piece of their souls, it destroyed merchandise.

If the store changes once a week, there must be someone at or near the top who should be able to consult their orders to subordinates to be able to see how it had changed the previous week and moreover be able to piece together where the big fucking display that caught the customer's attention last week has gone and what it was.

To be absolutely technical about looking for a book, the customer's job is to look from store to store, the employee's job is to look within the store (which he/she is supposed to know their way around).

Barnes and Nobles' employees still have jobs after all those threats of customers. Whodathunkit?

[Are_grits_groceries]

40. And Barnes and Noble workers would write

the same approximate list if they went under. I worked in both chains.

These are comments that booksellers have about a minority of people. They are the ones who constantly gave me agita, but I still gave them my attention and the best service I could. I rolled my eyes later and let off steam. This type of thing is common to any job. There are always some things that constantly occur that drive people up walls. Letting it out behind closed doors stopped it from building up.

Any bookseller who couldn't handle this minority would usually be gone quickly either because they quit or they were pushed. I loved talking to people about books and helping them. I didn't love being treated as an indentured servant, but I tried to let it roll away.

[JVS]

41. Why would someone let customers return books they know have been used?

[Starry Messenger]

44. It was store policy.

That's what I recall from working there. Employees were given very little flexibility on how to execute store policy too. If corporate said to do it, you did it.

[JVS]

45. That sucks. You'd think corporate would care a bit more about keeping sales from being undone.

[Starry Messenger]

49. You would think so, but they went out of business.

It wasn't just from the bad economy and Amazon. I worked there in 1998 and the information computers were running **Windows 3.5**, while the cash registers were synced in real-time to a corporate satellite/monitor to make sure we never gave a single unauthorized discount. A lot of the things on that list probably stem from the fact that the employees knew what would help with good customer service and were largely hamstrung by surreal policy choices.

[druidity33]

110. exactly right

It's really the only attitude i was able to adopt and keep my sanity. I tried to treat everyone with courtesy (or at least with calmness) and do my best to see they were accommodated. I worked in retail for nearly 15 years (2 of those in bookstores)... you get lots of regular pain in the asses. Like you said, comes with the territory.

I'm working in a kitchen now... totally different scene, but still some quirky issues.

:)

[AngryAmish]

39. What a collection of jerks

[David Sky]

43. I think the bottom line for many retail employees at bookstores is that those folk would rather...

be home reading a good book than on their feet in a bookstore trying to satisfy the wide variety of people who buy something in their stores. Staff people like that would be better suited to jobs as collection librarians rather than front line customer sales and service! If you're in retail, you work as hard as you can for the customer satisfaction, and there's few book buyers who are EVER satisfied 100%, let's face it, real readers are natural self-appointed skeptics of everything and everyone else. And strangely enough, so are the staff people in many bookstores.

People these days go to bookstores to relax find something good to read, or to get help in finding something the customer considers would good to read. (A LA Operah!)

[Dreamer Tatum]

47. Ode to an Unemployed Hipster Asshole

• We loved bringing Nicholas Sparks books to the register, just to watch you roll your eyes in disgust. You worked at a BOOKSTORE, asshole. You sell BOOKS. You're not better than the people who bought the books.
  
• More people were interested in Oprah's opinion than the whims of someone who gets their marching orders from Pitchfork Media. If more than two people liked YOUR favorite thing, you'd pick a new favorite thing, anyway.
  
• When people gave YOU the chance to direct them to a book your hipness approved of, you complained about being bothered? Wow. No wonder you're taking out your labret and looking for a job at TGI Friday's.
  

And so on.

I hate hipsters.

[Tuvok Obama]

53. I rarely experienced anything but annoyed condescension from Borders employees

I try to begin every encounter politely, but more often than not I was met with a reaction from Borders employees that would have been more appropriate if I had burped in their faces instead saying please and thank you. It was like a kid's Christmas for me the day that wreck announced they were closing for good.

[KurtNYC]

51. Secrets of How to Annoy Bookstore Employees (apparently)

- hide their black sharpie
- Ask "Can I take these books home or do I have to read them here?" *
- Ask "Is there a Xerox machine here that I can use ?" *
- Can you go online and see what book Oprah is doing next?
- Where is the Nicholas Sparks Non-Fiction section?
- Quick question: you know three months ago when that one author put out a book with a blue cover with a picture of that guy on the front? well Glenn Beck mentioned it on his radio show and then Ann Coulture said to read it, Hannity interviewed the guy and then at the Tea Party rally they mentioned it again...any of this ringing a bell? What's it called ?
- Did you read 'Great Expectations'? It is on my summer reading list and I was supposed to read it because I have a paper due in the morning. Could you just tell me what it is about in 200 words or so? Okay, slow down a little...I am texting this to myself...

