/lit/ - Literature

How's it like being payed peanuts?

Do you guys just let people like me shoplift or am i just that good?

Do you get a dental plan?

I sat on my nook and broke the screen, since the warranty does not cover that, I assume I can buy another and get the full warranty and the take the broken one back in the new ones box. Do you guys take off the backs of those and check the serial numbers?

>>1101372
I make a bit over minimum wage at least, but I enjoy my time at work.

>>1101373
Theft isn't as well prevented as we'd like, but know that there is most likely a picture of you in a 50 mile radius in ever B and N break room. You'll get caught eventually, don't worry.

>>1101375
You get a dental plan after 6 months as full time and a year as part time I believe.

>>1101378
I don't handle things in that department and neither does a specific store, corporate does. I doubt they go through such a hassle to check the serial number, but if they do, you can be sure they won't give you the refund. It would be better to either have it repaired if you can afford a new one....

>>1101383
Fellow bookseller here. I make $9.75 after working there for six years. I just got a clerk position in a tiny library for $15 an hour with time and a half on Sundays. Where's the justice, man.

Answer >>1101378 please.

Do you get an employee discount?

let me ask you this: can you give me a decent argument for why I should not shoplift books?

>>1101393
I see you've already answered it. Carry on then.

>>1101378
don't those things have the serial number printed on the box?

>>1101390
You must have gotten some great employee reviews, bookseller friend. I have only be there 2 years and am under $9.00 still.

>>1101398
Aw that sucks, dude. Our DM is a bitch, but our store managers are alright. I've been there longer than all of them actually, so I guess I have a kind of seniority there even though I have no titled position.

>>1101393
50% off in cafe. 30% off most items in the store. We get a secret refurbished Nook price at the moment as well.

>>1101395
Jail time? I've read so many posters in our break room about the long sentences people who shop lift books get and is it honestly worth it for some text you could find on the internet? Go steal a car or something if you want a thrill, but robbing a B&N is really just lame and juvenile.

IS U A SUSAGE POOP LOLWAT???????

>>1101407
Don't give away the secret of our refurbished nooks! It's corporates magic over us, or something!

>>1101405
Mind me asking which state you work in?

>>1101407
I have honestly been doing it for years from the same location without any consequence. I was wondering if you had a more philisophical reason for why, but your answer suffices to an extent. To be honest, getting books online is unacceptable, because I don't like reading from a screen and printing it out would be impractical.

>>1101414
New York, Neeeeew Yoooork!

Rockland County, just north of NYC. The big wigs come in on occasion and we all have to have our shirts tucked in, and the managers break the glass on the Emergency Necktie box.

>>1101409
I am not. I am more an intelligent, enjoyer of fiction, mostly fantasy.

>>1101407
>is it honestly worth it for some text you could find on the internet

and if only there were some place where you could legitimately obtain books for free, if at least temporary ... if there were such a place, then shoplifting books would just be stupid to the extreme

>>1101423
I honestly can't understand robbing a bookstore except for the thrill. If you actually enjoy reading, why would you make things harder on stores that provide you with a venue for your interest? If you are robbing them for money, I'm sure there are easier ways. Personally, I could never steal a book.

>>1101424
I hear you guys get fancy uniforms. Sadly, I'm in the south, I've heard great things about NYC B&N's though.

>>1101442
My fancy uniform is the same black button down with white stripes, and the same black pants, and the same maroon undershirt every other day. Man, go to the Paramus store. It's like fuckin' Mecca for booksellers. Two floors, and half of it is used books. I haven't actually been to any, but I know the stores in Manhattan are like three times as big. When you call them, they direct you to a different FLOOR based on what book the customer is looking for.

I used to work at Chapters, yarr!

>>1101457
That sounds awesome and I will certainly make a point to stop at B&N central if I ever travel to the NY area.

>>1101459
You're sorely missed. I get a lot of Canadians in my store, oddly enough.

How do you feel about the fact that big corporations like B&N are running independent bookstores out of business?

