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“It NEVER bothered us when you threatened to shop at Barnes & Noble. We’d rather you did if you’re putting up a stink.”
Do you think maybe that’s why Borders is dead (see title) and B&N isn’t?
(Note the comment about leaning left. Seeing a pattern?)
Bingo. Exactly what I came here to type.
True. In an economic crisis, principles and integrity can cost you everything. Of course if everyone had priciples and integrity we wouldn’t have got into one in the first place.
Anyway, if these things were so bothersome they should have followed Bernard Blacks example and put up a noticeboard.
No Mobiles
No Walkmans
None of THAT
Or any of the others
This sounds like something that a person who has never worked retail would say. I can be fairly certain that the staff at B&N would also not care if you threatened to shop somewhere else. Most entry-level retail employees don’t have profit sharing packages or stock options.
You’d be surprised. All of this and more, including “wetting” the chairs, and worse, goes on all of the &#*(% time.
I’ve always worked in retail and while it never bothered me if a customer threatened to go to a competitor, every manager I ever worked for took it relatively seriously. Maybe the lack of seriousness is why Border’s went under. Oh, well.
Actually, just as many customers at Barnes & Noble say just the same thing and the employees there have the same feeling about it. We know we’ll see the same customer next week.
Exactly, thank you.
read your blog typical angry rightwinger bullsh&t
Um, re-read this. Right-wingers are PASSIONATE, but not angry. Left-wingers are typically VERY angry. And about imaginary stuff, I might add.
You’re defending the right-wingers, Alleycat? Wow. You are the first person I’ve ever seen defend them on the internet.
Let’s be friends!
Words, I think you are new to using them.
Left wingers ARE typically very angry. This is usually because they are being screwed by right wing government, (even the left is a long way right these days…) and when coupled with the average left wing voter’s lack of access to education and/or money this leads to unintelligible outbursts of anger.
Right wingers are generally self obsessed money grubbers who either come from a rich family or own their own business. In either case, they don’t give a damn about anyone who is not rich because in their opinion if they were smarter they would be richer. (Forget of course the education system skewed toward education for the rich and get stuffed if you’re not).
Please note, this is not an angry left winger response; It is an analysis of the situation from someone who is tired of being stepped on by rich kids, but has accepted that the world will not change because the dispossessed are too downtrodden to do anything about it.
Summary for TL:DR people:
It’s easy to be smug instead of angry when Daddy pays for everything for you.
I simply find this funny to read because rich kids’ parents are LIBERAL with their money if they give it to thier kids all the time. If the parents were CONSERVATIVE with thier money and taught their children the value of a dollar, they wouldn’t step on you.
A string of stereotypes and personal prejudices is what passes for analysis in your world?
This is one of those irregular verbs: I’m passionate, you’re angry, he’s a raving lunatic.
YES…IT WAS THE EMPLOYEES FAULT THAT BORDERS IS DEAD…YES WE CAN CONTROL THE CUSTOMERS…I WORKED AT BORDERS AND I TRIED MY DAMNDEST TO MAKE THOSE PEOPLE (MANY IRRATIONAL) HAPPY. IF YOU WORKED THERE YOU WOULD KNOW WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT. YOU TRY IT SOMETIME. I CURRENTLY WORK FOR A COMPETITOR AND THE SAME THING HAPPENS…TRY WALKING IN MY SHOES FOR A WHILE. THE CASHIERS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH BORDERS GOING UNDER…NOTHING. WE WORKED THERE A LONG TIME AND PUT SOME OF OUR HEARTS AND SOULS INTO THAT PLACE…THANKS FOR KICKING US WHEN WE’RE DOWN…OH AND WE ALSO GOT THAT LINE A LOT “YOU’RE TH REASON WE’RE GOING OUT OF BUSINESS.” THANKS FOR BEING A STATISTIC.
Irrational shop everywhere.
After reading your ALL CAPS post, I am realizing they post comments everywhere, too.
you clearly aren’t meant to work in retail. I worked for 6 years out the back of a retail store and refused to ever go anywhere near the customers. if you hate the way customers treat you why go back to a similar job?
STOP YELLING AT ME!
That’s exactly what I was thinking when I read it. The fact that it didn’t occur the the person writing it says a lot about the quality of the employees at Borders.
Uhmm.. No, no I don’t.
Leaning left and providing terrible customer service have nothing to do with each other.
What they’re saying was that blatantly throwing your political stance when you are a capitalist chain store is probably not the best idea. Not that left wingers are terrible with their social skills, although left wingers are some of the meanest people I’ve ever met.
I’m not right wing either…right down the middle, here. I hate all politicians with precision equality.
The point is that if a customer is being irate and abusive towards the staff the store would prefer to see them leave.
^This.
I work in retail and if a customer is being rude to me my managers will ask them to leave the store. Honestly the single customer that is making a spectacle of them self usually makes other customers uncomfortable and makes them want to leave.
Aside from that, I went to Borders all the time and not once have I ever met a rude employee. I’m willing to bet that all the people who are blaming the employees for the stores closing either are rude or obnoxious customers, or don’t know what a book is.
and that’s why they went out of business…..
“Do you think maybe that’s why Borders is dead (see title) and B&N isn’t?”
Has more to do with Borders’ ereader trailing behind in popularity. They jumped on that bandwagon way too late.
As a B&N bookseller, I’ve often had customers threaten to shop elsewhere because we were not doing exactly what they wanted us to do. Believe me, the ‘be my guest’ response is universal from all customer service representatives when the difficult customer is talking up the competition in an attempt to get their way like petulant children.
