Yesterday marked my 20 year anniversary as an employee of the Barnes & Noble company (specifically, store 2829 in Bellingham, Massachusetts). I began working there on February 24, 2004 (for the curious, the particular Barnes & Noble I work at first opened its doors to the public in 1996). This was around 7 months after I had graduated from Rhode Island College, and my father (who managed a different Barnes & Noble at that time) pulled some strings to get me an interview there. The interview was conducted by my first manager, Bambi (still my favorite manager of all the ones I had there, mainly out of a sense of loyalty: she was the one who hired me, after all), and even though this interview was strictly a formality I still took it super-seriously. I knew at the time that some people might have pointed out that I got the job via nepotism so I made sure that first year in particular to work super-hard, and indeed in all my years there I’ve almost never coasted or shirked my duties. I was also told early on to not discuss politics with both customers and co-workers, which is advice I’ve almost always followed to the letter (of course, this didn’t stop customers or fellow co-workers with trying to rope me into such discussions, but I would usually defer with some generic Warholism such as “Wow” or “Oh yeah?” or “Gee” whenever the topic arose).
I still remember that first shift well. It was a sunny Tuesday. Earlier in the day I dropped by the job I was leaving (the Stop & Shop supermarket in North Smithfield, where I had worked part-time for 7 years, starting in the spring of 1997) where I formally resigned from my duties. Then later on in the day I drove to work for the first time (it was a route I knew well as I had shopped at the bookstore in question in the past). I didn’t have a tape deck in my car then so I was forced to listen to the radio: I remember that as I arrived at the store “All Apologies” by Nirvana was playing. I spent most of that first shift either in the manager’s office (where the assistant manager on duty walked me through the paperwork), or seated in the café flipping through the various employee handbooks and taking voluminous notes on yellow lined office paper. I remember during my 15 minute break I was given a tour of the store where I met most of my co-workers (almost none of whom work there anymore, with one exception), and in my 30 minute meal break I went to the Newbury Comics across the street where I purchased A.R.E. Weapon’s 2003 self-titled debut album. By the time my meal was done the store was almost closed for the day, so I spent the remainder of my shift cleaning up in the kids section (or more accurately trying to clean as I still didn’t know where everything went). The following day, my second shift, I got my nametag and ID number, and was instructed how to both scan and shelve books. I can even remember one of the books I shelved that second day: the first ERAGON novel.
Initially I was hired to work in the Children’s department fulltime, and that’s mostly what I did my first year in 2004, though there were some shifts where I had to cashier (which I hated doing then, and still hate today: in fact these days I'm more a cashier than anything else, which I'm very unhappy about). It was pretty chill, one of the only stressful events being the one time where the Kids Lead was out and I was forced to do the children’s story time event (the book in question being DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS). Towards the end of the year (around the time that GRAND THEFT AUTO SAN ANDREAS was released) I was promoted to a Lead position, and got my own “Zone” that I had to maintain every month: this Zone was comprised of Games, Humor, Computers, Science & Technology, Nature, Pets, Sports, Study Notes, Reference, Language, Audio Books, Travel, Law, Weddings, Self-Improvement, Home Reference, and Gardening. In many ways that time period I was a Lead (mainly 2005-2007) I kind of see as the store’s Golden Era... I used to enjoy having my own section to maintain, and we had a really great staff: most of the people working at the time were my age and it was a really motley crew of snarky wise-asses and (loveable) malcontents, who were really fun to work with: I had a lot in common with many of my co-workers back then and was much more sociable. But sometime around 2007-2008 they phased out the Lead positions, which always saddened me: the Lead position struck me as a nice middle ground for employees who wanted more responsibilities, yet didn’t want to be managers. For a time I worked as the Newsstand Lead (indeed, I still kind of see the Newsstand as “my” department even though I haven’t worked in it all that much these last few years now), but around 2010-2011 they got rid of that position as well... I think that’s around the time I switched to working part-time, for various reasons. Essentially, for the last 13 years or so I’ve kind of been a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything from cashiering to shelving to zoning to organizational tasks... you name it. Hell, sometimes when the mood struck me and the stars were right I’ve even hand sold books or memberships. The only thing I’ve NEVER done is work in café.
There have been a couple of memorable shifts over the years. The MOST memorable and craziest one was the midnight release party for the sixth Harry Potter book in July of 2005. Maybe I’ll talk about that one some other time. The BREAKING DAWN one in 2008 was nuts as well. I do remember though how different the store was back then, compared to what it later became. Like initially we had no info desk, just various computer kiosks scattered around the store (one of them being located right near Newsstand). Or how when I first started working there the Manga section was just a shelf or two: now it’s like 8 bookcases. Before everything got computerized, we would get a big binder in every month listing all the various projects that needed to be completed, and every day people would have to sign off on what carts they shelved or what sections they zoned... there was more accountability, then. Or how we used to do two children’s story times each week, and would sometimes have costumed characters. We used to sell newspapers, and my first year there we had a book club devoted to Wicca, Tarot and the New Age. We also had a bigger staff: we used to have two people shelving every morning, always had 2 cashiers working the registers, always had two fulltime people in Receiving. At the store’s height (in 2008) we once had a staff of around 45 people... now it’s not even 20. There was a shift last year where I found myself alone on the sales floor for a time, where I had to run the register, open that day’s shipment, shelve that day’s shipment, answer the phone, and help the customers. I remember thinking, “You’re one person trying to do four jobs at once. This isn’t fun anymore. Maybe it’s time to leave.” (I also thought this when I recently cashed out a young woman in her twenties who told me she remembered seeing me when she visited the store with her parents as a child, which made me feel very old).