* real questions at a B&N

[Dr. Strange]

59. "...texting this to myself..."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[sweetloukillbot]

144. Always loved the Xerox question...

Also liked the "What books on this summer reading list are also movies?"
And in a fit of bookstore clerk snobbishness I recommended "The Scarlet Letter" to that lazy high school student.

But there was also another class reading list that was fun to work with - for an AP class where they had to find a book by a non-English-speaking author. Lots of fun recommending stuff by Calvino or Eco.

[WI_DEM]

52. what secrets is he exposing? seems like a crank who hated his job and hates customers

What did he expect when he took the job? The one that really irritates me is 'when you walk in and say, 'I'm looking for a book...what you really mean is could you find me the book'--umm, yeah. You work there and if you are at a booth that says customer service you gotta expect those kinds of questions. Somebody who comes in your store to buy a book and maybe doesn't have a lot of time to look because of, perhaps, a busy schedule--and this crybaby despairs of having to look up the book and letting the buyer know where it might be located or if they even have it?

[InvisibleTouch]

55. Agreed.

If you work at a store, you're there to help customers find what they need - preferably with a friendly attitude. A store that can't do that, shouldn't be surprised when they go under.

Some of the complaints are legit (trying to return damaged books, for instance), but most just strike me as whining from someone that didn't want to do the job they were hired for.

[joeybee12]

54. KNR...and if they just had the last one, I'd KNR for that...

Really, Oprah's picks stink.

[DearHeart]

56. Worked in a bookstore chain for 20 years; not B&N or Borders and I agree

The people on this thread seem to be really relishing the fact that these poor people are out of a job. Have you all never ranted about your jobs?? I can tell you that most people who work in retail are far from stupid, yet we were treated as if we were utter morons. Yes, there were some who didn't do their jobs well and most left or were fired, but there are always a core group who knew where the books were, some of us could even figure out what book the customer wanted with one word or yes even the color of the book if the customer knew the approximate location where it had previously been.

The corporate offices told you where to put the displays, just like Walmart & Target, we had "plan-o-grams" because we weren't smart enough to make up nice endcaps! (When I put up an endcap, we had more than a 50% sell-through, when corporate started telling us what to put up, that number sank to at most,20%) We were also treated as servants, by customers and corporate alike. Try going in to clean the restrooms after some lovely people had been in them and finding shit smeared on the walls & on the floors; finding cum all over the mens stall or with a dirty magazine laying in a puddle of cum. Really classy customers!

The bookstore used to be akin to a library, except you paid for your books and went home. Then, people decided that it needed to be a cafe where they could hang out & socialize, read the books, dribble coffee and pastry crumbs all over the books and/or magazines and not pay for anything and then leave. Then, we had to entertain your children, while you left the store and went shopping at the mall across the street. Are these people bitter, HELL Yes! They have every right to be; they put up with a lot of crap and most will be cheerful and very helpful, and they NOW they are out of a job and might have to go to work another retail job. (I'm still a little bitter because our store closed their doors too, and I LOVED my job, crappy customers & all, along with the majority of really nice & wonderful customers)

For those who think that everyone who works retail is a complete dipshit, you try working it NOW, in 2011-vastly different from when I first started-You might not have noticed that the general population is under the impression that they are the only people who matter, they are much ruder and crankier than used to be and they do take their troubles out on people in retail. So, give these people a break! And, unless you want the actual physical book to go out of existence, please read books, not kindles! :rant: :hi:

[GoCubsGo]

62. +1

This is why I never went for a retail job. I don't know how retail people do it, and I understand when they get cranky. I'm usually in line behind the assholes that are the ones who make them cranky.

And, I have never been in a bookstore that had clerks that were "hipsters". They're pretty much middle-age and older, at least where I live.

[sweetloukillbot]

145. My Borders was hipsters and nerds and retired teachers

Hipsters in the music department and cafe, nerds and retired teachers in the books. But quite frankly, we knew our shit, and could find that "book with the blue cover" most of the time. Of course I worked at Borders before they went to shit.

[Blue_Tires]

70. welcome to the site!

[DearHeart]

82. Thanks! I've been lurking here for years!!

Just decided to go ahead and jump in!!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

87. Thanks and welcome

It's just a few here, but there are some real snobs at this site that love to sneer down their noses at the serfs. Thankfully the majority know how difficult retail can be when customers expect you to go along with their scams or blame you for why their SO doesn't know how to buy a birthday/Christmas gift.

