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Mamut and Daunt outline retail vision
27.05.11 | Lisa Campbell
Managing Waterstone's will be a challenge in the current market and its new Russian oligarch owner is not going to support the chain with a large chequebook, the chain's new m.d., James Daunt, has said.
If the HMV Group's shareholders approve Alexander Mamut's £53m offer made in the early hours of last Friday, then James Daunt, founder of six London-based shops under the Daunt Books umbrella, will soon become managing director of the book chain he acknowledged had "not been performing very well recently". Like-for-like sales dived by 8.4% in the 17 weeks to 30th April at Waterstone's; over the year like-for-like sales dropped by 3.8%.
While Waterstone's year-end profits are expected to be between £9m and £12m, Daunt was adamant the chain would not be a hobby interest for billionaire Mamut but a passion in which they both held "a firm view of what it is we are trying to achieve".
Mamut said the pair wanted to reposition Waterstone's as a regional and local community-orientated bookseller. Daunt added that the Russian was drawn to it "because he is a book person who shares my belief that if you create really good bookshops, they will be commercially successful".
"This is not Chelsea Football Club, that isn't the idea here. He is doing it because he understands it as I believe I understand it. He will not be keeping it up by writing large cheques each year," he said.
Mamut said: "I am firmly of the view that there will be an enduring demand for physical bookshops, which are cultural centres within local communities, and that there is now an opportunity to renew Waterstone's focus on providing a distinctive, high-quality bookselling service which will underpin that."
Daunt, who is expected to take up his post on 2nd July, said he believes value matters to customers, but added his previous admission of a dislike for three-for-two book offers was a personal preference. He said: "I do not like them. I like cheap books—if it is £9 instead of £10 I will buy it for £9. Quite clearly, value really matters."
The former banker intends to better understand how Waterstone's operates before deciding on a business strategy but underlined that digital was clearly important, along with tailoring Waterstone's stores to match local customers' needs.
He hoped that none of the chain's 296 shops would have to close but said he had yet to assess the profitability of each. "I don't know which shops are the most profitable and which are the least. I need to know about the general strategy, the commercial strategy, how they are trying to sell more books to more people, how are they getting people into their shops."
Daunt said that Waterstone's distribution hub, which had experienced problems when it first opened, "needed to work". He is also planning to scrutinise Waterstone's systems, claiming it has 11 IT systems within the business.
It is understood that the future of current Waterstone's m.d Dominic Myers is yet to be determined at the HMV Group, which he had been mooted to join once the sale completes. Former Ottakar's owner James Heneage, some of whose former employees still work for Waterstone's, said it was important that staff were reassured of Daunt and Mamut's vision for the chain in the long term before Myers leaves.
The deal is expected to go through by the end of June; on completion of the deal, £40m will be paid with another £13m paid on 31st October. The HMV Group said banks were supportive of the disposal but warned that if it could not renegotiate its debt, the sale would not go ahead.
The four to five HMV stores that contain Waterstone's departments will continue to exist under a concession arrangement, a HMV spokesman said. However, there is no role for Tim Waterstone, the chain's founder who was widely reported to be in alliance with Mamut to buy the chain he founded.
James Daunt: the new man running Waterstone's
James Daunt is a 48-year-old father of two and, as of last Friday should the sale of Waterstone's to Alexander Mamut be completed, the new m.d. of Waterstone's. He founded Daunt Books in Marylebone, London, in 1990, and has since opened five more under the same name, mainly in family-orientated areas of the capital.
He went into bookselling after moving from New York where he worked for the bank J P Morgan, following a history degree at Cambridge University. He is married to Katy and has two daughters, Molly and Eliza. His interests are reading and travel and at the time he opened his first shop, he saw "a clear opportunity in bookselling". His stores are expected to hit a turnover of £10m this year.
He does not discount books in his shops and pays his employees nearly double the average wage for a bookseller. Daunt believes that the key to running a successful bookshop is to stock good books, along with good systems, a nice environment and excellent staff. He said: "As a bookseller you have a number of stakeholders to satisfy, and a very important one is your employees. That is one of my principles at Daunts. Having the right system liberates you. One of the curiosities of our industry is how inefficient it is, particularly on the retailing side."
The six Daunt Bookshops in London will remain independently run, as is the case now, by their existing shop management.
