1

I love wandering through Powell's whenever I'm in Portland, but I always feel like I need a long shower and scrub with steel wool to get the leftist arrogance off my skin...

2 IIRC, Borders would not keep positions open for reservists that did a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan.

3 Goodbye Borders

4 I always feel like I need a long shower and scrub with steel wool Posted by: Alex Go on.

5 I stopped shopping at Borders for a couple of reasons.  The first was price - books and movies were more expensive there.  Two, I was tired of the employees acting as though they were doing me a favor by taking the time to answer my questions.  I grew tired of subsidizing such jackassery, and took my business elsewhere.

6 Oh, I don't know, I am kind of sympathetic to some of the things mentioned.

 I never got any attitude from anyone in a Border's; for that, I go to the DMV.

7

My local Borders was actually relatively sane.  Sure you could tell that there was a certain academic, leftist lean to a lot of the employees, but no one ever sneered at my choice of political literature (I bought plenty of Ann Coulter books there over the years).  We'd often get to chatting about the latest sci-fi or fantasy purchase I was making, too.  It was nice.

Barnes & Noble, on the other hand, is snob central.  Unless I'm desperate, I never, ever go there. 

Borders was only ten minutes from my workplace, half an hour from home; B&N is half an hour from work on the highway, and at least forty five minutes from home.   There are literally no other bookstores anywhere near me.  I enjoy the smell and feel of bookstores, but unless a happy medium takes the former's place, I think Amazon is going to be getting all of my book traffic from here on out.

8 With bookstores on the way out, computer stores belly-up, and Sharper Image a mere shell of its former self, there is no reason to go to the Mall anymore.  Which is just as well, since the only people there have neck tattoos and nose rings.  Cell phone and shoe stores will only bring in so many women to keep the dream alive. And don't get me started with the prices at the Food Court...

9 Borders seemed to specialize in hiring hipster douchebags with the trademark ironic plastic-framed glasses that screamed, "I'm cool and unique!" just like ten thousand other hipster douchebags.

10 Nice to see you guest posting, Moe!

11

 I tried Borders book stores several years ago. The first experience was the last. Except for one individual - a part time employee - I found them to be a surly bunch. NOT friendly and NOT willing to help their customers. A number of authors I've talked to since had even more to say about them...and it wasn't good.

 If you piss on your customers you won't have any customers, good economy or not.

 

 

12 I've been exclusively  book and DVD shopping online for the past 2 years.  It works well and we like it when packages are delivered to our door, you know they're coming but there is still an atmosphere of "oh look, a package arrived!"

13 There's a semi-infamous picture from a few months back that sums up Borders' problem in a nutshell.

http://bit.ly/exZeAI

"No bathrooms, try Amazon".

It sums up why Borders is going out of business as well as the kinds of attitudes of the people working there, which is why few are sorry to see them go.

14 Borders used book service was pretty cool. Their markup? Horrible. They had a better arts section than B&N though. They even carried SCORE

15 A Canadian-born scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the immune system but hours later his university said that he had been dead for three days.

The Nobel committee had been unaware of Ralph Steinman's death and it was unclear whether the prize would be rescinded because Nobel statutes don't allow posthumous awards.

Steinman, 68, who shared the prize with American Bruce Beutler and French scientist Jules Hoffmann, died on Sept. 30 of pancreatic cancer, according to Rockefeller University, which said he had been treated with immunotherapy based on his discovery of dendritic cells two decades earlier.

^{News flash -- it doesn't work.}

16 And 5.  No, we were not slobs. We just didn't like you. That is why we pissed all over the restrooms.

You too huh?  Hehe...

17 Borders' demise was summed up in their Comment No. 6.

18 Border's problems started from the top, and worked on down.

The employees were surly because they are treated like crap by those above them.

Add that to the management's penny-wise pound-foolish attitudes, and their crash became inevitable.

19 10 WELL DONE SIR!!!, well done.

