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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. Olssonʼs, the eading independent chain in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down in eptember. Robinʼs, which says it is the oldest bookstore in Philadelphia, ill lose next month. The once-mighty Borders chain is on the rocks. Powellʼs, he uge store in Portland, Ore., said sales were so weak it was encouraging its taff to take unpaid sabbaticals. Donʼt blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual suspects, ncluding increased competition for the readerʼs time or diminished attention spans. Whatʼs undermining the book industry is not the absence of casual eaders ut the changing habits of devoted readers. In other words, itʼs 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 theyʼre 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