doc_roq: And no, I am sorry to burst your bubble but the customer is frequently wrong.

Yeah a million times this. I put on a big sh^t-eating grin and still act cheery and peppy and upbeat and positive since that's what people want, but the fact of the matter is that lots of times (perhaps the majority of times) the client/customer not only isn't right, but is in fact a giant fu*ktard and the only reason you don't hear the truth you need to hear is because you're too stupid to understand that you need to hear the truth.

Well, at least they are putting that PhD in mid-1400s Eastern European oil paintings to use.

I thought Playboys and other interesting magazines were in those plastic sleeves? So how could someone read them unless they ripped open the plastic? And thus be breaking some sort of shoplifting law?

Bathia_Mapes: GAT_00: Uncle Wiggly: whoever the hell a good mushy romance writer is

Nora Roberts or JR Ward are supposedly the good ones. They're at least above the girl porn.

Incidentally reading Fall of Giants right now. Never read Follett before, but I like so far.

Give one of his older books a try. Eye of the Needle (new window)

There's also a fairly faithful movie adaptation of the book that was released in 1981.

Here just to second a first rate recommendation.

rebelyell2006: I thought Playboys and other interesting magazines were in those plastic sleeves? So how could someone read them unless they ripped open the plastic? And thus be breaking some sort of shoplifting law?

I dunno, but at the WalMart I worked at, if they didn't leave the store, it's good

As a former Borders employee, this list is everything ever. I would add that if you need to use the bathroom in our store please hit the toilet, especially when you take a dump.

There is something profoundly American about the workers of entry-level jobs feeling like they're superior to the wealthier customers they service. Nobody in this country is a waiter or waitress, they are students or writers or internet startup entrepreneurs who are "just" busing tables until they make their first billion. In some ways that attitude is awesome but when trying to get service here it makes life a little difficult. All too often I'm apparently inconveniencing these people by asking them to do their jobs so I can hand them money.

As for these little diatribes - knock yourself out. If it helps you sleep at night then I don't mind at all, but the reality of the situation is after you get this off your chest you go right back to your dead-end job and I go home. See, I don't work evenings, weekends, and holidays, and when I do work its not very hard because I got an education and work smart instead. If you *really* wanted to feel superior you'd get a real job but lets be honest, thats never going to happen now is it?

I feel bad for anyone working at Borders who is now out of a job. It's not a good time to be unemployed. I don't feel bad though about Borders as an entity going away.

the opposite of charity is justice: If it helps you sleep at night then I don't mind at all, but the reality of the situation is after you get this off your chest you go right back to your dead-end job and I go home.

Actually, they can't.

BreezyWheeze: doc_roq: And no, I am sorry to burst your bubble but the customer is frequently wrong.

Yeah a million times this. I put on a big sh^t-eating grin and still act cheery and peppy and upbeat and positive since that's what people want, but the fact of the matter is that lots of times (perhaps the majority of times) the client/customer not only isn't right, but is in fact a giant fu*ktard and the only reason you don't hear the truth you need to hear is because you're too stupid to understand that you need to hear the truth.

They may not be always right but remember before you starting painting them all with a wide brush and just because one customer asked a stupid question then they are all going to ask a stupid question that if you don't have any customers you don't have a job. Yes customer service sucks but part of your job is not letting the customer know you hate them and you hate your job.

Uncle Wiggly: ... immediately, btw ...

Look, people work in bookstores because there's a romance to it--a joy at working with stuff like this. That's diminished now that they've added coffee, games, and other stuff. They work in bookstores for the reason people do anything-they like it.

Retail people always grumble about their customers--but they don't show it. If they do, they're not professional. It's how retail folks blow off steam. They bond against the bozos and enjoy the ones who share their passion or the ones who treat them as fellow humans-and they forget everyone else because they are simple transactions, the nature of the world.


