Day Five
By this point we’ve all adjusted from an “OMG how can the store close” to a “Let’s get this shit done as best as we can” mentality. Again, I love my coworkers because while work was light-hearted none of us are putting up with nonsense.
A woman got very upset that we’re required to mark out the UPC with a permanent market to avoid returns and started snapping at a bookseller and the three others ringing along side him all chimed in to defend him. Managers rotated out with us during the rush and made sure we all got breaks on time. There are reports from other stores that GMs and other management are taking vacation days rather than setting foot in the store. But not at my store, where my GM rang for an hour and half, did store recovery/helped people on the floor for two hours and single handedly stripped the first floor of chairs and extra tables to “encourage” people not to keep coming in and leaving piles of books everywhere.
Our African American fiction section is more than half gone. I’d say YA SF/F/H is about a third gone. And we got new hardbacks in stock today for the normal Tuesday release (these were, of course, sent last week before all our deliveries had been cancelled).
Here’s the a thing; our discount right now is 20% on paperbacks, 30% on Paperchase products and 40% on magazines and gift cards. People are flocking to the store in droves, salivating at thought of a liquidation sale but, and it’s a big but…If you take the coupon that Borders sends out about twice a week (and plasters on their website, Facebook and Twitter) and your free Borders club card to a store that’s staying in business you can get everything except magazines and newspapers for 33% percent off. And if you paid your $20 (which it really isn’t, since Borders has been running a bonus where you get $10 back in Bucks and a coupon book with a $10 off coupon, so if you take advantage of this the Plus membership is free) then you get 43% off with your handy dandy coupon.
So people are rushing in to snap up books they didn’t seem to want before, foaming at the mouth over a discount that’s less than half of what they can get at other stores. Why? Because Borders is going out of business so of course they have to get there for the deal.
Twenty percent is not a deep discount, as people are discovering at the register when their armful of books that they’re sure will be a deal because we’re going out of business still hit over $100. They seemed confused by this.
This, more than ebooks, more than customer loyalties and more than downward trends in reading defines the current sales culture. We are trained to flip out over a series of trigger words to the point where without those words, without that perception of a deal (but not an actual deal) people don’t spend. I can’t believe that all the people there buying today would be doing so if they literally could not afford to. They have the money now, why didn’t they have it a few months ago? Because we weren’t having a liquidation sale then.
There’s no real time to be angry at the jackal behavior anymore. Instead I’m starting to feel sorry for people who need to buy things because it’s on sale, or because they’re surrounded with trigger words. There’s nothing wrong with buying because you just want something, but we can’t be honest about it, we have to justify it with “But it’s on sale”.
And it’s clear that we’re creating an environment where 1) the expectations of constantly, limitlessly growing profits is utterly ridiculous, but the pressure for such is so great that Walmart is being downgraded for not being a dollar store. 2) People (aka “consumers”) are beginning to only respond to perceived deals and are becoming less willing to pay a normal price, sometimes even a discounted price, for anything. The price of books hasn’t changed much in the last few years. Paperbacks have been $6-8, trades $13-15 and hardbacks around $25 for as long as I’ve been paying for books with my own money. This used to be okay with people as they understood that was the fair market price of a book. Now people think $9.99, the price Amazon sets for many books that is actually below what it costs Amazon to sell that book, is a fair price.
In our rabid price wars we’re undercutting ourselves and just like Borders is paying for its loss of flexibility and individual tailoring to the areas it serves we’re going to wake up one day and discover we’ve cut off our own legs.
But in other news one of my favorite customers came in. Remember when I said we deal with a lot of special needs people at our store? This man is probably in his seventies and is smart, kind and passionate, but also suffers, I’m guessing, from Parkinson’s. His wife brings him in the store a few times a week where they read, putter around the store, chat up a number of people (in a friendly, not creepy way), have a snack from the cafe and buy some books. They’re great people and they came up in my queue today during the lunch rush. The husband stopped to tell me how much he hated that we were closing because we were the only place they felt comfortable going, and our employees were the only ones who ever actually helped them find books. Not even the library, he said, was friendly and helpful. but this point his tremors have gotten pretty bad. He asks to hug me, then proceeds to cling to me for almost twenty minutes, trying not to cry, trying to calm down so he can stop shaking some and make it out of the store. Before it’s over he’s kissed me twice on the cheek, begged me to come to church just so he can see me again and had to wipe away tears a handful of times.
