Freaks + Economics

Even though I worked at a Borders and therefore know that all those "sales" and "deals" are just scams it does not mean I'm smart enough to not fall for it. As a result I walked away with Freakanomics by Levitt and Dubner, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson as well as Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I went in there with a 40% coupon looking only to get Neverwhere, make you own judgments.

In my defense I have always wanted to read Freakonomics, but because they decided to reissue it 2340239 times in hardcover form I had decided to pass on it for the past 37 years.

Quick side note on why I prefer paperbacks to hardcover books.

1. Paperbacks are cheaper
2. Paperbacks have art work directly on the cover where as hardcovers tend to be bland and indistinguishable from one to the next.
3. Dust jackets, the bane of my existence.

I may have bent your ear about my hatred for dust jackets before, and if I have feel free to stop me. Dust covers suit one purpose, to look stupid. Why would one cover a perfectly good solid book cover of cardboard and cloth with a flimsy easily rippable piece of paper and think that its going to do anything but fall apart? Let me let you in on a little secret: Hardcovers are a scam and serve very little purpose besides being a collectors item.

And now back to our regularly schedule program

What appealed to me about this book, aside from the fact that I always liked the blog that was based on this book, was that it seemed to a easy way to explain economics to a kid who got a C- in Economics. That and it's full of random facts and as you all know I love random facts, much to the detriment of social situations.

Because this book is just a bunch of random facts and tidbits I am going to give you my observations and points in the same fashion.

- This book brought about an argument between my mother and myself that involved African American women from the South Side of Chicago, crack, and me calling my mother stupid (though I continue to believe the phrase "you do not know what you are talking about" is not an insult as much as a statement of fact).

- My favorite part of the book was when they debunked the theory of broken windows used to fight crime in NYC during the 90's. If you are one of the hundreds of people who have had to listen to me talk about how great broken windows is, I'm sorry and no you can not have that 20 minutes of your life back. No you can not speak to a manager.

- Rudy Giuliani is a fraud.

- I need to start following Sumo, Japans national past-time. Apparently the game of fat men is so important to Japan players cheat, sort of like Baseball in America. For those of you keeping score at home I now need to get into Sumo and Soccer.

- Conventional wisdom is usually wrong.

Overall a very enjoyable read, I had a hard time putting it down. I would recommend it to anyone who like myself has a hard time visualizing economic theory and the day to day effects of social factors on the economy. And no I have no idea what I just said. It was a good book, read it if you get the chance.

The cover of this book has potential and I'm sure when they first made the cover, with just the Orange/Apple on the front it looked great. Then they added the title and the authors, normal enough. Then they added the subtitle, a quote, the lines "New York Times Bestseller" "Finally in Paperback" and "With New Material" and the cover starts to look like every other book in the business section. With all that said I like that they kept with the colors of the Orange/Apple in regards to everything on the cover.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note to any of you readers who actually borrow books from me. You can't anymore. I'm done sharing with you paper folding bastards. Of course I don't mean that, part of the reason I buy all my books, besides from my capitalistic obsession to own everything I touch, is so I can give the books to other people to enjoy. So to make that easier and to give me a reason to play "Librarian" every once in a while I have started cataloguing all my books.

So Long and Thanks for All the Books

I worked at Borders for 10 months and all I got was this stupid name tag.

As you may or may not know two weeks ago I decided to resign my position as junior used car salesman at Borders Inc. because of something I like to call "Corporate Differences". Well today was my last day, an uneventful one that resulted in me getting a free drink in the cafe. No not because I donated a bag of beans to the USO but because I somehow have aquired 5 Borders Bucks. Here is my thoughts on my departure.

Things I Will Not Miss:

• "Do you have a Borders Rewards card? Would you like one, it just takes 30 seconds, an email address and it's completely free?"
• The Kid's Section
• Listening to Genilee talk about her cats, her 42348923 nieces and nephews, how she does not want to pass her genetics on, how she can't touch candy because she will pass out, how she is being promoted to a fictional position of "head cashier", why she only drinks Diet Mountain Dew, her response to customers asking how she is which is "awake", her babel about how much product she suckers customers into buying.
• Master Wok
  
• Heather and that condescending sneer that she gives whenever I ask her a question.
• The T-Mobile sellers
• Finding playboys in the Manga section
• Pep talks on how to get my Borders Rewards numbers up. You know how I got that 70% Borders? I punched in random phone numbers and made fake accounts. And you didn't catch me!
• Joel Olsteen's stupid face
  
• The Asian guy who always put things on reserve so he could go get money from the ATM but then never came back.
• People who read Twilight. Or as Borders calls them "Twihards".
• Recovering the sex section and having people tell me that "You can really find good books in this section"
• The Big Penis Book
• Telling people they should donate a bag of bean's to the troops so they can drink something good for once. Yes because what we need is shitty Border's coffee running through our soldier's veins as they dodge bullets and get rocket proppelled grenades shot at them. At least they are drinking good coffee.
  
