The Children's department at the Mt. Kisco Borders is one of the best in the entire chain. They've also done a great job at creating a place where people want to go to hang out...something you can't do online.

I lived there when my kids were ages 1 through 5 - it was one of the few places to go at 9 a.m. on a Sunday. I actually did buy books...and coffee! But now that my children are in school, we mostly use local and school libraries, and Amazon. I can't remember the last book purchase I've made there, but the store continues to be a good source of birthday gifts. What do others think? How often do you purchase there vs. online?

Hi. I am a former Employee of a Borders that is actually on the chopping block. I just wanted to let you know - that the kids dept. was mine. I stocked it, and when I was there - I had to freaking CLEAN UP and wrangle your freaking KIDS because YOU were to busy reading magazines that should not have been in the kids section... I also had to clean up your freaking LATTE that you decided to leave when you got up to take little Timmy to the bathroom. Leaving it there for ANOTHER kid to come by and dump it all over the place.

SO, yeah, Thank you. Thank you for not spending a dime in my store - and thank you for making me your personal babysitter at 8 bucks an hour. Oh, look little Jenny is climbing all over the bookcases like a jungle gym! BUT HEY! I'm on a VERY IMPORTANT PHONE CALL! and HEY! LOOK! this $20 dollar science kit that is all wrapped up? oh, that is ok, Timmy can just open it and get crap all over! HEY! I don't have to clean it.

It's an industry standard - that we hate your kind. Really. And the only reason why you bothered to clean up is because I'm standing there watching you. OH! Did your kid just put an Elmo down his pants? Oh, yup.. in the damage bin it goes.

yeah. thanks.

UGH!!!! We have a huge Facebook rant about this article going. Most of it is from people who have worked in toy- or bookstores and had to clean up the mess after parents let their kids run wild. I'm sure Ms. Sinclair Colman will assure us that she picks up everything and doesn't let her kids bother others, but that is not the fact for many many others. People often leave their children -- totally alone -- in the kids section while they go browse, or have coffee, or whatever. We have seen children pull every book off a shelf, hit each other, freak out and cry, climb a bookcase, poop, throw up and do other things their parents never dreamed their little darlings could possibly do. And then when they finally are found or arrive to claim their kids, waltz right out without lifting a finger. Often they refuse to pay for damaged goods or hide the items rather than pay for them (that's a good model for the kids!). To add to this, there is a huge safety factor involved -- and not from just falling off that bookshelf they've climbed. Store employees have no idea what kid belongs to what adult, and most parents will probably freak out to know that a pedophile was arrested at one of the closing Borders.

On top of this, Ms. Sinclair Colman spends $6 for all this happiness and feels that its "enough" but prefers to buy her books elsewhere. How absolutely rude!!!! If you enjoy it and use it, SUPPORT IT! Buy your books there!

So many people regard bookstores as a "hangout" rather than a place of business.
It isn't a park with books, toys, and activity kits that your children can tear apart, with no regard for the employees that have to clean it up (and please, don't even think, "But that's their job.", it's not.), not to mention potential customers who may actually want to buy that book your child is gnawing on, or that stuffed animal your kid just dumped a latte on.
Unattended children. While their parent(s) are sitting in the cafe using the wifi to browse amazon, their kids are left alone to "play" in the kids department. Going shelf by shelf pulling books off and throwing them down on the floor. Stepping on them, tearing out pages. Running and screaming so loud that the entire store can hear. While employees who are swamped don't even want to turn the corner to go into the kids department because they know, without fail, it will be an absolute terror. Not to mention, people working in bookstores are highly UNDER paid. Barely making minimum wage.

There is nothing wrong with going to libraries, or buying on amazon... but have a little respect. When did it become ok to USE a bookstore? Corporate OR independent.
"... while I sip my latte, take a phone call or two or surf the web (the latter of the two are greatly frowned upon in our wonderful local libraries)." It's frowned upon in the store too... but the opinions of employees are tightly bound while on the clock.

Don't worry. Even if the local Borders closes, I'm sure that this author/negligent monster will find a free babysitter elsewhere. She can go loiter at Barnes and Noble until they close. Seriously, lady. Take your kids to the park. Or get yourself a coffee machine and let the TV do your parenting.

"So, hey Borders management, consider me, the coffee-drinking, magazine-perusing mom as your saving grace."

But you are not. Instead you are a great hindrance. You lead by example. Other customers will see you man handling the magazines and think it is ok to do so. Instead of buying them. If you want your store that you love so much to stay in business, so you can continue to take your kids there so they can burn off energy - and you can enjoy your latte while the hard working booksellers are busy cleaning up after them - then spend some money there.

You be-moan the fact that the company is going out of business, but where have you helped it? It's customers like you that have helped give that slight little nudge into the grave for the company.

"So here's my two cents (notice, I'm giving it to you not Borders). Books are changing. People are changing the way they read and appreciate books. Borders needs to figure out a way to understand and profit from this."

see? right there.. the notice I'm not giving it to Borders. So the company is a great place to be USED? That is what you are. A User. I'll use the WiFi to look up lower priced books, I'll let them entertain my kids, I'll use them to look at magazines.

You need to get a clue on how retail works. See, you GIVE them money for the sale of goods. It's not a library. I feel sorry for the employees at your local.

Customers like this, no one needs. These people have such a sense of entitlement! The very thought of using a retail establishment as a recreational spot for her children!
When I was a child we knew how to behave in public. Our parents did not think that the sun rose out of our behinds! I would never have taken my kids to a store to play!
This author said that her kids learned to crawl, walk and run at Borders. Good job, mom! We're those your kids running around the store as if they were at a playground? And, do you have any earthly idea just WHAT is on that nasty carpet at the store where your kids were crawling? Or, do you have any idea what was on those stuffed critters that they were playing with? How about drool, poop, pee, and throw up from all the other kids who played at Borders.
This customer is one reason that Borders is closing.
How totally clueless!
I am sure that the store employees see her come in and roll their eyes at each other. "Here she comes." Don't think that the employees do not have a derogatory nick name for her and her kids.
And she calls herself the "saving grace"? I am sure that her and her kids are not viewed as such by the store staff. Wake up , honey! Get a clue! Find somewhere else to recreate.

