Yet another artifact from the slow, painful death of Borders has emerged. Read the full post.
Sep 20
2011
04:58 PM ET
Borders employees list grievances: 'Ode to a bookstore death'
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Though some of the gripes are legit; the others come off as being elitist. Typical nerdburger book snobs. I think Beck is an idiot too but he’s a rocket scientist compared to pussbag liberals. Borders is closing because they failed miserably to get with the times. No reader like the nook or kindle. Not to mention the snarky liberals there would hide books by conservative authors. That’s why I buy books from Amazon and/or download them to my tablet. Ya all kind of did it to yourself. Pat yourselves on the back by voting for Barrack Hussein Obama.
Nobody hid books. When Ann Coulter’s new book, or any conservative book came out it was placed on the major new table, or new release table. If it was a best seller it went in the best seller bay. Then, all of the political books went in the political section where I saw people from both parties turn the books around so that the covers were facing the wall. If you couldn’t find a book that sometimes meant it was such a hot seller it sold out, which happened a lot. Publishers only sent out a certain number of books, and they would have to be distrubuted up amongst the stores. Again, no one hid books, we wanted to sell them to stay in business.
Grizzly, just to clarify your comments, I know quite a few rocket scientists, and most are care-carrying liberals. I think it’s the *science* thing in the rocket science that gets them. Many intelligent, hard working folks have a liberal bent, sorry to be the one to tell you.
Right on the corporate stuff and not keeping up with the times Grizzly. Completely wrong about hiding books. You must be thinking of your favorite game hide the gerbil in the butt again! Oops! We’ll forgive you this time!
I can tell you, having worked for Barnes and Noble the last 3 years, everything you read here is accurate. It happens every single day i go to work. Despite all this, i’m extremely happy with my job, we all just end up laughing after you throw a fit in front of us at the cash wrap. I think the Borders people have it right, and there’s nothing wrong with telling the rude customers when your going to be loosing your job anyway.
People can go around and around on the whys and how comes of Borders’ demise. The stores are gone.
However, for those who rather go shopping at Amazon, remember that most of the money spent locally, stays local. Remember when you need something from your local and/or state government, you will find the budget has been cut. Amazon goes out of its way NOT to pay taxes based on an outmoded law.
For all who buy from Amazon, many of you STILL OWE a use tax. Amazon will be compelled by a number of states in the future to turn over the sales information to the government, and when that happens people who have shopped with Amazon will get an unpleasant tax bill with interest.
Bottom line, please shop locally, local businesses pay taxes; taxes you don’t have to pay, but may end up paying in the future if the local businesses are no longer there….
Preach it!
I used to work at B&N and every bit of this list is true & hilarious. I once had a woman ask where the children’s section was located. I was a bit confused bc we were standing it, so she clarified by saying, “you know the children’s section that doesn’t have any actual children it”. Booksellers are the most patient & tolerant people on earth!
I wanted to slap the people who’d ask me to clear the kids out of the kids section. (All of whom were there with their parents, supervised and not running amok.) And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that it happened more than once. -.-
It is truly a sad state of affairs that a great percentage of our population treat retail/service workers as sub-human. The whole “it’s your job, just do it” mentality is wrong on so many levels. Retail/service workers are human beings just like you and they just happen to do their jobs within view of the public eye. If you have a bad day, you can hide in your cubicle or just focus on your computer. We don’t have that option. We must interact with you, the public, regardless of how we feel and some days it’s just not as easy as others.
To those who have “bad employee” stories, ask yourselves a question. How did you talk to this person in the first place? Were you frustrated already and unknowingly take it out on said employee? Perhaps there were extenuating circumstances of which you were not aware. I’ve had “bad customer service” experiences myself and since I’ve worked in retail and know what can happen, my first response to them is “Bad day?” Remember they are human and like all humans sometimes have an off day, especially during the Holiday season when they are so busy that they have no chance to regroup after being yelled at by some irate customer.
I applaud the person who wrote this, giving voice to the many things retail workers have to deal with. If you don’t agree, you should read Waiter Rant. A restaurant worker turned it all into a book.
I worked at the Columbus Circle location and our list of complaints pretty much equals this store’s list. I suspect they have a few more complaints as well. I know our store can at least triple that list. Anyway I had a great time working with my coworkers and will miss them dearly. I will not miss the rude/stupid customers. I came from Target prior to getting my job at Borders and its all the same really. Some people just don’t get it, and I will never understand why people feel its ok to be completely rude to a stranger who has done nothing wrong to them. And please, the few of you in this thread who keep throwing around that “That’s why B&N is better line” please by all means go there. But in my experience those booksellers don’t treat customers any better than we did. And for those of you who say “I’ll just shop on Amazon” keep that up and you will have no brick and mortar stores and the whole book buying experience will be different and I suspect not for the better. If any of my fellow 592ers are seeing this, I wish nothing but good things for you and yours. (592 was the Columbus Circle store # btw)
<3 Borders 592!!!!
