/lit/ - Literature

>>10759643
Is it near a café? Also why do you sell toys?

>>10759655
yeah we got one

idk about they toys probably catering to the same demographic that comes for the fantasy/sci fi/graphic novels (which are right next to each other for a reason)
like everything, it could also be corporate sucks

>online prices are somewhat competitive
>in-store prices are msrp
>store won't match their own online prices
>you can't order online and pick up in store

Literally only good for browsing

I bought that cloth bound copy of paradise lost from you and the price tag pulled off some of the cover design with it

>>10759691
i understand that that is frustrating and hurting sales but it's also one of the only times i can watch customers get pissed and not have to help
>>10759700
sorry senpai if u have the receipt and it hasnt been long we can probably get you a better copy

>>10759668
I used to work there as well and the toys always seemed like a waste. Do they still have everyone push the membership cards like crazy? That's what turned me off so much about working there.

>>10759691
Technically the online store is through a different service, it's just branded through B&N. Kinda like how the cafe is Starbucks brand but not actually a Starbucks. In my opinion it's a pretty terrible idea.

How is B&N still in business. I don't understand how their income can possibly justify their floorspace.

>>10759716
yeah we still push the membership cards. it's fucking irritating and people treat you like shit over it even though you dont have a choice

Went to a barnes and noble the other day, looking for V.
I saw it on the wall, an enlarged image of the cover, a giant testament to the magnificence and popularity of the text.
Upon reaching the P section, I was greeted with Inherent Vice, and two obviously used copies of Against The Day.

No V.
I proposed a query to the bookslave, but her vacant stare informed me that there was no hope to be had for my acquisition of such a tome.
I pointed her directly to the poster above her head, trying to communicate pictorially. She looked up, making light grunting sounds of confusion, her squinting eyes boiling in the florescent lighting. "Oh dear, they don't have the book they have on the wall. That's funny, would you like for me to order it for you, sir?"
I informed her that my time was valuable, and this predicament was not a laughing matter, and promptly left, pushing over a large section entirely devoted to Harry Potter and its memorabilia. Screams of my doomed generation were heard as titanic bodies were lost among the rubble, in the ensuing chaos, I stole several copies of Rupi Kaur's Honeybee, or whatever it was called, and tossed them in the dark green trash bin at the door.

would you like a cookie? would you like to add an espresso shot? how bout a venti for 70c more?

they treat their cafe employees like GameStop wage slaves

My area has no good local bookstore. The B&N is the last bastion of white America in my area, it's the only place I can go and hang out to escape the niggerized strip malls and decaying neighborhoods succumbing to drugs and unemployment.
The library has a good selection but it's basically a daycare center for the homeless. Always seems creepy, not a place I would ever take children.
For those reasons I visit often, usually I just browse but I buy a book once in a while just to be a good customer. For older books written in English I would probably buy the B&N Classics instead of whatever Amazon has.

Any NZbros work at Whitcoulls?

>>10759820
Do the Barnes and Nobles Classics hold up well? They go on sale pretty often, but I'm worried they might fall apart if I buy one

Did your Head Cashier get laid off as well?
t. former employee

>>10759833
I have a couple they seem fine

>>10759839
Literally everyone was laid off, I went in this morning to buy a coffee just as an act of charity. If Barnes and Nobles goes down, books are done in America

>>10759833
Not sure about long term, the oldest paperback I have is only about 3 years old and it's about as good as new. I'm not sure if they make the hardcover versions anymore, I have a few of those from ~15 years ago which have held up perfectly.

Last time I went it was to pick up a couple of literary journals, but there was a short autistic man reading "Prehistoric Times" (the quarterly dinosaur magazine) in front of the "Literary Interests" periodicals. I tried to ask him if he would move and he started screaming NO NO NO NO NO and making what I have to assume were deinonychus screeches. I was looking around desperately for a handler, but only saw everyone else in the cafe glaring at me as if I'd done it on purpose, so I backed off slowly and slunk out the doors.

I could still see him standing there screaming through the windows as I got into my car and drove off.

>>10759643
some guy wrote in the short story collections

have basically no problems with barnes and noble honestly.