20 Borders used to support the Thistle and Shamrock, and I bought my first Osprey book (and still one of the best I have from that publisher) from them, so I can't hate them.

21 Man, oh man. I'm playing a dirge on the world's tiniest violin.

22 Honestly, Barnes and Nobles isn't any better about uppity leftist employees who think they're better than the customers.

Books-a-Million seems better in about every regard though.

23

I actually miss Borders... at least there was somewhere to go to sip coffee, and flip through the magazines for free.

Of course, flipping thru magazines for free instead of actually BUYING them is one reason Borders went tits up...

24 My handwritten note to Borders and its employees: Baise-toi. Y'all are lefties, so I'm certain you understand the French.

25 Honestly, Barnes and Nobles isn't any better about uppity leftist employees who think they're better than the customers.

I have never had a single problem in any B&N.  Of course they may find it hard to hire lefties in SC.

26 The bathroom at the local Borders always stunk.  It was like going to a public rest room at a public beach mobbed by illegals.  Yuck.

27 "H was turned into a movie"?

Meh. They all voted for Obama. Screw 'em.

28 I preferred the design and layout of Borders. Always felt more modern.

In unrelated news, you see those Breitbart pics of Obama marching in 2007 with the New Black Panthers?

Fucking, racist motherfucker. And the media suppressed the evidence till now.

29 4.  Know how you went around and labeled some books as "Staff Choice". Yea, we didn't trust your taste in clothing....what makes you think we trusted your taste in books.

I don't think they're worried about finding another job.  The snotty leftist pose is perfect for the White House.  And I trust their knowledge of books every bit as much as I trust Barry's knowledge of the business cycle.

30 He should have formed a booksellers union, then he wouldn't have to put up with this awful, soul-crushing, back-breaking conditions for just peanuts.

31 Bookstores?  Those are still a thing?

32 You mad bro?

33 33 You mad bro?

Posted by: Kindle at October 03, 2011 11:41 AM (X6akg)

OMFG!!!!  Winnar!!!

34 33 No, just upset.

35 The whiny little bitch has really nice handwriting.

36 Likewise Guest Blogger.  I just like bookstores.  Nearest bookstores to me are in Tulsa, OK.  Never have a problem with rude clerks because I push back twice as hard.  Found one of Sarah Palin's books turned backwards.  I called the manager over and asked who worked this section then had her called over and explained what a poor business practice it is to try to discourage sales.  Have done similar things several times.  Being a crabby, crippled, old fart has it advantages.

37 Posted by Cory Doctorow, himself a fine author.  I am certain he appreciated that Borders did such a fine job of mistreating HIS customers.

38

Meh. The only commentary I ever remember recieving from Border's employees, beyond the generic politeness and the 'would you like a bagel with your coffee?' stuff, was from the check-out lady when I bought Ender's Game. Seems she was a huge Orson Scott Card fan. I was unimpressed with the book myself.

39 I was on the Border' email list. The last email they sent out was from the CEO of Barnes & Nobles saying that they had purchased the customer list and looked forward to doing business with us. I will not be surprised to see some Borders stores flip to other booksellers, including B&N

40 Suck it up, tapeworms.

41

The bathroom at the local Borders always stunk.  It was like going to a public rest room at a public beach mobbed by illegals.  Yuck.

What the hell bookstores are you people going to?

42 My local Borders was actually relatively sane.  Yeah, so was mine. I never got attitude & they were helpful. I got all the barking moonbat attitude at b&n. They hide all the conservative books at the back of the store, and got really shitteh when I asked why that was. That's when I quit shopping there.

43 I would go to borders in my Redman hat and NASCAR tee and sit around the larger reading areas and fart up some beer and pickled eggs. Then leave without buying a gd thing.

44 " Know how you went around and labeled some books as "Staff Choice". Oldest scam in the biz. In any chain store those are put up by management to juice the slow movers. And you all realize that if Borders hadn't closed, #occupywallstreet wouldn't have the manpower on hand to stay out a week.