And look customers: it ain't you. It's the 5%, the jerks, the folks who leave coffee cups on art books, dog ear magazines, leave porn in the children's section and religious tracts in politics. Good booksellers don't expect you to know things-it's why there's a huge section called "Information". If a bookseller can be replaced by computers, they will be. And the whole "let me know what the cover looks like"-sure, look at GIS. They're already doing it with images.

So, here's the thing. Booksellers WERE replaced by computers. It's already happened, and it's over. The bricks and mortar stores LOST. Sure, there are a few clingers-on, but there are also a few buggy whip manufacturers left too. They're irrelevant.

Oh, and the coupon thing - it's one per person. Unless the coupon specifically says one per address - and almost none do - then it doesn't matter that a group of people came in together, live together, are related to each other, are farking each other, or pick each others' noses. If they're paying separately, they all get to use the farking coupon.

I'm going to miss masturbating at Borders... :(

What's with the quotes around "final say"? Did some lunatic come in and start shrieking "OPRAH! OPRAH! OPRAH HAS THE FINAL SAY!"? Or is that just a way to say "omg popular books r so teh gay" with scare quotes?

This pretentious jack-ass' unemployment benefits application must be hysterical!

Things we customers never told you Borders staffers: We're paying customers, get me what I want and do it now.

Idiot minimum-wage-earners.

I'm officially out of the loop. There's a Borders in town (Memphis) shutting down and I could not understand why. I had always seen plenty of customers in the store when I went to buy something. So I asked a few employees what was going on. They said most of the people come in and read a few magazines and books sitting at their (Borders') coffee lounge and go home and order stuff on line. And I thought, damn, y'all got a crappy business model that encourages that kind of behavior. As sorry as I will be missing the Borders store where I actually purchased things, I am equally dismayed at the management position of thinking that a coffee cafe and lounge area was ever going to increase media sales and not some kind of hipster library environment. Sheesh, the writing was near the walls.

GAT_00: AbbeySomeone: The people that ask for books with that description aren't really readers but want whatever Oprah or their friends are talking about so they can show them that they have the book but are just too busy with pilates and soccer mom'ing to read it - you understand

That's also a 2:1 guess to be Heaven is for Real.

great book, if you are a believer. great if you aren't too, sooo much ammo in so few pages


/believer

I'm bitter about Borders driving small local bookstores out of business.
Bitter about Borders
Bitter about Borders

I rarely shopped there.
I prefer used book stores and online shopping. Much better prices.
But I would browse there.
Never had a bad experience with Borders.
Feel sorry that their employees are getting laid off in this economy.

the opposite of charity is justice: There is something profoundly American about the workers of entry-level jobs feeling like they're superior to the wealthier customers they service. Nobody in this country is a waiter or waitress, they are students or writers or internet startup entrepreneurs who are "just" busing tables until they make their first billion. In some ways that attitude is awesome but when trying to get service here it makes life a little difficult. All too often I'm apparently inconveniencing these people by asking them to do their jobs so I can hand them money.

As for these little diatribes - knock yourself out. If it helps you sleep at night then I don't mind at all, but the reality of the situation is after you get this off your chest you go right back to your dead-end job and I go home. See, I don't work evenings, weekends, and holidays, and when I do work its not very hard because I got an education and work smart instead. If you *really* wanted to feel superior you'd get a real job but lets be honest, thats never going to happen now is it?

This. So much this.

BreezyWheeze: doc_roq: And no, I am sorry to burst your bubble but the customer is frequently wrong.

Yeah a million times this. I put on a big sh^t-eating grin and still act cheery and peppy and upbeat and positive since that's what people want, but the fact of the matter is that lots of times (perhaps the majority of times) the client/customer not only isn't right, but is in fact a giant fu*ktard and the only reason you don't hear the truth you need to hear is because you're too stupid to understand that you need to hear the truth.

Oh god, THIS. I cannot tell you how many times the only thing that kept me in good spirits and smiles around certain customers was imagining how their entrails would look hanging from my fence.

Also, I'm surprised they didn't put anything in there about the "young adults" in the manga section who just lay there on the floor or sit in the aisle.