This is why the store closing is so hard. For many people we meet needs that keep them going, that bring happiness, civility and peace into their life. Doctors and hospitals attend to the health of the body, even the mind, but books feed the soul, and book people can’t help but get caught up in the process.
Is it really reasonable to call these customers jackals when you consider that Borders itself appeared quite jackal-like to the many small independent bookstores it helped put out of business?
Sure. It’s also fair for the people who lost their jobs because of Borders to call Borders jackals. But, not all customers are jackals. We’ve had people buying for schools, and for their own libraries who come up in tears, or with apologies, or even just with civility. The jackals are the ones who get nasty because they can’t use a coupon on top of the liquidation discount, or who snap at us because we have to put a line through the UPC code, or because we can’t find or hold a book for them.
I just found your blog and sorry to say it was because of the Borders closing and you writing about it from the inside. I too went through the same deal 18 months ago with a mens clothing store. It was hard, because not only was I the manager, I also opened it and grew it.
It’s hard, not only on the employees, but as you poignantly stated it will be dearly missed by the gentle man in his 70’s and his wife. It isn’t easy saying goodbye.
We can thank the world of Wal-Mart, who has killed normal business practices and caused a dumbing down of the consumer. No they are not smart to buy because of the word “sale”, but try and run a business now a days without them.
I will stop back to see how your journey unfolds, and also to welcome you to the great world of unemployment. Well at least that has been my joy, maybe you will be lucky and find another job. Good luck
Thanks, I appreciate it.
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You’re not the first. Just quit while you still have some dignity.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/377/scenes-from-a-recession
Quitting would mean losing unemployment, should I need it, which is a risk I can’t take right now.
As a oyal Borders customer and book/bookstore lover, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and perceptions about the closing. Thank you and good luck as you move forward.
Thank you.
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Thanks for your perspective on this difficult time. I’ve been afraid for several years that upper management’s increasingly poor decisions would shut down a wide swath of the BORDERS stores. And I’m sorry to see yours go. It clearly fills a pressing need in an urban area.
I feel rotten about book buying in general nowadays. I love all bookstores – chains, indies, used book holes-in-the-wall, college bookstores, etc. And I buy from all of them, including Amazon. However, I buy a lot fewer books than I did five years ago, and more and more, I buy used, and online.
In general, if I’m buying for someone else, I buy new (at my local BORDERS, if you have it in stock), and in hardback. But if I buy for myself, I buy online. Simply put, much of what I need is specialized, and it’s cheaper and easier to get it used than to special order it through a store.
Moreover, I make 65% less money than I did three years ago.
My point? Well…I wish I could buy more new hardcover books. Once upon a time, I did. Maybe, someday when I make a decent living, I will again.
Thanks to everyone who loves to sell books.
I found your blog through Shelf Awareness. I’m also working at a closing store and it’s the same here. People keep asking when we’re going to discount books further, as if I know. Also when is your last day, which is also unknown. We’ve managed to keep our dignity and sense of humor so far, mostly due to understanding and sympathetic customers. Many of our regulars are as distressed as we are.
The last day thing is the source of most of my aggravation right now. I understand it’s not set because its dependent on sales, but it makes job hunting a little more complicated.
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Hi, I am the co-owner of an indie in Portland Maine. You are a terrific writer and i hope that you realize that you and the staff there have done noble work. The world needs bookstores. places where ideas and stories and people matter.
stay strong and i hope you folks realize that in small but significant ways, you have fought the good fight
Thank you very much. Fighting the good fight and helping people fall in love with reading is why I wanted to work for Borders in the first place. I hope to continue doing so, with or without name brand back up 🙂
Does anybody at all feel inclined to blame B & N for the loss of the indies
or is it just Borders fault . Not defending Borders but it B & N seems to be
the 9000 pound gorilla nobody wants to mention……….
Personally I’m not interested in blaming anyone for the downfall of the indies. First, I wasn’t in the industry in any capacity other than a reader/consumer at that point. Second I suspect, (but can’t really prove) that lack of selection contributed to that. I know our local indies don’t carry much sf/f/h or romance, and seeing as that’s my core reading material they just don’t meet my needs as a reader (and sometimes are rude or snobby about it). Third, I think the “death of the indie” is overestimated as the market is moving toward bookstores as a specialty shop, which in the not-quite-long run are poised to make a return. The bookseller industry isn’t dead by far, but big box style bookselling is still facing significant cuts.