45 "Man, I don't need this job, I got job offers from 10 more book stores last week!"

Ha, sorry, I just wanted to know what that sentence looked like / sounded like.


Snort. Guffaw.

46

I hate bookstores, but love reading. Thank God for my Kindle.

47 The list is just hyperbole. Bookstore employees love their customers.

48 Don't think I have ever seen a Borders.  Were there some in the DFW area?

49

The last time I went to a bookstore was 5 years ago around Christmas...there was one cashier and a lineup a mile long snaking back through the store...I just dropped the books on the nearest shelf and left.

I much prefer buying online now and getting a nice package delivered by UPS or the mail. 

50 Never noticed any attitude at Borders or B&N... but I live in Idaho.

51 We'll just nationalize the bookstores.

52 I guess my borders was one of the saner ones out there. Yes the food/coffee sucked massively but there was a coffee bean across the street so I never touched the Borders stuff. But I never saw them hide conservative books or sneer when I was reading stuff like that, etc. This group seemed like a good collection of professionals and with them going out of business they definitely made alot of money on me.

Ironically the most egotistical thing I've ever heard from a book store employee came from a BARNES AND NOBLE employee who made a snide comment when I was reading on my kindle in the store. But that was in NYC not in my hometown, so take that with whatever grain of salt.

53 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

54 #11 Nice to see you guest posting, Moe!

Posted by: dave_in_fla at October 03, 2011 11:23 AM (RpweF)

Ditto!

55 When I was in college, I used to shop sometimes at the original Borders in Ann Arbor. It had a primo pr0n selection in Periodicals.

56 We don't have a Borders down here, but the Barnes & Noble is okay.  I preferred Books-a-Million, but they're recently closed (are going to be moving to another location).

If you want to deal with true hipster douchebaggery, the independent books stores are the worst.

57 sigh.  books = book

58 Love a bookstore! Barnum knew I would be born. Always bought more books on a single trip than I needed/wanted. Felt good to lug that bag out to the car, take them home and then to the office and stack them around on any flat surface. Now, I just go Amazoning when I need what I need. No fluff, no UFO books, no office clutter, no large stack of seldom touched UML and Design Patterns books. Tidy, and sad days indeed.

59 I think I was the only guy who worked at Borders that was a dyed in the wool conservative. 

I always got strange looks from the customers when I would wear my "Regan for President" shirt or my "Marines have the best commercials" one.  It was fun.

But Borders killed itself, Obama just landed the last nail.  They spent millions on doing mix and burn (buying MP3s and we would burn them to the disk for you) but never advertised it.  Three years after our store opened I still had regular customers who didn't even know we had it - even though it took up about 1/8th of the first floor.

60 I purchased a Kindle a few weeks ago.  Let em rot in hell.

61 If you want to deal with true hipster douchebaggery, the independent books stores are the worst.

Wow, thanks for the warning.  That is not the case out here where we got one little independent book store for the entire county but I can see how it would be different in the big cities.

62 "They hide all the conservative books at the back of the store, and got really shitteh when I asked why that was. That's when I quit shopping there.

Posted by: bebe's boobs destroy at October 03, 2011 11:48 AM (nBHzl)"

My Barnes and Noble is just the same here in Austin.  I noticed a lot of the very highly selling conservative books were hard to find, and when checking out, asked the manager (whom I just lucked upon) why they don't prominently display these great books.  The answer was indirect, but snooty 'it's my store and I can put them where I want, and ewwwww'.  I very rarely shop there anymore.  I used to spend $100 a month in there, easily.

Conservatives love to consume information.  That's the real reason FNC and Rush and conservative authors and blogs do well.  If you don't want to sell books, don't work at a bookstore.  If you do, why piss off people who love books?

I don't cheer Borders going down.  That sucks.  Even though it's not a good book store, it's the best some had access to.  It's a shame they couldn't compete.

