Sales Associate

Books-a-Million

Home of the Best Summer Sale Ever

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Books-a Million
		View The Magazines
		They Must Change Weekly
I worked in Books-a-Million for two summers and one Winter Break. The above picture is basically is where the majic happens. There is a blurry pictures of me in front of the magazine section of the store.

The Belly of the Beast
The Break Room
Sit and Eat Food
This is where we could come to relax for a few minutes. I never had a picture done on that little board by the door. It was one of those "home office" ideas for insuring that all the employees knew a little something about each other. Great idea, but the temporary workers like myself would still get the shaft sometimes. Inside that door is the manager's office and the safe. This backroom is also where all the books would get delivered. Those blue tubs are what the magazines would come in and what we would them put the old magazines in to ship back. That was actually pretty efficient. Computers would have made customer service better, but more on that later. If I went out to Wendy's for three things off their dollar menu (fries, a sandwich, and a coke), this is where I would eat them if it was too hot to eat them in my car (my car had my tapes, which could be a good way to take a 30 minute break). That TV never had anything good on. It was meant only for training videos, I think. The fridge also got gross fast as someone forgot they had left something in it and no one else wanted to take responsibility. The sign on the fridge also told us all that we had a creed as Sales Associates. Something about being helpful.

My Head is Spinning
		Book Shelf Spin
		Sruggle Against Mess Eternal
Sometimes, everyone would get dizzy. Sure, this one looks photoshopped, and it is. But that really is me standing there, the proof is in the way that the bottom of my pants are correctly spinning with the room. The sports section (which was right next to customer service) was one of those tough sections. All the books were of different sizes, the author wasn't always important, since you wanted to group them by subject, and people would just put them back on the top shelf all the time. It is for this reason that I selected this picture to represent the feeling of a world gone mad. You will notice that the summer uniform was a collared shirt, long pants, and the black apron. It was pretty simple, which I liked about the job. I mean, long pants during the summer was tough. But I could always change later. My understanding is that during the fall and spring, they try and get employees to wear ties, but the summer gets lax since they also tend to hire a few more temporary student workers (like me) who might not have 5 fancy shirts to wear each day.

Rows and Rows of Books
		Count The Books
		Knowing Is The Battle
Amy is not the first person I met. I already knew Nhan, and the manager Lori was the first person I talked to about the job. Amy was the first person who did the same type of work as me. Nhan was in charge of magazines and customer service by the time I got there. I was more of a book-putter-outer. Amy in this picture is actually taking books off the shelf to be sent back to HQ. That is why she has the scanner in her hands. At least inventory was being done electronically at this point. When I first arrived, we were basically as behind the times as you could get. The computer would allow you to find the books in print, then you went to the microfiche to see if our particular store was even SUPPOSED to have any of that particular book in stock. If we were supposed to have it, you then went to the section it was supposed to be in and had to physically check to see if it was there. Basically three steps. Of course, at a modern store, 90% of the task is done at the computer now. A computer tells you if the store is supposed to stock the book AND whether or not there is a copy in the store (if something has been stolen or misplaced, you still may not be able to find it, but at least if you are really sold out, you know right then). At BAM, you had a system where you appeared to be sold out just because who ever had filed the books had put them in the wrong place. Insanity, right? Well, I eventually developed enough of a familiarity with the sections to be able to sort my way through them

Can't Buy Me Books
Sell the Books
Take The Customer's Money
Mark was one of the last people I met at BAM, so I have picked his picture. Also, he is at the cash register. Actually, I think the last person I met was either Alexa or Alicia, I forget her name, but she was a senior in high school who trying to become the pokemon master for the Saturday competitions. I recall we spent like 30 minutes trying to study the rules, since I had managed to pick up Magic at some point, I assumed this would be similar and yet easier. It was not. So that is basically my memory of her, that she wanted to hang out with the little kids who played Pokemon in our store's cafe. What? Pokemon? See, each paragraph has such a smooth transition. I worked at BAM during the summer pokemon exploded. We had parents coming in asking for cards. We would keep a waiting list, we would call people to let them know that some had come in, and they would race down to purchase them. There was some kind of jungle pack. Oh wait. I have a cover for that (Look down below for a scan of the Pokemon first edition jungle pack). Some little kid or parent dropped a pack in the parking lot one night, I found it after leaving at 11:50. I was faced with the option of taking it back inside and putting it in the lost and found, or throwing it in my car and driving home. I opted for the latter, being lazy and selfish, and I have the unopened pack to this day. If you are the kid who lost it, let me know. Going back to the cash register. Books-a-million had a "Millionaires' Club" that you could join for 5 dollars at the time. Basically, you would get 10% off all purchases. Sale items were normally 33% off, but you as a member would get them for 40% off if you had the card. As such, if you were buying 50 dollars worth of merchandise at one time, it was a free card that would then be useful if you ever returned to buy all the copies of Playboy again. For me, each card sold was an extra 50 cents on my paycheck. Now, the only place you could ever talk someone into buying a card was at the register. So you would effectively create a raise for yourself if you could work the register. On my bad days, I could still sell one card an hour, which was fifty cents more a day. When you sold 100 in a week, you would get an extra 50, but I was not going to work the registers all day. Basically, I was willing to give people breaks or open up the backup register when the line got too long. That meant that I usually sold 3-4 a day, which was like a 25 cent raise. I could not complain at the time, since I was still filling my car up 5 dollars at a time. Mark's story is funny because one week he missed work because of a boating accident. Well, a drunken water skiing accident. He lost um, one of his testicles. There, I said it. Funny story all around.

