Things We Never Told You: Ode To A Bookstore Death

well, at least they’ll fit right in at their new job at Starbucks

To be perfectly candid, I was a manager at Borders, and this so-called “Ode” is an embarrassment; it shows an utterly immature processing and expression of indeed very valid emotions.  First of all, an ode is a artistic work that pays homage to something or someone, and this list is not paying homage to anything.  It is an impotent and unfocused soap-box tirade, a mere child’s tantrum played out on paper.  Clearly it should have been put in the break room, not the sales floor for public eyes.  Customers, rude or not, need to be handled in a finessed and strategic way because they make or break the business.  Believe me, I’ve had to handle certain incidents at my store – drug overdoses, public ludeness, assault, even death threats – and more often, more asinine things like an irritating game of 20 questions with some customer who’s never shopped in a bookstore before, but I ALWAYS remained a professional to whatever end.  My livelihood depended on it, and plus my underlings relied on me to keep the ship even keeled.  Shame on the authors of this travesty.