There is some sort of epic battle going on inside Zone #5 of dying book seller Borders to move as many units of the novel The Piano Teacher as possible. And goddamnit, people are just not pulling their weight, according to a string of emails from Zone VP Mike’s demoralized underlings posted on LiveJournal: “To the GMs of these 16 stores, thanks for nothing. Had you managed your inventory, processed your freight and/or effectively executed a simple expectation (SELL at least one Make/Key ITEM EVERY DAY), your team (Zone 5) would have won…If you can deliver we will finish one, one-hundreth of a percent ahead of Zone 3 for PTD sales of Piano Teacher. If not, we lose…again.”

Borders employees, some of whom work with Mike, are chiming in in the thread to complain about he makes them hate their job. My favorite reader comment from the thread: “The new DM that he hired for our district a few months ago to help us learn to sell key/make titles still needs a navigation system in his car to tell him how to drive to our store each time. (perhaps we can sell him a Thomas Guide)”

Unhappy employees make for unhappy customers. You either get surliness, glazed indifference, or manic upselling.

Here’s a question – what’s so special about The Piano Teacher? While I personally think it’s a great movie, the sadomasochistic sex between an older woman and her 17-year old piano student makes it a curious choice of movies for Borders to pimp.(This is about Piano Teacher the book, not the movie.)

The Border’s Piano Teacher Contest [LiveJournal]

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