I helped open that store, it was such a fun sort, and you were all an amazing group of people.
Nicole, your comment outlines the problem in a nutshell. I begin every conversation with a customer service rep in a polite and friendly way. “Hi,” (smile), I was hoping you could help me with….” I may or may not get attitude. I may or may not be dealing with a competent employee. But, for someone who spent thousands at Borders over the years — much of it at the Columbus Circle store – it is a slap in the face to hear how incredibly annoying it was for people like me to ask a customer service rep to help me find a book. Or to use the phrase “quick question.” Then you use the phrase “rude/stupid” customers. Do you understand how that comes off?
They’re not necessarily saying you are the annoying customer and your question was the one that annoyed them. You attempted to be polite and because of that were probably a high point of their day. Do not take complaints about bad customers to being a complaint about you.
Having worked at Borders, I can say that everything on this list is true! We were a great bookstore, brought down by higher-ups who didn’t know how to do their jobs. It’ll be sad driving by what was my favorite store since childhood that I grew up and became an employee in empty.:(
I worked part time at Barnes and Noble back in the late 1980s and I agree with this list – especially the summer reading fire drill every Labor Day Weekend, quick question, and I am looking for a book. The title the customer gave was never the title of the actual book so it was always a treasure hunt to find the right title. The one that really got me was after the movie Malcolm X came out, people were asking for the book Malcolm 10 and when would Malcolm 11 be out?
Malcolm X comment so funny and sad at the same time that some just don’t know anything about American history.
Aall of these things are true, especially about the vague comments. “Oh, but the cover’s blue and has a flower on it!” So are 35,000 other covers. We’re not trying to be rude, but it’s really hard to figure out what you want when even you don’t know what you want.
People always get so frustrated when you don’t have the book they want in store. It’s unbelievable how many people take it as a personal affront that we don’t have their book and snidely comment, “Well, I’m shopping at AMAZON now.” We’re a store, not the Internet. We don’t have unlimited space.
Borders wasn’t a bad store and didn’t have bad employees. The corporation just couldn’t keep up with the change happening in the industry. If I worked at Borders, I would have written this exact list.
As a snob who can look down on the snobs, and who is sort of unimpressed with this list, let me just say that “Ode to a Bookstore Death” is really not the title they want.
I work part-time at a small, independent book seller. This list rings very, very true. Although I secretly kind of love when someone comes looking for a book by cover colour, because then I can complain to my friends later about idiot customers who thing I can search by design work. (Though I’ll admit one or two occasions I’ve managed to guess by good luck crossed with the right customer vibe match!)
It’s so funny, because yes it can be frustrating when all they initially remember is the cover color…but myself and my coworkers look on it as a personal challenge to figure it out! And often , if you ask enough questions, they always know a little more- whether it was fiction or not, where in the store they saw it, did they read anything on the cover or flaps that makes that book memorable? When we figure it out, the whole staff runs around doing high fives and making the customer laugh. Just a different way to approach an aggravating question!
I completly agree with: “We were never a daycare. Letting your children run free and destroy our kids section destroyed a piece of our souls.” I worked at Kohl’s for a year and parents were constantly leaving thier kids in the toy section unattended it was ridiculous. It is awful trying to keep an area neat when unattended kids are running around ripping things out of boxes and throwing them on the floor.
Not to mention dangerous because of all the people walking around that snatch kids.
Working in a customer service job I can relate to some of these complaints. I can also say that a customer service job is not for everyone and I see that at my job. I am one of those people for whom it can’t be my long time career but for the time while I’m still in school it’s a job. However, I do work with people who take real pleasure in helping customers with the most ridiculous things. (if you think people are bitchy about their books, try dealing with people who are bitchy about their coffee!) Basically, everybody needs to be nicer to everyone. Nasty customers don’t do themselves any favors by making employees hate them and nasty employees don’t do their job any favors when they don’t do what they’re paid to do.
Now THAT being said, I have honestly enjoyed Barnes & Noble more than Borders. Not because of the employees, just the general environment. That’s where I get all my books. I just went to Borders for DVDs and music when I absolutely had to.
I worked at Barnes & Noble for four years. These grievances are not the lament of soon-to-be out of work booksellers–they are daily, soul-sucking occurrences that can make for horrible workdays in retail. Please, treat your booksellers nicely! Despite being overqualified and underpaid, they (mostly) just want to be good customer service providers!