As my manager says, I am not getting paid enough to put up with mean people who are mad at me because they don’t like the rules that a corporate official told me that I had to follow to keep my job.
As for the rest of it, oh, my God, it’s all so true!
Crybabies.
Crybabies, liberals, same thing.
Somebody get this guy/gal a blog, stat.
Glenn Beck is an idiot? Glenn Beck isn’t the one going out of business is he?
Well, he did get fired… so there’s that.
He wasn’t fired, he chose not to renew his contract with Fox News.
You believe everything you’re told, don’tcha?
Please provide evidence to support the claim that he was fired.
No?
Didn’t think so.
Didn’t Fox say THEY were not renewing his contract? I’m pretty sure it was not his decision…
It was a joint decision. He’s doing better on radio anyway. I like him, the crazy old git. I don’t agree with a damn thing he says, but he’s just so damn jolly all the time.
Hmmm, believing ANYthing you hear on Fox News? Fail….
Jumping on the Fox News bashing bandwagon fail.
no theres plenty of loonies out there buying his end of the world democrats are big nasty communist monsters out to get them,but yeah headline news gave him the boot even the right wing fascist faux news axed the silly little ex alcoholic crybaby
Clearly the words of someone who learned everything he knows about Glenn Beck from leftwing loony websites, try listening to him for a while, you might learn something.
You’ll learn he’s an idiot
THIS
Retards like you keep him afloat. Glenn Beck is an idiot.
Stupid people don’t realize they are stupid, despite all evidence.
It’s the Dunning-Kruger effect at work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOHJa5Vj5Y
People who are bad at something, are bad at self-assessment and tend to overestimate their ability. Thus they don’t realize they are bad at said thing.
I work at a bank, and when people are being belligerent and threaten to go to another bank, I wish I could thank them. lol
What the heck is wrong with wanting to read non-fiction? How can you be so elitist as to look down on [auto]biographies, books on animals and the sciences, and so on?
Working on the basis that your “what the heck is wrong” is a serious question… Non-fiction? Well *here* is fiction and its sub-genres. The rest of the store? That’s non-fiction. Perhaps you can narrow down your query.
They’re not saying there’s anything wrong with non-fiction… just that non-fiction is half of the books in the store and you may need to be a little more specific.
Nonfiction is WAY more than half the books in the store.
We don’t look down on the books themselves, just the people who ask us ridiculously general questions that make no sense. Non-fiction is every section EXCEPT FICTION and its genres. There are about 40 different non-fiction sections. Pick one and the employee will gladly take you there.
How about you just be nice, help them and try and make sure they buy as much as possible?
^^ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You don’t work in retail do you?
That’s kind of like telling them to help them find what they are looking for when they say “I’m looking for a book” and give no further detail. The Employee needs more information in order to help them find the specific book they are looking for. The same goes for the section. saying “Non-fiction” doesn’t help. They need to know what type of non-fiction they are looking for in order to help them find it.
So then you ask “What kind of book are you looking for?” “Something good.” “Okay, what do you normally like to read?”
Ask probing questions. A lot of times people don’t KNOW what they’re looking for and are asking who they think is an expert for their opinion. Maybe YOU shouldn’t work in retail if you have problems with vague questions.
I think there’s a difference between ‘bookstore’ and ‘library’.
At a bookstore, I feel it’s reasonable to expect help locating a book by subject, name, author, etc., with a mind to purchasing that specific item. I can see why a bookstore employee with other duties (cleaning, checkout, stocking, etc.) might not have time to ask probing and thoughtful questions to hook you up with your next favorite book. I’m not sure that most companies would consider that part of their employee’s duties.
If, however, all you know is that you want ‘a good non-fiction book to read’ and hope that someone will reccomend one to you, try your local library. Librarians are quite literally educated in just how to help you find the information or entertainment you’re looking for. That IS their job, and that’s probably the place to go!
I think many people are missing things… we did help you find books by subject, _title_, author, ect. We helped you find that book when you came in not knowing what you were looking for. We offered you our opinion on good titles, new titles and maybe even a different idea than what you thought you were looking for. We took it as a personal challenge to find ‘that book’, when all you could give us was a vague hint at a title, book colour… we asked everyone on duty that day if they could think of the right book. We took down your phone number so we could call you if we came across that book, or information about that book. We ordered in the _first_ book in the series so we could hand it to you and know you would love reading it as much as we did. We cleaned up after you, and your kids. We did our best to wait on several people at once when home office cut hours, because we knew it’s not nice being dismissed/ignored when you need help. We took pride in knowing we helped you find your next new book obsession. We had the most fun talking with you about favorite authors, characters and different series.
_On the other hand:_ “non-fiction has many sections… what section did you need? What types of books do you enjoy reading?” _and then I’d walk you there, so we could discuss different titles you might be interested in._
Opera is not the ‘be all, end all’ of literary knowledge, but at least people would pick up a book and read it. However it’s disconcerting to us that people need to be _told_ what to read, instead of having an opinion of their own on what is a great title/author.
We would call another bookstore all the time (just to make sure you had the title you needed), we would even give you directions. _true story_ we called another store in another state to have them put a title on hold for a customer. We were out, and they were on vacation and heading that direction…
We worked our asses off for you, because we were the best, and we wanted you to be as turned on by books as we were.
In many book stores i have gone into the main part of the store is fiction and non-fiction is a separate department or upstairs.
I don’t think it’s a dumb question.
You assume everyone who walks into your store knows how the store works. If you are employed as a shop assistant, or in customer service getting angry at people who ask simple questions means you are arrogant. You are there to HELP EVERYONE, not just the people who know exactly what they want. If you dont want to help people get a new fricken job.