63 "I love wandering through Powell's whenever I'm in Portland, but I always feel like I need a long shower and scrub with steel wool to get the leftist arrogance off my skin..." So do I. I was **quite** irritated when Powell's didn't stock Mark Steyn's new book - somehow I don't think that was based on expected sales. So I bought Steyn's book on Kindle - and got a little more accustomed to not shopping at Powells.

64 I always preferred Borders because they sent out big discount coupons in email instead of the B&N $25.00 membership salespitch EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

And FWIW the employees of both stores were all brutal tyrannical Stalinists.

65 So do I. I was **quite** irritated when Powell's didn't stock Mark Steyn's new book - somehow I don't think that was based on expected sales. Just checked the web site - Powells has about four million books in stock - and one copy of Steyn's book available at its main store, and one copy at one of their branch bookstores.

66 What an immature shithead. It's what she gets for majoring in Gender Studies. F her.

67 I grew to despise Borders. When they first opened, they had a decent collection of serious books. Within a few years, it was all stationery and greeting cards. Their ridiculous prices, niggardly *discount policies, and ignorant and I'm-much -cooler -than- you- staff sunk the place. *see what I did there?

68 Oh, and I love Powell's Commie World of Books. I can find pretty much anything I want there, even conservative books, though I know where to look so I don't need to ask the Bolshevik Portlander employees.

When I lived in WA, I used to order loads of books from Powells.com and order their cheapest (free) shipping; the books would invariably show up in two days and I'd avoid that pesky WA sales tax.

69 To be fair, customer service can be a hellish job. It's no wonder so many resentful over-educated register jockeys turn to totalitarian leftism.

70

The condescending mental superior who wrote that note misspelled "immediately" on item 12.

 

71 It's not that he's whining about how crappy his retail job was.  That's cool.

It's how true some of the sneering is.  Most of us recognize it and have been annoyed with the unjustified elitism for ages.

Ordinarily, I'd want to buy the guy a beer for lamenting the awful job he actually needed, but he thought he was better than other folks, and he thought that because secretly he knows he's worse.

72 The Kindle is the equivalent of an extinction level event for brick and mortar bookstores.  Any book you want at any time, with zero bullshit.  It's like what iTunes did to music stores.

73

Ode to a Laid-Off Borders Employee

When a book became popular for any reason, that was good for you, regardless of who wrote it, who recommended it or who made it into a movie.

You worked in a bookstore; your store's customers did not. They asked you where books and sections are because they assumed that you knew where they were.

Your job was to follow Borders' policies, so if Borders allowed customers to return books that you think they already read or used, it was up to you to do whatever your store's policy on the matter instructed you to do.

That paycheck that you're not getting every week is, in a very real way, a result of your contempt for your customers, for which I'm sure the workers at Barnes & Noble are grateful.

When a customer walked in and said "I'm looking for a book," you failed to recognize that this person went significantly out of their way to walk into a Borders and ask for your help.

Coupons are marketing tools, so the more coupons a family uses means the more effective your company's efforts were to keep your store open and running.

A list of complaints, technically speaking, is not an ode.

People can be pains in the ass. Deal with it.

When people started a conversation by saying "Quick question," it was untrue but polite in the same way they ended these conversations with "I appreciate your help."

Knowing the color of a book's cover is oftentimes very helpful.

It's not only true that you lean to the left, it's obvious. For all your deficiencies, left-leaning people such as you never suffer a shortage of rules for other people.

Unfortunately, your list of grievances to those who signed your paychecks in invisible ink will go unheeded by everyone. Contrary to what you likely set out to do, you did not change the world, even in a small way. You did not make a difference.

74 The Borders in San Diego was full of hipster know-it-all d-bags.  This is why I'm an Amazon customer.  I don't need the attitude plus when you went into the friggin store it was a mess.

75 I visited one of the Borders stores when it began the closing sale.  I am being charitable when I say that the selection in the store was eclectic.