>>10759643
Your prices are way too high but your store always smells nice. It'd be nice if you did used books the way electronics stores do used games (obviously there'd have to be some quality control to keep out all the outdated computer manuals and slightly stained copies of 50 shades, but it'd be worth it).

went for the prose and poetic edda because I was desperate and couldn't find them used

>40 motherfucking dollars for both
>don't even have the faulkes translation
>have to order from Jewmazon for the first time in years

>>10759643
>charges $20 for a single paperback
>doesn't pricematch their own website
Why does anyone even go here?

>>10759643
I just applied to one.

>>10759643

The Barnes and Noble classics are great affordable ways to get literature out in mass produced print format. The stores are always nice and I always have a comfy experience.

I really can't find much bad to say about B&N. I wish I could shop there more, really.

>>10759643
How does it feel to be working at a company in their death throes?

>>10759643
how much longer do you think the company has

So when are the closeout sales?

>>10760061
To buy $250 worth of Funko Pops. I'm not B&N anon, but if you haven't worked at a "luxury" retail store you'd be amazed and disgusted with how much people (mostly women, and mostly older women) will spend at once.

>>10759643
I like Barnes and Noble, but most of the time I can't bring myself to buy books there. I can get them so much cheaper online. I don't know how BN stays in business.

Also I get an email from them every weekend with a 20% off coupon. Do those actually bring in a lot of people? I've used it like twice when my gf was buying something.

>>10759839
Yup

>>10760136
Kek
>>10760097
Honestly im not planning on working there much longer so if anything happens idgaf

>>10760136
I'd actually love if they had a closeout sale, you could pick up some real good stuff from there on the cheap

>>10760271
No, you'd get 40% off at best and they'd send all the books off to be pulped somewhere to recoup corporate costs.

>>10759643
I live in Canada, so this is a complaint against Chapters/Indigo, but I feel like it's probably the same at B&N. Why is it so fucking hard to find a primary source in the history section? I don't care about the shitty takes on ancient historians, and I can't find a single copy of Thucydides or Plutarch.

Why would anyone buy a book from B&N? When you walk in, you know exactly what you're going to find there (unlike a used store, which has an element of discovery), at MSRP. At least indie bookstores tend to have some curation in their inventory.

>>10760136

Unironically, it's going down soon. They just slashed a huge chunk of their full employees, and I was reading up on it and insiders were saying these were the best employees and positions that required actual expertise above and beyond part-timers.

They're going to start bleeding the company to pay off the shareholder and then sell it for parts.

>>10759726
>tfw my local used bookstore has over twice the floorspace of B&N, and a far better selection to boot

>>10760549
I agree, I think my Barnes and Noble has Cesear’s Commentaries on the Gallic War, and that is fucking it. I am genuinely curious how people purchased those penguin editions of the Greek/Roman primary sources when they were new before the internet, because Barnes and Noble has the worst selection of genuinely good books I have ever seen in a bookstore.

bump

>>10759643
I think about B&N employees dying in awful ways all the time

>>10759726
partnering with colleges and selling textbooks

>>10760764
Powell's is an extreme outlier though

>>10759726
The elderly. Also aren't most of their stores in suburbia?

>>10761016
I was referring to McKay.

>>10761004
sorry to hear that but bear in mind 90% of the bullshit is corporate
>>10761023
this is very accurate

Used to go to B&N, recently switched to half price books, really good store. Wonderful selection and knowledgeable staff

>>10759787
This is the most badly written thing I've read that I can tell had effort put into it. Christ.

>>10759643
What benefits or discounts do you get as an employee?

>>10761258
30% off books and games
20% of music/dvd
50% off cafe

>>10759643
Why do guys hire so many dykes? There's like 4 butchy fat girls with hair like Jonathan Taylor Thomas at my location. One walks around in her leather jacket likes she owns the joint.

>>10759787
dont worry anon, i enjoyed it

>>10761029
>mckay
>400 copies of the Great Gatsby stacked on top of one another

I spend ridiculous amounts of money there during the half price criterion sale

>>10761404
Besides the overabundance of high school core /lit/, their classics, philosophy, and history selections are pretty good.

>>10761404
Lol, reading list books are a used bookstore's bread and butter. They can sell the same book at least 3-4 times as successive classes of high schoolers come to get their nickel and be rid of the hateful thing that tried to make them feel.