They didn’t say anything was wrong with non-fiction but asking where the non-fiction books are is a little vague considering most of the books there could be considered non-fiction. The point is to narrow the search down and ask for the biographies, books on animals, or something like that.
You apparently don’t get it. Non-fiction is NOT a section. Nature, History, biography, those are sections. Saying you’re looking for the non-fiction section is like saying you’re looking for a book. It doesn’t help.
The confusion comes from the fact that there IS no “non-fiction” section. It’s divided up into the categories that you mention.
I worked in a Waldenbooks for years. I disagree with a few of these points, as some things are just endemic to working retail (people have questions. It’s normal). Despite these quibbles, though, some points really hit home e.g. summer reading, “I know the color but nothing else,” etc…. and definitely the babysitting one.
No no, it wasn’t that people were asking “where is the non-fiction section?” so much as… them not understanding what non-fiction actually IS. 75% of the store is non-fiction. It’s not an easy questions to answer.
Of course it’s not an easy question to answer. That’s why people pay you money to answer it. They ask for non-fiction, you ask them nicely what in particular they are looking for. Is that so hard? That is actually the job of a sales assistant or whatever they’re called.
No kidding. That’s what they do. It’s the fact that they even have to in the first place over…and over…and over… THAT is what they were annoyed at.
I worked at Borders for awhile and I don’t think that particular point is looking down on people that read non-fiction (a lot of our staff picks in my store actually came from various non-fiction sections). It’s the fact that people will ask for non-fiction, which is usually about half the store inventory and they don’t narrow it down any further. Asking what subject in non-fiction 9 times out of 10 would result in a blank stare and the customer slowly repeating “n-o-n-f-i-c-t-i-o-n” like we didn’t understand what they said. It sort of relates back to people asking for a book by color.. because that really narrows it down.
In general no matter what retail environment you work in I’ve come to believe that customers expect you to read minds. This is due to their refusal to provide you with anything that could remotely be considered helpful information or context clues. We WANT to help you but you really need to give us something to work with.
It can be frustrating especially if it’s the 10th person to do this to you in a day but in a way it can be fun too. Sort of like an epic challenge or quest that most often turns out to be fruitless but is amazingly satisfying if you can actually figure it out.
Borders is dead because they were late to the ebook party, B&N is alive because they got their ebook out before xmas. That’s reality.
And every B&N employee on earth would laugh and cheer in agreement with every bullet point on that list. Anyone thinking otherwise probably also believes that Hooters waitress *really really* likes them.
It wasn’t E-Books, but a slew of poor decisions by the executives running Borders.
For instance, Borders owned Waldenbooks (remember seeing them in malls and shopping centers). But about 8 years ago some idiots at Borders decided to close about half of the Waldenbooks stores in the country in favor of replacing them with the larger Borders stores.
I was living in Virginia Beach at the time and 4 or 5 WBs were closed with one left in Virginia Beach and one in Chesapeake. There was one Borders store in VA Beach, and Borders never opened up another location in the area. Now, where do you think all that income, that the 4/5 closed stores went to? True, some went to the remaining WBs and the sole Borders location — but the lion’s share went to the 4 Barnes & Nobles (all of which were more conveniently located than the Borders location).
One of the closed Waldenbooks was a store near where I lived, and I liked shopping there. Unfortunately, it was an early victim of the closings, before the official WB store closings happened — the lease was nearing it’s end and Borders chose not to renew it. The manager tried hard to get Borders to lease another spot in the shopping center but they never did. I’d been displeased with Borders b ever since. The worst part about closing that particular Waldenbooks store — I learned from the manager that they were one of the 5 best earning stores in the nation.
I was also mad when Borders killed the WaldenBooks Preferred Reader program. I believe it was the first of the membership discount programs. I know I always got my money’s worth with the Preferred Reader program. Borders eventually replaced it with the Border’s Rewards program, but the discounts were pretty crappy as you hand to spend more (even including cost of the Preferred Reader program) to get $5 coupon.
I only learned in the last year or so that Borders created a paid tier of the Borders Rewards program that was more like what the WaldenBooks Preferred Reader program was.
Oh, and don’t forget about Borders slashing the size of their Science Fiction & Fantasy section…
I live in Va Beach, I remember when they closed the Waldenbooks.
Yep! Also as a B&N employee, I hate when people keep saying “well I bet you’re happy now that Borders has gone out of business!” No, no, actually I’m not happy that thousands of people just like me have lost their jobs.
As a “former” Borders employee, I so appreciate your comment about you not being glad that we’ve all lost our jobs =]
You’re a good soul, Rebecca.
May whoever or whatever it is that you believe in bless you with all the riches of Ben Franklin’s Masonic tomb. =p
I love that you have a heart but I hope you have made plans for a new job. Even though Borders has died all over the world, plenty of other bookstores, big and small, are dying.
It won’t be long before 2nd hand bookstores are the only bookstores and they will begin to fade too.
I weep for future generations that will never know the joy of flicking through a paper novel.
The forests though are rejoicing…
It seems humans can do no good without evil now.
Change is the name of the game.
In all perfect honesty, I never found flicking pages to be enjoyable (it’s just a task like opening doors), but I did find the words on the pages to be sublime. The future generations will be fine.
“Yep! Also as a B&N employee, I hate when people keep saying “well I bet you’re happy now that Borders has gone out of business!” No, no, actually I’m not happy that thousands of people just like me have lost their jobs.”
