My favourite bookshop is Copperfields in Wimbledon -run by a lovely couple - I always having been on a small budget just about all my books have come from second hand shops(just as I prefer tv at home to cinemas)and being most out of touch here have just discovered internet sales fantastic -but I did recently go into a new bookstore and was served by a gorgeous bubble gummed teenager -a wonderful experience for an elderly gent
Cheers new years to tou all
Ps one bad thing about the internet isthat ou cannot shoplift
Pps what was that case where a guy stole 26,ooo precious books from libraries an academic of course -it wasn't the rodent wasit???:-)
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of andrew burke
Sent: 29 December 2008 07:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: powell's?
My favourite bookstore, Planet in Mount Lawley, Perth, has well-read,
intelligent staff who are happy to help. I would buy through them any day of
the week rather than through an online source, yet some books are just only
AVAILABLE through small press outfits. Nine times out of ten I buy from
Planet.
Cheers -
Andrew
2008/12/29 Millicent Accardi <[log in to unmask]>
> Yup
>
> I am very tired of employees at bookstores spending more time talking on
> cell phones than helping me.
>
> Not that I am all that great, but. . .I am a customer. . .
>
> Back the the deep ice 19-um 60's and so forth, not that I KNOW, lol. . but
> stores actually had full time workers who cared about products and were
> helpful.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Millicent
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Amanda Surkont <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 5:33 pm
> Subject: Re: powell's?
>
>
>
>
> The migration to online shopping didn't begin with just the literary
> world. I
> an remember when online shopping was reserved for just us computer geeks. I
> now
> ave 80 year old friends who shop online and I think it really doesn't have
> so
> uch to do with the convenience of online shopping as the total lack of
> customer
> ervice in any department store and that includes many bookstores, even the
> ndependent bookstores that have been in business for a long time.
> lthough this evolved over time, it really began in the 70's when stores
> decided
> hat it would be better for their bottom line to hire teenagers to run cash
> egisters and stock shelves etc. Customer service went out the window and
> that
> ncludes services like gift wrapping. Only the very upscale stores now offer
> eal customer service and even those stores hire way too many kids to do an
> dult job. It would be ok if they trained these kids but the total lack of
> raining is evident when we have teens=2
> 0who come to work in inappropriate
> lothing, spend half their work shiift chatting with their coworkers,
> popping
> heir bubblegum, and who act like the customer is intruding if they ask for
> ssistance. If there is no customer service, then shopping online is just as
> onvenient and we save time and gasoline. If stores want live bodies to
> shop in
> heir establishments then they need to look at their hiring practices, hire
> dults who can make change if the power
> goes out and think about what the customer who walks into their store needs
> and
> eserves. best, manda
> -- On Sun, 12/28/08, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> rom: Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
> ubject: powell's?
> o: [log in to unmask]
> ate: Sunday, December 28, 2008, 7:56 PM
> from the current NYT online
> Bookstores, both new and secondhand, are faltering as well. Olsson's, the
> eading independent chain in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down in
> eptember. Robin's, which says it is the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia,
> ill
> lose next month. The once-mighty Borders chain is on the rocks. Powell's,
> he
> uge store in Portland, Ore., said sales were so weak it was encouraging its
> taff to take unpaid sabbaticals.
> Don't blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects,
> ncluding increased competition for the reader's time or diminished
> attention
> spans. What's undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual
> eaders
> ut the changing habits of devoted readers.
> In other words, it's al
> l the fault of people like myself, who increasingly
> se
> he 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
> as been a factor in the book business for a decade, but about the rise of a
> orldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their homes or, if they're
> azy like me, in partnership with an Internet dealer who does all the work
> for
>
> hunk of the proceeds.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> his email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
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