Eh, being given "scripts" in retail is quite common. Whenever there is any sort of media coverage on an issue, changes in the product, or ways that they want you to phrase a particular sale, they give you a script.
It's over. I'm SUCH a die-hard Powell's customer.. I've spent tens of thousands there over the decades, then sold back everything so I could respend. And yet I bought a kindle a few months ago and love it. That's it, I'm done with 'real' books. My husband too. Sorry, e-readers are just better.
PDXwahine - except it's far less likely Time Warner will walk up to you and pull your paperback out of your hands. The e-quivalent has already happened on the Kindle.
Oh but it's not JUST retail-- it's working in a book store, dammit! And a really credible one at that! The people that work there must be hyper-intelligent and well-read and would be out there changing the world if they just didn't love reading so damn much. Just like the cashiers at Wal-Mart.
@Matt I'm super late on this reply, and I am a HUGE anti-DRM person.. I pirate most everything. Did I say that? I meant the opposite. Anyway.. the books I buy, I read. After that, if they take them away.. it's no worse than how I used to lose the fuckers under the bed or something. A book is for now.
I don't fight current DRM, I just ignore it and go around. They really hate that. :) I know a book is a book and has a pleasant physical presence, but I'm getting old. The text on my kindle is a certain size, which I can make bigger if I need. If I finish a book in bed at 3 am, I can buy another one right then. The kindle is lighter than most books, ESPECIALLY hardbacks. I don't have to resell them later. :)
Regarding the script to assist us in talking to customers about the layoffs (not all Powell’s front line employees got it, by the way): Powell’s could have provided a script about the fact that we sell e-books. Customers would not have learned this from any of the company’s statements regarding the layoffs, which solely addressed the problems caused to our business by e-books.
Maybe Powell’s was right not to mention the fact that we sell e-books, given that staff was given no training or preparation for answering questions about them. This training has still not occurred, nor to my knowledge is any planned. A (union) co-worker at my location has taken it upon himself to educate the rest of us, with no compensation or recognition for his initiative.
Powell’s corporate has no idea of the quality and caliber of the people who work for them. We love our jobs, our customers, our co-workers, and our books. The layoffs cut at the heart of everything that makes us want to work at Powell’s in spite of its clueless and incompetent upper management. If you’re a Powell’s customer, thank you, we love you—truly—but please ask yourself a few things. Why were layoffs the first resort, not the last? Why did the company make no effort to work with the union to avoid, or at least mitigate, them? And why were more than 7% of union workers laid off but not a single manager?
A-Thanks for your interest and concern. Yes, he did.
BOOKS ALL THE WAY!!! BOOKS ALL THE WAY!!!
I don't fight current DRM, I just ignore it and go around. They really hate that. :) I know a book is a book and has a pleasant physical presence, but I'm getting old. The text on my kindle is a certain size, which I can make bigger if I need. If I finish a book in bed at 3 am, I can buy another one right then. The kindle is lighter than most books, ESPECIALLY hardbacks. I don't have to resell them later. :)
I'm sold.
Maybe Powell’s was right not to mention the fact that we sell e-books, given that staff was given no training or preparation for answering questions about them. This training has still not occurred, nor to my knowledge is any planned. A (union) co-worker at my location has taken it upon himself to educate the rest of us, with no compensation or recognition for his initiative.
Powell’s corporate has no idea of the quality and caliber of the people who work for them. We love our jobs, our customers, our co-workers, and our books. The layoffs cut at the heart of everything that makes us want to work at Powell’s in spite of its clueless and incompetent upper management. If you’re a Powell’s customer, thank you, we love you—truly—but please ask yourself a few things. Why were layoffs the first resort, not the last? Why did the company make no effort to work with the union to avoid, or at least mitigate, them? And why were more than 7% of union workers laid off but not a single manager?