As a BN employee too, I totally agree. It’s sad, not some victory for us. I would call over to the local Borders all the time for customers to ask for a certain book we were sold out of. They were always very friendly. And when the other bookstore opened in the area, we would much rather prefer to call Borders than the other store.
But she does like me! She said I was cute.
Anyone who works in RETAIL would agree with everything on that list (except the book store specific stuff). Most of those things are universal.
TL;DR
^
ILLITERATE CHIMP
I believe you mean “Alliterate” — capable of reading, but choosing not to.
You use this word “alliterate”. I do not think it means what you think it means.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alliterate
Spelling mistaking on my part there is only one L in “aliterate”.
gah! *mistake and a comma between “part” and “there”
I wasn’t playing grammar police… I was actually making a reference to the Princess Bride… but it failed.
inconceivable!
My step-mom works at Chapters. She was once asked to find a “blue book,” in similar fashion to the entry on this list. She found it right away, and it was green. Sometimes you don’t need those things to find the book, just a simple reference and the fact that it’s currently very popular.
and psychic powers.
The elitist/snobby/bourgeois attitude that is shown on that whole, huge page of rant is exactly why I read ebooks now. I don’t have to put up with some cashier looking down their nose when I’m paying for a smutty romance. It might be a trite Amanda Quick bodice ripper, but I did buy it at YOUR store.
As someone who has worked in a bookstore for years, let me tell you that we really don’t care what you read, as long as you paid for it.
The sign says otherwise (see the first point, for instance).
The sign agrees (see the first point, for instance).
I don’t understand.
then you are a crap employee
So…you’d rather they looked down their nose at you for buying smutty romance novels?
I’ve worked in a bookstore and most of us girls read Amanda Quick bodice rippers too. We don’t care what you read as long as actually read. What we really love, though, are people who are in bookstores but don’t actually read. They’re just there because Oprah told them to pick up a book or they’re required to buy a book by their teacher (“This is Romeo and Juliet the PLAY. Where is the original NOVEL?”).
We also love the super smart elitist/snobby/bourgeois customer who likes to hold their superior knowledge over us lowly minimum wage retail employees who couldn’t possibly know anything (“What do you mean you don’t know the exact obscure out-of-print-for-20-years observational astrophysics textbook I’m requesting? Don’t the people who work here READ?”).
you are so right – I’m reading a lot of posts on here putting bookstore employees down, but they don’t realize what its like. Its a different experience from other retail because people are so much more attached to their books than say their jeans or their dishes. Its not having one person treating you like you’ve just denied medicine to their two year old, just because you didn’t have their book, its years of people treating you that way. I’ve been screamed at, called names, treated like I’m an idiot, just because I couldn’t find the book that the customer themselves didn’t know the name of. Have some respect people, we’re not stupid just because we work in retail.
“I’m reading a lot of posts on here putting bookstore employees down”
I can’t speak for anybody else, but me myself personally, I only have a problem with the arrogant employees, the folks who think that anybody who disagrees with them is an idiot with bad taste. For example, I have no particular opinion on Nicholas Sparks; I’ve never read any of his books or seen a movie based on his work. I do, however, take issue with the employee presenting his opinion as fact.
Seriously. Nicholas Sparks has got a lot of young women reading on their own without being pressured into it by family. They willingly pick up a book and read it. Just because some jackass thinks he could have written it better doesn’t necessarily make it so.
The fact that people still READ at all makes me happy.
EXACTLY!!! I HAVE MY MASTERS IN ENGLISH AND CURRENTLY WORKING ON MY MASTERS IN LIBRARY SCIENCE. I LIKE TO WORK AT BOOKSTORES BECAUSE I LIKE TO READ, AND WORK IN A PLACE WITH BOOKS. I DON’T EVEN NEED THIS JOB. I JUST DO IT FOR FUN…AND BOOK MONEY. IF YOU HAVEN’T WORKED IN BOOK RETAIL YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT’S LIKE.
the reason there is so much whingy whingy on both sides is because of both sides. the employees dont give a crap helping the customers, they only want their moneys. its the same with most retail.
And you’re yelling why?
I worked in a bookstore for a number of years while in school. I just loved the customers who swore by Oprah when it came to their reading choices. I had one customer come in looking for “that new book by Steinbeck”. They were very upset to learn that the book wasn’t new – Oprah had simply switched to recommending classics. I also had another customer buy the same book, yet commented that they hated it the first time they read it. They said they must have been wrong, seeing as Oprah said it was great.
ALSO THIS ^^^
This is the antithesis of the attitude at a good indy record store. Those employees took so much pride in their work and breadth of knowledge that they loved the challenge of someone walking in and saying, “I’m looking for the album by that band with the song that went *hums a tune*.” Then they’d go straight to the album and hand it to you and say, “If you like this, you really should check out this other band.”
The hipster that wrote this thinks the customer is just an inconvenience rather than a fellow human that shares a love of books.
+1000
squared
I don’t agree. The person that wrote this really cared about a bookstore that turned too corporate and catered to people who really didn’t care about books. Any Borders bookseller worth their salt would go out of their way to find a book for someone when they came in – that’s what made this job amazing. What you’re reading is all of the frustration from the years of corporatizing and generic questions that, come on, we all get frustrated with. It’s honestly not elitism. Give ‘em a break.
“I don’t agree. The person that wrote this really cared about a bookstore that turned too corporate and catered to people who really didn’t care about books. Any Borders bookseller worth their salt would go out of their way to find a book for someone when they came in – that’s what made this job amazing. What you’re reading is all of the frustration from the years of corporatizing and generic questions that, come on, we all get frustrated with. It’s honestly not elitism. Give ‘em a break.”
