Doesn't Recommend

funnyasL

Joined 3 years ago

A Mixed Review. I really want to like this place. I love books and magazines. And I do go there--mostly because it's so convenient and I tell myself it's not that bad. But I've left there feeling really frustrated more than once.

I've shopped at a lot of bookstores and I'm used to books being organized with the bestsellers/new books up front or in some other prominent place, divided into fiction and nonfiction.

I was looking for a particular book I'd heard about on The Daily Show, and though I knew I'd recognize the cover and the author's name if I saw them, I couldn't even find the new nonfiction.

So I trotted back to the information desk and when someone finally arrived to help me, I asked where the new nonfiction books were. The young man seemed perplexed, didn't seem to understand what that was. So I explained again what I was looking for ("Nonfiction?" "Hardcover?" "New?"), and he began walking toward the front of the store with me trailing behind. When we arrived there, he looked vaguely right and left, then held his arm out and gestured with a circular movement just shy of a pirouette, and saying, "Should be around here somewhere."

Uhm, yeah, thanks.

To be fair, I have also had a staff member there try really hard to find a book for me when other, less dedicated staffers would have long since given up. But even he and his tenacity could not make up for the poor organization of this store.

I've also been ignored there when the staff apparently thought they were at a kegger. I like for people to have fun at work; I think it's essential, but not at the expense of customers who, after being left to run fruitlessly through the Books-A-Million maze, leave empty-handed. Who's minding this store?

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Editorial Review by Citysearch Editors. Founded in 1917, book retailer offers an extensive selection including bargain titles, magazines, collectible supplies, cards, gifts and specialty sections.