Well, my friends tell me Borders has a slight edge. Although with both chains you run a real chance of getting someone who knows little about books- especially around the holidays. However; Borders dudes seem- on the average- a *bit *sharper. The benefits are slightly better for Borders, the pay is crap for both, and Borders is somewhat looser.
I’d say the small overall difference is more than made up by the individual store differences- the managers and above. So talk to the employees at both stores.
I worked for Waldens and liked it a lot, other than my manager was a jerk, but I never saw him. I did resent the Borders people as they didn’t have to work as hard as we did, even though we were the same company. I’d take B&N over Borders, but would go back to Waldens (there are still some left) if I ever felt crazy enough to return to retail, as they seem better organized and more like Waldens. How that works, I’m not sure.
What part of Texas do you inhabit, Lama Pacos? My daughter likes working at Half Price Books (a used/remainder book chain) now. The pay is better than minimum wage, I believe she’s earning $8 an hour now, and she’ll get some benefits after another couple of weeks. Employees get to go through the discard bin, too. I believe that she gets a pretty nice employee discount as well.
I’m in Houston. I love Half Price as a consumer, but unfortunately I’m out looking to work summer in Mass., and we don’t have Half Price here. Books in Massachusetts tend to run from Triple Price to somewhere around Sixfold Price.