Alexander Mamut: the man behind the deal
Alexander Mamut is a 51-year-old Russian businessman from Moscow, who the Telegraph named as "probably the most powerful oligarch you have never heard of". Thought to be worth around £1bn, he counts Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich among his friends and had close ties to former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
Mamut trained as a lawyer but practised as a businessman and banker and has a diverse portfolio of interests managed by his A&NN group, including San Francisco-based social networking site LiveJournal and Russian publisher Azbooka-Atticus, in which Hachette Livre owns a 25% stake. His other business interests include Euroset, Polymetal, SPAR and Russian printer Pareto Print.
Mamut is said to prefer businesses with an element of creativity and likes reading "high-quality literature" in English and Russian. Rather than bankrolling his companies, Atticus c.e.o. Arkady Vitrouk, said: "He will invest money if he thinks there is an opportunity to get a return on his investment."
He added that Mamut had a good team behind him but generally had input into Atticus at a strategic rather than a grassroots level. "He encourages us to take a more active role in how we should approach issues, for example, he suggested we look at how many e-reading devices are sold in Russia. He is visionary."
Vitrouk said each of Mamut's businesses operate in pure market conditions. He said: "There is no favouritism for one business over another."
TheBookseller
©2012 Bookseller Media Ltd rights reserved.
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Well there are a lot of angry bookseller but perhaps when the changes come it will be a happier place. There will be survival issues but I suspect the people who changed the model of who we worked because "it's what everybody else does" and FAILED to make it work might get worried. this is the company that demands 100% compliance when all you have is oone copy of the latest paperback to face out with a box behind it. it's a good job that a lot of waterstone's staff do read this website as we would never find out from management :)
Charming. Nice people have descended into ill informed mud slinging. Maybe a bit of team work. night help. And probably most people deserve a payrise but survival is a slightly bigger priority
Trust me, pal, 'flunkys' was the kindest word that came to mind.
Jenny, it would be lovely if booksellers got a pay rise. However, including such a crass and frankly wrong insult like "head office flunkys" does not strengthen your case, just makes you look like a poorly informed, jealous little snipe.
I still think it would be nice if shopfloor staff (not head office flunkys) got a pay rise... it's been at least two years. Just a small 3% would be nice, and give the staff a little faith and trust in the company again...
Having worked in magazine publishing and the music industry I can tell you both idustries are better organised and more computerate than the British book trade. Consignment needs sophisticated systems and well organised staff trained properly.
Daunt said he didn't WANT to close stores, sorry shops. It's doesn't mean he won't. He also said at that point he didn't know all the information.
We need a mix of Booksellers and retailers, and we need them to work together and learn from each other.
As a brand (I know dirty word) we need to be more recongnised and loved. We need the things the customers LOVE back (Christmas catalougues anyone)
I would like to see a decent offer for pre-orders, after all when the book comes out it will be half price anyway so why bother? Perhaps we should have it half price if you pre-order and £6 off when it comes out..
and at Christmas. Two Books a week that we do at half price- FOR ONE WEEK then change them, and lets get rid of "the sale" it doesn'tgenerate cash - the offers aren't that different (other than the random rubbish the publishers want to get rid of).
But I'm a small fish..so we will see what happens...only a month to go.
Nonsense. The music industry can do it at lower margins.
Consignment won't work. Neither Waterstones or the publishers have the resources to maintain an accurate consignment system.
'There will be no national book chain in 3 years' - the countdown has begun...
Having run a small publisher which relied heavily on consignment stock I can tell you that the opportunity for mistakes, stupidity, inaccuracy, laziness and downright dishonesty are many and various. I cannot see how Waterstones could keep track of consignment stock with their current computer systems so this would leave policing the system down to the publishers. I can't see Ronnie the Rep taking on the consignment role in Waterstones either, except in a half hearted book publishers rep way. Consignment systems have to be tight, auditable and run like clockwork, consignment won't work in the book trade on a large scale.
Either he was mistaken or he is a fool . Lets say he was mistaken .
@FT86 But James Daunt said first off that there will be no store closures.
When did HMV sell Waterstone's?
To BSEL
Checkout the news? Even made Beeb one...
witout W's HMV will be bust by now. and the share price is?
Interesting to read Daunts comments on bookselling pre-takover (see article 'Room at the top').
"We don't despoil our books by putting stickers on them," he says. "We don't use price as a marketing tool. As a concept, three-for-two goes completely against the grain of how I like buying books."
