Denouement for a bookseller



Borders press pass lanyard and earpiece. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 This weekend, I’ll pull my last shift as a bookseller, and if God is with me, my last retail shift ever. My Borders store hasn’t flatlined yet, but it’s just a matter of days, and I’ve decided to hang up my lanyard and radio earpiece a few days early. I'm worn out and worn down by the customers, most of which are bewildered and bitchy while picking apart the store. "When is your last day?" they'll ask. "When are the next discounts?" "Can you hold this for me?" "Do you have 'The Help?'"




Borders #376. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


I’ve worked at store #376 for nearly three years and the Angel of Death has hovered over the store the entire time. Outsiders have an “84 Charing Cross Road” idea of booksellers, that we read on the job and hold forth on Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky if ever given the chance. Well, the truth is, during my tenure, reading on the job at Borders was considered stealing from the company. And most folks wouldn’t know Tolstoy if he walked up and introduced himself. The job was mostly about getting product on the floor and getting customers to the product they wanted, and in some cases, didn't know they wanted. Along the way, there were titles we were told to push in order for the company to get some slack from the publishers, and within the past year a rewards program that we pushed that was a good value for the early subscribers, but not so for the last to sign up. People will say that the Kindle killed Borders. The truth is more complex than that - overexpansion during the height of the real estate market; five CEOs in five years, none of whom had bookstore experience; a corporate culture of waste. I could go on, but what's the point? Maybe someday, someone will write an e-book about what went wrong at Borders.




Shakespeare was here two weeks ago. Now it's fixtures awaiting pick-up. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

  I'll miss many things about my job. My colleagues, who put the "q" in quirky. Some are long-term friends, from a previous independent bookselling gig, and some will continue to be my buddies. We get each other's jokes, something that has to do with not wincing when a customer asks for "Withering Heights" or mispronounces Albert Camus. I'll miss, too, the privilege of being around so much reading material. While reading on the clock was frowned on, reading on your lunch break was considered a right and the greatest perk of the job. I'd grab the latest magazines and newest cookbooks to peruse on my lunch hour. My friends and I would huddle around the table in the dingy breakroom, feeding our reading habits and ourselves.




Childcare/Psychology/Self-Improvement. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

  I’ll miss a few of the customers and those precious bookselling moments where you sell a preteen her copy of “Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret,” or a new mom “The Velveteen Rabbit” or a newly pregnant woman “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

Bookstores are for ages and stages and now the experts tell us that the new age demands books via byte.

I don’t buy it. I think there will always be a market for tangible, dust-gathering books made of real, tangible, forest-clearing paper. Gutenberg had a good thing going and I think there will always be a market for brick and mortar bookstores. I just hope the grand poobahs of the remaining bookstores chains will find my suburban county and realize what a great location it is for a bookstore.

In 2006, a few years before he passed, John Updike addressed the BookExpo convention in Washington, D.C. His speech focused on Google’s plan to digitize books and how that would influence the writer; it ended with a call to arms for booksellers.

The full text of Updike's speech can be found here, but my favorite part is near the end: “Books traditionally have edges: some are rough-cut, some are smooth-cut, and a few, at least at my extravagant publishing house, are even top-stained. In the electronic anthill, where are the edges? The book revolution, which, from the Renaissance on, taught men and women to cherish and cultivate their individuality, threatens to end in a sparkling cloud of snippets.

"So, booksellers, defend your lonely forts. Keep your edges dry. Your edges are our edges. For some of us, books are intrinsic to our sense of personal identity.”

Now it seems the revolution has passed us by and there are fewer forts for us to defend.

And I’m not sure what hurts more – my feet or my heart.

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

This story was published first on Open Salon, where it was selected as an Editor's Pick and received many comments from book lovers and those who embrace the e-revolution. Check it out here.

7 Things to Bring to a Borders Liquidation Sale (and 5 Things to Leave at Home)

Borders Books by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Some history on Borders and me: I’ve worked as a part-time bookseller at Borders for close to three years. These weren't the glory years, to be sure, but as a passionate reader, being able to share my knowledge of books with customers has been a source of joy to me. There are a lot of reasons why Borders is closing, and all I have to say on the subject is that the Kindle alone didn't kill Borders; there were lots of railcars in that trainwreck. All the employees care about now is closing the store with dignity, knowing they did their best to keep the bookstore alive. 

After a month of Christmas-like crowds without the requisite goodwill, I decided to put together a primer on How to Shop the Borders Liquidation without Losing Your Mind.

