SIDELINES
I just read today that Borders has broken new ground on the sidelines frontier: they are now selling Foot Spas. Yikes.
A friend who works at a local store was telling me about the recent corporately-mandated foray into the world of selling barbecue sauce, bottles stacked cheek by jowl (as it were) alongside actual books (ostensibly, the BBQ sauce was a book tie-in).
I always hated sidelines. I could handle the greeting cards and bookmarks, but all the other crap that was purchased by desperate buyers which could be marked WAY up and then foisted on stores was staggering (this while BOOK inventories have been shrinking for years - books just don't cut the profit-margin anymore). These items are routinely the most shop-lifted, so the mark-up must be TREMENDOUS.
The store I worked at was one of the last in the chain to hold on to our jewel in the crown; the 20+ volume complete OED. We finally relented and returned our set after we had refused to return it through several RPL's. That was about the time that we received 100 Billy Bass Singing Fish. Hardly an equitable exchange.
I wish sideline buyers would at least make some effort to buy sidelines with some sliver of relevance to a book store.
But now that spring is here, I'm hoping I can get a new lawnmower down at Waldens.
A friend who works at a local store was telling me about the recent corporately-mandated foray into the world of selling barbecue sauce, bottles stacked cheek by jowl (as it were) alongside actual books (ostensibly, the BBQ sauce was a book tie-in).
I always hated sidelines. I could handle the greeting cards and bookmarks, but all the other crap that was purchased by desperate buyers which could be marked WAY up and then foisted on stores was staggering (this while BOOK inventories have been shrinking for years - books just don't cut the profit-margin anymore). These items are routinely the most shop-lifted, so the mark-up must be TREMENDOUS.
The store I worked at was one of the last in the chain to hold on to our jewel in the crown; the 20+ volume complete OED. We finally relented and returned our set after we had refused to return it through several RPL's. That was about the time that we received 100 Billy Bass Singing Fish. Hardly an equitable exchange.
I wish sideline buyers would at least make some effort to buy sidelines with some sliver of relevance to a book store.
But now that spring is here, I'm hoping I can get a new lawnmower down at Waldens.