Elsewhere in the article he says he pays his staff twice the going rate and believes attracting and keeping the best booksellers in this way has been absolutely key to the success of the business.
Hmmm.. All very nice but how would that work for a national chain? Ah but just 2 MONTHS AGO, Daunt told the Indy that there will be no national book chain in 3 years!
Anyone else wondering what's going on?
Fear not-once Daunt learns how Waterstones operates, and what the commercial plan and profitability of the company is.. then, he will come with a plan. Or think WTF have i agreed to
The most important thing is to get serously good management in place WITH A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRADE . I've been to the movie several times over . City types think that they are bigger than the trade and put in bright booktrade virgins["who enjoy reading"!] who either learn fast and turn native or ALWAYS fail .The new bright management then need to get publishers to really meet their obligations in terms of supporting Waterstones with proper margins, equivalent to their love of the grocers . The current model will not support WS unless their input margins improve and they increase stockturn . WS are expensive showrooms for Amazon sales very often , therefore maybe an alternative consignment stock arrangement needs to be introduced and stock is paid for when it passes through the till . If publishers dont like it that way they can cover the cost /risk ratio with much better margin. WS is the last game in town and that is because the high street model is bust . Unless it is to become a Russian financed charity it needs a different financial profile very swiftly. Consignment stock may be a swift fix.
Have I missed something? When did HMV sell Waterstone's?
Hi The Reaper,
Ditto, but a bit too long.
Seriously, W's are not free yet, expect another cull of around 100 stores (there are people lined up in HO to execute this already) and Phoenix will be around for a while.
Still, W's are a 1000 times more outstsnding than HMV and it's incompetent management.
How to improve Waterstone's :
1) Ditch mystery shopping and visual merchandising 'experts' - these people are only out to make money from Waterstone's and the money they get would be best spent elsewhere in the company or cut put of central costs altogether.
2) Dilute the knee-jerk tick-box attitude to bookselling more recent recruits have. When compliance to planograms becomes everything, it isn't Waterstone's anymore. The company is now riddled with too many staff who only know the corporate model. If you think selling discounted title at virtually no margin is the key thing to focus on, then you don't understand bookselling as a business. Linksaves are all very well and good, but full price titles at proper margin are much more important.
3) Upgrade the IT by ditching phoenix and replacing it with a system that actually works, with vastly better bibliographic search and reporting functions - and make it something that is fast, not slower than the systems in use at waterstone's 15 years ago.
4) Stop recruiting 'retailers' and put booksellers into management positions again. Ensure these people are devoted readers, not just people who have read the obvious 3 for 2 bestsellers. It should NOT be wrong to offer truly challenging and different books to readers (since they always claim they want something beyond multibuys)- although some senior middle management staff and BMs seem to think that to innovate or be didactic is too much for customers. Don't insult intelligent readers - they are out there and waterstone's needs to win them back. Show the press that the view of waterstone's as a kind of glorified WHS is wrong. It is unimaginative BMs and booksellers without a clue beyond slavish fixation to bestselling titles as a supposed indicator of book knowledge who are to blame for this perception.
5) Drop the half-baked cod philosophy of initiatives like 'spread the word' and 'get selling'. These things merely keep supposed training experts in work at head offices and consultancies -another drain on waterstone finances that would be better spent on grass roots front line activity. The truth is that no-one has ever actually asked customers if they really expect a 'meet and greet'. Not only that, but feedback people give in questionnaires is often incorrect anyway....but ALWAYS be ready to suggest and recommend something different or fitting to the customer's interests. You can only do this convincingly by reading a lot...and I don't mean the latest crappy proofs. Revel in your specialism.
6) Either make the hub truly chaser-friendly or ditch it and return to direct supply. When you order from publishers, you know you can pick up the phone in front of God and the customer and ascertain for real if a book is available or on the way.
7) Cut central buying back to the bone. Quantities of some titles received are absurdly large.
8) Introduce a new element into the staff bonus scheme for innovative bookselling - reward those who introduce new titles that sell as well as new thematic and presentation ideas.
9) Drop the purple t-shirts. Even when you wear a uniform, customers will still ask 'do you work here?'. And the British are afraid to ask for anything much of the time. There's nothing wrong with a uniform which is reasonably smart - the black shirts and polos are fine.
