If you follow me on Twitter you already know what’s happening. If not, here’s a run down. My store, Border #556 at 4th Street Live! in Louisville, Ky officially closed Monday April 4th. Sunday April 3rd was the start of the new pay period, which yeah, awkward, but consider that the managers also were in the store cleaning up for at least another day.

I should have received my second to last check (which should have been a full check) Friday April 8th. (And I should receive my final check, with no hours on it, April 22nd.) That’s a lot of should though because in my mail Friday…and Saturday? Nada.

At this point I suspect the paper pay checks were sent to the store, as per usual, despite there being no one there. But being a weekend my calls to payroll are going unanswered. I called customer service and they gave me the number to the message line about the bankruptcy, which was the best they could do. I ended up getting contact info for payroll off that famous Borders employee vent site (which is exactly what that kind of thing is for seeing as Borders is doing their damnedest to keep all that contact information unavailable.)

Again, I think it’s a flub up, not a purposeful thing. But I HIGHLY advise Borders employees to keep track of your hours so you know right away if anything is wrong, and have a list of contact numbers written down somewhere at your home in case you need it later.

Understandably I’m pissed because I have bills that need to be paid and I need gas money to, you know, look for a new job. The rub is that I went for the day job path because I was tired of having to badger publishers to get my pay, a fact of publishing that isn’t absolute but is common. I didn’t want to have to constantly worry about when I was going to get money due to me to make bills and mistakenly thought a “day job” would make sure I had at least some regular income.

And instead I have to spend tomorrow tracking down monies due for a story and for two full weeks of Borders employment. Thanks corporate America!

P.S. By the way the number I have for Borders’ Payroll Department is 800-331-9036 just in case you, too, find yourself in need of it.

Update 4/11/11 3:14 pm– Despite calling several times today I’ve gotten no response from HR. Left multiple messages now and an email to payroll bounced. I got the number to the corporate offices (734-477-1100) and was forwarded to payroll through them, so I know I’ve been calling the right number. Also I spoke with coworkers and I know others who get paper checks haven’t gotten theirs either, which just makes me believe stronger that the checks were sent to the store.

The only contact I have gotten from Borders at this time is from whoever is running the Borders Twitter feed, who is trying to get this issue in front of the right people. I really appreciate that, and sympathize because once again it’s a person who has no control of these things who is being squished in between the upset consumer (me) and the practically mythical corporate critters who are actually responsible for the f-up.

And just in case it comes to this for anyone else here’s a link to the contact info for the U.S. Department of Labor.

Update 6:53 pm – I have confirmation that others at the store have gotten their checks today. Here’s hoping mine gets here tomorrow.

I stopped by the store today and they were carting off the cafe. Upstairs was gone, just scarred red paint, wood fragments and walls of windows. On the first floor the managers were all covering the registers, half the bookcase, if not more were gone, the left over books were on rolling cars and behind the only real signs of life were pockmarks in the shape of B-O-R-D-E-R-S. By now it’s dark and silent and it’ll probably stay like for a while. Like I said at the beginning across the street in the same building (because the street goes through the structure) is another dark, silent retail space, less than a fifth the size that’s been nothing but a place for 4th Street Live! to prop up their advertisements for two years now.

Today I’m officially laid off, though my last day was Friday. Truthfully it was anti-climatic. No big exciting blow outs. No moving speeches of friendship and passion. Just a trickle of sad patrons and a crew too tired to care anymore.

I’m alternating between excited at the thought of a new job and scared of the process of finding it. I really did love my job at Borders until we started liquidating. Even with the BR+ pushing and knowing that I was there on the tail end of something great. If it was Empire Records then I came in after Joe’d ran in for a while and some of the crew had moved on to college or more long term careers and as iTunes exploded in popularity. I knew it should have been a thing of wonder, and could see how it had been, but by the time I got there she was a swollen kneed, sway backed old mare.

I have  Borders bucks for this month, after snatching up some deals of my own, and I’m no one to waste that (or the 50% off coupon I got from the the store) but I really don’t feel excited about walking into more red either. I’ve always been conflicted when it came to where I bought my books from, because amazon is evil, but B&N was way too far away, BAM didn’t seem to know what they were talking about and always pushed that card on me. Borders seemed like the perfect alternative when it opened in 4th Street Live! But now, well if I’m going to be neglected as a customer and find shelves lacking what I really want I might as well go for low prices right? And the irony is that Amazon is the only new bookstore these days not pushing a card.

Damn I hate that they win.

But maybe it’s time to retail to realize it’s not about pushing, triggering, sweet talking or conning us to buy, it’s about offering what we want to buy anyway.

I’m very sorry to those of you who have gone through this, are still stuck in this, or are just starting the process.  I hope you all have a good GM, good family and friend, or at least good beer to get your though. And of course, that fortune shines fairer on you in the future.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.