• Being told that I'm an idiot by customer's who, though they can't read the sign that says "enter line here", are smarter than me.
  
• Joel Olsteen's Wife's even stupider face.
• Having to place Toni Morrison's books next to books like this.
• Operating registers from the 1980's
• U2
• Motown Hits
• Frank Sinatra
• Bruce Springsteen
  
• My Chemical Romance
• Paul McCartney and the Fireman
• New Bob Dylan
• Robert Plant & Allison Kraus
• Having to explain that why Borders does not have a Biography section.
• Seeing The Shack as the number one best seller.
• Tucker Max
• Telling people to just go buy it on Amazon.
• Explaining why it says "Likely in Store" and not "In Stock" and then providing an example of why it says just that.
  

Things I Will Miss:

• My discount.

Now the Underling needs to go find a job.......

"Recomendations" + Poor Children + The Homeless + Soldiers = 2 Weeks

I have been meaning to post this for about a week and a half now but for one reason or another I have not, sorry.

So I quit my job. Borders to be specific. I know, no more discount on books, how could I? Here's how:

Since I started working at Borders the company has been shifting it's Customer Service in store staff towards being salesmen, are new name was "bookseller". With the downturn of the economy and the retention of bankruptcy lawyers on the part of Borders they really started to tightening the screws on the entire staff to start "urging" customers to buy a specific product.

Before I went to Egypt I could handle the little bits of pressure the managers put on me and I would just shrug it off and move on with my day. Upon my return things were a little different.

What confronted me was a sign that said if any employee failed to great and "recommend" a product to every customer within 10 feet of them they would be terminated. On top of that we would each be graded for every CSI (those surveys the ask you to fill out over the phone at the register) that is issued during our shift. As well as we would be graded by a manager and asked to sign off on said grade each shift. Not to mention there are four specific products that we are supposed to be "intimate" with so we can better "recommended" them to customers (last week they were a stuffed bunny, a medical narrative about a woman with cancer, some random harcover novel about a Chinese love story, and the new Jodi Piccoult book. If I had my way I would reccomend they don't buy those things).

Throw on top of that our "charities" that we run at the register which include a stuffed bunny you can buy for $6 that we take all the profits from and then donate to the Salvation army, or the book drive that requires you to by a specific book from us that we again take the profit from and then donate at your behest, OR (my favorite) you can buy a bag of coffee beans from us for $10 and donate it to the troops oversees for which we get all the profit and you can have a free drink from our cafe.

Because you know if there is one thing our servicemen and women need in Iraq and Afghanistan it's to be hooked on bad coffee. Here's a real charity, how about we start taking money that goes to buying them more body armor or maybe to help disabled veterans recover from injuries such as missing extremities or PTSD. Preying on peoples emotions with poor children, the homeless and soldiers just to make a buck. Fuck You Borders for making me feel guilty every time I process a transaction. Shame on you.

And all this in a time of economic recession.

For those reasons I gave my two weeks notice on Saturday March 21st, and for that reason all my co-workers (some managers included) gave me congratulations. Just a little something Borders, when your employees congratulate each other about being able to quit the company it means you are doing something wrong.

What I Am Reading: The Pearl

This book has since been learned, go here for thoughts on it.

I have never really enjoyed Steinbeck's writing, I say that having not read anything by him since High School. So in the name of retrying things I bought The Pearl, ta novella. I figure that if I am to try to read Steinbeck again a 89 page novella of critical acclaim is not a bad place to start.

I am still reading The Corrections, but because of it's rather large length and then the relatively short length of The Pearl I thought I should submit this post early because of the small period of time (an hour or so) it will take me to read this book.

As for the cover, being that I purchased a copy that is only printed in England, for more money than it is worth (in Egypt), when at Borders there are about 3 other copies of this book in stock (where I have a discount mind you) I believe that should tell you something about my opinion towards the cover. The spine and back cover, which can not be seen continue the theme of the front cover with Steinbeck's name being written in two different fonts on the spine as well.