10) New owners : seek out the booksellers in your shops (store is an American term, we work in bookshops in the UK) and find the ones who read widely. These are the people who can save the business by prompting impulse purchases based on passion for books that are beyond the immediately obvious. We need to sell bestsellers and hyped titles, but since when was that ever difficult? These days it is full price full margin titles that will save us. Recruit marketing people who can help convince customers that the hardback book is a thing of beauty that all true bibliophiles worship - appeal to the eltisim and snobbery of the British in this respect.
12) Demand that publishers support backlist by agreeing to genre and backlist multibuy offers. Why must there always be a focus on new, over-hyped titles as offers to customers? Show some imagination.
That it's still not a done deal is an unsettling element of this. Does anybody know when there will be some news on this front? I think all concerned need the reassurance that things are going forward.
Re the hub I think everybody concerned feels it hasn't worked although it did enable Waterstone's to make many hundreds of people redundant but whatever savings they made surely have been lost through inefficiencies. The mountains of single book parcels going to each branch was just a different sort of inefficiency. Perhaps the best way forward is for almost all orders to go through wholesalers and for them to service the individual branches - that will be good for the business, probably good for suppliers, and good for the environment.
When they got rid of backroom staff, they ripped the guts out of waterstones stores. It ended long term career bookselling and the strength in depth of booksellers who knew the job backwards. They thought they could do everything from head office and have all the staff on the tills from the manager on down. It has not worked and now there is no time to do anything efficiently. It is all slap dash and half baked. Things that don't matter a jot ( mystery shops, linksave score charts etc) are considered all important. Decisions are made that show they have ran out of ideas. Waterstones are now selling accessories for Amazon Kindle with the Amazon logo plastered all over them. I don't know any other company that would sell it's arch rivals products and give them free advertising. I think head office should be admin only, and give control back to the store manager who can then use staff where they are needed and does not have to worry about mystery shops etc. I think the hub should be used like a big warehouse to hold range stock so stores can have quick access to stock that always sells.
I think that a lot of good managers have left the business because of disillusionment etc and of the ones left not all of them will be up to the challenge of running a bookstore/region without tick box requirements. There are a heck of a lot of excellent managers out there who will relish the challenge but some will fall markedly short.
I've worked for W for 10 years and when I joined there were good managers, okay managers and ones that we all wondered how they were still there. 10 years later the people are different but the mix the on the region I'm on is roughly the same. It is a myth that all the talent has gone or that once upon a time it was all talented people running stores.
The one thing I've found being a store manager in W is deep down we all actually think we are the only ones doing a good job and we could probably do everyone else's job better than they can.
If other regional meetings are like the ones I go to then james Daunt will find he has roughly 300 different opinions as to what needs to be done!
I have no doubt that James will be excellent, he is possibly the brightest guy in Bookselling . I happen to know , however, that running a big chain is very tough, as frankly some stores are better than others , and some teams of staff better than others too .
I think that the Russian money will give James time to get things right , as far as stocking , moral,marketing and the web site etc etc BUT I still worry that the WS model is sound ,as a chain on the High Street. Either money will dilute the need for change - or there will be big change . Not sure if they bought the hub, but I would can it , there is no need ,and it works against the "local"stores culture that James will want to reintroduce.
Local was Dominic Myer's big strategy 18 months ago - in with local chart, higher % bought at store level, local recommends at front of store, a lot more themed tables,tailored offers etc. I'm not sure it was a massive success becasue in the last 6 months there has been a a move back to increased centralised buying, national chart etc.
Short term success will be driven out by sorting aout availability but I hope there is more to the big idea than what he has currently gone public with
We won't get rid of the Hub,yes it has it's faults but as a company we have spent too much money on it to just scrap it.
The money seems to be coming - the June buying budgets are big (well, compared to the last couple of months) the availability issues seem to be clearing up nicely :)
The whole system needs to be streamlined, the computer systems are just insane and we need an IT overhaul (including the people on the IT helpline who are useless!)
I'm feeling positive about Daunt, yes Myers had a similar stratagy but he was also handcuffed by HMV (who I'm convinced hated us) of course 3 for 2s won't go, nor will link saves or mystery shoppers (all retailers now use mystery shoppers)it all brings in money.
All in all I'd be happy witha new carpet (mine is over 15 years old)
Yes! The first step for my branch would be to get a new Dyson.
Hi Bookish,
You are right, the Boys and Girls at the top (all ex Comet) did not understand W's and was always second to any HMV IT developments.