>>1101473
What do you mean by independent bookstores? If you mean mom and pop shops that sell books, it is very likely they deal secondhand books and books that B&N has trouble getting. If you mean something else by independent, please explain.

>>1101488
I do mean "mom & pop*. They don't all sell used books. You corporate faggots ome into their turf and fuck up their shit. AT THE LOCAL BOOKSTORES TEHRE ARE SERVICE

fuking barnes and noble.

>>1101491
In the same way all corporate machines take over mom and pop shops in every economic area where people demand a certain product, Barnes and Noble is no different. This isn't an excuse for ruining peoples livelihood, of course.
Also, I give excellent customer service and feel great after I have someone with a problem they have in my store. I like to think most of the other employee's feel the same way, so service isn't really an issue.

Could you name a store that sells many brand new books and releases daily that isn't a chain? If not, it's a secondhand store primarily.

>>1101491
>>1101473

Chaptersfag here. Two considerations...

1) If the mom & pop offers exactly what the big box offers.. and the big box does it better than the mom & pop... why, exactly, does the mom & pop deserve to exist?

2) Within ten years or so, ebooks and the kindle will destroy both mom & pops and big boxes.

Why the fuck don't you cunts carry Knut Hamsun's 'Pan' in-store? I've been to like... three different Barnes locations, and you fucks only have Growth of the Soil and Hunger.

>>1101503
Actually no.

I prefer physical copies of my books. I can't stand digital e-books. Same goes for music, movies and games.

Why are those DVDs so expensive.

On, other BN guy. Off topic, but how much do you fucking hate BookMaster 9.0? They fucked up our shit by making it look like a contact solution commercial instead of a book finding resource.

is u a sausage poop lolwat??????

>>1101504
It is possible this title is a very low demand title. Also, I see it's a penguin classic and I know they only order certain ones for an a nice display (in my store at least).

there's the open book in my hometown greenville, sc. their business is primarily in new books, although they may have a small used section. haven't been back there for a while, not sure whether or not it's still there.

Barnes & Noble stock down over 23%/ Might sell out to another company.

While Barnes & Noble may have hurt a lot of local sellers - eventually online seller Amazon will put corporate stores like Barnes&Noble out of business

Then its back to your local bookstore

>>1101513
Haha that blue and white, I couldn't find the Timekeeping button for 10 minutes.

>>1101514
A bookstore can't really compete in DVD prices of Walmart and Best Buy, so the sale price is higher.

>>1101515
Nor can I, however I think eventually, text copies will be the niche with e books being the mainstream.

>>1101514
>>1101514
>>1101514
The answer to this question has a shitty answer:

I used to work in Best Buy for like a month before I got the BN job. BB makes their money by jacking up the prices on peripherals. My discount there was wholesale +5%, so I would end up paying less than $1 for a fucking $35 cable. They can slash the prices on the DVDs and shit to get you in the store, then you end up buying other things that they make thousands of % back on.

Barnes and Noble Music/DVD departments only sell that media, so we can't cut the prices like BB, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. We sell things at list price. The other stores do not, because they don't need to to still make profit.

I've explained this to customers who ask when I'm covering shifts in there, and they all think it's bullshit too. We have to rely on brand loyalty and customer service to have people shop in BN instead of those other chains.

>>1101520
Actually, B and N is having an inner conflict with a stock holder at the moment who is convinced he can overthrow who controls the majority of B&N stock (i.e. he's trying to take over the store), so the stock is falling right now. This is basically a ploy to increase the stock after he fails to sue B&N.

>>1101502
so you're essentially contending that no vendors of new books exist apart from BN and Borders? and based on that assumption that they don't exist, none ever existed?

okay genius, where the fuck do you think people bought new books before BN and Borders existed?

>>1101527
I see, that's a more informed explanation than mine and makes sense. Basically, BN is a bookstore, not a DVD store.

>>1101530
Church.