I read some more of Ms. Coleman's articles and I can only assume that she is totally entitled. What an overly inflated ego! She has to be one of those endlessly "Good job!!!" parents who overly praise the kids for just doing what they are supposed to be doing.
A mother's love is not to be ignored. But a mother also has to teach her children the limits of entitlement and how to behave in a place where things do not belong to you. The children have no right to play with the books, toys, games and puzzles. They do not belong to them. That is just wrong.

The only comment in her article worth looking at is creating a place where maybe you PAY a fee to have your child in a supervised area for an hour or so and have attached a book store for the parents to browse, buy books and magazines, surf and buy coffee. This way it is a win-win situation for both. Just recreate the bookstore concept, it definitely is a changing world out there but there will always be parents and kids who want to get out and do something.

Stop editing comments!! If this entitled woman gets to post her disrespectful behavior, encouraging others, we should have a chance to respond.

Actually, it is customers like this one that made me stop going to Borders....they really think it's Gymboree. I'm sure she has some big old family room at home that her children can run around in and throw books at each other. Borders....cater to adults who spend on high ticket items, books and gifts.

The author is a clueless, entitled moron who deserves to read these comments calling her out for her idiocy. She and her kind are the reason booksellers are in so much financial trouble.

Thanks for all of the interesting comments—none of which have been edited. We have removed comments that are obscene and profane because they violate the Patch "acceptable use policy," found here: http://bedford.patch.com/terms.

I am completely disgusted with your article. I am a Borders customer and I would never dream of "using" my local store as a hangout or play place. Your behavior is definitely one of the reasons Borders is closing and going under. You really should be ashamed.

I'm a mom myself of a grown daughter and there is no way I would ever have taken my daughter to a bookstore and let her trash the children's section as I have seen in Borders stores lately.

A retail establishment is not a playground. You should be ashamed.

Typical ethos of the internet age. Why pay for a newspaper if you can read the content online for free? Why pay for music if you can just steal it online? Why buy books at Borders or electronics at Best Buy if you can go there, use it as a showroom and then go home (or mooch free wifi in store) and buy it cheaper at Amazon or newegg? NY is one of the few states that actually requires Amazon to collect sales tax. In most municpalities and states they're losing tax dollars that went to funding things like schools and libraries, but in the world of internet ethics that's OK too. Face it, you're just a typical blood sucking vampire and borders and many other institutions you like to rely on will shut down after having been bled to death by the likes of you.

You are one of the main reasons Borders is closing. You can't take your kids to the library not because you can't talk on the phone but because they make you and your kids behave. The library doesn't care if you use their WiFi or read their magazines but they do care if you drink your Latte or allow your kids to do as they please in the kids section because both of those are irresponsible actions in a public space containing books.

I am an employee of Borders and I cringe when you walk in the door. Because you are not a customer but a leech. I don't care if you buy your books from Amazon, that is if you and your kids had stayed home and messed up your own house while you did so.

You could have purchased your magazine and then gone to Chucky Cheese with your kids where they want you and your kids. But oh you don't want to take your kids there because they will hound you and pester you for more money for tokens. You can't take them to the library because they won't let your kids run wild or you drink coffee. You don't want to take them to the park because then YOU would have to watch your own kids.

I guess maybe you could stay home you could go out after the mailman has come by and send your kids out to 'borrow' the neighbors magazines so you can read them, oh that won't work you would have to put them back.

I am so sorry I just can't figure out a way for you to allow you and your kids to abuse others in your quest for the easy way out.

Ms. Coleman, are those your children in the pictures? They are doing what children at Borders typically do. I see the scattered items on the amphitheater.
You are not alone in your view of the store as a play ground.
I am sorry that you took so much rath, but this is a very sore point. Many others just like you are out there. Do you not see what you were saying in your article? You really set yourself up for the criticism.
A retail establishment just cannot exist like that. They want you to browse, buy and leave.
You would not believe the mountain of broken and damaged children's items that accumulate in a store! I don't know why anyone would even want to buy anything there because it has been so abused by the children.
I speak from many years of experience.

I cannot believe that you think this behavior is ok, and you are willing to tell the rest of the world about it. It is something you should be telling your local priest, in a shameful confession. What a misplaced sense of entitlement you have Ms. Colman. You indeed are the ver reason Borders is closing some of its stores.

Such hostility! Many valid points were made in the initial Borders-employee-perspective post. The second one mentioned a blog where this "rant" has been hosted. While Ms. Coleman may have unwittingly stepped into a swarm of controversy, she is not malicious. She is also not the poster child for poorly mannered bookstore customers. Please move on to other, more national venues for this political (and relevant) discussion.

This article makes me so very sad. As a former children's section specialist/kids event coordinator I know how key children's sections are to the survival of bookstores. It is not because they make a nice playground while you have a little coffee break. Children love books and, while we won't always shell out the $25 for the newest James Patterson thriller for ourselves, we will certainly continue to foster a love of books and reading in our little ones. Borders carefully creates an area where you and your child can explore and events where you can create and learn and have fun. Half of the money for the events in my section came right out of my own very underpaid pocket. The singing, dancing, craft creating person who is reading Where the Wild Things Are to your spellbound 5 year old probably hasn't had a raise in 3 or 4 years because of people like you who abuse their bookstore. Choosing to buy your books in the store that is so special to you and your children is the only way to keep that store alive.
We should be teaching our children the importance of respecting books (especially books that do not belong to us) and respecting and supporting the places we love. Teach your children to be good to books, to be careful and treat them like treasures. Teach your children that when you take something out it is important to put it away (putting a book back can be a little alphabet adventure for early readers). Teach them that if you love a place then you support it.

Interesting point, Susan. Could the bookstore do more to encourage a quieter, more orderly children's area? Is the big seating area in the children's section for in-store reading events, or for day-to-day lingering? Could there be a box next to the big seating area, for parents that have just read to their children to drop the books in? Or a no-drinks sign, encouraging coffee to be drunk only in the cafe? I would also like to remind commenters about our terms of use and to keep personal attacks absent from this site.