Phoenix is so outdated, it's based on HMV's Track system and the new CIO (another ex Comet) is providing W's second rate systems developments and stock turn based on HMV numbers. it will take a year+ to unstitch the HMV/W's systems hosted in Shropshire before W's can become a single entity.
Sorry guys, but Phoenix will exist for a while, along with all of the other bespoke applications. If the money is avaialble then a complete rethink on IT is required.
As for the IT Helpline, this is sad news, before HMV introduced their 'shared services' view the Helpdesk was one of the best to be seen and enjoyed national retail recognition. How we have changed, think its called progress...
one cannot help but wonder if the staff are ready for a bumpy ride up ahead.
How to improve Waterstone's :
1) Ditch mystery shopping and visual merchandising 'experts' - these people are only out to make money from Waterstone's and the money they get would be best spent elsewhere in the company or cut put of central costs altogether.
2) Dilute the knee-jerk tick-box attitude to bookselling more recent recruits have. When compliance to planograms becomes everything, it isn't Waterstone's anymore. The company is now riddled with too many staff who only know the corporate model. If you think selling discounted title at virtually no margin is the key thing to focus on, then you don't understand bookselling as a business. Linksaves are all very well and good, but full price titles at proper margin are much more important.
3) Upgrade the IT by ditching phoenix and replacing it with a system that actually works, with vastly better bibliographic search and reporting functions - and make it something that is fast, not slower than the systems in use at waterstone's 15 years ago.
4) Stop recruiting 'retailers' and put booksellers into management positions again. Ensure these people are devoted readers, not just people who have read the obvious 3 for 2 bestsellers. It should NOT be wrong to offer truly challenging and different books to readers (since they always claim they want something beyond multibuys)- although some senior middle management staff and BMs seem to think that to innovate or be didactic is too much for customers. Don't insult intelligent readers - they are out there and waterstone's needs to win them back. Show the press that the view of waterstone's as a kind of glorified WHS is wrong. It is unimaginative BMs and booksellers without a clue beyond slavish fixation to bestselling titles as a supposed indicator of book knowledge who are to blame for this perception.
5) Drop the half-baked cod philosophy of initiatives like 'spread the word' and 'get selling'. These things merely keep supposed training experts in work at head offices and consultancies -another drain on waterstone finances that would be better spent on grass roots front line activity. The truth is that no-one has ever actually asked customers if they really expect a 'meet and greet'. Not only that, but feedback people give in questionnaires is often incorrect anyway....but ALWAYS be ready to suggest and recommend something different or fitting to the customer's interests. You can only do this convincingly by reading a lot...and I don't mean the latest crappy proofs. Revel in your specialism.
6) Either make the hub truly chaser-friendly or ditch it and return to direct supply. When you order from publishers, you know you can pick up the phone in front of God and the customer and ascertain for real if a book is available or on the way.
7) Cut central buying back to the bone. Quantities of some titles received are absurdly large.
8) Introduce a new element into the staff bonus scheme for innovative bookselling - reward those who introduce new titles that sell as well as new thematic and presentation ideas.
9) Drop the purple t-shirts. Even when you wear a uniform, customers will still ask 'do you work here?'. And the British are afraid to ask for anything much of the time. There's nothing wrong with a uniform which is reasonably smart - the black shirts and polos are fine.
10) New owners : seek out the booksellers in your shops (store is an American term, we work in bookshops in the UK) and find the ones who read widely. These are the people who can save the business by prompting impulse purchases based on passion for books that are beyond the immediately obvious. We need to sell bestsellers and hyped titles, but since when was that ever difficult? These days it is full price full margin titles that will save us. Recruit marketing people who can help convince customers that the hardback book is a thing of beauty that all true bibliophiles worship - appeal to the eltisim and snobbery of the British in this respect.
12) Demand that publishers support backlist by agreeing to genre and backlist multibuy offers. Why must there always be a focus on new, over-hyped titles as offers to customers? Show some imagination.
Hi The Reaper,
Ditto, but a bit too long.
Seriously, W's are not free yet, expect another cull of around 100 stores (there are people lined up in HO to execute this already) and Phoenix will be around for a while.
Still, W's are a 1000 times more outstsnding than HMV and it's incompetent management.
Have I missed something? When did HMV sell Waterstone's?
