In the last couple days of closing down Westgate there were a couple of stores that were willing to take me on. I am incredibly grateful for their offers. It was a VERY last minute phone call that I answered[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged Closing Westgate
25 results.
There were quite a few phone calls that happened but for me it came down to one specific phone call.
When we got down to the final few boxes no matter what we did to keep our spirits up there was a bit of a melancholy mood in the air. Packing up a store was some of the most fun[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
While for the most part closing Westgate went smoothly, there were a couple hangers-on that weren’t really adding anything to the work in any meaningful way. Eventually we ran out of things for them to do that kept them away[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There was a lot of music playing during the closing. Many Disney songs, a lot of metal, Pandora radio was taken advantage of, basically anything we ever wanted to listen to out on the sales floor we listened to. The[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It was quite liberating to wear street clothes to work. It was also very odd to see everyone else doing the same thing. After so many years seeing my coworkers in business casual type attire day in and day out[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
When closing a store down for good don’t forget that there are still moments to take advantage of to have fun. I’ll just leave this here… I also got a great email from Tera about what she went through closing[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
For a lot of the employees, December 31st was the last day of work at Westgate. For others we had another two weeks of work packing up what wasn’t sold. Due to how employment was handled, those with tenure were[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Answering a lot of calls like this was painful. Hearing that phone ring and knowing what normal question is asked on New Year’s Eve, but it wasn’t a normal New Year’s Eve. It was the last day of Westgate. A[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This was the worst part of closing Westgate. I made some awesome friends while working there. Not being able to see them on a regular basis was pretty depressing. We all did our best to hold get-togethers and game nights[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In the normal retail world, the day after Christmas leaves the store pretty desolate. But if you act fast, and are blessed with an early delivery, you can restock in preparation for all those who have a gift card burning[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Christmas Eve was when it really hit me. In one week Westgate was going to close. The signs were all around. Sections of the store that were once filled to the brim with books were now empty and taped off.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
When the news spread that I was doing the story about how Westgate closed someone made a request for me to do a comic about how many bookmarks had to have white dot stickers. It took all day. Stickering every[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It was incredibly sad to have to consolidate the different sections of the store. Selling books and not having replenishment books come in was really depressing. All those empty shelves. This was all compounded by the fact that we were[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This is as close as possible to what was actually announced in one of our morning meetings during the closing of Westgate. What an insensitive tool. You bet we called the HR hotline after that. HR probably had 30 irate[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This email from Leanne got me thinking about the situation that I went through: “Just wanted to let you know about my bookstore closing. Hope you can make comic out something. I have worked for Waldenbooks, Brentanos & then Borders.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
These people were the worst. They come to you with feigned concern, thinking that the question they’ll be asking won’t come off as unbelievably tacky. “It’s sad you’re losing your job, are you going to lower the discount more than[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
During the closing of the store there was VERY little for people to transfer to. So not only were you dealing with the hatred of those who were terrible coworkers who had higher tenure than you and that they’d be[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Sometimes customers suck. Sometimes, when your store is closing, customers REALLY suck. John shared his experience with me about an extremely sucky customer. My faith in humanity has lessened once again.
The first panel was a question I had to field. We had quite a few people angry that their local bookstore was closing. The best we could answer was, “we want to stay here but the mall owner wants us[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
To see the special white dot clearance stickers come through the store was when it really started to sink in. Westgate was going to close. No amount of quickly drawn happy faces on the stickers would change the outcome. Neither[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The worst part of closing the store was knowing that the company didn’t want to close. It would’ve been happy to just continue its day to day business at Westgate. The mall’s owner on the other hand wanted more money.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’m grateful for all the responses and emails that I’ve already gotten! It’s been barely a day! Thank you all so much! I’ll add again that I’m not stopping the Bookseller comic. The purpose of this story line is to[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’m going to say this upfront. I’m not stopping Mike: Bookseller. I have way too many emails I still need to get around to and I’m so very grateful for all your stories that are sent my way and the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