*sigh*… thank you for stating it so perfectly… love you!
Right, because being able to identify a book by the color of the cover of one particular edition is *exactly* the same as being able to recognize a band by the tune of their most popular song.
I think the idea that kake79 was trying to get across was that the employees at the record store “ENJOYED” helping customers no matter what, unlike the bookstore employees…
I’m sure they would probably enjoy helping customers if the customers weren’t morons who didn’t take a minute to note the title and author of the book they wanted. I don’t think it’s possible to be so enthusiastic about your minimum-wage retail job that you would put up with absolutely anything, even when you work selling something you enjoy yourself. I also doubt that there are a lot of people who don’t enjoy books who apply to be bookstore employees these days.
^ This
I did my dues working at Barnes & Noble. Customers asking to be led to a book based off no other info than the color of the cover were a several-times-daily occurrence. It is a ridiculous question — an understandable one, if you didn’t bother to write things like author, title, etc. down, but a ridiculous one nevertheless.
Of course, nine times out of ten I was asked “I’m looking for a book; it’s got a green/blue/purple/yellow cover”, they meant The Da Vinci Code. (Which, incidentally: red cover.) Find the common denominator and you look like a boss… which still makes it no less inane a request.
You seem to be forgetting the fact that Borders is NOT an independent bookstore. Walk into Virgin Records or Best Buy or FNAC and try humming a song to an employee. Most of them will just be annoyed. We’re not talking about a tiny rare books store in some college town….
Ode to the Bookstore Employee (Unemployed Variety):
We know that you and your record store brethren scorn the pedestrian choices of us, the humble customers. We know you aren’t making it on your own so you can spare us your sob (and/or convertible Saab) story because we all know that you are trust fund babies. You’re not fooling anyone by pretending to make it on your own in that hipster apartment in LA, SF, SD, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Nashville, Philadelphia, et. al. by working retail. We know that you mistook your own personal insecurity and inadequacy for superior knowledge and taste. We don’t really care if your issues are with you mother, father or both so we took our business to the Internet where the prices are better, the selection is larger and we don’t have to put up with the stink of your minimum wage bad attitude. Like you, we like the feel of the real pages of a book, but sometimes an ebook is just easier and quicker for us. Luckily for you that your wishes have come true; you have no job now.
I’m not a trust fund baby, I don’t own a Saab (convertible or otherwise), I DID pay for my tiny apartment all myself when I was working for Borders, I didn’t have a bad attitude, and I never professed that my knowledge and taste were superior to those of the customers (though I was comfortable knowing that they also weren’t inferior). Honestly, your post, meccano, comes across as insecure.
My post was in reply to the author of “Ode” of the original post. While I am sorry that you feel offended by my comments, I am equally flummoxed that you would feel insulted when you claim nothing in my post remotely applies to you?!?
Perhaps because you were directing it at a group that they identify with. If you had directed it at a particular person, I’m sure there wouldn’t be an issue. However, you directed it at “the Bookstore Employee (Unemployed Variety)” Which includes all former Borders employees, not just those that shared the opinions on the original list.
Do you understand now?
For the same reason a black person who works one or more steady jobs would feel offended when someone says all black people are lazy.
The person who wrote the list is (was) in the wrong business.
It’s so easy to spot the people that never worked retail…
It is also easy to spot the people who don’t understand business.
This is why I don’t read books.
I’m sure.
Short version: “We’re better than you, and you should have felt privileged to be in our presence.”
+1000
Yep. Agree.
not funny
not a win
“This is why I don’t read books”?? Good lord.. As for the B&N comment, we would regularly call B&N for our customers and they would call us (I worked at Borders.) So when a customer “threatened” us with it, we would offer to call.. kind of threw them off. When you love books (as we all did), and you see people so mistreat them, it is hard not to get a little frustrated. And what is with the trust-fund babies post? By the way, did you notice the title? “Things We Never Told You” That means we smiled and nodded when you asked for the non-fiction section, or when you “threatened” to call B&N, or when you proudly stated to us that you haven’t read a book in 10 years and you are just in here because of your kid’s school book list.
I worked at Barnes and Noble for 4 years, and ALL of these things are true! People using the store as their babysitter, people thinking that the color of the book is the only information needed in finding their book in a store of thousands of books. One of my favorites was mentioned on that list, which was when customers would ask where the non-fiction section was, and as nice as I was to people, they never liked my response of “everything is non-fiction if it’s NOT fiction.” However, all of those amusing complaints aside, any type of store out there would be able to write a list of complaints based on their type of store. (In reference to the stock options, Barnes and Noble got stock options, tuition reimbursement, and great health, vision and dental benefits.)
So customers didn’t like when you were rude to them. Astonishing!
That’s not rude…it’s true. Even for finding the section of the store; if it’s not listed under fiction, it’s Non-fiction.
It’s still passive aggressive and crappy.
I wouldn’t mind the demise of Borders if their spaces were replaced with Barnes & Nobles. I used to like having both; competition meant there was no monopoly. But here in the rural region immediately west of Chicago, I have neither.
(DuPage county, if you’re interested. Now see if you can find my house)
Dupage county is not ‘rural’.
DeKalb county is.
You live in the suburbs.
Good books are worth a reasonable price, whether they’re printed on paper or are delivered direct to an e-reader.
Everybody blames e-readers for the bookstore’s sudden demise, but I think it has more to do with Amazon as a whole. For years they’ve sold bestsellers as loss leaders, and other books at 10-20% above cost. After a while, paying list price seems completely unreasonable.
