Powell's Books is actually the biggest used bookstore of all time.

Oregonians! Represent!

@Adminitraitor: And it's a lot better than the overrated Strand. Eight miles of SUCKY books.

She's just not that into your labor laws.

@InternMary: Powell's is better.

"There was mice running around the table"

Ooh that is scary! And you work with books all day?

The Improv Everywhere prank with ringing cell phones at the Strand bag check was pretty great.

Hey, Nancy Bass Wyden, the Jerk Store called . . .

@InternMary: Oregonians represent indeed.

Though I have to question Saundra's authenticity as she (grammatically incorrectly) identifies the rodents as mice in one sentence, then in the next changes them to rats. Which is it Saundra? Maybe that's why the boss yelled at you. Living in New York, I would think one would be able to tell the diff between rats and mice. Sheesh.

I hate rat-fungus. Ruins the taste.

@Nard38: George?

@FracturedAcetabulum: yeah, you can saddle a rat

Billy Bass would never put up with rat-paper fungus.

It's all true. Nancy Bass is not only a jerk she is also a moron. I used to work at the registers and every now and then she would decide to "help" us. This idiot couldn't make change under pressure, would refuse to give customers shopping bags and would constantly scratch her crotch in front of us.

Powells is better-such a rare and unique comment.
BORDERS SUCKS!-there's mine

Wow, that article is incredibly boring. I dare anyone to finish it.

I love it when people glamorize their jobs. She works at a large bookstore (which is excellent, I might add), big fucking deal. It's not like she writes the books.

The Strand always gives me warm fuzzies because it reminds me of the time I got an Anne Tyler review copy there, before the publication date, for my mother's birthday. She didn't even know it was coming out or anything, and she LOVES her some Anne Tyler.

Given the parlous state of almost all independent bookstores, the article's snottiness about the Strand's profitability is just plain wacky.

For example, before closing for good in 2006, Cody's Books in Berkeley had lost $1 million. Wander over today to Black Oak Books and you'll notice that shelves and display tables are hardly packed with books. Anyone care to list the great independent bookstores in Manhattan that have closed during the past several years?

I also think it's wacky that Strand employees portray themselves as models of hard work and customer service. As often as not, at least at the Union Sq location, they're visibly miffed if a customer interrupts them while they're chattering with friends or staring idly into space.

Only last week I called the Union Sq store to make sure they had on their shelves two books I needed. The testy employee who answered my call assured me that yes, they did. Of course when I got there I couldn't find the books and was informed by a bored, laconic employee that they were actually at the Fulton St. annex.

While it's nice to pretend that serious literature has an abiding connection to collectivism and an inherent mistrust of profit, amazon.com and abebooks.com are non-union and don't get snotty when you ask them questions.

If Strand and its staff don't pull together and reach a consensus that profit and customer-service are worthy goals, we might lose one of the finest bookstores in the Tri-State.

Did anyone see the episode of AbFab where Eddie finds out her long-estranged gay son worked at Strand? I clapped with glee when that happened, but now I feel even worse for young Master Monsoon!

@Mary Mouse: That's sweet.

BTW, eight years ago, which is the last time I checked, starting salary at Strand was $7.00. Seven dollars an hour in New York goddamn City! Who, besides NYU trustafarians, could have worked there?

Just curious: does anyone know what percentage of Strand's profits come from its Taschen sales? I feel like that's it's major draw.

@lawyergay: It's true, I am a model daughter :)

But seriously, you'd think one of my publishing friends could have hooked me up so I didn't have to pay for it!

@BalknChain: is that another euphemism a la the "calamari" comment?

This is like a huge tangent but anyway. Has anyone noticed that tyranny is one y away from tranny? Just sayin'

@Hamud: Right on about Strand employees. The hundred employees (admittedly getting paid crap) who spend their days yelling at each other over great distances about embarrassing events from their personal lives is initially amusing, but soon enraging. Does Strand hire based on social retardation? These people operate under the assumption that (a) you are in their way at all times, (b) if you have a question, you are an idiot and should have researched before entering the store, (c) you are privileged to be in their clubhouse. I'm sorry about the crappy pay, but I'm just trying to find a used book.

Is it bad that I've never been there and have lived in NYC for 4 years?

Whatever, I'm going to the library's book sale tomorrow so that counts for something.

@FracturedAcetabulum: shh, now "spur the calamari"

If this is the same Mrs. Wyden the Senator was married to ten years ago, I once shipped a car for her from Oregon to DC (as I worked in such business) and she was a absolute nightmare to deal with.

People can get pretty testy when their vehicle is being shipped, but her unpleasantness and sense of entitlement was pretty unique -- even for a Senator's wife.

Not doubting the story but let's put this in prospective. Where will the creative underclass get a few quick bucks from old books or comps when baby needs a bottle? If you know what I mean.

@jt: It is not. They married just a few years ago.

@Hamud: As someone who worked there for two-and-a-half years, I will say:

A) Yes, there are several if not dozens of employees like that (I wasn't). But, I ask, is that any different than anywhere else in retail? Strand employees make very little, and the only benefit is a discount on books. And, let's be honest - for every employee who is lazy or rude there are probably at least two customers who are just as crass, laconic, or downright stupid. That's a street that goes both ways, so don't pretend that it doesn't.

B) Nancy comes from extreme wealth, and acts like it. When I first started there I went with her and a van driver to a customer's house to stock their library. She saw some overweight people walking around and commented on it, then said, "Why don't they go to a gym?" The driver and I, taken aback, finally said, "Umm ... they can't afford it." She is rude, selfish, uppity, ignorant, and, truth be told, not bright.

