Posted on 09/15/2004 5:04:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Considering that Barnes & Noble pays so poorly, what do you expect? I worked for Barnes & Noble When my husband and I moved to another state to start a new business with a friend. They paid minimum wage and I was cheated out of promised health insurance.
I read the Borders employee forum. I don't doubt some conservatives were behaving that way. I called up Border's and just asked when the book would be in, and the girl offered to put me on an order list (without me asking first).
I did see Unfit For Command displayed as the #1 book in a local WaldenBooks store. However, they had innocently stacked a row of books overtop of the bestselling books.
I am sure that was not done to mask the number one book's status. Nooooooo.
If a cashier ever gave me a hard time about any purchase, I'd ask to see the manager immediately, and demand that he/she apologize right there in front of the customers.
I ordered "Unfit" from B&N before it was published. I usually order online from them, thus avoiding silly clerks, etc. So far it's been hassle free.
They know me at our local Books A Million as they have a habit of hiding books by conservative authors and I expect a modicum of service from retailers. I've quit walking all over the store trying to decipher what section they will deem appropriate to hide, er, I mean, house these books. I simply walk up to the counter, ask them if they have a copy of this book or that, and then tell them I'll wait while they locate it for me. I started this after being sent to Biography, Business, and finally New Age to find Cavuto's "More than Money" and then accidentally knocked over their shoulder high display of "My Life" by X42. Oops, pardon me.
I don't know about Burlington, but each time I pass through Montpellier, Vt, I believe I am in a time warp with aging hippies all around...
Thanks; it must not be on the web yet.
FYI Borders has a marketing/sales agreement with amazon.com.
Go to Borders.com and look at the top!
I did make a stink about not finding the book at first. The gal said they had 10 copies and went back to look for them. She didn't even bother to look out front.
She seemed confused when she couldn't locate them. I mentioned that I had noticed conservative books often were hidden in wrong sections. She seemed nervous with me for talking about such a thing.
As a began to leave I found Unfit on the table with all the other titles.
The check out guy was the snooty one. I was just glad I had my book and ignored him and wished him a great day.
Harrrrumph!
Costco is a good place to buy books. I know that the owner is a liberal, but his market is primarily small business owners who tend to be conservative. He's successful because he provides what they want. Costco has the best prices on books that I've seen anywhere. While our local one didn't have Unfit as soon as I would have liked, they did get it soon.
You dog, you.
Ha Ha.
Thanks for the tip. I wonder if Sam's Club has it.
Bookstores are businesses like any other, and have to make a profit. I can't believe they hide books or hinder the consumer from purchasing product.
Having gone through this several times at the local B&N, I expected them not to have Hugh Hewitt's latest book "If it not close they can't cheat".
I searched thoroughly and it was not on the shelves.
Then asked a clerk for help.
She couldn't figure out why it wasn't out and I simply told her, "Its probably hidden, that always happens here with conservative books."
Oh, we don't do that.
I then proceeded to chronicle my experience there.
Oh, well let me look in the back.
She emerged, minutes later, with a copy, announcing that it was about to be placed the next day.
(not about to believe that, but I let it go.....almost)
Came back the next day to check and it was nowhere to be found.
But they could order it.
No thanks, this was on day 1 & 2 of its release, if you can't stock the books, I'll buy on-line from Amazon.
As to the comparison between the prominence as relates to display, lib vs conservative, it looks to me like lib books get ordered in greater quantities, occupy better locations, and still don't sell. The clerks seem to be a bit ON EDGE all the time, quite possibly they feel infested, as Liberty students and professors are a big part of their clientele, and I don't think they can afford to alienate them. The displaying of lib books more prominently I see as an attempt to indoctrinate, and it's not working.
I have purchased a LOT of conservative books there, The American Spectator, etc., and I have never gotten a comment one way or the other. I have seen lib books purchased which elicited an endorsement very silently from the clerks, on more than one occasion. It's really funny, my guess would be 90% of the employees are libs and 80% of the customers are conservatives, it's fun for me to go in there and watch libs find one more reason to hate capitalism.
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