>like 4 solid feet of To Kill a Mockingbird
>Entire 2 shelves of Bullfinch's Mythology

>>10761031
i know its just the managers and corporate people i think about not the retards who are going to be unemployed in 2-3 years

>>10761407
>buying movies

>>10759787
breddy gud.
8/10 mistook it for pasta

>>10759842
>If Barnes and Nobles goes down, books are done in America
No, Amazon is causing this.
Selling books is and always will be profitable, but when another company can do so without paying rent on thousands of brick and mortar stores, it aggressively slashes your profit margins

>>10760812
>the worst selection of genuinely good books I have ever seen in a bookstore
When I walked in, they had a fucking line up of Fire & Fury.
They are now caving to pushing sensationalist, eye-catching shit in the same manner as CNN's headlines that will stay on for hours with no content ever leaving the anchorman's mouth.

>>10759643
can you get me a job there, i love in hosuston

>>10761407
Half price criterion is a kino sale

>>10759643
Jeez, that's like having terminal career cancer. How long till you're inevitably downsized?

>>10761029
McKays are comfy, but their pricing is all over the place and you really have to dig for decent deals. Many of their books are nearly the price of a new copy. Also sucks that comics and nerdy memorabilia have taken over half the store

The one nearest to me doesn't organize their shelves very well. Finding anything is really frustrating.

>>10762479
Sorry to hear that we usually are keep are shit prettt well organized outside of bargain and kids
>>10762292
I wasnt originally going to stay on after the holidays so its not a biggie tbqh

Theres a book thats listed as in-store on the website, but when I called the store they could not fins it. Is it lost forever or is there a chance they will find it in the future due to inventory and whatnot.

I go in every day to turn a copy of Guns Germs and Steel upside down and leave. am I unnoticed or do you guys not get paid enough to care

t. /his/

My father just bought me a Nook (B&N's e-reader) as a gift. Pretty nice desu. But how fucked am I?

>>10762776
Theres definitely a chance they will find it, its happened to me before. We can order it a lot of the time too

>>10759643
The business you work for is going under. You will soon have to find another job.

>>10762919
What do you mean? You can find any popular epub online with ease.

>>10761099
>The most badly written

>>10761099
Why you bein so rude, my man? I was just playing around. Was going to tell a conventional tale, but felt like going the pasta route. Don't take things so seriously.

>>10759833
I bought a couple for $5 each when visiting the US. Its hard to give the construction of them grief when they make them cheap to sell for cheap

>>10759643
Your security sucks, I've stolen like 400$ worth of books

>>10764273
>$400 of Eoin Colfer
Truly a crime most foul

>>10764281
Someone get the reference and laugh at this

>>10761407
this me

>>10765478
I got you, Artemis

>>10764273
how?
i can't afford books but i need to be smart

>>10765570
heh

>>10759787
7/10 pasta. Not original enough to warrant more than a slight chuckle, but good enough that I wouldn't be mad if I saw it spread around.

>>10759643
Fuck your nigger employer, Borders was better

>>10759833
The paperbacks hold up better than other new options at their price point, the faux leather hardbacks are utter shit. They fall apart too easily.

>>10759842
Barnes & Noble is in an odd spot. The size of the stores and the company means they have to compete with Amazon, which can undercut them in almost every way. But, they're a big chain, so they're considered evil by a lot of your typical bookbuyer, which has contributed to the post-recession revival of small independent bookstores. The only appeal they have is to people who just happen to be driving by, or as brick and mortar in towns where there is no local new bookstore.

>>10765959
>Borders
You mean the actually overpriced bookstore? I remember going to the closeout sale of the local Borders and their early closeout prices were finally in line with Barnes&Noble.

>Apply for B&N and get an interview
>Wind up getting 2 phone interviews, and two over the phone throughout a span of almost 2 fucking months
>After the 3rd interview in person they tell me that they found someone with better qualifications

>Fast forward to this thread and see anons posting about employee cuts, and predictions of Amazon killing it entirely

>>10759787
Terrible. Read pic related for inspo and try again.

>Apply for B&N and get an interview
>Wind up getting 2 phone interviews, and 3 interviews in person throughout a span of almost 2 fucking months
>After the 3rd interview in person they tell me that they found someone with better qualifications

>Fast forward to this thread and see anons posting about employee cuts, and predictions of Amazon killing it entirely

>>10764273
tbqh more power to you id rather you get it than shareholders as they slowly vampire our asses

>>10759643
>MFW it's easier to get a promotion at Gamestop than B&N