I think in the future I am going to take my own pictures of the cover, spine and back covers and upload them, partially for quality as well as it is nearly impossible to find anything but the front cover online. We'll see how that goes in the future.

I hope to finish this (and The Corrections) before I fly back to Boston so I can leave it for Katy because she has never read any Steinbeck before.

What I Am Reading: The Corrections

This beast of a book has since been finished, for the review (if one could call my blathering a review) can be found here.

Well I'm reading The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen because Katy's friend Doug said that Katy had to read this before she went to Egypt. She did, but then the trip got postponed, and Katy thinks I should read it. So I am. On the plane to Egypt. 566 pages in 16 hours of travel time. I think it's doable (and then I will probably read either Ham on Rye or Homage to Catalonia for the remainder of the flight). So expect a What I Just Read as soon as I land


On to the cover!

First off, Burnt Orange is an under appreciated color when it comes to cover text (nice pairing with white and black btw), publishers take note. Second the fact that the title slants upward even though the authors name (which is two times the size of the title mind you!) does not is great, only proved greater because the "A Novel" text which is over the picture is also slanted. The sliced in half picture of Thanksgiving is very cool, mostly because it draws you to the quizzical look of the boy in the corner of the picture (who is well placed on the spine with the the same same slanted title).

Final Verdict: Though the cover would call for a face out by yours truly at Borders the equal beauty of the spine will leave it untouched for the time being.

A Good Addiction to Have

And this is why I work at a bookstore.

The Grumbling Effects of Hurricane Underling

Because of dinner at the Top of the Hub Restaurant (thanks to a $250 gift card from Katy's boss) and a trip to the Symphony (which we left early because we were falling asleep) we got to dress up yesterday and decided to test out Katy's photo equipment one last time (which resulted in that finger pointing outwards from your screen) before we head to Egypt (yes I'm going to Egypt next week). As a result of this and work (Borders and Broomball the past two days) our apartment looks like this:


(Warning: For all of you who have visited this apartment and remarked on how clean it looks, this may come as a bit of a shock to you. All those with heart conditions, avert your eyes)



And because we are going to see M. Ward tonight (at the Somerville Theater), and I have work Thursday and Friday one should not expect this to start looking cleaner any time soon. So if you thought about breaking in and stealing something I suggest you turn on the lights first.

Manliness takes a critical hit!

The things I do for my employee discount.....

What I Am Reading: All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

When I get down to just John Lennon you know it’s time for me to start another book. Next up is Tod Wodicka’s book (get ready) All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well. The name isn't long enough right? That combined with the cover and the Harvard Bookstore recommendation is the only reasons why this is getting read.

Quick Ponder: Is it wrong of me to go to the Harvard Bookstore, read the recommendations, take them seriously and then go buy the book at Borders because I have an employee discount? I just feel like I am stealing.

Anyway this book looks, writing wise, to be interesting (i mean the word “mead” is used in the first sentence of the description). But the best part is the actual cover, which looks like it's straight out of a Monty Python and the Holy Grail interlude, equipped with a long rambling text that makes no sense. Because I can not find a picture of the copy I have any where on the Internets I have attached a picture of me holding the book at the Harvard Bookstore. Yes that is my famous red jacket.

What I Am Reading: Women

I have since finished this book, for the review navigate here.

Next up on the never ending trail of books is Women by Charles Bukowski. When I was purchasing Post Office a couple weeks ago my coworker Steve voiced that Women was his favorite book by Bukowski, I vowed to make it my next Bukowski book. Well as it would happen someone else decided they wanted to read Women as well, so I had to wait a week to purchase it. Now I have it, and I'm reading it, even though I have a boring book to read as well.

As I have stated before Bukowski is the dirtiest of the dirtiest old men and he gets his dirtiest when it come to talking about females, so I can only imagine how dirty this book is going to be. Stay tuned for the review.

Oh I also have purchased Factotum (another Steve favorite) and Ham on Rye which Worth commented on when I was purchasing it. So it appears as if Bukowski may be going the way of Vonnegut, that meaning I will probably end up purchasing and reading ever piece of his published works when it is all said and done.

What I Just Read: The White Tiger

This book is, as my manager at Borders put it today, "sneaky good". You do not realize how well written and entertaining until you are 100+ pages in and your realize you are over 100 pages in and you hadn't realized it. For myself a quality of a good book is if I am not constantly looking at the page numbers counting down until I am done. Most books I read I read for what I want to call a "Conquest". I read them because I feel as if I need to read them, be it because I bought them with the intent of reading them for pleasure and now I just have to read the book because I own it or because I want to know whats in them (i.e. John Lennon) or because it appears to be a book everyone should read (any Shakespeare). The White Tiger may have started that way but it finished as an overall enjoyable book.

