If you’re looking for a good stop-gap job where you’ll be working with interesting people then you can’t go wrong with Waterstone’s. If, however, you want to be a career bookseller in the old school sense then that’s another matter.

Basic pay will be minimum wage, possibly a few pence over. Don’t expect to get rich!

I’ve just printed off an application form. I’m in my last year of University and I’m looking for a job to get me by until i decide what my next step is going to be!

What i was wondering was, is what they pay you pay the hour for working there. I’ve been on the site and also on the net and tried to research it but I can’t seem to find the hourly rate of pay anywhere. Could you let me know by any chance?

Get back to me, because then i’ll know whether I should bother applying or whether i should just screw up the application right now!

I buy regularly at Border’s, and occasionally get a discount voucher on my till receipt for a future purchase. In addition, I am on a Borders mailing list and get regular voucher offers by e-mail. All of these offers are valid for any book.

The Waterstone’s Christmas voucher book is very poor. Virtually all the offers are for specific books, the sort that I wouldn’t want anyway.

Yesterday I found my local Waterstone’s had stickered an out-of-date edition of a book I wanted with “£4 off”. I asked if the discount could be transferred to the latest edition and was told flatly “no”. I suppose the idea is that customers will buy up the out of date books, and will probably not even realise that a newer edition is available further along on the same shelf.

I know that in Lancaster public library they just check for book details on Amazon,because it’s easier to use than their own catalogue!

What I really wanted to draw everyone’s attention to though was a fablous quote in the Guardian yesterday.

Someone (like may of us I suppose, who are realising rather guiltily that we’ve not read any Orhun Pamuk) went in and got a copy of Snow from Border.

“I suppose you’re selling a lot of this at the moment”, he said.
Sales assistant: “Er, no, not really. Why?”

I *hope* that wouldn’t happen in Waterstones.

I dont go there any more since they started asking you to pay for your book in advance. If it’s coming from America that can take weeks and weeks.

And over the past year or so I’ve found that real bookshops seems to require more and more information before they “can find it on the system”. Now, I’ve learned to go armed with Author, title, ISBN number, publisher, publishing date, where reviewed and my inside leg measurement.

If you’ve worked for Waterstones, as I once did, then you know that range is due to two things…budget – if they don’t make much money, they can’t increase their range much and take a chance on new things; section buyers – if there’s noone buying for computer books, they are all ordered automatically according to sales or scale outs or by the reps. So, it’s really about passion for books, and knowledge that sets them apart. Have you BEEN to a Borders…they have nowhere near the number of knowledgeable staff as W. People who work in a bookshop usually do have a love of books…it’s unusual for them not to. It’s not like Argos, or John Lewis…if you don’t like books, you’re unlikely to apply for a job there. Walk into any W, and ask a bookseller to reccomend something off the top of their head, and be amazed when they don’t just reel off a bestsellers list. After all, word of mouth reccomendations are how quality authors get sales of their books. I’m sick to death of crap authors thinking they’re losing out…why should someone else do all the work for you in promoting ANOTHER Tolkienesque fantasy book?

I still think W has the staff and passion to turn it around, and it looks like they’re doing it. They are not a faceless conglomerate, they are a business AND a bookshop.

“the Managing Director of Waterstone’s, Gerry Johnson, has kindly agreed that members of the Society will be entitled to a 10% discount on all book purchases”

Like Tom I’ve only ever been in the Bullring branch, but compared to any Waterstones branch that’s definitely the one that really feels like a chain shop to me.

Ben makes an interesting point about eBay, Amazon does this with the whole Marketplace thing. Clearly Waterstones should strike a deal with eBay and build a join venture, oh an while were talking about things Waterstones will never do, I suggest they sponsoring Bookcrossing and give away free books.

I don’t think Watersones get it, and you know I’ve only been in one Borders (in the bullring) but it was pretty obvious that they do. It’s a little bit more expensive but it’s an awfully nicer experience, plus they have all those rare magazines that you can’t find anywhere.

Yup. All our friends ran away from Mr Topping, too. Although in his favour they will say that he resisted central ordering and wanted to maintain the distinctive and local flavour that Deansgate had.

Whether or not Waterstones could have survived in the short term without the demise of the NBA and the rise of discounting we’ll never know, but long term it’s fucking them up good and proper. God knows where they go from here. Amazon beat them for backlist and if they compete with Tesco for price on bestsellers then it’s not as if they’ll actually be making any appreciable profit from those titles (and the authors will make precious little too). That pretty much leaves them with customers who don’t shop online who want a bookshop with a cafe in it and object on principle to the Starbucks in Borders.

I have discovered a few gems using Amazon. Looking at the reviews, following links to ‘other people also purchased…’ etc. I love browsing book shops, especially second hand book shops, but Amazon really has got the online market stitched up. Having looked at the Waterstones site, it doesn’t tempt me away from Aamzon. Maybe if they offered free delivery on ALL orders rather than the same £15 threshold that Amazon has.