Chekhov’s Mistess

The Strand Bookstore Sucks

There. Now I’ve said it and got it out of my system. This massive used-bookstore, boasting “18 miles of books” has always been the most overrated shop in the city. It’s prices aren’t that great and selection is large but not remarkable. The staff is notoriously unfriendly and today caused me to not want to go there any more.

The Strand is the only major bookstore in the city that makes you check your bag. This often causes you to have to wait in line just to get in and out of the door, but I’ve always chalked that up to the problems facing a retailer. Typically, if you have a computer in your bag, you weren’t supposed to check it because, I imagine, the company didn’t want to be liable for it. Now, there’s a new policy. After standing in line, waiting for a security guard whose sluggishness would do a DMV clerk proud, I told her that I had a computer in my bag. She brought over another guard who told me that I would have to take the computer out of the bag and check the bag while I carried the computer around the store (without even a bag to carry it in!). I told them they could take the computer, but they said no, I would have to take the computer out of the bag.

With all the great bookstores in New York City, why would I want to stand in line, then unpack my bags and carry a computer around while I check out a mediocre bookstore? I won’t even go back there for a reading. Strand, you suck! Ahhhh.

comments

The strand is one of the worst bookstores I’ve ever been to!

    – kenchen (04/11  at  03:31 PM)

ouch, that really blows. i go to strand every once and a while, but just to see if there are any books that would look nice on my bookshelf (really), and i never browse the actual collection inside. just the $2 books outside.

have fun on amazon!

    – russell (04/11  at  04:41 PM)

I couldn’t agree more, they are really terrible, the service is horrible and most of the books are never really a bargain. At my last job we give them books by the boxes and they always acked like they were doing us a favor with the attitude.

    – Nazimul (04/11  at  07:34 PM)

This sounds like almost every other used bookstore in the United States.  Paranoid proprietors who assume that the whole of their clientele are inveterate criminals who will lift all the the books from their shelves.  Hence, these Stalinist tactics.

    – ed (04/11  at  07:55 PM)

I hate it too.

My one good Strand story depends on their incompetence: years ago, I was whiling away an afternoon there--really taking my time (I was in grad school, must be)--and found a first edition in good condition (no jacket, but otherwise good) of Gertrude Stein’s _Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas_ filed in Biography under “T.” $3.00.

I get the incompetence; I am staggered by their weird rudeness to you--and the idea that that’s a policy; I have no comprehension of how or why they insist on the superior attitude.

    – Anne (04/12  at  01:55 AM)

Try the Strand Annex on Fulton St. You won’t be disappointed by their selection or helpful staff.

    – Linda (04/12  at  12:24 PM)

No, I’ve never been to the Strand Bookstore NYC. I have sniffed self entitlement (to prudish arrogance) tho before; in bookstores (independents AND chains, the bastards). A dear friend of mine worked in Bookstore Santa Cruz for several years where the public are, as has been described to me, really rude and spoiled and they tend to steal.

Bookstores are notorious for paying minimal wages, short changing the underpaid staff by hours, and yet expecting these book underlings and lovers to watch the stacks for thieves, to cost for used books, to create attractive displays to induce selling. Under those work conditions, I’d be pit angry myself, lost on where to put my nose, schizophrenic in my understanding on whether my job was prestigious or a load of wank. It would make for a dangerous figure among a dependant, needing to be served, and presumably literate crowd.

Reminds me of lit professors; technically “readers”. And theorists. Everybody wishing they themselves could write well at all. Likewise, and I’m just guessing, the staff at the Strand would do anything to right the injustice(s). Human nature at its ugliest; who didn’t know it wouldn’t be found along an eighteen mile stretch of books?

    – Ginab (04/12  at  12:49 PM)

I have to say, the Strand’s basement art section has given me a bunch of good deals in the past (lugging those large books around NYC was not such a deal though). I tend to go right for the basement.

    – Derik (04/12  at  12:50 PM)

The Strand is not totally without their merits, but they are overrated. I too, like Anne, have gotten a good deal there because of mispricing.

And Linda, I do like the Annex better (and I never fail to stop by the kiosk uptown at the park when I’m around there - the guys who were working there last summer bantered with one another hilariously). The annex is much higher ranked in my list (linked to in the post under “great bookstores").

    – Bud Parr (04/12  at  01:10 PM)

I work at a used bookstore and I love it!  It’s really a pity that people would rather mail order than browse the real thing. 

