Memories

Today marks the one year anniversary of the last day of Borders 0647, Middletown, NY.   A large group of us consisting of current and former employees reunited to spend a few final moments in the store and to remember and celebrate all the great times we had.  The meet-up looked a little like this...



Like Lou Grant treasured the staff at WJM, we truly treasured each other.  We even worked with a couple of knuckleads like Ted Baxter!  As our blog's welcome statement says, "Borders was more than a job for us - it was a way of life and a family..."  Fortunately, just like Mary and her friends, we learned that moment wasn't the end but the beginning.  We have this lovely blog and most of us meet up once a month.  I am truly blessed, as I am sure my colleagues will agree, to have made true life long friends from our time together at Borders.  Regardless, we miss our Borders days terribly.  Rebecca T., made this lovely video that makes me teary every time I watch it.



That video highlights some of the great times we had together.  I gathered up the gang on Facebook to show some more of our favorite memories with you.

Our last schedule, with our name badge remnants

Alan enjoyed the "zombies vs. unicorns" debate.  Meanwhile we all still chuckle when ever we think of Alan's closing announcements when he would put on his best "Terminator" voice and inform customers that the store would be closing soon and they better "get to the choppa..."

Jess P. has "so many awesome memories...Jenn, I always loved our GH/AMC recaps.  It was funny when customers and/or staff overheard us! Also I think it was the DVD release for 'Twilight' or 'New Moon' when we had the Twilight movie awards and all Jenn N kept saying was "sparkles!" in a sing songy voice. Finally there was the time I caught [a shoplifter] and saved close to $700 from walking out of the store....The most bittersweet moment to me was doing the final walkthrough of the store, and shutting the lights off. It was more than a store to me, it was my home away from home..." 

I remember the Twilight parties fondly as well.  We had two, one for the release of the novel "Eclipse," and another for one of the DVDs.  Corporate had sent us a packet of instructions as to what games we should lead our customers in.  The packet kept using the word sparkle, as the vampires sparkle.  For some reason, I thought of Oprah and how she'd introduce the Cullens. It'd go something like, "Let's bring out the Cullens, they SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARKLE!!"  .a' know excited she'd get that is where the sing-songy thing Jess mentions came from, lol,

My little impressions must've been a hit because Melanie's favorite moment was " Jenn's Adrienne Curry and Christopher Knight impersonation."  Melanie couldn't always catch the reality show, "My Fair Brady," so I would reenact scenes from it rather than just tell her because it was just too much fun.  

Rachel and I had some great times together too.  I was pleased to hear one of my favorite moments was hers too.  She loved, "Screaming 'MO WILLEMS YOU A WEREPANTHER' with Jenn, or any other time Jenn and I talked about 'True Blood'."  She also loved anytime our favorite customer brought us pastries, making borders party mixes and having said mixes banned from the overhead, javanilla shakes, cocoa trio sauce, RPL, staff picks. I miss it all."



I apologize to Mo Willems for calling him a werepanther but this memory occurred during the werepanther season of True Blood and we had a little misunderstanding about Mr. Willems during BEA and this joke began.  Rachel also neglected to mention that her impressions of "True Blood," characters in particular her impression of Tara Thorton could make me laugh so hard that it was hard to breathe.

Mallory, like Melanie, was with me when we first opened Borders in October 2005.  Mallory's favorite memory is singing a little song with me while we worked.  We had been instructed to tape these security tags, known as chicklets, onto CDs and DVDs.   I started singing "tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, tape you chicklet..." to the tune of "Shake Your Booty."  She also fondly remembers "info parties," which is the term the managers used when too many of us hang out by the info desk chatting.  

Rebecca T., remembers "I loved all of the release parties that we did - particularly Breaking Dawn because Claire and I were in charge and we just threw our whole selves into it and we had all the tape all over the floor and Larry went and bought a tux t-shirt on his break so he would fit in with the "prom" theme. Also, this one is for Claire Bear - 'Hey LADY!' and when we went out to the diner for break on one of our overnights. Walking up to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch and gabbing about anything and everything in the break room."  

As for me, I cherish the fact that I was a part of so many of my colleagues memories.  I loved all of those moments too.  I loved talking about soaps with Jess P.   I can still crack her up with my impression of Crystal from "All My Children."  Rachel is one of my favorite people to discuss "True Blood," with and Mallory and Melanie were there with me at the beginning.

I also love that we always made the best out of awkward situations.  Our ceiling flooded frequently but we just laughed and grabbed a pail and waited for the mall cops to come and agree, that there was indeed a leak.  As if we'd make that up.  Another time, there was an emergency evacuation of the mall due to some kind of problem with the smoke detectors.  We got everyone out, quickly and efficiently.  There was a brief moment of panic when we couldn't find Larry but before we knew it we were all safe in the parking lot and Larry was doing what did best-cracking jokes. 

With all these great memories, it's hard to believe we got any work done.  However we did and because we all bonded together so well, I think it made the work a lot easier.  We were truly a family and we worked together like a good family should, as a team.  I know we are all thankful for the wonderful times we shared and we'd like to thank all our customers who supported our store for all those years.  We miss you all and we miss it all. 

647 crew Past & Present

Playing Favorites

About a year ago, we learned our beloved Borders would be closing.  Over five years we shared a lot of laughs, love and met some very interesting customers.  For this week's group post, I polled the BWOBNY crew and asked them to share their favorite customer service moment.

"One was when a very lovely lady bought a book about how to find the right man, and then asked me out for coffee. But probably the most memorable moment was when another woman paid for a book by dumping about 5 dollars worth of pennies out of her bag, and an old soda bottle, right on the counter, along with old soda residue, and a suspicious looking hair."




Jennifer P: "Mine is from [when I was working at] Waldenbooks, there was a little boy who would not let go of his book, so mom picked him up and we scanned him too. It's the little things."  

Jess B: "Mine was the day that a customer yelled at me since Einstein was shelved in science and not psychology and that Einstein was a psychologist. After I explained that physicist's study physics and that psychologist study psychology, she still didn't believe me and walked off."


"A woman walked into the kids room where I was working and whispered to me 'I need help finding a book for my little girl about the changes.' I brought her over to the section and then stayed with her until she had gotten the right book for her. I sat on the floor with her and went through the section book by book. She was appreciative for the effort and thanked me profusely, and even told [my boss] about what a big help I was to her."




Rachel: "... my favorite customer is obviously [Giovanni] because he was always so sweet and genuinely cared about all of us."  

Note: Giovanni aka pastry guy was a  generous customer who always brought us tons of goodies from his bakery and tried to help us clean up the store, even though it was our job.  If you're reading this Giovanni, we miss you and hope you're doing well.


 

"... when a young girl, maybe 12 or so came up to me and asked for help with her summer reading list because 'you helped me pick a book out last year and it was really good so I trust you to help me find a good one again.' That one actually made me tear up a little."

As for me, I loved helping customers find just the book they were looking for.  One of my favorites was a teenaged girl who came in once a week with her dad.  She reminded me of myself, at that age, as her dad purchased a stack of books for her that she polished off by the following week.  After awhile, she was looking for new suggestions and I was more than happy to recommend my favorite YA titles.  She'd come back the following week and tell me how much she liked them and wanted to know what I was reading this week.  


As you can see, most of our experiences were positive.  Perhaps, next time we'll share some more customer horror stories?  Jess B's was actually pretty tame.