In more detail, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga was the perfect book to follow my reading of The Post-American World. It was a narrative on what India is like for the lower castes of society and how regardless of Globalization and the "Rise of the Rest" it takes a serious and dedicated individual to advance themselves in society. The White Tiger touches on everything in Indian society, from poverty to pollution to forced prostitution to government corruption to outsourcing to the emergence of a modern India. All of this through the lens of resourceful and determined young Indian named Balram in his writing to the Premier of China.

A thoroughly enjoyable and well written book.

Next up will be Women by Bukowski but I am forcing myself to read my Captone book before I read Women but it just does not look appetizing at all. We shall see. Expect a post on Women before weeks end.

Three Things I Learned Today

1. Paul McCartney needs to stop making music.

2. Bob Dylan needs to stop making music.

3. And Bruce Springsteen forgot how to write lyrics that make sense.

You know, I think I like it here.

Last Sunday was probably one of my more enjoyable Sundays at Borders. Thanks to a slowing economy and some poor weather conditions there was close to no one in the store. Fewer customers in the store lends itself to much more employee fraternization, and if you ever tool the time to admire the quality of your local Borders employees then you can imagine the types of conversations.

Thanks two a certain keyboardist playing in the Cafe last Sunday these conversations were never ending. The man was bad, I mean terrible, at playing the keyboard, something that was only surpassed in the awful realm by his inability to put a string of decent lyrics together.

He was this tall skinny guy with 18 inches or so of hair, who hailed from the UK and was touring the state side Borders. Did you catch that word, I said "touring", like flying around the states on his own dime to peddle his wares (homemade)and sing his (and Cold Play's) songs. The person in the Borders event scheduling office must have a sadistic sense of humor because if he sells 10 cds then he'll be lucky.

Now if my day from there on out had been boring I would have chalked it up as a win and moved on, well it was not boring.

Literally seconds after the keyboardist packed up his things a short middle aged woman came up to me and said; "Hi! I'm Jackie Kessler! The author! Can I sign my books?!"

My internal reaction:
First of all lady, take a deep breath and calm down because unfortunately I don't speak crazy talk. Second I don't know anyone by the name Jackie Kessler, so it's a good thing you pointed out that you are not just any Jackie Kessler but in fact the the author Jackie Kessler. And third. do I look a manager to you? Or do you just think we let crazy people who claim to be authors run around and sign books?

Well apparently we do, because my manager had no problem with it and after the crazy author signed all 7 of her books she handed me a heart shaped stress ball with her name and website on it.

Good day right? Not over!

Now at my particular Borders there is this type of bouncy ball that we sell that is basically a bouncing snow globe; a ball filled with liquid and snow like particles enveloped by a paper thin encasing. The fact that it does not break open is mind boggling, and we have done many things to see if it will break. Well on this particular day the back wall was completely bare, no shelving, no posters, nothing. So I decided that at the end of the shift I would play a little wall ball with one of my co-workers to see if the ball could withstand it. And lo and behold it did! We even were hitting the little metal pegs that stick out of the wall and nothing!

On top of that I bought Bukowski. Good day.

What I Just Read: The Post-American World

Another day, another book. On the heals of yesterdays triumphant finish of Post Office I have accomplished another such glorious feet by finishing The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.

Now this book was not a choice for pleasure but rather a choice made by the illustrious Prof Portz the humble leader of my Senior Capstone class. The choice was made as a sort of wrap up of the International Relations portion of our Political Science studies. A good choice, if I were graduating a year ago.

In his book Mr. Zakaria breaks down the status of today's world and where he thinks it will go. His view of the future is nothing new; a world still dominated by the US but in a less and less unipolar world, with ascension of India and China to the world stage, the consolidation of Europe, and increasing power to energy rich states like Canada, Russia and The Middle East. All well and good and he even goes into great detail about why this is going to happen, fairly convincing when I channel my 20 year old self.

The problem is, we don't live in that world anymore. We no longer live in a world where China will continue financing US debt, where the US has decades to adapt to the new world order, where a booming first world economy is lifting the developing nations. This is a great book, well researched and well written but it is the wrong book for this class.

I guess that is the problem with most Political Science books, they exist in a world where policy and theory react to real world events on a daily basis, a world where not even this mornings New York Times is correct anymore. This is a digital world and I don't know if professors really get that yet.