Susan Annar is correct in some respect that Borders encouraged the boorish behavior of Coleman and others of her ilk. This is how a typical interaction would go between a store level employee who witnessed that kind of behavior and the misbehaving customer. After attempts to clean up after them throughout there 3 or 4 hours of taking books off shelves, leaving them on the floor or throwing them across the section, etc., the customer would become offended that you would feel the need to straighten up after her and her kids while she's still there. She'll say something like "do you have a problem?" Then she'll complain to the manager. If she's not satisfied with that-she'll ask for the district managers phone number. She'll complain to the DM, the DM will call or email the manager and chew them out and require them to give the "customer" a $25 gift card with apology. Gosh-do you think the manager will make that same mistake again?

I loved this article. It tells it like it is. I don't agree that the behavior of browers is boorish, though I understand that the staffers have a different point of view. The Borders - and all the other bookstores - have deliberately created the space and the situation to bring browsers and readers in. Think about the Starbucks and the armchairs at the Barnes & Noble in Cortlandt! There's a retail strategy here, trying to reach potential buyers where they are. I think Ms. Coleman expresses where real people are these days very well.

If we try to ask the kids to behave, the parents complain. How on earth is it the company's fault that the parents are allowing the children to run amuck? I had several children throwing the glitter balls at each other. When I asked them to stop (as they could have hurt someone, esp one of the smaller children), I was screamed at by the mother for daring to parent her child. As a mother myself, I don't blame Borders. I blame the parents.

I am not a bookstore employee, but a customer. I am appalled by the author's lack of respect for a place of business. I took my kids to bookstores from an early age, and they always knew to carefully browse through one book at a time and to return it to its proper place on the shelf before selecting another. We never treated a retail store as our personal playground and did not make ourselves at home for the duration. While we didn't always make a purchase on every trip, we have definitely supported brick and mortar bookstores generously over the years. I would love to see how the author's children abuse their public library, but they probably don't go there because their library doesn't have toys for them to "play" with.

I am very disappointed in this article. You do not "run" in a public place. And you shouldn't be encouraging your children to either. I'm all for exploration in a bookstore, but you need to be teaching your children what is expected of them in a public place as well. I've had small children run in front of my handicapped father-in-law and nearly trip him in public places without a backwards glance. Where are the parents?

Lisa, if you really think people are going to be well mannered enough to put things in a designated space for things they don't want you must not go out shopping very often. How often do you see a package of once frozen meat sitting in front of a box of cereal in a grocery store? Or a pair of jeans that was on a hanger draped over the top of the fixture? Or even better, simply laying on the floor. People are lazy and self involved. Even if retail establishments tried to curb this behavior with signs(which no one reads) or designated areas for things they no longer want, it still wouldn't stop people. I've seen people set cups down randomly on fixtures in bookstores because they don't want them any more. And yes, I am enough of a jerk that I will pointedly call out "Excuse me" to them and hand the cup back to them. So if Borders(or any bookstore) made a designated area for people to set things they didn't want, do you know what would end up there? Trash. Gum, candy wrappers, cups, half full lattes, babies diaper, etc.

I used to work at Borders--thank God, not in the kids' section. None of the employees wanted to go in there because it was wrecked by the end of the day. People making $8 an hour ($15,000 a year!) worked so hard alphabetizing and organizing the books, only to have it all out of order within an hour or two. Playgrounds and parks are great; bookstores are not either of those things. And yes, it's OK to stop in and browse sometimes, but it shouldn't be your default mode in the bookstore--especially not when you're spending hours using it as your personal playground.

Post signs and make PA announcements??? Should we tape these signs to your children? Should we tap you on the shoulder before each announcement to inform you that you are the rude person it's intended for? What about customers with basic manners who do not treat stores as a play ground, should they have to listen to these constant announcements reminding you this is not your home?

Exactly the self involved, entitled mindset of the author. Sickening.

I'm not entirely sure how making Borders more of a hang zone will pull us out of bankruptcy, like the author suggests. And adding a wine bar? So people can get tanked and then come over to claim their unattended children? I won't lie, though, after seeing the resulting carnage of the liquidation sales at my sister stores, being able to drink on the clock would be pretty sweet.

Has Borders fostered this? Absolutely not! They provided a comfortable, bright space for families (mine among them) to shop, and the key word is "shop" for books. The fact that parents have not been chastised is due to the fact that Borders ill afford to alienate a customer. Previous posters have hit the nail on the head by describing this behavior as boorish, selfish, and inconsiderate.

And as for browsing at Borders then buying online, is the three bucks you'd save buying on Amazon really worth it? The fact is, we support our local businesses with our purchases, not our mere presence.

One can only hope this writer and others like her will recognize themselves and feel ashamed for their appalling behavior. If you would be truly upset if this Borders closed, then teach your children how to behave properly in a store and go back in to buy a few books.

I worked in a store closing. I can't begin to rant about how customer go to cafe and "drop off" their kids in the children's section. I would find books, games and their used-up food wrappers throughout the kids section. It would take HOURS cleaning up this mess-as the moms would sit there "zoned out" like zombies. It is truly disgusting to find mothers laying on the floor with their kids (do you really want to know how dirty that carpet it??) You are setting a HORRIBLE example for you kids-to be lazy and disrespectful to others.
I can tell you that I once had to ask a grown man to exit the store because he was reading a SEX book in kids alone-as children walked by him. This is why you don't think your children are okay.
Borders allowed this to go on for too long. Man I worry for this generation. A bunch of insane kids due to parents being lazy and weird in public.

I currently work for one of the Borders that will be closing. Reading this article at both infuriated and saddened me. Every action you cited in your article, from using our free Wi-Fi, to letting your kids run amok, to making phone calls, to browsing amazon for better deals is what is slowly driving the nail into the coffin of these once prestigious establishments. Please take note that, as many before me have stated, WE ARE NOT a library or a playground. We are a bookstore. There is no issue with coming in and perusing certain books to see if you like it, but I've had customers come in and actually do homework with our books. They have sat down with notebooks open and taken notes. Some for a week straight. When I finally said something, they got offended. But why? That action is what libraries are for. The problem is, and this comment is directed specifically at SUSAN ANNAR, we as employees can't just tell these people to leave. Why, you may ask? Because, Ms. Annar, most people have been brainwashed into believing that "the customer is always right." They believe that if they make a big enough fuss that management will cave. And sadly, it does usually happen. I have had people act with utter disrespect over policies clearly printed on their receipt, making personal attacks just to get their way, because they fully believe the are entitled to do so. Tell me, where did the respect for bookstores go?