[leeroysphitz]

60. Poor snooty hipster. Well he or she wont have to put up with us annoying customers much longer...

Can't imagine why they went out of business.

[Kurovski]

120. Yeah that's it...this one note that would be written in the future.

The corporate owners are always to fault, even if they kept bad employees, it's their company. The stores were always a good experience for me. Sometimes a large company just feels the profit margin isn't large enough, whereas a private bookstore will live hand to mouth and be happy of it.

It seems private new & second hand stores are the future now anyway, at least near urban areas. Although i have to say i've seen a some little second hand bookstores in smaller towns.

[Kurovski]

123. I'm an old guy in the suburbs, could you tell me where the" Hipster"

thing comes in? It's a serious question. What's the clue-in? (anyone answering this would be appreciated.)

[sweetloukillbot]

147. Animal Collective playing on the PA

Chuck Klostenberg books prominently displayed.

[Kurovski]

148. I'm even older than i thought. (nt)

[Liberal_in_LA]

61. cool note

[Desertrose]

64. For those who have worked retail- ya'll totally get this. For those who haven't...

....you probably never will.


Being on the other side of the counter can be quite enlightening....and give one a very jaded view of the human race.


This was tooo funny!!

[LibertyLover]

65. OK - I'll bite

Just who the heck is Nicolas Sparks?

[Phentex]

66. LOL! He's every bit as good a writer as...

Dan Brown


:hide:

[taterguy]

83. He wrote Nights of Rodanthe

And probably several other similar titles.

[Starry Messenger]

67. Things I could add to that list.

Coming into the store and telling me that you have a Masters/Ph.d so I probably won't understand your question? not really a charming ice breaker.

Telling me that if I got a Masters in something useful, I wouldn't have to work retail? Also obnoxious. (Enjoying those tech layoffs insufferable IT employee?)

Talking so close to my face that I get your saliva on me will not get your book to the store faster. I am not in charge of the corporate shipping route.

Not, I can't sell it to you at Amazon's lower price. Yes, I know they have it cheaper. I am a trained register monkey by corporate design and only the manager has the codes to give special services. Yes, you have to wait for the manager to come out of the back to talk to her.

It's always the most horrendous customers who turn out to want new age/meditation books. (Note, not all new age book buyers were obnoxious, but the opposite was often true).

Everyone should have to be conscripted to customer service in some form for three months in their youth. Might revolutionize the customer/service person dynamic.

[DearHeart]

84. Right on the money!!

"Everyone should have to be conscripted to customer service in some form for three months in their youth. Might revolutionize the customer/service person dynamic."

I've often said that if everyone had to either work retail or be a waiter/waitress for 6 months to a year, people in general might be nicer to everyone around them. Knowing the crap that retail workers and wait staff have to put up with would make them think again about how they treated everyone around them. :fistbump:

[Starry Messenger]

91. Why aren't we running things?

:D It seems so sensible and so right. :fistbump: Welcome to DU!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

89. "Do you work here?"......

...as you stack books and wear a nametag.

[Kurovski]

137. I can see Elaine Bennis of Seinfeld grabbing the customer's head in two hands

and pulling it down into the name-tag, shrieking "Whadda YOU think, genius?!"

[Shagbark Hickory]

68. Well they should be happy now that they don't have to be miserable at that job anymore.

[Kurovski]

124. I think the opposite might be true. Everyone complains about some element of their job.

Or most do, at any rate.

[MorningGlow]

77. I was a bookstore worker for many years

Including a stint as a Borders slave. Every word on that easel is true.

[chowder66]

80. Bookstore secrets

I worked at a few bookstores. Luckily they were small. No public bathrooms or food for sale. Thank goodness.

The only things I can think of that were not even all that secret were tearing off the covers of paperbacks to return and then throwing the rest of the book away. I hated that. What a waste! And we couldn't take them or donate them.

The other big secret was while working in Hollywood, at a bookstore, several men in suits would come in and buy all of the L. Ron Hubbard books, then they would return them right then and there. This was approved by the manager. This was so Scientology could get their books on the best sellers list. Old dead Hubbard would then write more books from beyond the grave (Xeno must have been his ghost-writer) and the process would start all over again. Creepy.

The mega-bookstores always turned me off plus I hated pushing "discount cards" for one bigger chain.