The most important thing is to get serously good management in place WITH A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRADE . I've been to the movie several times over . City types think that they are bigger than the trade and put in bright booktrade virgins["who enjoy reading"!] who either learn fast and turn native or ALWAYS fail .The new bright management then need to get publishers to really meet their obligations in terms of supporting Waterstones with proper margins, equivalent to their love of the grocers . The current model will not support WS unless their input margins improve and they increase stockturn . WS are expensive showrooms for Amazon sales very often , therefore maybe an alternative consignment stock arrangement needs to be introduced and stock is paid for when it passes through the till . If publishers dont like it that way they can cover the cost /risk ratio with much better margin. WS is the last game in town and that is because the high street model is bust . Unless it is to become a Russian financed charity it needs a different financial profile very swiftly. Consignment stock may be a swift fix.
Having run a small publisher which relied heavily on consignment stock I can tell you that the opportunity for mistakes, stupidity, inaccuracy, laziness and downright dishonesty are many and various. I cannot see how Waterstones could keep track of consignment stock with their current computer systems so this would leave policing the system down to the publishers. I can't see Ronnie the Rep taking on the consignment role in Waterstones either, except in a half hearted book publishers rep way. Consignment systems have to be tight, auditable and run like clockwork, consignment won't work in the book trade on a large scale.
Consignment won't work. Neither Waterstones or the publishers have the resources to maintain an accurate consignment system.
Nonsense. The music industry can do it at lower margins.
Having worked in magazine publishing and the music industry I can tell you both idustries are better organised and more computerate than the British book trade. Consignment needs sophisticated systems and well organised staff trained properly.
Interesting to read Daunts comments on bookselling pre-takover (see article 'Room at the top').
"We don't despoil our books by putting stickers on them," he says. "We don't use price as a marketing tool. As a concept, three-for-two goes completely against the grain of how I like buying books."
Elsewhere in the article he says he pays his staff twice the going rate and believes attracting and keeping the best booksellers in this way has been absolutely key to the success of the business.
Hmmm.. All very nice but how would that work for a national chain? Ah but just 2 MONTHS AGO, Daunt told the Indy that there will be no national book chain in 3 years!
Anyone else wondering what's going on?
Fear not-once Daunt learns how Waterstones operates, and what the commercial plan and profitability of the company is.. then, he will come with a plan. Or think WTF have i agreed to
To BSEL
Checkout the news? Even made Beeb one...
witout W's HMV will be bust by now. and the share price is?
When did HMV sell Waterstone's?
@FT86 But James Daunt said first off that there will be no store closures.
Either he was mistaken or he is a fool . Lets say he was mistaken .
'There will be no national book chain in 3 years' - the countdown has begun...
Daunt said he didn't WANT to close stores, sorry shops. It's doesn't mean he won't. He also said at that point he didn't know all the information.
We need a mix of Booksellers and retailers, and we need them to work together and learn from each other.
As a brand (I know dirty word) we need to be more recongnised and loved. We need the things the customers LOVE back (Christmas catalougues anyone)
I would like to see a decent offer for pre-orders, after all when the book comes out it will be half price anyway so why bother? Perhaps we should have it half price if you pre-order and £6 off when it comes out..
and at Christmas. Two Books a week that we do at half price- FOR ONE WEEK then change them, and lets get rid of "the sale" it doesn'tgenerate cash - the offers aren't that different (other than the random rubbish the publishers want to get rid of).
But I'm a small fish..so we will see what happens...only a month to go.
I still think it would be nice if shopfloor staff (not head office flunkys) got a pay rise... it's been at least two years. Just a small 3% would be nice, and give the staff a little faith and trust in the company again...
Jenny, it would be lovely if booksellers got a pay rise. However, including such a crass and frankly wrong insult like "head office flunkys" does not strengthen your case, just makes you look like a poorly informed, jealous little snipe.
Trust me, pal, 'flunkys' was the kindest word that came to mind.
Charming. Nice people have descended into ill informed mud slinging. Maybe a bit of team work. night help. And probably most people deserve a payrise but survival is a slightly bigger priority
Well there are a lot of angry bookseller but perhaps when the changes come it will be a happier place. There will be survival issues but I suspect the people who changed the model of who we worked because "it's what everybody else does" and FAILED to make it work might get worried. this is the company that demands 100% compliance when all you have is oone copy of the latest paperback to face out with a box behind it. it's a good job that a lot of waterstone's staff do read this website as we would never find out from management :)