Borders Employees Vent Frustrations in ‘Ode to a Bookstore Death’
As Borders closed forever this weekend, one patron snapped a photograph of a bitter bookseller’s manifesto an unidentified store: “Things We Never Told You: Ode to a Bookstore Death.”
The massive list collected years worth of pent-up sarcasm and frustration, spawning thousands of angry (and bemused) reactions from bookstore patrons.
Change a few words here and
Change a few words here and there, and it could be a list of librarians’ frustrations, too. (Well, somebody had to say it!)
Comments
The following was posted in the comments to the page that was linked to. I found these somewhat humorous. Agree with some disagree with some:
Things your customers never told you:
* Working at a Borders doesn’t make you an expert on books.
* I’m sorry my question wasn’t quick enough for you, but after driving here, finding a parking spot, and trying to locate an employee, I’ve already spent an hour, and I’m at the end of my rope.
* I don’t know the author, title, or what genre Borders’ marketing department thinks it is, but I do know something about where I heard about the book and what it’s about. Take a second to ask me.
* I’m sorry your BA degree didn’t prepare you for anything other than a generic soul-crushing corporate retail job, but I hear they’re hiring at Starbucks, FWIW.
Another comment
Here is another comment that was posted that was interesting:
I worked in bookstores for many years, and sure, little things customers did and could annoy you, but overall, I liked helping people. The worst things that I saw in the stores I worked in were:
1. Drunk customers passed out and urinating on the couches.
2. A used needle and used cathedar in the store (on a shelf and in a bathroom stall, respectively).
3. A customer flip out and attack another, innocent, female customer that he didn’t even know.
4. A customer in a rage and spouting racist comments to a fellow employee who was trying to close the store past closing.
5. Older male customers hitting on, to the point of stalking, young, female employees… though I was hit on by older gay men as well, sometimes.
6. A customer who dumped a bag of human feces in a cash stall where a female employee was working.
7. Lots of thieves, slobs who damage books, neglectful parents, etc.
But my favourite thing that I can remember was one brazen woman who came up and told me and some other employees off for talking and laughing because “she was trying to read”… yah, trying to read the books that she was not going to PAY for, that is… bitch, this ain’t no library! LOL…
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I would like to open a bookstore and give it this name:
bitch, this ain’t no library!
Re: Another Comment
I’ve also seen most of these things at the public library. I would like to add a few as well:
8. A used (and negative) pregnancy test in the bathroom.
9. Fist fight over parking.
10. A patron yelling at a deaf woman for talking too loudly…yeah…it really happened.
Louis CK
At one of the sites with people commenting on this picture someone posted this video and people commented that it might be the most relevant commentary on this issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl5vihsERDw