I actually miss working in a bookstore. I enjoyed not being stuck at a desk all day. Ahhhh books.

[DearHeart]

86. I also worked in a bookstore for many years.

I worked at Crown Books while it was in business. We also tore of the covers to return to the publishers, but we were allowed 5 books a month to take. It was ok with the publishers, but you couldn't donate them. I also worked for Books-A-Million when they bought several Crown stores-they're assholes!! And they made you push their discount card for $5.00. Customers were pissed and I hated even having to ask!! But, the best part of working in the bookstore was getting to check out all the new titles before they were even put out on the floor!!! I loved that!! :hi:

[chowder66]

93. I worked there too

that may be one of the bookstores that did let us take a few but I believe that was a change with the new district manager at the time. Can't really remember. Never even heard of Booksamillion.

It was fun checking out the new releases. I loved getting free (preview) books from the book buyers. That was a very cool perk.
Oh and I loved when set and home designers used to come in and buy a ton of books, especially when they would take the old ones no one would buy.

[Kurovski]

125. Welcome to DU, booklover & DearHeart!

:bounce: :thumbsup:

[mainer]

117. Interesting about the L Ron Hubbard books!

I wonder how many other "bestsellers" are books bought, only to be returned?

[chowder66]

139. That was the only group I ever knew that did that.

This happened at only one bookstore across the street from the Scientology recruitment store. The place they would try to get tourists to take a personality test and quick mini-orientation.

I don't know if it was a normal practice anywhere else. Maybe in Scientolgy centric areas like L.A and Florida..? I was assisting the manager, opening and closing the store, etc and one morning I walked in when the manager was working and there were about 6 guys dressed to the nines with stacks aka every single l. ron hubbard book at the counter. My friend/co-worker was ringing them up and I asked the manager what was going on and he said it was the Church of Scientology. They would come in and buy everything up to get it to best seller status. They would come in each time there was a new release and do this. I found it creepy, cheesy and not surprising.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

85. LOL, great list (coming from a former Walden employee)

As for the many in this thread smugly saying "That's why you are out of a job", lighten up. Judging by your lack of humor, I'm guessing it hits close to home.

[Exilednight]

88. Dear former Borders employee, your complaints are noted. Sincerely, fully employeed B&N employee.

[rationalcalgarian]

92. Time to lighten up.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62uutgNN4c

[Kurovski]

159. hehe..."101 Ways to Start a Fight "

Yes, it's a hobby at some shops for a kind of customer...here was something in the comment section:

"...Having the customer as a slightly malicious American gives the whole thing a different slant."

[AngkorWot]

97. "We hate a book when it becomes popular"

Confirmed for hipster

"He confused us when he asked where the non-fiction is"

Well, usually you've got a big categorized fiction section. And a music section. And a magazine section. What's so complicated?

"Sparks is not a good writer"

Neither are most of the writers in the employees picks section.

"letting your kids run free and destroy our kids section destroyed our souls"

If you had souls in the first place, you'd have books in your kids section instead of plush toys, puzzles, and action figures.

[pokerfan]

150. I hate when a book becomes popular because of a film

and they re-release it with cover art from the god damned movie!!!!



:banghead:

[DearHeart]

193. The choice to have plush toys, puzzles and action figures was

not the choice of the employees, but the choice of the CORPORATE PTB. We who have worked or continue to work in bookstores, prefer the kids to read the books, instead of trashing the place. But, alas, the majority didn't; it was a playground and nothing more.

[OnyxCollie]

197. Unpacking plushies instead of books was kinda pathetic.

But the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing fish plaques was truly rock bottom.

[Kurovski]

115. Too late to rec'.

:(

[hugo_from_TN]

129. Pretty obvious why they went out of business with employees like this.

[quiller4]

142. Pretty obvious you've never worked retail

Just because you believe your customer is tasteless doesn't mean you don't serve them with a smile. Where is it written that a retail employee has no right to an opinion about the goods they sell or the customers they serve.

As a former bookstore manager I can relate to every item on the list. That doesn't mean that I ever disparaged a customer's choice of reading material. Bookstore employees are supposed to be a literate group. Some customer's depend upon them for recommendations for trashy beach reading as well as serious literature.

[Rex]

179. That must be why you are a former bookstore manager.

That list is pathetic and anyone that works in retail and has a jaded attitude for the customer is stupid for not finding something else to do. :eyes: I worked customer service for years and never had such personal problems with the clients. I think some people complain too much about getting a paycheck. :eyes:

[JVS]

184. Seriously.

When I drove cab there were two types of customers I didn't like. Those who wouldn't tip (especially charming when asking for change from a 100 bill on an 8 fare) and those who were frighteningly unstable for whatever reason. I didn't even mind the drunks as long as they were drunks that didn't seem like they were about to heave or pass out and seemed intent on actually getting home.