It’s so true that skilled buyers are paid next to nothing and get called “incompetent” for making any sort of error (Anne, are you sure your Stein isn’t a book club edition or a later printing of a first [without a jacket, this category of hardcover is worth *much* less]?  That it doesn’t have mildew?  That the bookseller didn’t price it at $3.00 instead of $30 by accident, in which case, you lucked out?).  Customers (such as Anne) hold booksellers to extraordinarily high standards and are very unforgiving, I guess because people associate the written word with intelligence or perfection.  I often have to work extra hard to disabuse customers of the notion they have walking in to the store; that I am a condescending intellectual snob who will judge everyone on their taste in reading.  Sheesh, how could I be a snob when I know that my standard of living is laughably, ridiculously low?  How could I, when I’m so stupidly idealistic that I hang on to my job despite this?  I was called an “incompetent twit” for having to look a book up on a computer because I was unfamiliar with the (obscure) author.  Anne calls the bookseller incompetent for filing the autobiography of AB Toklas under “T”—but if a bookstore has more than one copy of a book, doing something along these lines is par-for-the-course. . . that is, the customer who browses because they assume the staff is too unfriendly to approach might look under “T” instead of “S” for a variety of reasons—perhaps a friend recommended the book and they remember the title but don’t remember the author (and, out of fear that they will be laughed at by some condescending snob, they are reticent to ask anyone).  Or the person looking for a particular edition of War and Peace might not find what they’re looking for but stumble across the Stein in the process and then see the great price and then buy the book and leave happy.  Instead of grumbling. 

The average bookseller does what they do because they love books.  But love comes at great personal sacrifice, meaning, poverty.

And in big cities, I’m afraid, used bookstores lose loads of money to book thieves, which is part of the reason booksellers aren’t paid a living wage.  Here in San Francisco the theives work in organized groups.  I’ve caught them—they find the first editions on the shelves and mark them.  Later, the second thief distracts the worker by bringing in boxes of books to sell and asking lots of questions.  The third partner carries out the “reject” box—into which they scoop those marked first editions.  They then sell those books on ebay or ABEBOOKS or Amazon.  It’s big business.  Asking people to check their bags is smart—it really is too bad that it’s inconvenient.  But unlike jewelry stores in which the merchandise is kept locked up, booksellers know that books are meant to be touched, that the beauty of books is sensual and tactile.  Or maybe it’s just the booksellers who revere books in this way? 

I haven’t been to The Strand, though I’ve always wanted to see it.  I’m sorry that used bookstores get such a bad rap because The Strand isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  I’m sorry that the books there don’t seem to be worth their market value (which, ironically, is drvien up artificially by online booksellers).  I hope I’m not the only one who’s devastated if and when these spaces disappear.

    – ing (04/12  at  03:18 PM)

This prank on The Strand is sure to make you laugh…

http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=55

    – zan (04/21  at  10:46 AM)

I do wonder whether these posts are primarily from NYCers or not. I ask because while Strand does house some socially awkward individuals- it is really easy to shrug off if you are from NYC.

Im not really sure you can discount a resource like Strand for the reasons set above however. Ive met the same complaints in used bookstores across the country- lets face it, often the self-selection of bookstore owners and employees leave you with the Abbie Normals.

I wouldnt mind you not shopping there however, its crowded enough as it is.

    – paul (07/29  at  11:44 AM)

I love the Strand, and would give an eye tooth to be able to browse through its shelves even if only monthly, and then happily would I leave my lap top at home!  Problem is I live 2,000 miles away so I am limited to browsing online at Strandbooks.com, except for the occasional annual visits to NYC.  It is still a treasure trove Online! For I am continually finding books that I want at Strandbooks.com that can’t be found anywhere else in the country.  Also, I am sorry to have to point this out, but I’d much prefer to check my bag at the Strand, than to be video taped by surveillance cameras which most all of the stores now have, even if you can’t see their lenses. I like quaint and old fashioned ways of doing things. The Strand has an ambience that is unique, and one of a kind.  Booklovers love the Strand.

    – Pauline (09/09  at  04:39 AM)

Pauline, since you live so far away perhaps you don’t know about all the wonderful bookstores that are not only so much more friendly than the Strand, but also fit the bill of what you say are “quaint and old fashioned” like, for example, Gotham Book Mart, Three Lives & Co. or Mercer Books, Freebird Books or Court Books in Brooklyn; These shops are indeed book lovers’ stores.

If you lived here you would know that you could spend all your time going to great independent bookstores and never miss the strand - even within a few minutes walk of the strand I can name a 1/2 dozen alternatives. For a partial list see the post of mine I’ve linked to at the bottom of this comment.

Frankly, around here we live by supporting independent shops. Not just in books, but groceries and all sorts of things. You would appreciate, since you like old fashioned, that we still go to a butcher for our meat where they know my son, we go the another store down the block for our vegetables where they too know my son, and so on. So I think I know where you’re coming from.

In many of the bookstores I go to, I know (by conversation) the owner or some of the employees - and we talk about books. You can’t do that at the Strand. So next time you’re in town, try out some of the really amazing bookstores that we have here and you might change your opinion.

Here’s an incomplete list of some of the great bookstores here:

http://www.chekhovsmistress.com/2005/04/new_york_city_i.html

    – Bud Parr (09/09  at  09:19 AM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: April 11, 2006
• Filed Under:
  Dependent Children of Independent Bookstores

Tags: Dependent Children of Independent Bookstores

• Comments:14
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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