At my local Borders, the Playboys and such were moved behind the counter, probably to prevent guys from taking them into the can (unless they bought 'em first).
The bathroom is a favorite. Another one is oversize art books. So you may pick up a Monet book, and have 3 issues of Playboy fall out. Or they sit in a corner reading a large magazine, with a porno mag tucked discreetly between the covers
Why didn’t I know how easy it was to get porn when I was a teenager, dammit? It’s not fair!
All right, I do seriously want to know: what do you all think of libraries? (Kind of looking for general thoughts here – is there any booksale industry consensus on this, or are the two industries/clienteles separate enough to where libraries don’t hurt bookstores?)
I have nothing useful to add except that Sivalensis, you have the best bookstore EVER. I love it, and am glad that you’re still in business. I think I’ll go buy something there tomorrow.
How desperately I wish I didn’t have a job, so I could work there!
Well, the usual suggestion I make when we don’t have something fairly important is “Why don’t you try the library just up the street?” (It’s a really nice one.)
The usual response is a look of shock, horror, and dread.
I actually wish the people who just sit around and read would just go to the library, dammit.
What comes to my mind is the Lewinsky/Clinton thing–the feds tried to subpoena Kramerbooks here in DC to find out what titles one of them had purchased. The bookstore won & for a while they had cool Tshirts that said “Subpoenaed for Selling Books.”
Somehow, I think that the bomb-making case had to do with whether a library (not bookstore) would release its records. You might want to check the American Library Assn. website (www.ala.org) for info on this.
Re a couple other things: I have hidden books from customers, but only because I wanted to buy them & didn’t have enough money at the time!
I was in a Borders the other day at the info desk when the poor clerk got a call from a woman who wanted to know if they had “a book on World War I”. He had to explain to her that they had a whole section o the topic and that she would need to come in & select one for herself.
Additionally, I, um, have had sex in a bookstore where I was employed. 'Nuff said.
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I worked at Copperfield’s Books, a large independent bookstore with several locations in Sonoma and Napa Counties, California. If you like indies, yes, you can purchase books at their website. It’s a general bookstore, so the stock is pretty similar to what you’d find at Borders or Barnes & Noble. I like to think that is was better arranged, because we didn’t have some silly corporate policy forcing us to shelve books in what was obviously the wrong section, something you’ll see at corporate bookstores.
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The Anarchist’s Cookbook. The bookseller might have been checking with a manager to make sure it was okay to sell it. There is/was a major lawsuit going on (not sure what happened, since I’m not a bookseller anymore) regarding either that title or something similar. Police in Colorado, I think, were trying to subpoena an independent bookstore’s sales records on books they considered bad. The bookstore refused. Hence, lawsuit. Indie bookstores don’t have loads of cash lying around to pay off lawsuits should they be held liable for providing illegal or objectionable information. My bookstore had recieved complaints from angry parents for selling Anton LaVey books to angst-ridden teenagers, so we adopted a policy of requiring parental permission for anyone under 18 wanting to purchase a few specific (all regarding Satanism) titles.
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NO, booksellers do not shelve conservative books in obscure places, no matter how much we might like to (my fellow booksellers and I <I>were</I> all liberals). Bookstores tend to be arranged in sections. Books go in their sections. Period. Nothing ulterior is going on. Bookstores are in the business of making money, not sabotaging their sales.
I did not mean to imply book sellers really hide conservative books but I have heard repeatedly from Limbaugh & Hannity that their books are hidden by evil liberal book sellers and librarians. The opposite of the above seems to be true, last week I went to my local Borders and was assaulted by a huge display of Sean Hannity flanked by about two dozen Ann Coulters.
lol Icerigger, I would’ve run as fast as I could in the other direction!!!
Also, for the sections…customers do a lot of really funky shelving. Well, not actual shelving, but they pull out a book from, say, biography, then they wander over the eastern philosophy and decide they don’t really want that biography book, so they stick it in the eastern philosophy shelf!!! I don’t have a problem with them just leaving it either 1) on the floor, or 2) on top of the other books.
Either way, we’ll find and re-shelve it properly. But when they put it in the wrong section then it’s just impossible to find anything (and I am the one who has to look for the most books in the store since I pull tons to send back to publishers).
The moral of the story: even if you think you’re being helpful by putting the book back on the shelf, sometimes it’s just better to put it separate or leave it somewhere out if you’re not sure where you got it from. I’ve actually gone into other bookstores and started organizing!!!
As for the legal subpoena-ing of records…I was in Europe since last september through the spring, so I don’t really know if there was a lawsuit or whatever, but my boss was mentionning the law to me and the possible infringement on privacy rights. We haven’t had any requests though.
oh, and lard2000 I’m so glad!!! I think it’s the best bookstore ever too! Just convince everyone else of that and we won’t have anything to worry about!!! 
This is our biggest problem. You want to know the #1 reason you/we can’t find your books? Someone put it back on the shelf in the wrong place.
I was kidding. I think that’s hysterical. Maybe just a ploy to sell more books. Have the outraged conservative masses storming bookstores to find out where it is and then when they see a huge stack of em, maybe they’ll buy one. Why would you ask the evil employees, anyway? If we’re hiding them, why would we politely direct you to 'em if you asked for em? 
Maybe this is why the Coulter/Hannity crowd is always shocked when they come stomping up to the information desk to find out where those books are, and I point politely across the way at the huge bestseller display and say, “Right over there”.
Happens all the time. Or the guy I had a couple days ago…
“Yes, where are the SAT books?”
“Which one?”
“There’s more than one?”
“<sigh> This way. <walk over to test prep. point to two full bookcases of SAT books> They’re right here.”
“…Oh.”
I think that’s the case I was thinking of.
And just for the record, I know about the politics of about 2 or 3 other employees, so I couldn’t say our political orientation.
You know what’s really scary? When a customer asks…“You know that blue book, the one that was on tv?” and I can answer them!!! That’s kinda weird. But then, there are limited bestsellers now that are blue books, and it’s most likely to be the Lovely Bones.
I just love the people who want “a book on parenting.” One called one time, and was told we have four shelves of them, and one of my coworkers ended up on her cell phone reading the titles to the lady because the lady didn’t want to come in, but it would be too much of a hassle to shuttle back and forth to the store phone.
But then, there are the people who ask for a French dictionary, and I direct them to the ONE we happen to have in stock at the time (I know, it’s kinda sad, but foreign language isn’t a focus in the store).
Oh, and I think I mentioned earlier in the thread about the S&M guy who came in all licking his lips and hiking his pants. Well, he was back in tonight, but he didn’t talk to me at all and actually when I went to shelve books nearby he headed out. Was only there for an hour. But maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on him, maybe he was branching his interests to other stuff (maybe…)
lard2000…did you come in today? Maybe I saw you!
Yeah, I was licking my lips and hiking…
Wait, no, I didn’t make it in today, work emergencies. Tomorrow!
One of our younger, more attractive female employees had a fun little game we all liked to watch. Once a few dirty old men were ensconsed in sex and erotica, flipping through the books, she’d wander over and pretend to be doing something. You should’ve seen the perverts scatter like pigeons.