As a long-time Borders bookseller, I'm appalled but not surprised at Ms. Coleman's post. These are the moms busily weaving a world that revolves around their child rather than preparing a child to live in the world. Unfortunately we live in a society allowing parents to operate with the belief that "Johnny or Suzie" must not be allowed to "fail", everyone has to "be a winner", the "village" will raise your child and behavior/consequences will be discussed or negotiated. Our places of business have simply become part of the village raising their child and a place for moms to catch their "me" time. My business model for people like Ms. Coleman would be an admission fee to our children's section: $10 per adult/hour, $5 per child/hour. Adults MUST remain with their children at all times. NO food or drink allowed. Perhaps, then, Ms. Coleman and other like-minded parents would be able to clearly discern the difference between our business and Chuckie Cheese, Gymboree, Planet Kids.

Furthermore, let me say this. While I understand, from a parent's point of view, the action of letting your children run wild is freeing, please note that a bookstore is not the place for this. Bookstores are meant to be respected and we, as booksellers, are not babysitters. It is wonderful to teach children the love of books. But while trying to enforce good behaviors you have only reinforced negative ones. It is not mine, nor my co workers, nor any other bookseller/worker's job to monitor your children. We should not have to tell them to stop running. We should not have to tell them not to knock books onto the floor or to pic them up. You are the parent. They are your children. Parent your children. Now, Ms. Colman, this you is of course a universal "you" and while you specifically are not the only person behaving in such a manner, you perpetuate this type of action. Parents get offended when you tell their child to stop but, and again this goes to the post by Ms. Annar, we are not their parents. Children, and the parents that bring them into the store, should have ingrained within them already the common sense and decency to respect the establishment. No one, not I nor any worker should HAVE to tell you or your children how to behave. You/they should simply know. I hope my words have reached some of you. Please be respectful of your bookstore and its sellers. For many it was a wonderful job, with wonderful people. Your actions have cost us a family we will never get back.

This is cute. I've never walked into a Publix just to see signs that say "Please bring carts back into the store." Though there are places for guests to leave their carts in the parking lots. There are huge signs that have bright green pictures of grocery carts in the parking lot. You really can't miss them. Yet carts will be thrown around the parking lot in parking spaces so that the next guest can't park in paticuliar spaces, and on windy days the carts hit other cars.

Publix is fortunate to be making a profit in the recession and can afford to have adequate staff to fetch the carts that are left in the parking lot.

Carts don't have to be put into an aphabetical order.

Now imagine that you weren't making purchases to put in said carts and you just wanted to play around outside with them. How frustrated do you think the staff would be?

This is just rude behavior on the writer's part.

im with DJ on this one. Folks(the ones with kids that come in to terrorize the store) how about u come into a borders without ur kids and look at our "other" sections. hmmmm maybe apply for a rewards card and get pretty awesome coupons(none of which r below 33%), then maybe, MAYBE the company wont go out of business and survive the bankrupcy. borders is a bookstore loaded with books of all kinds for people who love to read books, not a playground for your kids and let them run around while u get a caffeine fix. u people sicken me.

This behavior happens at Borders because Borders management fosters it and allows it. That's it, plain and simple. It doesn't happen at any other type of retail store. As for making purchases online, their business model is outdated and uncompetitive, that is why they are going out of business. Just like Blockbuster Video and all the other dinosours. Get off your soap box and move on.

hey "get over it", management fosters this behavior because we've tried to correct it but "the customer is always right" model comes into play and we get backlash. i've worked at a borders for 4+ years and as each year goes by this behavior gets worse and worse. a bookstore like a borders is misunderstood. im apart of a closing store and im losing a FAMILY to customers like this. for u to even have the name "get over it" really ticks me off. how about before u say something like that u take into consideration of the people that r involved within the whole situation. i have no problem with the persons only the behavior they show when they r in the store. so come april i am out of the best job i ever had and im losing alot of people i have enjoyed working with. so tell me this......how the hell shall i "get over it"?

In regards to signs and PA announcements. You would be shocked to find, that in a place of literacy such as Borders - that there are so many that can not read! "oh, there was a sign?" people are oblivious to them - for they surely cannot be meant for them! Announcements? Unless singled out, you can't be talking about me. Nope.

All we can hope for is some common sense. Like maybe taking an adult themed book in to the kids section isn't such a hot idea.

Get Over It- you've obviously never been to a public place where items are exchanged for money. Just try walking into an Old Navy or Kohl's on a weekend and tell me it doesn't look like a hot mess. But you're technically right. Speaking as an employee of Borders, I can confirm your assertion that management allows this type of behavior. The suits in Ann Arbor that are overpaid and have never set foot in the field do tell us to allow this kind of behavior. You're obviously as delusional and disconnected as them if you think that makes it ok.

Oh and it's dinosaur, not dinosour. Maybe the next time you're in a Borders acting like an entitled non-human, you'll pick up and dictionary and look in it before you leave it somewhere for me to pick up.

I'm amazed that anyone thinks this behavior is ok. Ultimately such "shoppers" are just trespassing. Perhaps if Borders didn't have wi-fi and comfy chairs, people wouldn't treat the store this way. That is true. Clearly the people who planned out the stores overestimated the consideration of their future customers. In the future, if one would like to support a store (Borders is supposed to be a store after all), try supporting it with your actual cash. Otherwise, you're just left hanging out on Amazon.com drinking virtual coffee...

Bridgette: "you'll pick up and dictionary and look in it before you leave it somewhere for me to pick up." You'll pick up a dictionary... it's called a typo. Pick something a little more substantial in order to make your point. I happen to agree that the behavior described in this article and several posts is not proper. My issue is in everyone's opinion of what caused the downfall of Borders. More people aren't buying there because their prices are to high. It's amazingly ironic how this arguement to save the "brick and mortar" businesses is being applied to Borders when not that long ago people were balming Borders for bankrupting the independant book stores. Like the one that used to be in the Manufacturer's Outlet Mall in Mt Kisco that went out of business shortly after Borders came to town. Addtionally, if more people were considerate and placed everything back on the shelf the correct way at Borders, Kohls; etc. there would be far fewer $8 and hour employees with a job.