76 I'm convinced that Amazon is going to take over the world. I needed some HDMI cables this year (first for me since all my A/V stuff was pretty ancient). The sticker shock in the stores (even Home Depot) floored me. Amazon is practically giving HDMI cables away, and their electronics "inventory" is beyond awesome.

77 Yes, EC, when you get used to a Kindle, you simply don't need book stores anymore.  For Americans in beautiful urban areas full of book stores, this is bittersweet.  Book stores are fun.  For 99.999999% of the world, it's just straight sweet, as you can get a cheap great book with no hassles, no matter where you are.

It's going to make society better.  You can read newspapers for a lot less money, and you can have all your books on the device, instead of on huge bookshelves.

78 When we lived in Oregon a couple of years ago, Borders was the only bookstore in town. My wife always wanted to shop there, so we did, and then I made her write down all the books she wanted and we'd check them out of the library...

Nothing against the employees or the store there, they weren't anything like the above examples (plenty of conservative books even though Corvallis is a liberal college town), it was just too expensive.

79 "Amazon is practically giving HDMI cables away,"

When you realize all an HDMI cable is is two pieces of metal to connect two devices, and minimally insulated wire from end to end, you realize those $100 HDMI cables are only for morons.  Even the $20 ones are asinine.

It's digital, so the construction quality is practically not an issue if you can simply get a cable to hold together.

Amazon is also a great place to get the TV.  Every TV I found competing with Amazon's price was a bait and switch hassle.  'Oh, you don't want that one, you want this one, and that one's not in stock right now.  This one is only $200 more.  Come on!'  Ugh.

80 Yes, EC, when you get used to a Kindle, you simply don't need book stores anymore.

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer books in a format that don't require 21st century infrastructure to read.  Or even 20th, for that matter.

That, and I'm afraid to squash spiders with a Kindle.

81 The Kindle is the equivalent of an extinction level event for brick and mortar bookstores.  Any book you want at any time, with zero bullshit.  It's like what iTunes did to music stores.

Posted by: EC at October 03, 2011 12:34 PM (GQ8sn)

I have no desire to own a kindle, I want real books that cannot be removed from my reader by the seller.  Fortunately for me, there are about 20 Half-Price Books locations that I can regularly visit.

82 74

Ode to a Laid-Off Borders Employee

Posted by: FireHorse at October 03, 2011 12:34 PM (F5OMl)

Well done.

83 "It's digital, so the construction quality is practically not an issue if you can simply get a cable to hold together." I was going to bitch about this same issue, but I struck it from my comment. It's digital. It either handshakes, maintains sync, and carries digital data, or it doesn't. Yet Best Buy carries Monster brand HDMI cables for over $100. WTF?

84 The only hardcover books I purchase are genealogy research books, map books, etc.  I also buy those books from Amazon.

85 Yet Best Buy carries Monster brand HDMI cables for over $100. WTF?

I went into the Best Buy store when I went to the city last week. Since Circuit City went bust their prices have skyrocketed.

And to top that off a high pressure salesman came by touting some "deal" on big screen TVs and Direct TV. He stated spouting all kinds of lies about DISH and Hi Def in general.

I finally turned around and walked out of the store. I figure that was my last visit to there.

Oh, those outrageous prices for HDMI cables, even Wal-Mart does that. I bought one from them when I bought my TV because I had to have it to make it work. Since then I order them all from Amazon.

86 Letter to Newly Funemployed Borders Employees

1. The customer may not always be right, but they're always the customer.

2. In spite of the snarky "truths that everyone knows", conservatives DO read. A lot. They just don't read leftist twaddle because it's around them 24/7

3. In your search for new employment after your 99 weeks runs out, no one thinks you're special. No one cares what degree you have or how hard you studied in college. Appearance counts, wear a suit and leave the piercings on the nightstand before going for an interview

87 I have no desire to own a kindle, I want real books that cannot be removed from my reader by the seller.  Fortunately for me, there are about 20 Half-Price Books locations that I can regularly visit.