C) The racism thing is a touchy issue, but I will say that, the entire time I worked there, roughly 75% of the minorities (mostly African-American or Hispanic) did work on the third floor (internet services) or the fifth or tenth (warehouses) - not on the retail sales floor.

D) I worked in the basement where it smelled like mold and wet dog. Any day you saw fewer than 10 mice was a good one.

I'm not a New Yorker, but I've visited the Strand website. When the website for a store can give you the creeps, that's probably not a good sign.

When I was an employee there, Nancy Bass once made me clean the bookshelF in her office. The only books on the shelf: Lolita (supposedly her favorite book), about four dozen out of date Zagat guides, and a copy of Poppy Z. Brite's "Courtney Love: The Real Story." I think the last was her management manual.

@Phony Gwynn:

"Yes, there are several if not dozens of employees like that (I wasn't). But, I ask, is that any different than anywhere else in retail? Strand employees make very little, and the only benefit is a discount on books. And, let's be honest - for every employee who is lazy or rude there are probably at least two customers who are just as crass, laconic, or downright stupid. That's a street that goes both ways, so don't pretend that it doesn't."

The reason underpaid Strand employees get discounts on books is that there are books for Strand employees to buy in the first place. If the Strand closes, the employee discounts are somewhat useless.

You seem unaware that the Strand has been infamous for employee surliness since the 1970s. It's not something that can be blamed on Nancy Bass Widen's lack of "people skills."

The difference between the Strand and "anywhere else in retail" is that "anywhere else in retail" isn't in as much danger as independent bookstores.

If you talk to folks who shop a lot at Black Oak in Berkeley, for example, they say they're scared by how poorly the store is doing.

But they also say that it's in some ways understandable because Black Oak employees have traditionally enjoyed treating their customers with icy contempt.

Like I said above, amazon.com and abebooks.com are attitude-free experiences.

@BalknChain: ha! You talk so dirty to me.
Love it.

Married to a Democratic senator? Surprise, surprise.

I'm reminded of the pain of taking my beloved collection of books to the Strand to sell in the 80's because I needed money. Unlike today, my tastes back then were stellar - I had art books, glossy histories, Pulitzer Priz and National Book Award titles right and left. The man behind the counter took the first book off the pile, glanced at it, and literally recoiled as if it were a well thumbed and sticky photo biography of the Partridge family. Every title received the same response - a dismayed sniff - and the disdainful utterance "I can't give you much for this...". I'd have done better hawking Playboys at the local church sale. Took the money though...

There is a special place in heaven for anyone running a used book store. That said, Nancy Bass Wyden (I assume her money comes from the Fish Trust) does seem to be a little short on character references.

@Hamud: It's pretty much Nancy, and anyone over 30 who works there. They are not just mean but cruel.

I worked in the art department where one of my managers made girls cry for sport. I finally quit when one of managers made a disgusting anti-semitic comment (I am Jewish) and then claimed not to remember when I filed a formal complaint.

The Basses are monsters. They have pseudo-literary-artsy acquaintances (I do not believe they have friends) and put on a facade of liberalism, when they are the stingiest bunch of cretins in the city. Every horrible story is probably true, I could add dozens.

And yes, they're racist homophobic elitists.

Finally, this bookstore has been exposed! Great article from the New York Press!

Well, well, well.. So, why did Nancy marry a Dem Senator??? All the Repugnant ones were taken... First, to the other bloggers here, drop the bullshit whining about bookstores not being profitable.. Fred Bass made enough money to buy the entire building occupied by the 12th & Broadway store. (paid for on the backs of $7 per hour employees)..If it didn't make money, they wouldn't run it - simple fact of business, so shut your pie-holes. Oh,and yes, those employees are sardonic in their own way, yes indeed, slinging a little attitude from time to time.. And at the Strand, that's part of the product, in case you didn't notice... If it weren't Fred would have changed it long ago... The STRAND is FRED BASS's brain-child... Sadly, the torch has been passed and the golden age is over.. The Strand is apparently no longer a family or a bookstore, just another air-conditioned retail space abandoning it's identity to the whore on the beast which is American capitalism... The writing is already on the wall, and soon as Nancy can move away and rent the space currently being occupied by (what will soon have once been) the strand, to some high-rent-paying tenant like B&N, the GAP, or maybe the world's largest STARBUCKS.. For $1 MORE THAN THE NET PROFITS ON THE STRAND, you boys and gurls better learn how to flip burgers and make espresso... She will lease that building right out from under your proletarian asses, and move her ass to Oregon with the Senator... and spend the rest of her life TRYING to count her money... if she's learned to count...ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, damn, I remember some wild books that I could never have found anywhere else.. AND LOOKY HERE.. THERE ARE A LOT OF EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE ABSOLUTELY ADORED FRED... Nancy is, sadly, a completely different story.. And as for one remark I have read above, I most certainly can attest that FRED BASS IS NO HOMOPHOBE! I am angered to see any New Yorker make such an unjustified slur in print. 25,000 SQ FT RETAIL SPACE FOR RENT AT BROADWAY & 12TH ANYONE???

If I may speak up for the East Bay:
I've never had any trouble with Black Oak beside feeling like I was going to faint because of their frightening prices. What can you do? You go because of the history of the institution. Same reason why a person goes to City Lights, where I've heard the employees are also paid goat berries.
Half-Price has the best prices for buying and selling, even though it has the atmosphere of an airline terminal.
Moe's is troll-ridden, but that's Telegraph for you--but the management is weirdly patient. it's always the first stop when looking for art books.
The Strand's big distinction, as far as I can tell, is just as one of the correspondents mentions: you can get review copies there early, sold by the desperate wretches who review books for the New York newspapers and magazines.
Like the tourist choad I was, I bought one of the Strand's lousy red t-shirts. It shrunk on first washing while also losing all the white lettering off the front.