I am a bookseller at a Borders that is soon closing. I first read this article late last night after a long shift working at my liquidated store. To say that I was just angry, would be an understatement. I wanted to write a thoughtful comment, without hateful language, so I waited until this morning to post. I do not disparage my fellow booksellers who posted earlier. You have every right to feel the way that you do. In all honesty, I enjoyed reading the comments, especially the ones which were deleted. Ouch.

To Michelle, who wrote this article. You had no idea that this article would set off a firestorm of tirades against you and your kind. Now, you know. Unfortunately, this a small audience, and the remaining Borders kids departments will continue to be trashed on a daily basis. This is not just about you, Michelle. It is about our society. I have had years to contemplate your type of behavior. Your generation should be called the Mommy Generation. Mom Gens. If you could just step outside of yourself for one moment, you would see how self centered, how completely out of touch you are. How many times have I seen copies of self help parenting guides, damaged, left on the floor of the kids department? Do you fail to see the irony? Before I run out of room, this is my point. Do not come into Borders without the intent to buy a book. Every time a book is handled, it loses value. Period. Every minute an employee has to pick up after a child, is money spent in labor costs.

Paul: Use this opportunity to find a job within an industry with a business model that is better suited to succeed in the future. Many people have lost jobs since jobs have existed because there was someone doing it better or cheaper and that's how a healthy economy works. Should we have kept the horse and buggy business alive so that all the buggy builders wouldn't lose their jobs? I wish you and all your fellow employees luck in finding a better job.

I too am a former Kids Shelver at a closing Borders store. I was the hardest year of the seven I spent working for that company, mainly due to parents like Mrs. Colman. And I assure you the employees at your local store know you on sight and have a nickname for you that involves a lot of the words that are not allowed on this site. You really are the type of customer we dread seeing, because after you've spent your whopping $2 on a latte and maybe $3 on a toy you (and your brood) end up costing the store about $50 - $100 dollars depending on how much merchandise we had to throw away after your children destroyed it, and the labor to put the section back in order. How dare you have the audacity to use a business as a free playground so you can talk on your phone and let your children run amok, driving off adult customers who are there to SHOP. (Which is what stores are there for.) I agree- buy yourself a coffee maker (You can probably afford a nice one with the free WiFi you used to save so much on Amazon), steal a neighbors magazine subscription, and let your kids run around in your living room and destroy your stuff. I agree that retail as an institution is changing, but catering to people like this is never going to be the solution.

Okay, I'm about to lose my job at a Borders. I also used to work for an educational toy company. I helped open and close the only two retail stores they ever had, in the marketing department and on the online warehouse side. Our prices were some of the best in the niche industry. As the stores closed, we did not see online sales rise. We were on Amazon, had leading contracts with vendors before book stores and Walmart even carried these toys. Great wholesale prices, to make excellent retail prices online and in-store. People would simply drop their children off in our stores so they could go shop & not buy any thing there. GameStop & Macy's SELL more. But that is exactly it, toys that actually help kids be more intelligent than their latte sipping parents, have no more market. People are not raising their children, they depend on entertainment to do it. What happened to going into a book or toy store, and looking at items WITH you child, taking them home and reading with them? No, they get home and pop in a movie or break out the PSPs because they don't want to be responsible for more than making money.
I don't know if we even want to talk about how dangerous it is to do that? Yes. Yes I do. I know someone who still cannot walk into a bookstore because she was abducted from the kids section at age 10, molested, and returned. The man who did it was never caught.

If you love your children, want them to succeed, have a good work ethic, appreciate what they have and understand how they treat their environment. They they will not want a store with a kids section and a wine bar, they won't allow their kids to go unsupervised in a store that could be the entry way into knowledge and nurturing... they would see the magic in their kids eyes when they opened "I Love You Stinky Face", "Goodnight Moon", when they were suddenly so curious about why rockets shoot up, or why there are different kinds of cats. They'd be there for the magic moments that only a brick and mortar retail store can offer. They'd get their latte on their way out, to the park, to build that rocket or to the zoo, maybe to pop in a National Geographic dvd that they JUST bought.
Don't forget the power unleashed when discovery meets imagination and curiosity.

I don't care about cleaning up a store and working 20 hours over, that my salary would not pay in an educational toy store. As long as it's for that. For the spirit of discovery. Not babysitting.

This post, it's blind, ridiculously blind to the realities of ill parenting. I feel bad for my fellow employees, but I feel worse for her children.

Oh dear God, this woman is an author. Ok Michele, what if your books were repeatedly ripped and torn by "customers". Do you even realize that these damaged books get returned to the publisher? The publisher then has to credit Borders' account? Wow, amazing. I am amazed by your complete lack of respect of the book business. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Wow, just wow. But I am sure your husband is the main bread winner. No worries!

It's called a library, lady. You pay for the right to bring your kids there in your taxes. Teach them about how lucky they are to live in a country that gives you that option.

Get Over It- The point of yours that I disagree with is that Borders is an exception when it comes to customer behavior in retail environments. I don't need to construct a thesis to demonstrate that you're wrong. It's a slap in the face to everyone who works retail when you so plainly blame the store at large for something that isn't our fault. And, might I add, that in the six years and two stores that I've worked in, there has never been a single employee who was hired explicitly to clean up after people. If everyone put their things away where they belonged, then the store's employees would have the time to do things like get stock out on the floor or work on projects like setting up local displays to help reflect our community's interests. You know, the things that establish a relationship with our customers.

As for the typo- turn on the spell check in your browser if you don't want people commenting on your mistakes. Proofreading for you is also not in my job description.

