cainroth

As requested: the life of a bookseller. Well Im actually not a bookseller. Technically Im on the IPT, or Inventory Process Team. We are the trained team of shelving monkeys that make sure there are books for Booksellers to um sell. Were the group that arrives at the store at 6:00 am and immediately begins to run screaming through the store like insane persons throwing books at the shelves where ever we damn well feel like it. And we froth at the espresso machine. Its so much cleaner then frothing at the mouth.

Bookseller do this:

1.) Help the customers. 2.) Make the books sell by making them look pretty or piling them up in the right ways. 2a.) Make sure the store is nice and neat and tidy. 3.) Be helpful and knowledgeable about all things book related. There are of course tons of other little things that need to be done as well, but those are the main responsibilities.

Where as IPT goes like this:
1.) Help the customers. 2.) Get the books (and stuff) from the boxes onto the sales floor as fast as possible. 3.) Be helpful and knowledgeable about all things book related. 4.) Control the Inventory (by doing deadwood pulls, etc).

Generally Booksellers arrive at about 9:00 and work the floor. Their job consists of wandering around the store alphabetizing; straightening, and making sure books look like they should be purchased by whoever happens to walk by and see them. All the while they help people find what they are looking for. Well thats the ideal anyway. And if you work at any other Borders in NE thats what youd be doing. In our store booksellers usually stand around behind the info desk and answer questions all day. Then they talk to each other while IPT members do their job and our own.

Theres a whole reorganization thing going on right now (new GM), and the IPT team is well organized about it and ahead of the booksellers in the Nashua store. Thats really the only reason for the discrepancy between what they should be doing and what they are doing.