I never bitched about people who wanted to go to the airport because it was a popular destination.

[OnyxCollie]

198. What was your job in customer service and who were your clients? nt

[hugo_from_TN]

199. Bagged groceries for 2 years and worked with customers in a paint store for another 2.

Try again, Sherlock.

[Rex]

130. Reads like a bitter grapes checklist.

Someone should call them a wambulance STAT! :rofl:

Really...you blame the people that PAID YOUR SALARY...but nothing for the assholes that LOST YOU YOUR JOB!?!?!

Fucking idiots...hope the like flipping burgers!

"Would you like fries with that order." Hell they probably will FUCK that up too!

Pathetic.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

143. Wow.....awesome classism, dude

I'm guessing you never did retail.

[Rex]

151. Well you would be guessing wrong.

But that wouldn't be the first time!

[Liberalynn]

154. My favorite:

"We lean left and Glen Beck is an idiot!"

[Kurovski]

158. OMG

Is Meloni one of your housepets? Who is that in the middle?

[Liberalynn]

181. No Christopher Meloni isn't one of my housepets.

:).The guy in the middle is actually actor, Julian Mcmahon, of "Nip/Tuck" and "Charmed" fame. Unfortunately he doesn't live with me either. :rofl:

The pic is from a screen capture a fellow fan did from the now defunct series "The Profiler!"

[TNLib]

156. Well if I got this kind of customer service at my book store I'd use my kindle.

No wonder they are closed.

[itsrobert]

167. The coupon usually says who can redeem

Most say "One coupon per customer" Some say "one coupon per household". If it says "one coupon per customer" a store employee or the store should honor each coupon per family member, because each is an individual customer.




As you can see, "one coupon per customer.."

[OnyxCollie]

173. "Are these books in any order?"

Yes, they are arranged in alphabetical order by the second letter of the author's first name.

And the Josh Groban CD's are over there.

[Glassunion]

174. I'm sad that they all lost their jobs and I personally will miss my local Borders

Maybe it was the area, but the employees that worked there were quite nice and I never noticed an attitude problem at all.

There was one silver lining in all of it... On vacation my wife and I stopped at the Borders in Burlington VT to see if there was anything that we wanted. The store was all but done with their going out of business sale. Most everything in the store had been stripped clean. There were however about 5 copies of Glenn Beck's book still available. It's funny how they sold more book shelves than they sold of his book.

[TheManInTheMac]

178. Well, now I don't feel so bad about Border's going out of business.

At least this asshole is out of a job.

[Bunny]

189. There's a whole lotta douche in that poster, former Borders employee.

It's quite unbecoming, too. Everyone who works in retail has their gripes about the public, but the implied superiority in your "ode" is repulsive. So, let me respond:

First off, I hate people who write the word 'it' and make it look like an upper case H. Try learning to print before you criticize the reading habits of others.

Speaking of criticism, who the fuck are you to decide that Nicholas Sparks can't write? How many best sellers have you penned?

And, say what you will about Oprah, but I bet her book club books generated quite a bit of revenue for your former employer, thus helping to pay your salary.

As for being confused about the 'non-fiction section', you seem to be pretty easily dazzled. I'm surprised you managed to hang on for as long as you did.

Now, for the social niceties that tie us all together: phrases like 'quick question' and 'I'm looking for...' are meant to ease the way into our transaction, despite what you may think. Next time, instead of saying "I'm looking for Oprah's latest selection", I'll just walk up and say "Hey moron! Where's Oprah's book goddamnit!?!?!?" I'm sure that will go over really well, won't it?

Sorry about your soul being destroyed by the rampaging children- perhaps you took things a little too seriously?

If you can't remember what you had on display in a specific area as recently as last week, your short-term memory must really be lacking. My condolences. Better luck with that in your next job.

As far as coupons, if the family adhered to what was printed on the coupon, tough titty about your anger. If they didn't, then you should have kicked that up to the manager to handle.

Finally, all those nasty-ass customers will be shopping at Barnes and Noble from now on. Happy?

Signed,

Bunny
Currently doing a part-time stint in retail.

[Enrique]

196. good joke in the comments

Korla Pundit 10/03/2011 11:03 AM

What do you call physicians who buy their books online?

Doctors Without Borders.