Ok, so there's something critical missing from this discussion. How do you do it right? As a parent, I've generally avoided bookstores so far. My kid is just 18 months- right now, his favorite game is to pull all the books off the shelf (at home and at daycare)! It could be a disaster to take him into a store.
And yet...
He loves books. LOVES THEM. They are one of the few things he will sit still for. He loves pictures, he loves words. He loves sitting in my lab while I read and turning pages, he loves babbling aloud 'reading' them. He loves them. We have mostly board books, because he doesn't have the coordination for regular pages. But when he has a page book, he doesn't tear them. He is not destructive. He will, if I can just raise him right, probably end up being the type of person that is the only hope for bookstores of tomorrow.
So how do I get from "self absorbed little monster who tears books off the shelf and leaves them there", to "respectful customer who never *costs* a store excessively and contentiously chooses to make his purchases to support local stores whenever he can"?

Becca, personally I have no problem cleaning up after kiddo's that appreciate, and parents that buy the books. Granted, I know some people who still won't be happy because they are jaded. However, I think you're doing things right. Waiting until he's a little older, going to the bookstore yourself or with someone as a "book date" to pick up books for him. He'll get to the point where he won't tear up the store and can handle one or two books at a time until he chooses what he likes.
If he makes a few messes along the way, with you there to teach him that it's wrong, that is totally worth it for me personally. We all have to learn, right? Maybe he'll want two or three + books after he's made a mess and at the registers he only gets to have one because of how he behaved. It also leaves doors open for rewards; if you see him starting to put a toy or book away after he's used it at home, go buy him the book he didn't get to take home as a reward.

Any way, I want to thank you for caring about teaching your baby boy to grow up into a good man. We need more moms like you.

I've worked at super markets, game stores, and a book store. You are the type of customer we all dread. I can remember plenty of times at all of those jobs where a child has done something and we are expected to pick it up. Let me tell you that is nowhere in my job description. You watch your children and make sure they are respectful. Now on to the chairs and everything. We don't mind people browsing around the internet or for books, but why not purchase said book if it's good enough to read while sitting there? Why not support the store. Not to mention with the coupons Borders use to send out that book would be equal or lesser than Amazon. Reading books without paying is like using a dress for a dance, keeping the tags on, and returning it after because you're done with it. You can do the same at Gamestop with used games, but you're not supposed to. It goes over all companies in some way shape or form and hurts business. It's wrong and frankly should be a more punishable offense.

Michelle, sweetie, a mom and pop store will not allow you and your children to use their store as a hang out. Would you really hang out in a small bookstore, drink lattes, read(and not buy)books for hours if the owner of the store was watching you? Somehow, it's ok for you to hang out and buy nothing because it is a corporation? Corporations, as cold as they are, are still employing people in your community. Go into a 'mom and pop' shop and try it. You are in for a rude awakening.

To GET OVER IT. While I respect your right to have an opinion, I must humbly disagree. You are incorrect in your assumptions. I have worked retail for many years now and in each job, at each location, there invariably are rude people with little to no respect. As time goes forward people become more and more antiquated with the notion that all retail workers are nothing more than public, minimally paid maids. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "Just leave it, it's their jobs," or some equivalent, I could own a state. Perhaps not a large one, but definitely Rhode Island or Delaware. Though I jest my point remains the same. The general public feels that they have no responsibility or consequence when they enter any retail establishment. I, too, have worked in a grocery store and even a furniture store. I have seen disrespect from the public before. But that disrespect does not come from Borders or their management. At least not specifically. It comes from a societal acceptance of such behaviors. As I mentioned earlier and others have also posted, this behavior comes from "the customer is always right" philosophy where corporations would rather cater than correct. Ours has become a society of disrespect and to gain back that respect we must stop fostering this type of behavior. To state that disrespectful behavior does not happen in other retail stores means you are either blinded to the truth, or you do not go to many retail establishments. I assure you. I does.

We are requesting that the author of this article post a response to these comments.

Signed,

Soon to be unemployed Borders Booksellers

Finally, GET OVER IT, let me address perhaps your most misguided notion. What you really fail to see, and have yet to understand, is that we who lose our jobs are not just losing the brick and mortar buildings. They are, simply, just that: buildings. The heart and soul of those buildings is and will always be, the people who work there. In all my years of working; from retail to small offices to a publishing house, I have never felt the camaraderie I do at my store. We are, in short, a family. Borders closing said store is breaking that family up. While we still may see each other it will never be the same. To address your comment to Paul: it is true that something new will always come, but what you miss is that no matter what job we may take, no matter how much we still see each other, it will never be the same. Paul understands that. We can never get back the good times we had. To find a group a people so wonderful is truly a rarity and something I am certain I shall never find again. That loss is what so much of this is really about. To callusly state that we should not care makes me sad that you have never had a job that was more than that. This job, though not the best paying, was the best I've ever had. I will miss the fun, the family, the laughter. You must understand that losing a job is never easy, but losing the people makes it that much harder. While you wish us all luck in finding new jobs, I implore you not to speak so flippantly to begin with in the future.

2 things before i stop wasting my time on this page. 1.) this is directed to the couple of people who think we employees(or customers) r being too harsh with our statements towards some select individuals(take the vote of good luck and shove it). well let me share this to u. we have been forced to hold in what we really think of customers like this because sadly it would cost us our jobs. now with the store closing and i am soon out of a job u all can shove it as well. 2.)when is this author going to comment? i would love to see what she has to say after all of this.

sincerely on behalf of 165,
Unemployed.

This is hilarious. This woman, the blogger, is so out of touch with reality. Apparently she doesn't understand that other people come into Borders besides her. And some of those other people include creepy men who like children. We've caught several in our store around the kids area. Idiots like this mother who let their kids run amok while they browse other parts of the store, not attending their children, with their noses in their cell phones, risk their children. And guess what, we employees are not babysitters. That means I am not responsible for the safety and security of your kids. You reap what you sow and someday it's gonna be an eye-opener! I think about a good 20+ obscenities ran across my mind upon being alerted to this article with this nonsensical troll of a mother. She is part of the reason for my company's downfall. And let's not be exclusive in assuming she does this in Borders only. I can just imagine this toolbox and her brood going into a clothing store and letting her kids rip clothes off racks and run around knocking crap over. This woman (although I'd prefer to call her a "creature" or "troglodyte") is the poster child of the downward spiral of society in general both in terms of sense, morality, respect, and pride. Troggie here is going to also eat this blog when she comes on seeing all of our comments and not only that I had a riotous time reading all of her Amazon reviews for her joke of a kid's book. How does it feel to be hated by so many?

i'm glad that you feel the need to hang out somewhere that you give no money to

maybe your kids will spill mars mud all over the carpet! that is very fun to clean up

sorry that soon you will have to pay 100% attention to your kids

Oh and also, where are the 70 comments? Deleted! You can't censor everything! Here's what we really think! http://community.livejournal.com/iworkatborders/766932.html

To the person who commented that Borders' books are overpriced...

