I’m
taking a wild guess here—but I imagine that 90% of all writers have, at one
time, fantasized about working in a bookstore.
You
know the dream: getting to read all those ARCs and discovering the next great
book, chatting up like-minded literary customers, leisurely wandering among all
the stacks, deciding which book to take home to review. Ah, and if your dream
store includes a café, sipping afternoon coffee or tea with a visiting author.
I
hate to burst the bubble. But, as I found out during my one dip into retail
bookselling, it is hard work. Hard physical work—hefting cartons of books up
from the basement, breaking down cardboard boxes and carting them to the
dumpster. Hard mental work—learning a new computer system for checkout and
looking up obscure titles. And hard emotional work (at least for the introverts
among us)—remaining unfailingly polite and helpful even when your feet ache
from hours of standing and you’d really rather catch up on unpacking cartons
than make small talk with yet one more customer who just wants to chat, not
necessarily buy. (And let’s not even talk about the rats who snap photos of
book covers with their smartphones so they can order on Amazon later.)
But
those lessons were all ahead of me when I got the invitation to work part-time
for a couple of months at my local bookstore, McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington
Village near Chapel Hill. A valued employee was taking some family leave, and
they needed someone to fill in over the Christmas holidays. Would I (a fan of
the bookstore and frequent customer) be interested? Would I? You bet!
I
started with enthusiasm, and appreciated the staff’s support and training, from
the incredibly hard-working owner Keebe Fitch (she hoped to turn me into a bookselling
Ninja—alas, I never lived up to that expectation); manager Pete Mock, mystery
guru extraordinaire and, behind his grumpy persona, one of the kindest guys
ever; and Katherine Pinard, who, with great patience and a sense of humor,
showed me the ropes before she left for her brief Sabbatical.
To
be fair to myself, I was pretty good at “hand selling”—encouraging customers to
consider this or that favored book. And I had a good attitude, taking to heart
the store’s mantra of positive customer service. But the computer system
sometimes baffled me, and a couple of sales disappeared into cyberspace
forever. The hard physical work, even for a part-timer, surprised me.
I
came away from my experience with a renewed appreciation for what it takes to
run a successful independent bookstore. The old cliché comes to mind: ducks
appearing to sail serenely on a pond, while paddling madly under the surface of
the water. Considerable work and nonstop attention to books and customers are
critical to an indy’s success. Basically, you have to love what you do to make
it worthwhile.
And
the McIntyre’s team does. And it shows. This month, they celebrate 25 years of
being in business—an impressive achievement for any small bookstore. Hats off
to you, McIntyre’s, for working hard to make it look easy!
http://www.fearrington.com/village-shops/mcintyres-books/
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