Hi there! I work at O'Gara and Wilson, a crazy used and antiquarian bookstore on Chicago's 57th Street, and I'm here to tell you that we now have a store blog. (LiveJournal feed: ogarawilson.) We will certainly post about interesting items around the shop; I'll also get the owner to post some stories from his decades in the bookselling business, and I myself ( Read more... )

What is it with management and staffing?! There are gaps in the schedule and there are not enough people to staff the floor and yet there are these weird issues with hiring. Seriously! We are a strong, reputable independent bookstore. We pride ourselves on customer service and knowledgeable personnel. At some point we have to go through the ( Read more... )

Well ( Read more... )

Good Afternoon ( Read more... )

So, I don't know how many of you may be familiar with this story, but here goes.

I work at Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, in Vancouver, BC.

Yes. THAT Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium ( Read more... )

Oooo, lookee, a non-negative post from bitter old me! Last night, we closed the shop on, well, *not much money*. Being the festive season, we should be doubling our turnover at the moment (or so previous years' record suggest). We've all been a bit down and demotivated about it, but last night we said ENOUGH, and promptly installed a cafe after ( Read more... )

Alright, recap: I manage a very small, remainder bookstore in the Southeast US. I'm in the nothern part of the state where as the remainder warehouse that owns us is in a very, very backwater, southern part of the state. They're wonderful people, seriously. They'll go out of their way for you in a heartbeat ( Read more... )

Hi there!
I've been lurking in this community for a while now, but since I haven't been actively working at my family's bookstore for the last four months, I haven't had much to contribute.
Last Friday I quit my night shift job at the local 7 Eleven and came back to what I love.

Well, what I mostly love ( Read more... )

Just though I'd put this out there.  At my little store in Saskatoon, we are encouraged to borrow books so that we can give legitimate recommendations and I love this perk of my job.  But being a small staff it has it's disadvantages as well, I mean there are only 6 people on our staff and news travels pretty fast, so if for example you sign out a ( Read more... )

Today's Guardian 'G2' supplement has a front page feature on independent bookshops in the UK

excerpt from article intro:

"Don't pity us," Valerie Glencross of the Sevenoaks Bookshop instructs me. She argues that the bigger the chains get, the greater the opportunity for independents. She turns predictions of the demise of stand-alone booksellers ( Read more... )