I went to Borders this past Saturday to find a particular book. On my way in, I see a sign advertising that you can buy X out of 6 particular books for a discount. One of them is “More Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About” (or whatever) by the infamous Kevin Trudeau. As part of the promotion, copies were prominently displayed on a stand near the entrance.
I think about this for a while, and decide that I can’t stay silent on this. I tell an employee that I know that they personally have no control over what HQ tells them to advertise, and that they have to do SOMETHING to move copies of Trudeau’s stupid book, and that bookstores aren’t supposed to be the content police, BUT that they should tell their HQ that at least one of their customers thought that it was wrong to be giving so much prominence to that dangerous quack Trudeau.
That was the gist of my remarks. I got the impression that the employee was partly amused and partly “what the hell?” at my conversation. Was I out of line?
As a customer it is your right to ask for such things, but don’t expect any change. You may be considered no more seriously than the customers who ask stores to put the Bible into the fiction section.
If they get plenty of complaints changes might occur, so it is necessary to complain in the hopes that the changes you want can occur.
As a low-level retail employee in a number of jobs, I can tell you that telling a floor level clerk accomplishes nothing. That person has less power than you to influence anyone who makes decisions in the company.
So, in an example from a past job: a number of employees telling managers, “Hey a lot of customers are complaining that the portions of pie are too small for the price we are charging” had zippo impact, but ONE letter from a customer resulted in bigger pieces of pie.
You have a right to your opinion but you should of voiced it to the manager/higher ups. Even then, they probably don’t care. Peons get bitched at all the time so it’s in one ear out the other. I’m lead to believe Their Store, Their Rules. I don’t like it I leave.
I work for Borders and I think that book is full of it, too. However, it’s our #1 bestselling nonfiction book, so someone is buying it. And that’s why it was part of the sale. I can’t change those facts, and I don’t think HQ will want to.
I used to work in a bookstore. Occasionally people would come in and complain because we were selling a book that they found objectionable for some reason or other. If the store’s owner was on site, she would talk to these folks. If not, we underlings would talk to 'em. The policy was to handle such complaints courteously, and thank the people for letting us know about this terrible book that we shouldn’t be selling, and then do absolutely nothing after the complainant left. I cannot remember any instance in which a book was ever withdrawn from sale in our store because of a complaint of this type.
I don’t bother with the employees. I tell the customers directly.
(I do, too. I was at Costco on Saturday and I dissuaded two separate elderly customers from adding this book to their carts. It’s rather remarkable that “medical nonsense” made almost no impression on them but “prison time for credit card fraud” sealed the deal.)
I once complained about a book that advocated committing mail fraud. I guess I wasn’t that riled up about whether they should take it off the shelves or not, but figured they should at least be aware. After all, they don’t have time to read every book. It was in a work-at-home/MLM related book (why I was looking through it I don’t know…maybe researching a scam?)
Interestingly, the clerk commented that sometimes folks just come in and leave copies of their books shelved in the business section for customers to buy. Not up on the details, but maybe as long as it has a barcode it can be scanned? Not that this is Mr. Trudeau’s situation, but thought I’d share.
If the book has a barcode it can be scanned, but unless the number on the barcode matches up with a book in the store’s computer system it will not ring up.
I don’t want you or anyone else deciding what books I can or can not purchase.
I am perfectly capable of making that decision myself.
I don’t mean to sound snippy, but I get really irked when people tell other people what to do. If you don’t like that tv show, don’t watch it; don’t like that radio program? Don’t listen it.
Unfortunately, there are times that “what sells” is drivel and we as informed consumers have to be the ones to make that decision. While Borders can’t offer every single book that’s published, they can (and do) offer those that sell. We have to be smarter than the average bear and make our opinions known with our pocketbook.
So, Leaper, I don’t think you were being too sensitive if you were polite with your opinion. Telling the clerk won’t do anything; talk to management if you like, but that won’t do anything either.
Just so you realize, if it was Borders and there was a dump, the publisher paid for it to be there and there is no way the clerk or even the store manager is going to change it.
The publisher buys that space, just like a car manufacturer might buy the back page of Better Homes and Gardens, and Borders HQ is not going to tell the publisher, “Hey, keep your money.”
(“Dump”=separate display of either all one book, or various books all from one publisher. The books stacked on tables just inside the door are also sitting on purchased space in the chain bookstores–and some big independent ones, too.)
I worked at B&N years and years ago. We got myriad complaints about a book of photos which featured a picture of a family at a nude beach. People called us up to scream about selling “child pornography,” and we actually had to keep the book behind the counter because a couple of the righteous took it upon themselves to rip the offending picture from the book. (I saw it. It was a sweet, innocent photograph with no salacious overtones.)
We even got picketers! Three dispirited people with hand-lettered signs who gave up with dissapointing speed sat on lawn chairs in front of the store. Our boss was of the opinion that they actually increased business, and offered them coffee.
It was a fun mini-scandal for about a month or so. B&N got to champion First Amendment rights, making them feel all warm and fuzzy, and I got to used my “very concerned” expression a handful of times when distressed and outraged patrons bitched.
The fact is, Leaper, you can’t save people from themselves. The nuts who buy this book and follow its advice are people who distrust mainstream medicine already. I doubt if Trudeau will get many “converts” from among the sensible. There are already a hundred books just like his-- I know because my grandmother owns most of them. (She still does go to the doctor, though.)
Is it just me, or did anyone else read this and think of Father Ted and Dougal in “The Passion of St. Tibulus” standing in front of the cinema with signs reading “Careful Now” and “Down With This Sort of Thing”?
