I just remembered.....what ever happened to Day by Day Calendar after they sold it? Did they begin setup for this holiday season, did it get merged into another company and re-branded, etc....?
They have job opening advertisements up now for their upcoming stores in the Atlanta metro area. Seems like more of a mall kiosk type of thing now, rather than in a separate former store location in a mall.
That was called an "inline" kiosk. In the old days (90s) those were pretty rare; most DBDs were kiosk fixtures. Now that malls are dying everywhere, there's plenty of space for cheap inline rents.
I don't know if this was common everywhere, but when my BSR started having inline DBDs early last decade, Borders wouldn't pay for running water as part of the lease agreement, so the restrooms didn't work. I think that was my very first clue that all was not well with this company.
My BSR had a permanent bargain store* in the otherwise unleaseable space adjacent to our store (water damage, mold... lovely. Lots of bloody noses caused by breathing that air). No running water there, either, so no toilet.
Also, no phone line, so the register was permanently offline. All sales (and payment!) data had to be transferred to the base store's PC via a dedicated floppy disk every night.
As there was no phone, there was officially** no way to contact the base store to ask for a washroom break. It wasn't unheard of for a desperate bookseller to go ahead and use the non-functioning toilet anyway.
*The last time I posted anything about the bargain store, I was busted by higher ups, since it turned out we were the only one in the company or something. I guess I needn't worry about that anymore.
**Unofficially, of course we all used our smartphones for communication and entertainment.
"All sales (and payment!) data had to be transferred to the base store's PC via a dedicated floppy disk every night."
I remember the absolute panic in October 2008 as payment card industry regulations went into effect that mandated credit card data no longer be stored in POS systems. BSR's systems were hopelessly out of date and couldn't easily comply with these new regulations, so the company rushed out portable Verifone terminals as a stopgap. The company's unwillingness to modernize systems should have been another clue.
Those kiosks were a joke. They were manned by goody goody college kids content to just sit there and play games on their iphones instead of actively selling to people, or at least tidying up a bit. I even knew people who embezzled from the kiosk safes and almost got away with it because the GM and loss prevention were a bunch of lazy asses. such a fucked up system all around.
One of my co workers actually did play with his Nintendo DS at the Kiosk. Managed to finish all the Pokemon games during that time (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, HeartGold/SoulSilver). All the girls would finish off romance novels.
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That was called an "inline" kiosk. In the old days (90s) those were pretty rare; most DBDs were kiosk fixtures. Now that malls are dying everywhere, there's plenty of space for cheap inline rents.
I don't know if this was common everywhere, but when my BSR started having inline DBDs early last decade, Borders wouldn't pay for running water as part of the lease agreement, so the restrooms didn't work. I think that was my very first clue that all was not well with this company.
(I said "this" as if it still existed. /sniff)
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Also, no phone line, so the register was permanently offline. All sales (and payment!) data had to be transferred to the base store's PC via a dedicated floppy disk every night.
As there was no phone, there was officially** no way to contact the base store to ask for a washroom break. It wasn't unheard of for a desperate bookseller to go ahead and use the non-functioning toilet anyway.
*The last time I posted anything about the bargain store, I was busted by higher ups, since it turned out we were the only one in the company or something. I guess I needn't worry about that anymore.
**Unofficially, of course we all used our smartphones for communication and entertainment.
Reply
I remember the absolute panic in October 2008 as payment card industry regulations went into effect that mandated credit card data no longer be stored in POS systems. BSR's systems were hopelessly out of date and couldn't easily comply with these new regulations, so the company rushed out portable Verifone terminals as a stopgap. The company's unwillingness to modernize systems should have been another clue.
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