My local Borders was dismissive of their customers and very poorly run. I work in retail management, and every time I went in there I wanted to ask someone if there was ANYONE at the helm of the store. Employees wandered away from the registers with thirty people on line; people wearing store IDs walked away from me like stone-deaf mimes when I asked for help. They even kept different hours from the posting on their front door and on the company website. I was always given the impression that they were too good for me. I’m not happy with the uptick in unemployment…but…
The Oprah comment at the end makes this a win, pure and simple.
We hate putting dots over our lower case i’s so that you think we wrote a deformed capital H.
This person lost her job with the liquidation. She’s one of tens of thousands of people who depended on the corporation for money and security. Plainly, she didn’t make the policies that killed the company, but she certainly has to deal with all the negative consequences. This represents all of the resentment that builds up over months and years of negative interactions with customers. There is no recourse in retail; a customer is allowed to be a piece of human garbage, and the retail associate is forced to either submit to it or lose their job. This is howl of frustration from a lowly retail peon as much as a bookseller. And no, we booksellers don’t spend all of our time looking down our noses at customers; if you feel that way, you probably came into the store looking up your nose. I worked at Borders, I lost my job, and it hurt. I cared, and I tried, and it still happened.
So, to summarize:
1. Work sucks because you have to do it and it’s not fun
2. She hates her bosses so she takes it out on her customers
Xezlec,thank you for illustrating exactly why people should read more- so they don’t fail basic comprehension much like you just have.
+1000
As a former employee of said former bookstore, let me state that everyone of these points is 100% accurate. And for those taking umbrage, you are probably the same prick that A. Spilled coffee on a magazine and then wanted a discount on it; B. Treated my store like it was your personal junkyard, apparently never realizing someone other than yourself would have to pick up all the crap you left strewn everywhere; C. Expected no cashier lines on Christmas Eve; D. Walked halfway across the store to ask me to find a book that was in a 27-foot pyramid of copies you had to walk around to get to me; E. Expected to be waited on like royalty for buying a piece of candy; and F. Thought it was perfectly OK to take out your frustrations at corporate decisions on local employees. I could go on and on and I would say you people know who you are, but you probably don’t.
Leo! One of the (excellent, wonderfully customer-service oriented, highly intelligent) booksellers with whom I had the privilege of working during my time at Borders. Your last point is a gem: the number of times that I received complaints about lack of staffing, as I was trying to do the work of 5 people while simultaneously apologizing to every customer who had to wait for my attention, was disheartening. I don’t blame the customers for being miffed that there wasn’t enough staff, but I don’t understand what made them think that the situation would be solved by berating me. Good rule of thumb–if the person you’re complaining to would probably be thrilled to have some help, they’re probably not the person who decided to cut payroll in half.
This is fail, because you missed your target audience.
The target audience won’t know what “umbrage” is. They won’t know if they’re taking it, thus they won’t know if your comment is directed at them.
They’ve even probably even seen (not the keyword “seen” and not “read”) Harry Potter and still won’t get it, just like they won’t catch the significance of the names Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy, Fenrir Greyback, etc.
tl;dr
wc; pp (who cares; pointless post)
I work at a convenience store, which is hard. Very hard, especially in comparison to the “frustrations” listed. I’d rather deal with people who like to/have to read any day than people who do nothing but drink booze and purchase “smoking” paraphernalia.
I live in a sad, sad small town. Our book stores are completely deserted. All of them. Not just Borders. They have been like that since before e-books. It’s just a sign of the times.
Yeah really. After working at a convience store, the stuff they complained about doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Please, be realistic.
Yeah, sure, they’re bitter, now that they are losing their jobs but working at Borders was a very small step above McDonald’s. Every single nuisance and aberrational incident was the highlight of their work day. Hating customers is the purview of every single grunt who ever manned a cash register. The job sucked because the job was always going to suck. This list of customer-problems could be thousands of items long and you’d still never get to the core of the problem: working at Borders sucked because you were working at Borders. Your next retail job is going to suck too as will the next one and the one after that.
Hipster bookstore snobbery. God forbid you should have to deal with dumb humans.
This isn’t a Win. Its just snobby bookstore employees griping about their jobs. I’m sure everybody, in every job has a list of complaints at least that long.
Not true. I don’t work in retail, but my wife does. I’ve never had a customer piss on something because I didn’t do something for them, unlike my wife who found a piece of clothing that was pissed on because they wouldn’t discount it for some very minor defect because it was already 90% clearance.
I have my complaints, but they don’t compare to the one’s my wife has.
Why is this on Win? It looks more like “Hipster Bookstore FAIL” to me.
it should be mandatory for every american to work in entry level retail for one year.
I fully agree and have said the same for years.
HA! you know the book/movie starship troopers? where you have to serve in order to be a citizen? I’ve often thought we should have that requirement for citizenship… but make that work retail, or fast food. not only should it make you more understanding, but also be aware of the level of service you _should_ be receiving.
Taking a break from “this isn’t a win, this fail is awful, hipsters, elitists, so on and so forth”.
It never occurred to me how often I say “quick question” as a matter of course. It’s like it’s muscle memory.
I hereby resolve to put an effort forth to stop using that phrase so freely.
I used to work at Dollarama. Nearly all of these applied there as well and I agree with every one.
Borders……. Good bye…you won’t be missed.
TL;DR
TL;DR
Barnes & Noble survived because not only their e-reader, but because they supply the MAJORITY of text books to schools, from the community college level and up. Borders did not, you could not even order most college texts from Borders (accepting some well known science and of course literature/novels). By being the big name behind most college and university bookstores, B&N was able to keep going in a business that was sucking others.
