A few nights ago, I was early for a dinner meeting with a colleague. I was at a strip mall that included a Borders Books. Robert and I had been talking about our next vacation, so it seemed worth picking up travel books for that destination.
So there I was, a specific type of book in mind, not much time, and a bookstore in front of me. I went in and saw one worker behind the counter, helping other customers. I searched for the travel section, which was in the far corner facing away from the door. Much like grocery stores forcing you to walk the furthest for the orange juice, this bookstore had arranged the one thing I wanted to be one of the hardest to find.
I looked over the travel books twice. They were arranged not alphabetically, but geographically. And they started with USA travel and immediately hopped to New York. The New England books were just not there. (So what are you supposed to do if you want a travel book for a particular area of the country but you're not too good on geography?) I think the European travel books were arranged similarly. I guess someone in headquarters thought they were being clever.
So I went searching for someone to help me. I went downstairs and finally heard some russling and found the second employee on duty. He brightly said "Oh, of course you couldn't find New England books -- they're under "All things local!" (another twist of cleverness from HQ). Of course, "All things local" was closer to the door, but again facing away and not terribly obvious from the end of the row. Why would you separate the same type of book with an entire store full of other books?
Back upstairs I went, where I finally located a few books of interest and was able to purchase them after employee #1 (who was actually quite pleasant and lovely) came back to the register.
Interestingly, when I posted a briefer synopsis of this story on Facebook and commented that it's this sort of experience that makes me appreciate Amazon even more, several friends chimed in to contradict my report. They feel that physical bookstores are better for browsing (I would disagree, but maybe I've just figured out how to browse online and in this case, I knew what I wanted and couldn't find it) and that there are better bookstores out there (true, but I wasn't *at* a better bookstore. I was at a specific Borders.)
In all of this, I completely do not blame the people who were working there, trying to do their jobs despite cutbacks and weird organizational principles from HQ. Well, maybe employee #2 was hiding; it sure seemed like that, but maybe he was actually working.
D'oh! Just when I think I've done a service to physical bookstores by actually shopping in one, I am reminded of why I don't shop in them more often.
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2 comments:
I hardly ever go into Borders. But then, I'd rather have my money go to a local retailer whenever I can... the people at the Concord Bookshop are always friendly and generally not hard to find.
68 cents of dollars spent at local retails get spent again locally, according to Concord Indies (the independent business association).
Jonathan -- thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, I was not at Concord Bookstore when I realized I had a gap of time -- I was right in front of Borders. I realize that Concord Bookstore is nice, but it's not always convenient -- kudos to them, though, for staying in business!!
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