I decided to get the book Poser 8 Revealed. Poser 6 Revealed was a pretty good basic primer for that version so...

I called Borders to see if they had it in stock. A nice young lady (I'm assuming) told me that another store nearby had the book in stock, so I called them to hold it for me. Three times. Got the answering machine each time. (your call is important to us..., we appreciate your business..., etc etc.
So, I found the book on Amazon for half what Borders was selling it for.
I called the Borders answering machine again and thanked them for saving me the money and the time on this book by not answering the phone and that I'd be thinking of them every time I order from Amazon.

Businesses are failing in the US why?

Because the banks won't lend them the money to pay their bills, so they lay off staff.  Because they have no staff, there's nobody to answer the phones, so they lose business.

In order to prop up their failing business, they contact their bank for a loan... 

Same over here, btw.

For years I managed health food stores and book stores. Often I was the only one working in the store . Somehow, I always managed to answer the phone.

Maybe hiring people with more than two functioning brain cells would improve their bottom line.

When I'm forced to interact with store personnel, I'm frequently confronted with blank stares, slack jaws, incoherent mumblings. I could hire my dog and get better customer service.

Bookstores have always been that way.  Most of them care about serving their
own cultural or political groupies, and don't really want new customers.

When Amazon came along I was extremely happy.  I abandoned the bricks-n-mortar
bookstores and never looked back.

I have found the Books-a-Million folks very friendly and helpful especially if you are nice.  Jan 

I've always been a bibliophile. I like holding a book and browsing through it before I decide to buy it. Rarely do I interact with store staff anymore because they seem generally to be snooty pseudo-intellectuals far too concerned with their own important inner crisis to bother with mere peons like paying customers. Most seem to be living under the misconception that their presence alone is enough to warrant a paycheck. (not just bookstores, it's everyplace)

It will be interesting to see what happens when printed books disappear and all we have left are Kindle and Nook and iPad and whatever the next electronic thingamajig will be.

Instead of book burnings, all that's needed is a simple mouse-click by some functionary and, poof, another volume consigned to the memory hole.

Where would we be without the printed page?

For example, neither Barnes and Noble nor Borders carry a single volume by Harlan Ellison.
Ask at the help desk and learn that a) that author does not exist in the store inventory and b) who's Harlan Ellison.

Kinda sad.

Attached Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison#Controversies

I once applied for a job at B&N. The woman who interviewed me went on for 45 minutes, waxing poetic about the magnificent profits of millions upon millions of dollars a day and their plan for ultimate global domination. Then she offered me $6 per hour. For a manager position.
She could have saved us both a lot of time by just saying that in the first place.
Meh.