First off, Borders was an amazing book store with a great selection of books and pretty journals. The employees ( in my town, at least) were decent and dedicated.
I kind of feel that way too. I honestly ask for help at bookstores not to be an ass but because I don’t know. And I don’t complain or anything. Yeah, the books I want are hard to find (like Plutarch, for example) but I understand if they’re not there.
I know the store is going out of business, but I think this is a little classless. The convienence/movie rental store where I worked went out of business too, and it was a real dive. I could have made a list as long as this one, but I wouldn’t. I can keep my dignity. I know other people have jobs just as bad. I wasn’t going to post a sign on the door that said why I didn’t like my job. I was paid to put up with certain stuff (For UNDER minimum wage) and I did it.
Thank you. And you sound like someone who did their work to the best of their ability and be nice. That’s all I ask.
I worked at BAM (Books A Million) for too many years, and every single one of those points is true. I loved my job, I loved helping people, I loved the access to knowledge. I gladly helped people who ask about books by color. I tolerated managers who though Pride & Prejudice was written by Tolstoy. I was called both a liberal and a republican, depending on what book we didn’t have. I helped people search for obscure out of print books, and loved the challenge. We adored our regulars, even the crazy ones. The idea that we were elitist snobs is ridiculous. Sure, we may have talked about the book you bought, but that isn’t at all different than judging someone based on what is in the grocery cart, or the movies they watch, or the music they listen to.
“I worked at BAM (Books A Million) for too many years, and every single one of those points is true. I loved my job, I loved helping people, I loved the access to knowledge. I gladly helped people who ask about books by color. I tolerated managers who though Pride & Prejudice was written by Tolstoy. I was called both a liberal and a republican, depending on what book we didn’t have. I helped people search for obscure out of print books, and loved the challenge. We adored our regulars, even the crazy ones. The idea that we were elitist snobs is ridiculous. Sure, we may have talked about the book you bought, but that isn’t at all different than judging someone based on what is in the grocery cart, or the movies they watch, or the music they listen to.”
Thank you.
For those of you who believe that this list is the reason why Borders went out of business, you may want to look at it’s financials and the people who went in and out of the CEO position soooo quickly without making _any_ positive choices about the direction of the company.
I also enjoyed the challenge of finding you the title you were looking for, but if you walked into the store without knowing what you were looking for, HOW ON EARTH did you expect us to KNOW? argh!
“I’m looking for a book”… well, you’re in a bookstore, so there’s a start.
I trained all my people to be aware that people will come in looking for “that blue book… it was here last week.” My new people never believed me when I told them to expect it, and then it would happen to them.
Wow. You’re a bunch of judgmental, snotty, elitists jerks..do you want me to explain why your store went out of business? One reason I love my Nook is because I don’t hafta deal with snobs judging my choice of reading material. Yes, I love the Twilight saga, which you so obviously took a jab at, but guess what? I read the books before I knew anything about them being made into movies. I also loved Harry Potter before the movies came out, but apparently HP is the “good” series.
You hate Glenn Beck? He’s pretty damn popular. I can’t imagine that your narrow-minded attitude drove customers away.
Yes, there are annoying customers in bookstores, but here’s a newsflash for ya: there are annoying customers in every place that has customers. Some people will be jerks to the day they die. It’s best to accept that fact and move on.
Slamming Nicholas Sparks AND Oprah? That’s pretty much bookstore suicide.
I’m sorry your store closed, but before you go throwing stones, you might want to step back and look at all the glass around you.
You should not feel that way. If you were the kind and generous customer who loved Borders and spent hundreds of dollars there, then we employees thank you from the bottom of our hearts and if everyone were more like you, the above list and comments wouldn’t be posted. I was a former employee and LOVED my job. I enjoyed talking to people and tried very had to help everyone find what they were looking for. Our store was open for a very short time and mostly all of the employees were there from the beginning and worked together as a team.
I hate being berated by above people for the job I did. Some customers were very difficult, but I did my job just the same and treated them with respect even though I wasn’t being repsected.
Cry me a river. I worked in a classical music shop in high school and saw many of the same attitudes as displayed on this board. People got on my nerves as I’m sure I got on other people’s nerves. Let’s just call it even and get back to doing business. We don’t like the same things? So what. People need to get over themselves and realize that we all don’t hold the same things to be true.
As there is both good and bad employees, there are good and bad customers.
Some Customers have:
1. Grabbed my breasts
2. Grabbed my behind
3. Nearly punched me
4. Called me every bad name in the book (due mostly for refusal of booze sales due to intoxication or no ID)
5. Purposely spill a drink so I would have just more work to do.
6. Crap all over the customer bathroom without consideration on who has to clean it up.
On the other hand some customers:
1. Consider me a friend or lifesaver
2. Say Hi even when not at the store
3. Are an absolute joy to serve with a smile
4. I have no problem anticipating their needs.
5. Commiserate with me when the bad customers act up.
6. are customers for so long, I have seen their small children grow up and have their own families.
Some employees shouldn’t be in the retail business but unfortunately some good employee get too many bad customers and not enough good customers and they are ruined for the retail business.
Yours,
A former gas station/c-store cashier/manager
Thank you for explaining why you no longer have a job
Bazinga.
That explains a lot.
Amazon.com doesn’t give me a bunch of snotty self-important book store clerk crap.
I worked a retail job all through college, and honestly? Customers will get what they give. You can be rude to your sales person, and chances are you’ll get it right back. You can be considerate and understanding, and chances are you’ll be treated nicely in return. I used to work at a bookstore, and I remember giving little discounts to customers who treated me like a person, not their personal slave.