The pricing race-to-the-bottom completely changed the consumer electronics industry. Manufacturers who once built products in the USA went to China and pushed retail pricing lower & lower. Those who did not, for the most part went out of business. Meanwhile profit to the brick & mortar retailer went lower & lower as well and was further eroded by the online sale of the same brand merchandise. Pretty soon the entire value premise of why you go into a store to purchase vs. point & click was forgotten or perhaps, no longer relevant. This series of events started in the late 80’s and 20 years later, audio & video retail scarcely resembles the way it used to be. Behold the invisible hand of the marketplace. If consumers tire of buying online or hunting for the next greatest closeout price, they will naturally move along to something else. Like government, consumers deserve the retail they get. For those that don’t accept a mediocre bookstore experience, someone crafty will eventually figure out how to meet their needs and make a nice business out of it. (I am ready for that now BTW.)
Yes, exactly. Remember decades ago we wanted furniture and houses we could pass down to our kids. Now we want to replace our living room set every few years and have “starter” homes.
I do indeed but there is nothing wrong with a starter home. We lived in ours for ~8 years and saved so that we could put down 20% on the next one which, we are still in. It will be paid off in 5 years. That is the old school way of doing it and it still works.
The serial but non-investigative shoppers you described are present everywhere and they do indeed go into a buy-buy-buy frenzy when they think there is a deal. When the large warehouse stores opened up people would fill 2-3 carts of goods for no other reason than the price was right, not that the items were actually needed. That mentality along with willing manufacturers and retailers feeding it are in part responsible for the mess there is now.
I do believe though it will correct. Nothing like an economic turndown to not only rein people in but to also reprogram their buyer patterns for decades. Even after the Great Depression ended, those that lived through it resisted buying anything until they needed it. Then they bought used if at all possible. Interesting times, interesting blog!
See, that is so rare! And congrats on being so close to getting the house paid off!
While I’ve never run a bookstore, just existing within the field leaves me feeling your pain. This is such an annoying position to be stuck in. Borders is essentially experiencing its biggest publicity blitz ever, in effect getting a big “sale advertisement.” Doesn’t mean it’s actually a better deal for the customers, and it comes at expense of the future of the stores. If there had only been ways to generate this kind of enthusiasm outside this event the future of American books would be rosier.
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I was first introduced to Borders may years ago when my brother and sister-in-law gave hubby and I a gift certificate for Christmas. We were like….hmmm…where and what is Borders? We drove to Danbury (about 45 mins from our home) and it was love at first sight! Since then a Borders came to Southbury, Milford and Wilton, CT…..all of which are now closing:(
We did go to the sales and picked up a few things but not because of the going out of business aspect but more for the human side of the issue which is saying goodbye and good luck.
I am sharing this info with you as I would like to wish you and your co-workers/managers the very best of luck and I am so sorry to see Borders go:(
The very best of luck in your career search and future endevours!
God Bless!
Thank you. We have been very glad to get so such a big end off from all the people who are going to miss us.
Is it supposed to be policy to warn customers about marking the barcode before they pay? I had a rather unpleasant experience over the weekend due to them not warning me beforehand and then marking the books after they had received my payment – I hadn’t read about on the sale but decided to take a look since I was at te mall purchasing something else. I did at that point ask them to void the credit card charge which, which she wouldn’t do, so I asked to see the manager, who voided it, but seemed very annoyed. I do agree if you warn them ahead of time it is unfair for them to get angry at you but I think I had a valid reason to be upset since they didn’t inform me until after they had already taken my money.
At my store we did warn (and some people still do) but we find that it opens it up to debate and sadly we just don’t have the time to fight with everyone in line when they’re also bringing up 20+ items and “aren’t sure which ones [they’re] really going to get”. So we’ve placed real obvious signs at each register that say that we’ll have to do it. We’re also not one of those stores that appear to be writing foul language or X-ing over the covers (which is not what you’re supposed to do at all.)
However, if you do want to remove the mark many books are made of a glossy material which is easy to get the marks off of. You can use an alcohol pad, tape wrapped around your finger sticky side out and tapped lightly along the mark or often just your finger to rub the marker off, despite it being permanent marker.