>>1101530
Those would be mom and pop stores, which are now out of business, it would seem.

Your logic is that Book A existed somewhere before big chains, well yes obviously it did, at smaller stores. Then bigger stores came and got Book A and maybe even Book B that the small chain didn't get as fast or as cheap and eventually drove them out of business...

My argument was that today there are few or no stores that aren't chains that deal books like Borders and B&N do.

Name the last 3 books you've read.

>>1101544
If I Did It (O.J. Simpson)
Kushiel's Dart (Jacqueline Carey)
Edge of Shadows (Brent Weeks)

(I also read some Young Adult fiction so I can better help people looking in that area, to that extent the most recent I've read is the Ranger Apprentice series)

Do you have any interaction with the attack bears

Is cross-dressing always mandatory at all locations?

Do you ever have people come in and mess around with the political books? Like they try to hide the books from the party they're opposed to?

>>1101553
That was me.

>>1101554
I'm sorry, what?

>>1101553
>Jacqueline Carey

Oh no, someone's stopping me from attaining my goal! Oh, but I can just let him tie me up and beat me and cum on my face.

>>1101558
Oh, related question:

Do you get any complaints about religious or non-religious books? Like a Muslim lady who is "offended" by an anti-Islam book?

>>1101558
The only code for dress is that it's work appropriate. If you feel appropriate cross dressing, as long as you meet company standards, it's totally voluntary.

>>1101555
Yes, and oh so often too. I live in the middle of a conservative, SUV driving, soccer mom town. They get very upset when they see books about Obama and much to my dismay, the Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin books sell out the day the are released.

Tell us about funny/horrible/ignorant customers.

>>1101559
The attack bears that help along with lasers to catch the people who hide in the bathroom

I work at Books-A-Million. I make minimum wage. I've been here for almost three years. Shit sucks.

strange questions but...

do Borders employees and Barnes Noble employees dislike each other or show corporate loyalty?

When is A Dance with Dragons coming out?

>>1101576
When is a Susage Poop Lolwat coming out????

>>1101567
Sometimes. The best one I think I had was a man who wanted a book on non-denominational baptism. I tried to explain that that didn't make any sense, but he looked through religion for an hour anyway. And hey that's one for you >>1101570

>>1101568
I don't interact with them much, but if someone is shoplifting usually we act very calm until the moment it's time for the guy to go down, and then it's very funny to watch him get 'attack bear'd'.

>>1101570
The most hilarious thing I find, is the teens that come into the Sexuality section then decide that he most appropriate place to read said books is Kids...

>>1101575
BN person here. I've killed 8 Border employees so far. My goal is a baker's dozen. I carve the little B's into the side of my car.

>>1101584

>thisiswhatyouactuallybelieve.jpg

>>1101584

Sorry I didn't mean to quote you... that comment was for a different thread.

are there people who are obviously reading entire books? like, they come in on consecutive days and go directly to what they're looking to "browse"?

do you guys try to discourage or thwart this?

also, if i want to read entire books at BN, then how would you recommend going about that? i would assume that i would want to get there early in order to grab one of the better chairs.

>>1101572
Sorry to hear man. Also, our coffee is wayyyy better :/

>>1101575
I have a slight bias towards Barnes and Noble and may poke fun at Borders employees, but there is no huge rivalry. Barnes and Noble is pretty much unrivaled as a bookseller :)

>>1101584
If you post a picture of your car, I will retract my previous statement.

>>1101582

Did anybody see /b/ this morning? There was a similar bit of doggerel, something about cheese and blowjobs. But I forget what exactly.

>>1101590
Bobby Fischer was a insane man.

>>1101593
Some stores have few very comfortable chairs, I would suggest hovering til you get one or arrive when we open. I see people 'browsing whole books a lot. We don't discourage reading whole books there, if you want to spend the time, that's fine with us. I can tell you I've never heard a single thing about it being a problem. B&N figures you will come in, read some, then smell the cinnamon scones baking in the Cafe.... etc etc.