Hit up your local thrift circuit too. It takes some digging, but you'd be amazed at the treasures you can find for just short of free.

88 "Call me old fashioned, but I prefer books in a format that don't require 21st century infrastructure to read.  Or even 20th, for that matter."

But actually, you're just trading one set of infrastructure for another.

My home has several bookshelves full of books, and that's less material than is on my kindle, which actually doesn't need any infrastructure to work.  I even have a solar charger for it and can charge it enough to last a month on a single afternoon's sunlight.

You need all that space, and you need to bring the books you want with you.  And books can decay. 

For data, you need to backup your material, but that's not so hard.

I think the Kindle is much more robust and stable a way to store 5000 books.  There are exceptions.  I would prefer a paper copy of auto repair manuals, since I can get them dirtier and bang them around more.  But Kindles are cheap and getting cheaper.  I suspect I will eventually have a very simple and rugged Kindle for that function, and a svelte one for everything else.

And for reading newspapers, it just can't be beat.  Pays for itself in the discounts.

Paper books are here to stay, but I think e-books will dominate the market and paper books will become specialty items.

89 "He stated spouting all kinds of lies about DISH and Hi Def in general." Public lies like this are seriously a BFD. It used to be that gun shops and service stations were the places to go to hear outrageous, over-the-top bullshit from the man behind the counter. Nowadays, those are about the only places where I can trust the employees.

90 Amazon is practically giving HDMI cables away, and their electronics "inventory" is beyond awesome.

Monoprice.com is nirvana for cheap cables and adaptors.

91 Excuse me a moment while I whip this out and piss on Borders' grave. The Borders near me when I first started shopping there was near Bethesda, MD. That's moonbat territory, and it showed. I had one Borders clerk actually YELL at me for the conservative magazine I was buying. Customer service was surly; the coffee was Starbucks-level bad; and they made you hunt for conservative titles. Ah, my bladder's empty. Let me guzzle some water so I get get right back to it.

92 84 I was going to bitch about this same issue, but I struck it from my comment. It's digital. It either handshakes, maintains sync, and carries digital data, or it doesn't. Yet Best Buy carries Monster brand HDMI cables for over $100. WTF?
_________

Yeah, well, back in the day some fellow at an audio store once tried to sell me "balance rings" for my CDs. They were essentially rubber bands that would go around the outside of the disk to "balance" it to "reduce distortion".

My friends and I were polite enough to wait until we left the store before we started laughing.

93 " It's digital. It either handshakes, maintains sync, and carries digital data, or it doesn't."

Yup.  There's no such thing as one HDMI cable producing a better picture than another.  Either it works or it doesn't.

But when I shopped for a TV at Best Buy, the guy told me the Monster cable had much better insulation than generic cables.

How does that help me?  I suppose if I had intense radio interference, akin to an EMP detonating, a normal digital cable might fail for a few moments.  Is that when the Monster cable helps?  If I have that much interference, I probably have problems inside the TV anyway.

Not offering an HDMI cable for $5 or less is simply saying "I think my customers are idiots and I want to rob them".

Best Buy's tactic makes sense.  They know they are losing any customer that pits them against Amazon, so they aren't even trying to win that battle.  They are vying for people who need the product right then and there, and the people who are too stupid to shop online.  So they use heavy markups and lame old school sales tactics, like those stupid warranties and expensive high markup extras like cables.

94 When I lived in Santa Monica in the late 90's, both B&N and Borders had stores on the 3rd Street Promenade.  There was no comparison between the two (liberal hipsters aside)  B&N was a great shopping environment, Borders had the low-rent shopping experience of its parent  Kmart...

95 I work at a Barnes & Noble in New York City. A few thoughts. In 4 years of working there I have had a co-worker try and engage me in 1, yes 1, political conversation. We send a DUMPLOAD of conservative books and magazines, maybe 50-50 compared to lefty titles. I'm not exaggerating. Conservative books are displayed right up there with the lefty crap. They are in no way stuck off in the back.