Other random memories: the customer who was looking for a book by the author “Aesop Fables.” The time that the TWILIGHT books were so huge that Teen Romance briefly got retitled Teen Paranormal Romance. The time our store had a yellowjacket infiltration a few years ago (I still shiver thinking about that one). The time we got our first Nook eReader demo device and had to stand by it at all times as if we were guarding some holy relic. Laughing at crank calls and the woodenly acted corporate training videos we had to watch every now and then. Taking part in the annual Inventory and the hectic holiday seasons. Some of the more annoying customers, like the old guy who was constantly having us order obscure bibles (and then never buying them). And of course, some various old friends no longer there anymore, be it old co-workers (like Sean Winters) or promotional fixtures I had a fondness for, such as the Mass Market Paperback Tower, the Newsstand Power Column, and the New Release Hardcover Octagon table.
Over the course of my 20 years at B&N, I’ve maintained an extensive archive of related documents and artifacts related to my time at the store, which I’ve kept in a manila folder and a small Ziploc bag (these two storage devices then being placed in a much larger Ziploc bag). Included in these archives are employee handbooks (featuring the iconic author portraits drawn by Canadian artist Mark Summers, whose work also used to appear on our bags and on framed prints on our walls, back in the old days), the initial notes I took my first day on the job, promotional flyers for store events and Nook devices, thank you cards from management, many of my annual performance reviews (mainly from 2007, 2009, 2010-2015, 2017-2019, and 2022 + 2023), product placement maps, holiday employee guides, many of the staff recommendation cards I filled out over the years, weekly instore newsletters, old nametags, awards, and other miscellaneous items. The instore newsletters in particular make up a large portion of the archives. When I first started working there in 2004, the newsletter was named “What’s Up In The Store,” though in 2005 it was changed to “For The Love Of Books.” Newsletters were discontinued in 2006-2007, though 2008 and 2009 saw a new one start up, “The Store 2829 Weekly” (also later known as “The New 2829 Weekly”). This was later replaced by the short-lived “Barnes & Noble Store 2829 Newsletter,” later replaced again by “The Nameless Newsletter,” which mainly ran in 2011 and sporadically in 2012 and 2014 (and which was put together by another of my old managers, Melissa Rivard Lavendier). But there haven’t been any newsletters since 2014, for almost a decade now. Anyway, I’ve decided to share some pictures of my archive below.
In any event, now that I’ve hit 20 years, I’ve decided to get serious about looking for a new job. I’ve begun updating my resume and looking into various websites like Indeed and so on. Towards the end of 2022, during a somewhat contentious annual review, I told management that after my 20th year I would be leaving, though in my performance review last year I told them I wouldn’t be leaving on the very day I hit 20 years: that I would stay on for a short spell afterwards while seeking work elsewhere, as I wanted to give them fair warning. Maybe some other day I’ll post some more about why I want to leave, though for now, it will suffice to say that what it boils down to is a feeling of stagnation/burnout that results from working at the same place for two decades, a desire to prove that I can do something besides retail, disagreements with how the company is currently being run, things like that. Also, looking back at my first shift, I remembered there’s something fun about starting a new job: meeting new people, getting used to a new building, learning new responsibilities, and so on. I kind of miss that. My first year on the job, my boss Bambi asked me what the hell I was doing there, that I was too smart to be wasting my life in retail. I told her at the time that for me B&N was a stepping stone and after 5 years I’d probably move on. 5 years turned to 20. But it’s time to move on. And what better year to take a leap than a leap year?
The Ziploc bag housing my Barnes & Noble archive
The employee handbook I got on my very first day, and my original nametag (long retired)
These were the notes I took about my job duties my very first shift at the store
My 5, 10, and 15 year anniversary brooches and other miscellanea (supposedly a few years ago the company stopped doing brooches and switched to paper certificates)
A small sampling of the various staff rec cards I filled out over the years
The very last staff rec card I ever filled out, during last year's holiday season
Some (not all) of the various seasonal thank you cards I've gotten from the store over the years
The 2011 Holiday Employee Guide... from back when the store still held such meetings (always in November)
Newsletters from 2004-2005
This was the very first newsletter I got, which mentioned my hiring. I very quickly let it be known that I do. Not. Like. Being. Called. Jim.
Some of the Nameless Newsletters
More Newsletters
Newsletter announcing when I won the "Employee of the Month" contest (got a $50 gift card)
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