I MISS BORDERS!!!! :’-(
IT WAS MY FAVORITE BOOK STORE! ,WAS MY FAVORITE! i got to work there one summer! It was my dream job! i wanted to work there this year, but NO they went out of business! I was one of their best customers according to them! I went there very often. All of the employees there were nice. They were always helpful when i needed their help.
Thank you borders for the best 19 yrs of books, magazines, oreo creamakoolas, dvds, cds, etc!
They went out of business because they were leftists. And deserved to be out of business
Yes!!! This is all so very very true!!! My department is not a daycare! Don’t let your kids run wild and DESTROY things while you sit there and read, not paying attention to them. That’s GREAT parenting right there!
People seriously get mad at us for not knowing what book was on a display 2 months ago based on them describing the cover! We seriously change about 30 displays each week if not more!!!
I’ve worked for the above stated company for 15 years. I also worked for the ‘no longer’ competitor for a short stint. All I can add is:
1. Too true, but we have character, integrity, and empathy for customers who have no clue to how our store is set up or operated.
2. I would add, our Cafe is not a Starbucks. We do not share anything but beverage product and are held to beverage standards. We cannot, could never accept Starbuck’s Gift Cards.
3. Yes, we do have a tendency to lean to the left and if the customer knew anything about our Company, you would know that holds true for MOST of our company.
4. We exist in a retail outfit unlike most where the daily media exists and, with integrity, are asked to keep our mouth shut and not give a truthful response to judgemental customers. ‘Just smile and nod’.
5. I have honestly met the most amazing human beings at this company. This includes Customers and Employees.
6. In response to the Oprah situation… True Story… I had to explain to several people that John Steinbeck is NOT a new author and Grapes of Wrath is not a quick read.
There were so many customers who abused the coupons, using them over and over even though it stated SINGLE USE. Customers were irtate when we told them it wasnt’t aloud and oh how about all the teacher discounts that were supposed to be for classroom use and they used the discount for themselves. I believe that’s the reason Borders went under. Believe me it had nothing to do with the staff in the stores.
Every customer that came in towards the end said they loved Borders and their empoyees. Mostly all stated they did not like going to the competitor.
There were also the many people who came in and read books to their kids and left them laying there to be picked up and never bought one and those who used the cafe the same way reading books getting coffee on them and leaving their mess on the table.
Maybve had they bought the books and magazines instead of using the BOOKSTORE like a LIBRARY Borders would still be in business.
Since when does a business hand the coupon back to the customer after ringing them up?
They don’t – but most of the coupons are digital and people will print them off multiple times and try to use them on multiple purchases.
for #12 – *immediately… guess they don’t sell dictionaries at this particular book store
a lot of these comments make me glad i’m not american. even the most right wing brit knows glenn beck is an utter, utter idiot. the only reason we know about him is because he’s so mental. we take the piss out of him, and out of a country where a decent amount of people actually take him seriously. i feel desperately sorry for liberal and left-leaning americans.
having worked in retail, and in a book store, i found this list to be most amusing. it articulates thoughts and feelings i always had but was unable to express to the customers because i’d get the sack
I thought almost every one of these things while I worked at B&N. Not really the bit about Nicholas Sparks, though I don’t disagree with it. As someone who loves literature, it can be disheartening to hear “OMGZ Nicholas Sparks is the most talented and original and wonderful writer evar!!!11″. Yes, he sells books (just like Stephenie Meyer, and quite frankly I am surprised Twilight wasn’t mentioned in this list) but that doesn’t make him a great writer. I think that is where they were going with that.
Anyway, the whole “where is non-fiction” drove me and every bookseller I’ve ever met absolutely crazy. To put it in perspective, it would be like going to a doctor and saying “Something on me hurts” and when asked to be more specific, saying “S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G!” and expecting the doctor to know that you specifically mean your stomach hurts. Non-Fiction is huge. At B&N, it encompassed 75% of the main floor (excluding childrens dept, music dept, and the cafe). Often, when I would ask them what type of non-fiction they would look at me like I was stupid. So I would gesture to the fiction section and say “pretty much everything that isn’t over here in fiction is non-fiction”.
Summer reading always drove me crazy too. Parents would get mad if we ran out of the book the child needed. Often we would have stacks and stacks of these books all summer, and then everyone would come in at once a few days before school started to purchase them. Sometimes teachers would request unusual titles that wouldn’t normally be stocked for summer reading and neglect to notify any of the bookstores that they would be needing 25 copies of it. But would they be mad at the teacher for not doing their part? Of course not.
I loved my job at B&N. Just because I internally got annoyed by all of these things doesn’t mean that I took them out on the customers. Working at a bookstore is typically a different experience than working in another big chain store (think Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy) because a majority of the employees LOVE what they do. They are passionate about books and passionate about SHARING their knowledge with others. But we are all human, and we all get frustrated about things that happen on a day to day basis that seem, to us, ridiculous. That doesn’t mean we are rude or that we are lazy or don’t want to do our jobs.
Those of you who have posted such negative comments about book store employees… Obviously haven’t ever worked in a chain book store or maybe even in retail. It can be a thankless job and sometimes, you just have to vent about it.
Was a head cashier at Borders for 5 years. This was the story of my life. The hideous CEOs from supermarket chains who tried to run the place like a slave labor camp just made the end even more inevitable.
Do not do this to B&N. It ain’t much — 1/3 of our local store is taken up with Nook and another 1/3 with Starbucks — but it’s all we’ve got.