96 Don't any of you guys use the Nook instead of the Kindle?  I like the touchscreen, and B&N has at least as good a selection of books as amazon.  Though I think the latest version of the Nook they just came out with looks very cheapened from the original (that I have), which features a beautiful touchscreen that includes colored photos of the actual bookcovers. 

97 We send a DUMPLOAD Sell, not send.

98 "It's true that we lean to the left and think Glenn Beck is an idiot."

Being put into the ranks of the unemployed couldn't have happened to nicer people.

99 Amazon IS going to take over the world. Books? everyone knows Amazon has books. Ditto DVDs and CDs. But I've also bought tea, filters for my daughter's aquarium, replacement parts for a blender, skin care lotions and potions, a new drum for my laser printer and on and on. All cheaper and more convenient (and much better selection) than I could have found elsewhere, even with the Prime membership I have, which gets me 2-day shipping and tons of streaming video. The UPS guy knows us well.

100 Posted by: Bandmeeting at October 03, 2011 01:08 PM (IPGBi) I think a lot of it has to do with the management of individual stores. If the manager is a professional then he or she is going to hire customer-service-oriented people regardless of their politics, and stock the books that sell rather than the politically correct books. If the manager is a committed lefty, you get the experiences we describe. Congratulations on working at one of the professionally managed stores, though.

101 Hit up your local thrift circuit too. It takes some digging, but you'd be amazed at the treasures you can find for just short of free. Posted by: Blackford Oakes at October 03, 2011 12:57 PM (RN90h) Heh...kind of ironic there. I just paid a grand total of $6.47 for harcover copies of "Who's on First" and "Marco Polo, if You Can" through Amazon last week which included two day shipping with Prime.

102 I've worked retail before, so some of this idiot signmaker's points rang true. But then, when I REALLY want sneering, whiny douchebaggery I just head over to RedState.com. Right, Moe?

103 @joncelli It's really a pretty fun place to work. I'd say that at least 20% of New Yorkers are mentally ill, which is the bad part. The rest is little 2 minute conversations with pretty nice, sometimes interesting people and the kids are pretty funny. I once had a little boy hand me a book that had a ghost on the cover. I asked him if he wasn't afraid of ghosts and he gave me a, "well, duh, yes, REAL ones, this is a book (you big doof)".

104
I've always loved browsing bookshelves, one of the great experiences of Western Civilization. But over the past 20 years or so, modern bookstores have made their bookshelves an afterthought. They've become gourmet coffee shops that sell books on the side.

The attitude sucks, of course. All the way down to the store layout & construction. Our two local Borders had German-style toilets. You know, with the display shelf in the bowl so you could examine your crap before flushing. Except that about half the time, flushing wouldn't even MOVE it. You could flush all day long and your crap would sit there untouched by water.

The last straw was when I bought a DVD of "The Outlaw Josey Wales". The cashier literally started laughing at me. Fucking douchebags.

105 " Don't any of you guys use the Nook instead of the Kindle?  I like the touchscreen, and B&N has at least as good a selection of books as amazon."

No doubt, Amazon is doing better because it has to compete.  Particularly with this Nook.  I prefer the Kindle, but it's all about competition.

Wal mart and other companies will keep Amazon on its toes.

Anyway, as far as competition, I just bought a book and a new bolt for my Honda's oil pan and some cereal from Amazon.  All of it at good prices.  It's not easy to compete with that.

106 Again speaking of Powells in Portland - Powells has been laying off people, since the Kindle is starting to really bite, and one Powells employee commented in a post about Powells: Since this is anonymous I don't mind saying that my yearly pre-tax income is around $25,000. That's way below the median income for Portland. Turns out $25,000 is almost exactly the median income for Portland. I guess you can't work in a bookstore without a chip on your shoulder...