Publishers set the price on their books. It's PRINTED on the book. Stores that sell books cheaper than this printed price DO NOT RELY ON BOOK SALES FOR THEIR MONEY. Costco may have a hardcover book for $17, but Costco doesn't care if you buy their books, Costco wants you to buy a flat of 300 muffins.

I'm a former Borders employee. Borders obtains hardcover books from the publisher at a 42% discount. When I was working there, new hardcovers were always on sale for 40% off, giving us a whopping 2% margin. Since it would take me 4 hours every Tuesday morning to unload and display those books, depending on the title, my store barely made back that labor cost.

Amazon can afford to discount the cover price because they do not have the overhead. When you go into a brick and mortar store of any kind, you are paying for the trucks that deliver stock, the rent and electricity, and the wages of any person who shelves, rings you up, or cleans up your mess.

If you don't like the prices, don't go there at all, and do us all a favor.

I have been a Borders employee for many years, and the fact that stores are closing is not only a sad event, it is also tragic. For one, if you really think about it, the company will in turn lose about 6,000 employees. Now this might not seem to be such a tragic event to you Michelle Sinclair , but to those of us who have worked there for years and built a "family" with our co workers and customers it is really a horrible thing to be happening.
Now I am not going to go on a rant here, but, I will be first in line to say to people like you, that YOU are the reason we are closing. YOU are the reason that so many people are losing their jobs. YOU are the reason these people are now going to lose their source of income. We all work very hard at our company to make it a happy and welcoming place for all of our customers and we gladly encourage people to bring their kids and let them grow up in our store and become people who love books as much as we do, but the parents and all customers who think we are just some sort of babysitting," look and don't buy" free for all are the ones who drove us to the point where we are now being forced to close the doors. And before you even start thinking that now there will be a resurgence of "mom and pop" book stores popping up as a result of us being gone, you are wrong, because people like you will them just move there & mooch off of the free "day care".
Thankfully my store isn't one of the ones closing. Thanks Michelle & just stay out!!!

There's just one last thing and this is for you Michelle. How, as an author, can you allow your children to act in such a way? How, as an author, can you treat a bookstore in such a manner? Your actions are the principle force behind few bookstores. Fewer bookstores mean you as an author will have fewer outlets to sell your books. Which means fewer royalties for you. Which translates to smaller advances. Which further means your publisher may not be able to keep you on. Which means you won't be able to write anymore. As an author myself, I know how horrible this situation is. I just don't understand your laissez faire attitude. Your actions are hurting other authors. With less outlets, publishers are less inclined to keep on smaller authors or even back newer ones. If you don't care about yourself, at least have the respect and decency the next time you go to your Borders to buy more than a latte. Start by purchasing something more substantial. Stop making it harder for the rest of us.

You are the very reason I hate my job most of the time. I work in the kids department of my Borders and can't stand the parents like you. Saying you're our "saving grace" when you come in and buy nothing? News flash: that doesn't keep a business IN business. You're only in the way and in the mean time messing up a perfectly shoppable section by making it completely unshoppable. Big businesses like Borders need to think outside of the big box? Are you serious? How can you make such a claim when you admit to only using Borders for your personal reasons (i.e. free wifi, browsing magazines, coffee) instead of using it for its intended purpose? TO SELL BOOKS? You make my head hurt and what's frustrating is you are not the only person out there who is like this, which makes my job that much worse. We get paid crappy wages to clean up your crap. Retail is hard work for very little payoff. Maybe you should think about that before blaming the company for its failure when people like you exist.

I can not love the comment above mine more than I do right this second.

As a former Borders employee (there are millions of us), I have to agree with everything that has been written in the comment section. At the store where I was an employee, we called this behavior "nesting." Customers would collect piles of comforting books, beverages, snacks, a laptop, and set up camp. It was annoying enough to see a grown adult abandon their 15 art/anime books, leaving their beverage to leak a nice ring onto the cover, but it was even WORSE to see this behavior from parents. I once had a woman ask me to watch her kids while she ran to Chipotle to buy lunch and bring it back. THIS IS NOT A RESTAURANT NOR A DAYCARE. When I declined the responsibility, she took offense and said something along the lines of "Well, see if we come back to THIS store! We're going to Barnes and Noble!".

Yes...I, as a $7.50/hour wage employee, am REALLY going to miss your $4 latte purchase twice a week. That is absolutely going to effect the income and volume of our store, and I'm probably going to lose sleep over it. I hope I don't get a pay decrease. Please don't go. Please.

While there were benefits to being an employee of this chain (mostly the incredible, long-lasting friendships I've maintained), I do NOT miss suburban, entitled housewives and their stinky brat children.

We shouldn’t condemn Michelle Sinclair Colman and others like her. We should look at the good they do. With their massive expenditures of $4-6 on a coffee they’re supporting SBC and THEIR employees (Not sure how that helps Borders, but I’ll make something up later). And, thanks to customers such as her, we get to clean up after other people, and that keeps us busy, because we couldn’t possibly have something better to do (because all retail employees are actually a lazy, slack bunch, that’s why we work in retail and need people with an undeserved sense of entitlement to make sure we do SOMETHING). I honestly don’t understand why everyone has such a problem with cleaning up the kid’s section every night. And, well, when they damage product, we can always just send it back to the distributor and get our money back, and then it’s someone else’s problem. And, they make sure that the books are being read, even though they don’t buy them, but that’s okay, because the book is being read (because Authors really only want their books to be read, they don’t ACTUALLY want to make any money off their books). So, I really don’t understand what the big deal is. I think everyone should rush to Borders and just hang out, read the books, let your kids run wild and wreck the place. (This has been brought to you by the letter W and P, and the number 7 (just in case Michelle and anyone who agrees with her hadn’t figured out that I was being absurd))

Seriously though, when did we, as a society, and as business owners, decide that this sort of behavior should be tolerated? I think that there was a time when someone like Michelle and her children would be asked to leave because they were loitering. Instead, the business, which has completely forgotten that its stores are PRIVATE PROPERTY, allows Michelle and her ilk to enter their stores and use it as a playground and library. While I think that Michelle and her kind are WRONG for doing what they do, I also feel that businesses should be firm when dealing with the public. In my years in retail I’ve seen some moronic things done in the name of “Customer Service.” It is okay to tell the customer “NO.” I’ve done it before. I’ve seen it done. And I’ve accepted it as a response from a company because, I’ve been wrong as a customer as well (*gasp* that’s right, I admitted that I’ve been a bad customer!).