A few items from the cafe sale: cups, shot glass, tamper. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Seven things to bring to the Borders liquidation sale:

1. Understanding the term “all sales are final.” This means that once you walk away from the cash register, there are no returns. If you get home and realize that you already have  the Nora Roberts/Lee Child/John Grisham title, just wrap it up and give it as a Christmas gift.

2. BYOB. Bring your own bags or boxes, especially if you’re buying big. We’re down to the medium-size bags which are great for small items, not so good for outsize bargain books and toys.

3. Bring proper form of payment. Cash, credit and debit cards are a yes. Checks are a no. The liquidation company will honor gift cards throughout the sale. Pro tip: while waiting in line to pay, locate gift cards and make sure they are for Borders and not another retailer. If paying with a credit or debit card, have i.d. in hand – cashiers are required to check i.d. on unsigned cards.

4. A calculator or the ability to compute percentages in your head. If you’re a parent, this is an optimal teaching moment. For newbies, now that we’re in the 40 to 60 percent range, ballpark at half price and count on slight displeasure or pleasant surprise. Bonus points for knowing local sales tax and guesstimating final tally with tax. Pro tip: The discount is applied to the list price. For non-bargain merchandise, that’s the price on the yellow sticker. For bargain merchandise, it’s the price listed on the red or blue label.

5. Lowered expectations for the merchandise. If you’re looking for “The Help” or the Jaycee Dugard story, you'll just have to look elsewhere. As far as locating books, keep in mind that the store is straightened every night, but within a few hours of opening, it is trashed again by bookstore gremlins. After four weeks of this, the books are no longer in alphabetical order, although most start out the day in proper section. This is old-school book retailing, without title look-up and the booksellers’ internal GPS. Pro tip: Touch the books as you look through them; there will be fewer opportunities in the future to do this before buying.

6. Respect for the employees. Remember that 11,000 Borders employees will lose their jobs when the sale is over. We have bills to pay just like everyone else and we do not relish the idea of looking for new jobs in this economy. The thing to know about booksellers is that, by and large, they are overeducated and underpaid. They chose to work in a business that they loved – sharing books, music and movies with others.

7. An empty bladder. Restrooms are closed, at least in our store. A curious quirk of Borders retail history is restroom horror stories. All I really need to say about this is: go before you leave the house.

Cafe cups and ornaments by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

And five things to leave at home:

1. Any list of books that you expect to hand to an employee with the expectation that the books can be located. As mentioned in #4, it’s old school book shopping now. Employees on the floor, including those at the registers, do not have access to title look-up. We can direct you to the section where the book would be shelved in the good ol’days. After that, you’re on your own.

2. Rewards cards. It’s no use digging for them. The basic Borders rewards program ended July 31 when the last Borders Bucks expired. The Borders Rewards Plus program officially ended a few weeks ago, but a version has been brought back for a few days this week. (Keep in mind that to use this offer, you must have either the printed-out coupon or the Borders Rewards Plus account number. And to the rude man who threw his Borders rewards card at me yesterday; I'm embarrassed for you and your family and sincerely hope that you have the opportunity to work a retail liquidation someday.

3. Classroom discount cards. This program ended when Borders was sold to its present owner. If you choose to be all grumbly about it, look at it this way: you are purchasing new books at half-price or better and pumping money into your local economy, which in turn helps local schools. You could purchase the same books new through Amazon at a higher price, or second-hand through online booksellers at a comparable price, but neither purchase would help your local economy.




Tamper and shot glass by Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


4. The kidoodles. I enjoy children, but as a parent, I would really encourage parents to shop without them. Or tag team so that one parent can shop while another watches the children. I write this as much for the children’s sake as the parents. I’ve seen stressed-out parents frustrated with their children who do not know how to look for books after they can not locate their favorite authors. If you do shop with your children, at we still have harmonicas, squeaky ducks and talking books.
5. Questions about the closing of the store and when the next mark-downs will come. First of all, I hear "store closing" as "no more paycheck," so it's hard to get excited about that 90 percent day. And it’s not as one customer suggested to me, a game that the cashiers are playing with the customers; that it’s a secret that we will only share with our closest friends. We truly don’t know anything beyond what is reported in the media; that the company expects to be completely liquidated by the end of September. To be honest, I get a little nervous just taking my lunch break. (That’s a joke, friends, and after being asked that question 376 times yesterday, I’m rather proud that I can still make a joke.)

Text and images copyright 2011, Lucy Mercer.

What about you? Is Borders in your community? Are you shopping the sales?