107 Good Lord, I couldn't live off of $25K here in SC, much less Portland, OR. Hell, I'd be lucky I could pay my medical bills etc alone off of that.

108

I worked for a few years at a Massachusetts Borders.  Everything was relatively fine until the company decided to go public and begin shafting the employees as far as OT, vacations and wages; that's when customer service really began to go to hell.

As far as hiding conservative books - well, it didn't happen when I was there.  I made sure it was known I was a hardass conservative and that if you fucked with me, you'd get your metaphorical ass handed to you.  A couple of employees tried that cutesy shtick by putting anti-Bush books in front of new rightwing bestsellers, but that was nipped in the bud.

And granted, it was a shitty place to work, with bad customer service, but customers themselves can be real dickwads, especially during Christmas.

If you want to deal with true hipster douchebaggery, the independent bookstores are the worst.

Preach it, sistah!

109 Ah, fuck - off, damn sock!

110 The last time I was in a Borders I saw "Vampire" this and "Vampire" that everywhere.  I swear there was "Vampire Feng-Shui".  Since I didn't like vampire stories and was looking for biography and history, it was a little frustrating.

111 Wait 'til we hit "Emo Vampire Zombies".

112 The last straw was when I bought a DVD of "The Outlaw Josey Wales". The cashier literally started laughing at me. Fucking douchebags.

If you are going to a bookstore to buy DVDs you are screwing up. B&N charges an arm and a leg for videos. Amazon is much cheaper.

113 The last time I was in a Borders I saw "Vampire" this and "Vampire" that everywhere.  I swear there was "Vampire Feng-Shui".  Since I didn't like vampire stories and was looking for biography and history, it was a little frustrating.

Its not just Borders all publishers are on this trend now. We discussed it on one of the Sunday book threads. 80% of the book buying public is women now. They like Vampires now.  Bodice rippers with fangs. 

114 112 Wait 'til we hit "Emo Vampire Zombies".     Flamethrowers will be the proper, indeed necessary, response.

115

If you want to deal with true hipster douchebaggery, the independent bookstores are the worst.

Now now, there are some independent bookstores owned and run by conservatives.

116 Whilst I am a fan of a good vampire tale myself, I am appalled at the majority of the vampire books out now. Sappy, sappy drivel. They've just taken all the stupid bodice rippers and inserted blood and fangs.

But my theory is that most women have been so brainwahsed in to thinking they shouldn't like men who are strong, dominant and full of testosterone, so any inclination a woman might naturally have for this kind of man is forced in to some kind of fantasy realm, where the object of desire isn't even human anymore.

117

I started boycotting Borders when they pulled the magazine Free Inquiry because it had the Mohammed cartoons.  I believe Christopher Hitchens did as well.  I spend quite a bit of money on books and audio tapes.  I was already tired of all the promotion of left wing merchandise, but the Mohammed cartoons made the decision for me.  I wonder if such personal boycotts had anything to do with their demise.

118

Amazon IS going to take over the world.

It's because of their affiliates. Amazon itself has a very nice online store with a ton of merchandise and low prices, but through the same website you can also buy from thousands of other (mostly small) retailers. With regard to that kind of market they're competing with ebay. If Amazon doesn't have it, one of the 6000 nationwide independent stores hocking stuff with their affiliate program does.

You can also do the same thing with ebay. They sell everything on ebay. It has everything. That Clerk's gag, hubcaps for a 1972 Ford Pinto hatchback? You can buy those on ebays.

119 I hope Barnes & Noble can avoid this fate.  The one near me, at least, has professional and friendly employees.

I bought a Nook, and I'm reading a lot more because of it.  That Kindle Fire looks pretty nice, too.

120 I used to work at a bookstore that got bought by B&N. Back then everyone was cursing B&N and Borders because they were huge corporations that were killing the mom&pop local bookstores. Interesting how the big corporate bully became the victimized... what comes around goes around...