The migration to online shopping didn't begin with just the literary world. I can remember when online shopping was reserved for just us computer geeks. I now have 80 year old friends who shop online and I think it really doesn't have so much to do with the convenience of online shopping as the total lack of customer service in any department store and that includes many bookstores, even the independent bookstores that have been in business for a long time.
Although this evolved over time, it really began in the 70's when stores decided that it would be better for their bottom line to hire teenagers to run cash registers and stock shelves etc. Customer service went out the window and that includes services like gift wrapping. Only the very upscale stores now offer real customer service and even those stores hire way too many kids to do an adult job. It would be ok if they trained these kids but the total lack of training is evident when we have teens who come to work in inappropriate clothing, spend half their work shiift chatting with their coworkers, popping their bubblegum, and who act like the customer is intruding if they ask for assistance. If there is no customer service, then shopping online is just as convenient and we save time and gasoline. If stores want live bodies to shop in their establishments then they need to look at their hiring practices, hire adults who can make change if the power
goes out and think about what the customer who walks into their store needs and deserves. best, manda
--- On Sun, 12/28/08, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: powell's?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Sunday, December 28, 2008, 7:56 PM
from the current NYT online
Bookstores, both new and secondhand, are faltering as well. OlssonĒs, the
leading independent chain in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down in
September. RobinĒs, which says it is the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia,
will
close next month. The once-mighty Borders chain is on the rocks. PowellĒs,
the
huge store in Portland, Ore., said sales were so weak it was encouraging its
staff to take unpaid sabbaticals.
DonĒt blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects,
including increased competition for the readerĒs time or diminished attention
spans. WhatĒs undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual
readers
but the changing habits of devoted readers.
In other words, itĒs all the fault of people like myself, who increasingly
use
the Internet both to buy books and later, after their value to us is gone, sell
them. This is not about Amazon peddling new books at discounted prices, which
has been a factor in the book business for a decade, but about the rise of a
worldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their homes or, if theyĒre
lazy like me, in partnership with an Internet dealer who does all the work for
a
chunk of the proceeds.
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