Kathy, are you working at a big chain bookstore? Either way, how did you get the job and how many hours do you work? I'm thinking about a bookstore job, but I have no retail experience (other than being a bank teller in 1995-6), and I'm not psyched about the idea of having to do 20 more hours a week. Any thoughts?

Teppy, how much fun to watch that arc with somebody who has never seen it!

And yes, I have the badly needed empty plasticware with lids.

Jesse, I work at B&N. I started there back in early July, and I'll admit that it's really exhausting. Of course, I am 41, and my body is still pretty out of shape, even with my working out. I'm only working 10-15 hours a week for right now, but I'm sure that'll go up for the holidays. I did just buy some better quality shoes (NurseMates) that I'll be getting before my next shift, so I hope my energy level will improve with my feet.

I just walked into the store at the end of June and asked if they were hiring. Luckily for me, they had four openings, and we have about that many again right now, what with college kids heading back to school and a few teachers doing the same. I did have experience (seven years at Waldenbooks), so once I soothed the manager's fears about my working two jobs (I told him that my commute is pretty short now that I've moved up here), I got hired right away at 75 cents more than the other new hires were getting (IL minimum wage of $7.50/hour).

Bookstore work is fun, and if you're a people person, I really do recommend it if you're looking for more income. But, being on your feet for hours on end is tiring, and you do have to deal with customers of all types, from wonderful people (the majority, IMO) to some real jerks. The good thing about working at a bookstore is that customers automatically assume you to be possessing of a brain and intelligence (being around books conveys smarts, which everyone knows). Also, you do get to chat up your favorite titles, and after a while, you do get regular customers who will ask you for your recommendations.

Even without retail experience, you have reliability and work experience on your side, over a lot of the high school/college age kids that they do hire. These are both huge pluses, and if you can convey book knowledge in the interview, you'll be way ahead of most applicants.

If you decide to apply, make sure you set aside at least one night a week that you're not available at all, so you can be assured of having one night you can always count on being off.

Smaller mall bookstores (like Waldenbooks) do have the pluses of fewer hours (my Waldens was open 10-9 M-Sat, 11-6 Sun, vs. B&N 9-10 M-Th, 9-11 Fri-Sat, 10-9 Sun) and smaller stores means that you get cross-trained on just about everything very quickly, and you do get to jump from customer service to register and back again, with shelving/straightening in between. At the big box stores, you're assigned one location with occasional backing up at the register if you're doing customer service, and running all over the store to take customers to their books can add up on the pedometer. But, you don't get as many "just browsing" people at the box store as at the mall. Also, it's nice getting to use the discount on more than just books (CDs and DVDs are 20%, and everything else is 30% off, with the cafe being 50% off).

Thank you so much for all this info! Many things I wouldn't have thought of, and it makes me think I should go talk to someone in the small indie in Grand Central and not the enormo B&N I was thinking about. I'm thinking about it, because I have this idea that I want to open a bookstore, but I've never even worked in one, so really, what am I thinking?

We've had the most glorious two days here. Low 70's weather, sunny, with a breeze. Today I got to meet my friend's 7 month old baby. She was so cute, happy and mellow. She had an odd desire to grab my teeth. I think she was curious what a full set felt like, since she only had three.

The funniest thing was the reaction of my cat Clio to the baby. She walked in the living room and was like "Oooo, people!" so she was sniffing everything new, until she got about a foot away from the baby, who was asleep on a blanket on the floor. Suddenly Clio turned her head, realized she was standing next to a tiny human, and jumped back about a foot. I don't think she realized people came so small. She spent the rest of the night giving the baby a wide berth.

In other news, it's truly been a Labour Day weekend. I've beieng doing a lot of labour! I've finished painting the dining room and put down a new rug. I've done laundry, mowed the lawn, vaccuumed twice. I'm almost ready for bed.

Definitely work in the field for a bit before deciding if you want to open your own store! You get a feel for what your neighborhood is looking for in books--and there are different tastes in various places, depending on education levels, ethnic makeup, families-vs-singles, etc. I will admit to prefering the smaller-store experience of Waldenbooks over B&N so far, and I think that, after I get some bills paid off and some electronics replaced here, I'll probably end up quitting within a year or so.

Jesse, that's very exciting. I totally have opening my own business fantasies lately. Either some kind of bakery/pie shop or my real dream would be a rep. cinema.

Well, there's only one (weird) bookstore in my neighborhood and beyond into Queens, which is why I think it could work, but it does mean there's no way to find out about actual local tastes other than by demographics and guessing.

It's really just a pipe dream at this point, but I'm starting to read about business planning and stuff, so taking Actual Steps. Kind of.

It was over 100 for the third day on a row today. The good side of this is that the DH has an expensive review car this week, a Land Rover--and it has much better AC than our house. It even has air-conditionoed seats! We were out running errands and then to a dinner yesterday, and out all day today, going to EVERY FURNITURE STORE IN CALIFORNIA to look for a chair which doesn't cost a zillion bucks and trying to find a non-hideous wall sconce for our living room. Didn't find either, but we did stay cool.