Borders

Yes, I'm discussing the store that sells books. In 2009, when the company was going through a quite a bit of re-organizing, there was also a change in the atmosphere of selling at the store. I can only speak of the three Borders that I frequented, but it honestly seemed more important for booksellers to be friendly and pushy than to be knowledgeable. New faces appeared to sell me things, but their knowledge of genres and authors wasn't so hot. It was sad. Book retailing is just a difficult business, and it seemed like these were the death throws of a company--and a way of buying books.

2010, I am happy to say, brought a different atmosphere. The stores I frequent are no longer just pushing merchandise. There are booksellers, and they are selling books. It reminds me of a story heard on Marketplace a few weeks back that reported on businesses returning to old-fashioned customer service. While retail has had, and (with the death of wages tied to commission) will continue to have, those who are simply "point of sale transaction administrators," many businesses are returning to old-fashioned sales techniques to retain (and gain) customers. That is, knowing your wares, knowing your customers, and connecting your customers to what they want (or didn't know they wanted). Kudos to Borders for recognizing that the store had lost its way, and for returning to what matters.

I still purchase many books online, but if I'm just browsing, my local Borders stores have returned to a way of selling books that I thought was going to disappear.