>>1101570
Take another. A woman came in and asked me to show her the non-fiction section. I said that we have several non-fictions sections and asked if she had a specific book. She told me an autobiography and after I showed her the small Biography section, she exclaimed loudly to her husband 'Well this looks like the NON FICTION section to me!".

My thought process was basically:
>Implying Biographies are the only non-fiction

Do the weaboos who sit in the anime aisle, reading their weaboo books and, blocking anyone from getting through piss you off? Do you do anything to get rid of them?

we were talking earlier about stealing ... one thing i always found funny about it is that i would never steal a book for fear, obviously, of being caught. however, i will sometimes sit in the cafe area and read from something that i own. then when i'm about to leave, i'm like, oh shit -- wtf am i gonna do? when i slip this into my bag, how will they know i'm not stealing?

of course, i wind up slipping it into my bag, no one ever raises an eyebrow.

but i just KNOW that the ONE time i ever try slipping a book i haven't bought into my backpack, pretending like it's mine, i'll be caught.

stupid conscience.

>>1101623
Our manga is set up near the bathrooms (to discourage I assume), so only 3-4 are there at any given time. Manga is also right on the other wall from music, so it doesn't kill flow in our store. Recently a creepy man with a hunting hat has been coming by and reading some romance manga though and I'm worried...

Also, we have this hilarious pie graph in the Break Room that breaks down customer questions, with 65% of it being 'Manga'. (25% is 'I'm looking for this book with a green cover? No maybe it was blue, and the author is Asian or something')

Why are you gay? Is that a prerequisite if you want to work there?

>>1101631
You're a good man. Also, I was always worried as an employee they would ask me if I owned that book I was taking home, but they never do. They trust employees a LOT at B&N and because we get advanced copies of a lot of books for free (One of my managers got an advanced copy of Hunger Games for instance) we are always leaving with books.

There is a good chance if a non-Cafe employee sees you leaving with a book you slipped into your bag, they will ask for a receipt, and if you can't produce one, they have ways of showing if it's yours or ours.

>>1101648

What are these ways? Is it simple as the bar code?

>>1101641
It's not a prerequisite and we actually have 0 admittedly gay people that work at mine. I believe we were trying to hire one specifically for diversity, but no, homosexuality is neither encouraged nor discouraged. Possibly related, my girlfriend works at the same B&N as I do, so employee relationships are also accepted. (Not manager-employee though...)

>>1101658
They will check how many we have in stock basically. If it's not a brand new title, we will have a small amount close to one digit, and they will confirm if those books are still in the store.

They will usually ask if you have a receipt, so be sure to explain fast that it is YOUR book (If it actually is). Otherwise, they will escort you away while the police are called....

And yeah, we can scan the bad code to see if it's in our system as 'not purchased' (not exactly, but this is how it works). Just don't steal and be honest about books you bring in.

>>1101672

Does each individual book have it's own unique bar code?

>>1101676
Each title has it's own unique one.

i like books

>>1101672
i suppose we might glean a protip from this: if reading a book you recently bought that may well be sold at BN, AND there is a chance that you'll take it to BN and read it at the cafe, then use the receipt as a bookmark.

Well this was fun and I hope you all learned something. I am currently in the middle of a Turnaround shift (Closing then opening) so I must sleep before more work tomorrow morning. Good night /lit/, keep it real.

>>1101688
this was an interesting thread. thanks for answering my questions.

>>1101558
I was shopping at a B&N that had 'God is not Great' on clearance. The clearance sticker was over the 'not' part of the title. Same thing when I was shopping in a Waldenbooks later that week.

I buy all my books on Amazon, I wonder if this makes B & N people feel irrelevant. On second thought, I don't give a shit. Also, to the guy who went to three stores to find a book, gauranteed you can find it on amazon, overstock, or another online retailer. So your either a masochist or an idiot. I even got a free year of Amazon prime for being a student. 2 day shipping for free :D.