Day Fourteen
Prices dropped to 25%-50% today. I got to the store and we’d be under-manned last night so the signs were all pulled down and we were still struggling to put them back up. Customer patience for the slow price drops seems to still be holding. Again we were real busy, despite it being a gray miserable day.
As I said Wednesday we shipped 2200 books, at random, to another location. Our store inventory is completely f-ed right now. We have no clue what is on the shelf. Not only is it a mess, with customers not putting things back right, and us employees too overwhelmed to make sense of it, but Borders has messed with our inventory program, and now whole shelves have just vanished.
The children’s section is gone. We have games, toys and movies, but all out chapter, picture and early reader books are gone.
When I left they were moving everything from level two to level one. I expect by Monday they’ll have finished (especially after weekend sales) and the second floor with be shut down for good. On one hand it’ll be great to have space, where I can walk and not be interrupted by half a dozen people (even when I don’t have my name tag or radio on. Really, at what point do I get to yell, “Leave me alone, I’m on break”?)
Last night a customer got really upset at my manager for not letting him return a plush animal that was in the “up to 75% off” bin. It was only 20% off (which is up to 75%). He cussed her out in front of kids and other customers and in the end had to be stopped by another customer when he tried to throw the animal at her.
Also the other evening an irritated customer called back 3 times and hung up on 2 managers before asking “to talk to a male manager” like that would get him anywhere (and there are no longer male managers at my store.)
These are the kinds of customers my co-workers here and at other stores are dealing with. Again also the people who actually hired us, Borders, have cut us off from most contact. Other than telling us what to say to the customers all communications appears to be coming now from the liquidators.
Borders has said that if we quit without two weeks notice or get fired (which can still happen) or otherwise don’t last until the stores are actually closed and we are for really laid off we’ll be listed as no rehire when they do reopen for hiring. They’ve set us up to force us to be unable to lave this hot mess without taking a blow to our job history. As far as losing the possibility of being a Borders employee in the future…no one I know would apply for a Borders job again. Who would want to, after this?
P.S. 25% is still LESS than the 40% off coupon Borders just sent out to BR members. Which, by the way, you can’t use at closing stores. No, I promise, the last line of the “fine print” says that and arguing with me is not going to get me to let you use it.
P.P.S. Has anyone figured out how to get black permanent marker off your hands yet?
Sometimes rubbing alcohol will take off marker. As will that “Goop” stuff, the waterless hand cleaner. (Side benefit, Goop will remove grease stains from clothes, too.)
As for being not rehireable, yeah, it’s unlikely that any of you will try to go back to Borders when/if they recover. The important thing is that if future employers call to check your work history, they will often ask if you can be rehired. It’s code for “Did s/he quit or was s/he fired?” They can’t ask that, so it’s a way around it while still getting the info they want. So it’s an out-and-out threat to screw you out of future work if they can. What a crap thing to do!
Re: “all communications appears to be coming now from the liquidators.” When they liquidated my former store we were told outright that the liquidators owned us now, and regardless of what our paychecks showed, we worked for them. It helped clarify things somewhat.
Yes, exactly. Even if we don’t want to work at Borders again it can still damage our chances at other places. And I’d have doubts if just anyone told me that, but it’s been my managers saying it, and they also admitted they were disappointed by it because they were unlikely to hire people with “no rehire” on their resumes and they understand why someone wouldn’t be able to handle what’s going on now.