a small nice thing....

[lagilman]

When I first moved into the area, I stopped by a small B&N one town over. They had a decent SF section, but nothing crazy. I think they had one copy of one of my Luna books, but no real presence, and they weren't carrying the first Grail Quest. The woman was vaguely apologetic, and nice, but not much more.

I went back there again today, because I happened to be driving by on my way to the UPS store. Three copies each of each Luna title. A salesperson saw me stacking them up and said "are you going to buy all those?"

"No," I said. "I'm going to sign them."

The next thing I know I'm ensconsed at the front desk with a pen and 'signed' stickers, the guy (the day manager, I suspect) was taking my card and looking up inventory to see if they had anything else and -- !!! -- asking if they should order in copies of the Grail Quest books for me to come back and sign. and then told me about the new, muh larger store that will be opening in the new year, and how I should get in touch with them because they were set up to do events and signings and whatnot...

I love good, well-trained staff, I truly do.

(and then I discovered that right next door to that store is a Munson's. Fresh-made chocolate. Mmmmmm....)

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Well-trained B&N staff, with chocolate right next door? How much better can you get?

I'm glad to hear this. I've had so-so luck with Barnes & Noble events, so it's reassuring to know there are good ones out there.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

*nods* A couple weeks ago I was looking for a particular book at the BN in my neighborhood. It failed to be on the shelf where it should have been, so I hunted down a staffer, thinking maybe it hadn't been put out yet. (This particular store sometimes has this problem on new release day.) She told me it should be on the shelf, and said she would show me where the SF/F section was. (I need to be shown where that section is in stores that I frequent like I need to be told how to count to ten. :)

And then it turned out that the copies the system was showing were special order customer holds. (If I had two customers special order something I'd probably have ordered an extra copy or two to stick on the shelf ... oh well.)

[lagilman]

well, to be fair, B&N stores tends to be chained to the main office, so if TPTB determine a store isn't going to get copies of something, even if they have a dozen people special order it, they still have to put in a request to get shelf copies...

(of course that makes no sense. It's centralized ordering, it doesn't have to make sense)

[(Anonymous)]

A friend of mine was manager for a bookstore that was part of a small chain. She described her frustration, because purchases for the chain were made by a buyer at the main store, based on that store's sales patterns. My friend's store had a different clientele with completely different buying habits. She tried for months to get this across to HQ. "I manage this store. I know my customers. They don't buy what you insist I stock. If you want my store's sales to improve, pay attention to what I've been trying to tell you!"

There was some indication they were starting to listen, but the effort was akin to shooting the rapids in reverse.
______
Dennis

[lagilman]

This is a very nice, small B&N and I will be sorry to see it go away in favor of the newer cafe-and-music stores. The salesguy I was talking to seemed sorry for it as well. I hope he moves to the new store...

And Munsons is... oh dear. Walking into their store is like a sailor walking into a well-perfumed whorehouse.

(it didn't help that the women working there were a) well-informed and b) bored. So I got tempted with tastes of their sugar-free chocolates, their Harvest Specials (pumpkin fudge!), their chocolate-dipped cookies....)

[tryslora]

Speaking of Grail Quest... my Chickie has finished the first book, written a one page summary of the high point (with a few sentences explaining how they got there) and will be doing her first book report of the year on it! I got her to write the summary a month early (!) because she wanted to write it before she started reading book two so she wouldn't get them mixed up. And she just HAD to start reading book two ASAP (I think she's about halfway through already).

She's loving it. And since they're signed, I won't let her loan them out, so we'll be telling all her friends who listen to her raving about them that they have to go buy their own copies. *grins*

I'll send a picture of the diorama when she's done!

(And she'll probably STILL be shy the next time she sees you)

[lagilman]

*is pleased* Here's hoping she gets a "A"!

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Woot! The great shops, they're miraculous.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

You go girl! You made it happen. Woot!

[kessadebra.livejournal.com]

I think Drive-By book signings are the shiniest thing!!! Kudos to you!

[lagilman]

Shiner even more if when I go back, they've sold all of them.... ;-)


(when he asked me about ordering more books, I made a comment about not wanting to incur returns and saw him do a sort of herky-jerk reaction, like 'oh! she speaks our language! I can talk to this one like a person!' Was funny.)

[vincam.livejournal.com]

I love Barnes & Noble.