Borders is a business and should be treated as such. Borders employees shouldn’t have to clean up after the lazy, good for nothing parents, who probably only have their kids to “keep up with the Jones.” Companies shouldn’t have to write off product as loss because some kid’s brainless parent wouldn’t keep them in line and the kid broke something, and the parent didn’t even take responsibility for the action, or lack thereof on their part, and at least offer to pay for the damaged product. Instead, ALL RETAIL EMPLOYEES are treated as servants by customers. I try very hard not to do that. In fact, I’ve found myself straightening shelves in my favorite stores, and not because I made a mess, but because I know how hard they work.
Those of you who think that Michelle Sinclair Colman has even the smallest of points, look at what you do when you go out. Look long and hard. Then, look at all these posts from people who have to PUT UP WITH YOU. Maybe, just maybe, we’ve got a point, and it’s time for people to wake up and realize that the customer IS NOT always right.

After reading this article and all of the comments, I am greatly conflicted. Many years ago, I started at a Borders establishment and began my climb up the ladder. I find myself now as a member of corporate management that is soon to be losing his job. It is true that customers like this the original poster helped in the downfall of the closing stores, but it is not the final point. I worked with many of these customers, and was admittedly quite frustrated by them at several times. There is something to be said about cleaning up after yourself and teaching your children to respect their surroundings, but it is another thing entirely to appreciate that this customer was able to bring some joy out of Borders. I look back over my years with this company and smile. I remember the team I worked with taking me out for my first legal drink, I remember forming friendships that last to this day, I remember meeting my wife and falling helplessly in love with her. If I may speak to my fellow employees, I say let this customer go. They may be misguided, but the idea of a company like Borders should be larger then the annoyances. I have never had a job outside of Borders, I stand now in my middle years making a resume for the first time (granted, poor planning on my behalf. jokes on me, I suppose). But we just have to take the good with the bad. I do not offer an olive branch to the original poster, but only a request that Borders employees can smile a bit after reading this.

To J Hansen....Oh yeah....the books are nonsense....they do "explain" her.

I used to be a Paperchase merchandiser at Borders (we were on the chopping block eight months ago) and although I never worked in the children's department, often our products (especially the novelty items at the queue) were intended for children. A was astonished at the "parenting" that went on at Borders, if it could be called that. Because I worked for Paperchase I didn't need to wear a name tag, and thus I got to see quite a bit that was hidden from Borders employees. One time, I confronted a child who threw a 15$ journal on the ground only to be accused by her mother later (while holding a wonderful cafe beverage) that I was racist because her child was black, and I was not. Nope, I was only frustrated at the total lack of respect both children and adults would show our product. I still have photos I would take of the wreckage to send my boss. But I have two important points to make. First, it is not just the children doing the destroying. You would not believe the number of people who would not bat an eye at opening up something that had been carefully wrapped in cellophane because it was delicate and therefore expensive to damage out once it got inevitably ruined. Although it is partly the fault of Borders for allowing such a climate to grow in their stores, it is still up to the customer to have common decency. The second point, this is becoming true of most retail stores. I work for another company, and it doesn't get better. Customers have no respect anymore.

Children need to learn to respect any space that is not theirs. Every customer is a guest in a shop and where they expected to be treated as one, they should also treat the store and its staff as their hosts.

I love that children sections of bookstores are so fun! Bright colors, toys, super-fun books with sounds and pictures... but these things aren't there because it's a playground - they're there to help the customer (and their kids) feel welcome, have a little fun, hopefully encourage the kids to associate books and bookstores with a happy environment.

The fact that people take advantage of this in the wrong way, and then openly flaunt this rude and disruptive behavior without apology is infuriating.

Ah, ha! An email just informed me that I have violated the terms by being inaccurate and false!
As the young ones are wont to say, "WTF!"! They just did not like what I said, thats all.
I see the wagons circling this journalist.
Look for this discussion to be closed.

Any readers who are interested in knowing why comments may be deleted, please refer to our terms of use: http://bedford.patch.com/terms. Thanks.

OMG I totally agree with all of us associates and former associates of bookstores and toy stores. I used to be an employee of KB Toys for 7 yrs and have had my share of children left in my store while the parents shopped in the MALL.... All associates called the store "KB Daycare"... One woman was upset with me when after an hour and a half of watching her little 8 yr old girl with no parent in sight I called Mall Security to come and take her with them as a abandoned child. Mother returned just as they were getting ready to take her with them and began to raise all kinds of hell asking me why would I do something like that ??? Was the girl misbehaving?? Did she create a mess in the store??? When I explained that she hadnt been in the store for over an hour she screamed at me and said the her daughter "LOVED" this store and what was my problem... at this point my manager stepped in between me and this wonderful parent and told me to go to the back room because she knew I was about to punch her in the face. Too bad people abuse associates in truly wonderful stores like Borders (where I frequented almost weekly) My Borders is closed and I miss my bookstore. KB Toys is closed and I miss my smaller more intimate toy store... This woman should pay for some daycare and stay home and drink her own coffee and order her books wherever she needs to. The Borders bookstore doesnt need ANOTHER rotten customer/user like her in their store.

This comment thread is now closed. Some comments were removed for not complying with our terms of use (see link here: http://bedford.patch.com/terms). Some comments were inaccurate, false and threatening. While Patch encourages interaction, we insist that comments move the discussion forward and that readers address each other respectfully and avoid personal attacks. Thank you for those comments that provided thoughtful debate on an array of issues: big box v. mom and pop, customer service, parenting styles, just to name a few.