Barnes & Noble is not a library!

[Freemage]

Okay, I admit it (and this is a heckuva first post)--I half-suck.

I'm not above sitting for a few hours in the comfy chair in the Borders cafe and going through a stack of manga/graphic novels, or a single novel. And there are a fair number of times that I don't actually buy anything. In my defense, however....

1: Books are ALWAYS placed back on the shelves, in the right places.
2: Books that are not being bought for certain are treated as if they were on loan from a friend with OCD and a chainsaw fetish (ie, clean hands, care taken with binding, pages are not creased or manhandled). If something were to go wrong, I would, indeed, pay for the book.
3: Food/beverage are, indeed, purchased.
4: I do most of my actual book-buying at Borders, largely because of my appreciation for the policies that allow me to do this. While I definitely get more out of it than I would if I only read the books I could reasonably buy on my income, I do give them enough of my business that it's worth my while to have a Borders card.
5: I treat employees with respect and courtesy, and always try to be understanding if there is some reason that my usual routine cannot be followed (such as the store having a local jazz band come in).

Honestly, they aren't 'losing money' on me--these are books that, if the policy was not in place, I probably wouldn't buy, because of my limited budget. If I had more money, I would buy more books. I don't, unfortunately. The policy, as noted in option 4, does cause me to spend all of what I DO have available for book-buying at Borders, however.

[B&NGoddess]

Yeah, on busier days we do that too. I have an "anger" issue, and usually make as much noise and get in their way while I load up the cart or put stuff back (it's usually within 5 feet) just hoping they'll go away.

lmao ive done that. i had to replace some shelves and you know the metal ones are super loud, no matter how careful you are. some guy told me to "shh!" i was like, ooh hell no. and proceeded to make as much noise as possible.

we also had a regular i called "stinky sleepy man". he would come in at 9am, rearrange the furniture in biography and fall asleep. i once parked my cart right where he would move his chair to in hopes to deter him. he moved my cart out of the way and then moved the chair. while i stood there and watched.

i say "had" cuz he hasnt been in for awhile. i think he's dead.

[Daphne]

years ago i worked at a library and i know it was a rule you couldn't view porn on the library computers. And they had to post signs at every computer saying porn is not allowed, and if you choose to look at it, you will be asked to get off the computer.

In my district, you can view whatever you want to so long as a). you're over 18 and b). it isn't illegal. We have privacy screens on the computers, but you can clearly tell when someone is looking at porn. Since children are allowed to use adult computers if their parents have signed a consent form, they could potentially be sitting next to an adult using the computers to view porn.

[Imogene]

There would be piles of book around on the floor at the end of every night.

Just after we started getting manga at Chesterfield, it was all kept on a spinning wire rack. Kids/teens would come in, grab a section out of the manga, plop down on the floor, right in the middle of foot traffic, and read, from book 1 through book 40. Old SM told us not to bother them.

New SM, a manga reader as well, would let us shoo them out of the store if they spent moire than ten minutes doing so. Of course, by the time New SM worked there, we'd (We? I'd...) moved the manga to a mesh shelf next to the anime section, way in the back corner of the store, such that the only way we'd notice people sitting there reading would be when we went to get stuff from the back-room. Three passes, and they were removed.

[BookstoreEscapee]

lmao ive done that. i had to replace some shelves and you know the metal ones are super loud, no matter how careful you are. some guy told me to "shh!" i was like, ooh hell no. and proceeded to make as much noise as possible. (

I hate those shelves. Store1 has wood shelves that sit on 4 little brackets that hook into the side of the bay; downside is that they can be knocked down or tipped more easily, but if a bracket gets bent out of shape, no biggie, you just get another one. Store 2 has the metal shelves that hook into the back. most of their fiction/mystery/romance/scifi section is 7 shelves tall. Most romance readers are not that tall. People will stand on the shelves...if they haven't been dusted in a while you can see the footprints. So there are shelves that are bent in the middle, and shelves that have bent hooks, and the slots in the actual bay in some places are also bent down at the bottom, so even a brand new shelf will not sit straight. They are all the second shelf from the bottom. There are shelves in there that can't have anything faced out or it will just fall off (not all of them are in romance but the worst ones are). And adjusting them up or down one slot won't work anymore, cuz it's already been done and those slots are bent too. There are stools scattered around that section for a reason, people!! I've never managed to catch anyone doing it, either.

sorry for the tangent...

[Andara Bledin]

Argh!

I am an avid book reader and a huge manga fan. I spend way too much on both.

Our local book store used to be Waldenbooks, but was changed to Borders Express when they were bought out.

Anyway, the manga section always has from 1 to 5 kids and/or teens sitting in the way reading. And most of them are terrible about creasing up the books, too.

Now, you still run into the manga that are plastic wrapped before the get to the store. I can't tell you who decides what should be wrapped and what shouldn't as it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I've seen completely tame titles wrapped, and I've seen titles with full nudity never wrapped. But no matter what, if a title comes with plastic on it, there will be at least one copy of it without the wrapping any more 'cause some kid just had to read it.

Now, I like the idea that the kids are reading, but really. If the store doesn't have any chairs in it, then they should either buy their books or find a store that invites reading. But in a store that's crowded with shelves, I don't need to be growling at them to get out of the way so I can get the books I've come to buy. I've been good so far... I haven't actually kicked any of them.... yet....

^-.-^

[Ackee]

Bless

Sometimes it will take me more then 15 minutes to get through the books, but I always but them back and 99% of the time I buy one the books I am looking at.

Of course you are not a sucky customer. You are lurvely. Come to a library, we need more people like you.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I am a book reader as well, but it's usually because my mom and/or sister and/or whoever else I'm with is going to be shopping for a while longer, and I'm starting to get whiny and distracted and putting my hands on too many breakable things. So they usually send me to the bookstore and plop me down with a book for a while until they finish whatever they're doing. Free adult baby-sitting, if you will, plus I'm quiet, clean, and well-behaved, and I know where my books go when I'm done.

Of course, the cosmic joke is that I always find a book I already own or have read at the actual library, and read that. I NEVER have read anything new at a bookstore...not out of any sense of morality about it but because I just prefer to read what I've already read. I very rarely buy books, but I DO buy the overpriced hardback notebooks and speciality pens that those stores always have. I figure they're breaking even on me.

[Food Lady]

I may or may not be sucky

I am not really a book person but I love magazines. It's just part of my normal routine to go by the mag rack in any store and browse the new issues, reading several articles. If it looks like I'm going to want to read the whole thing, I will buy, but that's only a couple of times a year. When I go to BN--once or twice a year--it's never for the books; it's for the escape, and the coffee. I always get something from the cafe and proceed to pick out every hair magazine and go through them all. I have never bought one there; I'm just there to relax. I am always careful with them and they go back in the right places. I'll sometimes do a little straightening. But I will tell you that when I do buy books, which is only when I need gifts for people, I am likely to go to BN. I even bought one of those membership card things and I don't think my savings will equal the money spent. But if I can go in and treat it like a library once in a while, I'm ok with that.