As for what I will be reading next (in addition to Lennon and LOTF) I have been assigned Fixing Failed States by Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart for Capstone, which I will dive into Monday night (expect a blog post about it that evening). As for pleasure it's either going to be White Tiger or Women. The problem is I really want to start Women but in order to do so I need to wait until Sunday when I go to work to buy it. Where as White Tiger is within arms reach at the moment. I'm going to start White Tiger tonight I think but if it doesn't grab me by work Sunday I will forgo it for Women. Check back Sunday night for a post about one or the other.

What I Just Read: Post Office

Yeah I know, that was quick, but it is a testament to how much I really like a good book. I'm not saying that Lennon is a bad book but it could stand to lose a little wait. Anyway onward with the review!

Kurt Vonnegut with hang over, that is how Bukowski writes. Strip away the goofy foolish parts of Vonnegut's books and you are left with a dry and biting sarcasm, Bukowski has that but he also had 6 pack and half a handle of whiskey the night before writing it.

Post Office is a novel about a hard drinking, sleep deprived, gambling, low life womanizer who just seems to roll with what life throws at him. Bukowski, of poetic fame (which means the prose flows that much better), writes post office in six major parts broken down into chapters that range from 1/4 of a page to 4 full pages, with each chapter having a type of finality to it. The book took me know time to read because every time I finished a chapter I moved onto the next and then the next and then the next.

All in all I loved the book, as of right now one of my favorites just because it was very fun to read and was straight forward with its point, Charles Bukowski is a sleazy old man who loves alcohol and a nice pair of legs (and ass and boobs). This Sunday I plan on picking up Women because it's Steve's favorite Bukowski book and I can only imagine how it will read.

As for the next book added to the list, it might be White Tiger or I may simply wait until Sunday and start up with Women, regardless I plan on finishing Post American World for class before I start anything new.

What I am Reading: Post Office

Yes dear readers I did it again, I have cheated you, I started reading yet another book. I know I just posted two days ago about a book I was reading on top of the other two books I am reading, and yes the shame is getting to me. But not enough that I won't start another book! Armed with a $50 gift card from Borders (it only cost me $2300 on my credit card to get it) I went in to work determined to buy new books (even though I am reading three and have plenty I could read). I decided on White Tiger by Aravind Adiga because it has been recommended to me about 17 times now as well as Shakespeare's Julius Caeser because I am re-watching Rome with Katy. All good choices I think, but we'll see.

The third book I purchased, and the one I am reading now, is Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Now my logic for purchasing this book goes like this; there is a bar that I frequent down the street called Bukowski's which is dedicated, as the name indicates to Charles Bukowski. As well as the bar there is the fact that all his books have amazing covers, and me being a stickler for a good cover figure I should give one a try, so I pulled Post Office off the shelf (should be noted that Please Mr. Postman was playing all day at work, may or may not have factored into my decision). As I was making my decision on what three books to buy (I puled down like five other books which will go unnamed so no one can second guess my final choices, yeah I said it) Steve comes over and tells me "Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite authors." Why? "Because he is the dirtiest old man there is." That sold me and clearly means I have the right to start reading Post Office (and probably all his other books because so far it is a riot) before I finish my other three books.

Get over it, I'll read them eventually.

I have since finished this book, read the review here

The thing about Co-Op is.....

They don't prepare you for the transition from the working world back to classes. They do everything in their power to push you out into the real world with a Co-Op but when you return you are expected to assimilate back into campus like you never left. Don't get me wrong, I love the Co-Op program and it is the reason why I decided on Northeastern over a much more affordable state school but there is nothing quite like the transition that takes place between the two spheres. For myself it has been over a year since a attended a class at Northeastern, what with my Co-Op and before that my study abroad program in Belgium I haven't set foot in a Northeastern classroom since last December.

A week ago I was waking up 5 days a week taking the T to my office and getting paid for 8 hours a day. Now I have class from 9 - 3 (which I pay for, instead of getting paid) in which I do more work than I would have on Co-Op. On top of that I will have homework which will fill up more of my time as well as a need to fill the void of my meager, yet weekly, BRA paycheck with hours of harder work at Borders and about equal difficulty (not saying much) work as an IM official. I never thought I would say this but being in the real world is significantly less stressful and much less physically demanding than being a student.

Many of you (many is not a word to describe the amount of readers I have but it's in the past now and we all know there is no going back) may scoff at such a notion but consider this. Every day I am incurring more debt through payments via loans to Northeastern and accruing interest on past loans while at the same time I am trying to pass the classes I am paying for the privilege to attend. On top of which I am working two jobs trying to keep from having to take out loans to afford to live on my own and feed myself.

