The Worst News Day Ever

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

I was so sad to read the earlier post about La Contessa's closing and I was writing a friend about it and she pointed out this recent story about McIntyre & Moore:
http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2007/03/is_the_writing_.html

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Why don't you want to check your bags? I've been places where it can be a time hog, but I've never had that problem at M&M.

This isn't meant to be snarky: I actually want to know why you see it as a negative.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

No snark taken. :) I think it's a personal thing. I'm a pack rat and the sort of person who carries a lot of stuff around with her all the time. I think I just like having Things to Clutch.

Of course, there have been times when I was so tired and my bags were so heavy that I really *wanted* to put them down (and have been annoyed, in other stores, that I couldn't!). It also depends on whether I want to spend a long time browsing (in which case I probably do want to stash my bags) or just quickly check for something (in which case it slows me down).

In any case, I'm not trying to criticize, I'd just personally prefer not to have to bother. But they're not as bad as the Grolier Poetry Book Shop was, where the owner thoroughly drove bookish me and my bookish friends away because she was so hostile -- she was rude, she wouldn't let me look at books around a corner because it was out of her direct line of sight, she searched one of my friend's bags before we left even though we had purchased things -- it was insulting and extremely counterproductive. (What if there had been something around that corner I wanted to buy?)

In both cases I understand why they're like that. The lady at Grolier probably had to deal with rampant theft of expensive stuff by Harvard students over the decades, leaving her understandably bitter and suspicious. On the other hand, I just couldn't be surprised when she finally had to close her doors, as much of a landmark as the place was. I'm sure the internet had more to do with it than poor customer service, but her actively driving away anybody who looked like a student can't have helped, either.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

I used to work at the Grolier, so here's my perspective: Maybe a third of the people who visited were either casing the joint or actively stealing. I've worked in other bookstores, so I know that shrinkage is always a concern, but it was nothing compared to what I saw there. The problem is that unless you see them do it, you don't want to risk a confrontation. If you get a big stack of John Ashbery remainders, for example, they immediately start disappearing and turning up at M&M and the Harvard Book Store. Louisa's suspicions weren't always right, but it's not like they were unwarranted. Thieves took advantage of the situation there. I hope that the new owner is succeeding in stopping this trend.

I have never gotten attitude from Mac&Moore. The staff there have always seemed to me mostly to be tired or depressed. I have never gotten attitude from the Diesel, either, so sometimes I wonder if I'm just missing something. I did get attitude from Sagra over the weekend, though!

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Honestly, that's what I figured -- but even understanding why she acted that way didn't make me willing to go back and face it again. But I wasn't glad to hear about all its troubles, either.

I've both gotten attitude at M&M, and met really nice friendly people who made me smile and/or laugh. Never gotten attitude at Diesel that I can recall -- always friendly, smiling & helpful service.

I can believe that some customers have occasionally encountered rude service at Diesel (even though I've never seen it), because it can happen anywhere every once in a while -- but I also don't believe it for a second whenever somebody claims to have been discriminated against at Diesel because they "looked straight." What rubbish. That reminds me of the way people used to claim, when they came to eat at the dining hall in my rather bohemian creative arts dormitory in college, that they were discriminated against because they "looked preppy." Give me a break.

It may have ever only been trolls making that claim here, anyway. (About Diesel, I mean. Don't think anybody's ever complained about my college dormitory here.)