Day Three

I didn’t want to blog today because, honestly I have table top game I run today and was looking forward to a day off. But there’s a lot coming up in the discussions online about Borders’ fall, so while I have a moment I’m going to address them. (Feel free to ask more questions, and I will try to answer them if I can.)

Did we know this was coming?

Yes, absolutely. We knew Borders wasn’t doing well. We knew the company was making grabs at anything they could to make money. We knew that we were being pushed to sell more, especially the new plus card. In fact I was once told that the regional manager’s policy was “selling BR+ is not optional it is a requirement for employment”. I disagreed, but I did it anyway because it was what the job required. In fact I have the store record for most plus cards sold in a single shift. Here’s the rub, over the holiday shopping season we were expected to sell an average of fifty plus cards a day (and 10-20 ereaders) and there simply wasn’t the demand for that. People didn’t want to pay for a membership card when they had been getting it for free. And the free card members were upset that other members were getting percentages off and they weren’t. On our good days we managed (I’m rounding) ten thousand a day. And we were expected to sell 50 people or more a $20 card.

THAT is what under performing means to corporate, not the whole bit about ten k a day. We didn’t sell the specific items they wanted to see sold, so we were underperforming.

And yes, I know that the rent is outrageous and by all means it was a good business decision to close our store down. This is why I don’t WANT to feel screwed. But it doesn’t stop me from being sad. Here’s why:

-I’ve had some really bad jobs, as in the job environment. Jobs where I was physically assaulted by fellow employees and the management refused to do anything. Jobs where it was a sport to bad mouth each other constantly. Jobs where people snipped branches of pot into baggies behind the counter and regularly “borrowed” bus money from the register. Jobs where people “took breaks” to engage in sexual activity in the stock room. Borders was the first job I’ve had that wasn’t like that. With few exceptions the people did their job, almost always had a kind word to say about each other and often even hang out together outside of work. We had a pot luck on Black Friday, we had a gift exchange for the holidays, my GM brought in snacks for us, and she’s currently trying to find a way for us to have a goodbye party.

-Plus I regularly got to tell someone about a book I loved and have them come back a week later and thank me for pointing it out to them because they adored it. People, coworkers and customers, sought out my opinion on books regularly and I got to help both them find enjoyment in life, and authors I love/am friends with sell better. I was in a real position to influence things and I successfully did. And now I won’t be anymore.

-I’m not going to lose my house over this (I hope) but my GM just moved here to Louisville ten weeks ago to take over the store. Many of our employees don’t have the support that I do and I worry about them. I’m also not in a position to help them, though I wish I could. Meanwhile corporate execs are making $855 an hour, which is well beyond the income anyone needs to survive.

-This situation rewards the sales environments that believe badgering the customer, or even outright scamming them into buying more, is the right way to go. So in the end YOU will suffer too.

-People have been buying the last few days DESPITE THERE ONLY BEING A 20% DISCOUNT AND OUR STANDARD COUPON BEING 33% more than they bought over Christmas. If people bought like this before we’d still be in business. How exactly does one justify buying like this now, with less of a discount, and not then, when the financial situation for the purchaser was the same? How do you not become bitter about that?

-I did put a physical investment in the store. Every day that I worked there was reshelving, cleaning, displays to set up. If someone came into your house and tore it apart you’d be upset too, even if you got paid to clean it, even if it was something you enjoyed.

But other people have been laid off. You aren’t the first to go through this, so why do you think you’re special enough to blog about it?

Of course I’m not the first. My heart has always gone out to people who have been laid off, or went through a store closing. It sucks every time. That doesn’t invalidate my feelings anymore that it invalidates theirs/yours when you/they went through it. I get to blog about it for two reasons: I pay my hosting company for this space so I get to use it how I want. And, a lot of people out there haven’t been through it. They don’t understand what it actually means. Not to mention a lot of the people I know or see in the publishing world know the writing, submitting and editing aspect of it, but very few have seen or been through the BOOKSELLING aspect of it. I think showing the bookseller perspective could be very valuable to writers and publishers out there because in the end we’re all in this together. If you have a book on the shelves, or you someday want to have a book on the shelves then what is happening now is valuable information because it will affect you. Understanding it now can help you make better informed decisions about your own career.

But you can’t feel mean about the people coming for the sales, they’re important to the liquidation.

First, I can, because feelings are irrational and I’m entitled to whatever feelings I have. Second, I know these people are important to the liquidation. I know that the money they’re spending goes to pay the pay checks of people like me. That doesn’t mean they have the right to be nasty to us and abuse us. No one has the right to do that.

And again, right now the liquidation discount is LESS than the normal discount buyers could have gotten if they shopped with us. So there’s no reason for mobbing, or nastiness.

Not to mention there are certain circles out there where people are truly, outright gloating over Borders downfall. You know what, you’re gloating over me and thousands of others, losing their jobs and many of you are doing so because a publisher didn’t want your piece of crap novel. It would be more upset if these people didn’t clearly have more problems than me.

But Borders put hundreds of mom-and-pop shops out of business.

Absolutely and that sucks too. I wasn’t really around for that so I can only study it in the context of what I see/know now. Borders only came into Louisville when our wonderful, wonderful local indie store Hawley Cooke went out of business. Lots of people blame Borders because they took over HC but here’s what people ignore (or don’t know): The owners of Hawley Cooke came to Borders (who was their distributor) and asked them to buy their locations out. Borders did NOT set up shop in Louisville until then, and the choice was lose all the stores in Louisville or take them over. Borders agreed to take them over.

Ironically it’s the Hawley Cooke Locations that are staying open, which I think is fitting as far as history goes.

We do still have Carmichael’s, but due to their very small store space they commonly do not stock many, many titles, namely most of the kind of books I read. Indies are notorious for refusing to stock genre books, especially SF/F/H and romance, which is completely ridiculous because romance readers are HUGE book buyers. So what are readers supposed to do, patron the store that has the books they want, or go to the store that scoffs at them because they want to read “that trash” and have it special ordered? (I’m not saying Carmichaels has ever scoffed at me, but my interactions with Carmichaels have been less than stellar. I really should make an effort to change this though. But that’s a blog for another day.)

That might be true, but it isn’t here.

What do you expect customers to do?

Come on in and expand your libraries. There’s no shame in it. If you really want to make us happy ask us for a recommendation because we are still here because we are passionate readers. But remember that the people cleaning up after you, ringing you up and answering your questions aren’t there to be abused or yelled at. We’re in hell, riding it out for the chance at unemployment or one last paycheck. A little consideration goes a lot farther than “I’m sorry” and I’m sorry goes over much better than “What you mean I can’t use my coupon, this is still a fucking Borders isn’t it?!”

It’s called civility, human decency and sometimes compassion. That’s all we ask for.

So, when DO the sales start?

They started Saturday. Borders stores open up at 9 am Monday-Friday and 10am on Saturday. Discounts are currently 20-40% off (with the 40% being on things like cards). We CANNOT honor coupons on top of liquidation prices, but you DO still get 10% if you’re a plus customer and all purchases go toward accrual of Borders Bucks.

And how are you doing?

For the first time since my first day I’m scared to go to work tomorrow. But other than that I’m fine.