As opposed to life working 40 hours a week. You go to work at 9, work, punch out at 5 and come home. No homework, no second job, just life. Granted it's not as easy as I just made it sound, but there is no University expense on top of that.

To put it bluntly, my lifestyle just changed overnight from a member of the global economy to a student with not enough time in the day to get by and my University, and life for that matter, expects me to just roll with it.

And We're Back with some Grumblings

Well after an action packed Christmas that made my Christmas post seem almost prophetic I am back to my blogging ways. The events of Christmas do need to be noted in some form but I do not know in what type of medium to bring it to you. All in good time though.

In other news Eric's birthday proved to be uneventful by Eric/Danny standards. Though I did have my first scorpion bowl which proved to be both tasty and dangerous. Because of work today I made an early exit to ensure I would not be hungover while serving the book loving populace.

Speaking of which today I get to work for 4 hours, that is down from 8. I kind of hope that is a mix up and not a permanent thing because if I am working 4 hour shifts once or twice a week that may prove to be a problem. Stay tuned.

I also attended the Nutcracker yesterday with Katy, which involved two bars and roughly 4 beers over a few hour span. Needless to say I enjoyed myself.

Lastly my Co-Op with the BRA will be ending this Wednesday (sad face) which means some awkward good byes and a shift in life priorities which means blogging will either skyrocket or cease because of a workload. I'm hoping for the former.

Normally this is where on most blogs people wish you a happy New Year and say that they have a whole bunch of fun things planned for their readers in 2009 (weird to think this decade is almost over already). Well I have nothing planned for you, I'm sorry. You will just have to trust that I will come up with things on the fly or make the old things that much more enjoyable to keep pace. Regardless I hope you continue to come back in 2009, I will still be here, I hope.

The Christmas Season

I don't think I truly understood how big of a deal Christmas is in the retail industry. I mean I knew that it is the biggest shopping time of the year but I didn't know that Christmas is the be all end all for retail stores, if you have a bad Christmas season then it goes without saying that you will have a bad year.

As you all know I work at Borders, the one at the Cambridge Side Galleria, so yes once a week I go to a mall. In this realm I am my fathers son, I despise malls, there is just too many people "shopping". When I go to a mall I am going to buy a specific item, not to look around and leave without buying what I came for. The environment is too sterile and preconceived for me to enjoy being there, it's corporate and I really don't like corporate things.

But alas one must make a living, or try to, so I work where I get the most benefit. Borders being a bookstore and I primarily only buying books when I buy things it was the place for me. Which in the end makes me feel better about trying to sell items to people. Where I work they are buying items that expand knowledge, provide entertainment and enjoyment. It's not a nick-knack, or a gimmicky piece of electronic equipment.

Yet still in the current economy I feel like it is wrong to try and push more expensive items on people who can not afford it and probably should do without for the time being. I know our store isn't making plan each week and I know that has resulted in hours being cut and pressure being put on the staff to sell more items. My own job is at stake but yet I would feel bad pressuring other people in order to guarantee my own job.

That's why I'm not meant for retail.

Underling Squared!

So I work at Borders, something I have mentioned a few times now and I promised a post this Sunday for you. Well it's Sunday and I should be at work right now so here is your post about Borders.

Borders is one of two very large national booksellers (not bookstore) the other being Barnes & Noble, they are not the same company. Just because they both sell books and they both start with a "B" unfortunately does not mean that they are the same company, much to the agitation of many a customer.

Just so you all know I do not want to shove a Borders Rewards Card down your throat as much as you do not want one but Borders made me do it. Though if you don't want to be bugged about it anymore, there is a simple remedy; just get one, put a fake email on it and hand it to us each time, I swear I will leave you alone. That and I won't get bugged about lagging numbers from my boss every week. You would think we were selling Borders Rewards cards and not books.

Honestly does it benefit a company enough to continually shove something they don't want in their face? If someone does not want a free card that sends you coupons in your email and nothing else the first 2 times you ask (the second time just in case they heard you wrong the first time) then I think it is reasonable to believe that they will never want one and you should not ask. Also does it make sense in this world of corporate speak and rewards cards to even go for a program like that any more? Why not just become the company that doesn't bother you and is only there to assist and find the book that screams "You!" Then again I have never before worked in retail so I couldn't tell you what works but I just find something wrong about pushing things on people who do not want them.