Pain Lies on the Cover
		Written In Blood
		Bound In Human Flesh
Horror and Action in the Midst A mother will always be there, but women are not promised to be there. The horror of a mother's killing gang and a daughter that could not take any more of the killing. Death of many men who could not take any more of the killing. Marrying a killer in the midst of your mother, and having her cook for Mom. The life with a man who values no woman's life. In the home of a mother and father, the death of a young beauty queen The love, the passion, and the killing. Retail Price: $20.97

Help the Children Well
Information Is Power
A View Too Far
This is a view from the information desk, run through an inking filter on photoshop. I did work a lot of customer service. Basically putting books out, reorganizing shelves, and everything else I did slowly allowed me to find books that were in the wrong sections. I knew what mistakes different workers would make, and I could apply their logic and figure out where they would have placed a book. I really felt proud sometimes when I managed to find the book. Of course, customer service also had the bad stuff. You had to call people to let them know their book had come in. You had to answer the phone with stupid catch phrases "Thank a million for calling books-a-million, home of the best summer sale ever, how may I help you?". You normally had to deal with people who could not find the specific book that they wanted, which means that you were the physical representation of the corporation that was making their life more difficult.

Front of the Store
		Late At Night
		Parking Lots Are Empty
This is the front of the store.

Working at BAM

Big props to Nhan Nguyen. Without his motivation, I would not have gotten a job. It was a pretty fun job, I rarely saw anyone I knew, but that made it a better service type job. What would I have said to people?

I will probably tell people that I developed my foosball skill at my job at East3. That is true, but something that no one really knows is that I developed all my yo-yo skill here at this humble bookstore. Before coming here, I was aware that yo-yos went up and down, but I did not know that real yo-yos will spin as they stay down, allowing you to walk the dog, go around the world, or rock the cradle. This was a useful skill to add to my ability to juggle. So, thank you books-a-million, you helped me learn a valuable life skill while also paying me.

The first two managers I met were Brice and Lori. They eventually quit and moved on to bigger and better things. We were then left with Phil, Gabriel, and Lynn. Managers came and went. Circle of life stuff here.

I remember seeing Phil around town once. That's about all that ever resulted from BAM in terms of contact. Actually, there was a guy named Ben who worked in the coffee shop (who dated Missy Miles!), but we never hung out on weekends or anything. But I will say he was too cool for the job. Nhan and I were possibly also too cool for the job, but I could not have imagined myself doing much better. I liked starting work at 1 pm or 4 pm. What was I going to do at midnight on a Wednesday any ways during the summer? Honestly! I would have just wasted it, and I also would not have gotten to clean out the bathrooms....oh wait. I am a fool.

Worst Book

Everyone asks me what was the worst book I ever saw. Actually, that isn't true.

But I will say that lots of books have been horrible in content or concept. I saw tons of books. I was the one in charge of cycling the serial romances each month, for goodness sakes! (Actually, I have tried to start saying "Oh, your god", but it isn't yet on the tip of my tongue when strange things happen. Catch phrases really do take time.) To return to my analysis of the worst book...I guess I I never read any books...so I must just them by their covers. And if you look through the images on this page, you will see I found one where the packaging was very poor. I do not know who decided to make it this bad, but someone did. Books like these do not just happen, there is conscious thought. The text does not make sense to me. Also, I have confirmation that someone at another BAM (Lyle) saw this book at his, and had a similar reaction to the packaging.

I have decided to write down the text in case you have trouble reading it. Basically, you can squint at the book to make sure I am not just pulling your chain. I am taking a small risk here, if the author ever googles her title or one of those choice phrases, I have no doubt she will find this test. It is a risk I am willing to take for comedy.

Everything Else

Finally, I recall that a girl named Michelle worked at the Register from 8-4 each weekday. A guy named Darryl (who also had a day job in the Worker's Comp Section of the State Government) worked customer service on nights and weekends. My second summer, Gabe had become the general manager of the store, which had really transformed the whole nature of the place. Having a single stable head manager for 12 months meant that people seemed more in touch with what was going on, etc. There were more breaks, and no one seemed to get fired or anything, of course, which was nice.

Finally, I was at one point told that perhaps I should drop out of college and start a career in the BAM franchise. Thanks, but no thanks at this point. Perhaps once I have a law degree...but I don't know. Time will tell, I suppose. I have yet to revisit this specific BAM, I guess I have feared for the last three years that the same people would still be working there.

The End. (For now!)

Data Points

Worked: Summer 98, Winter 98, Summer 99

Hired by: Lori

Managers: Bruce, Lori, Lynn, Gabe, Andy, Pam?,

Horror and Action in the Midst