Chapters Indigo and a Delusional Rich…
For those that are not familiar with Chapters Indigo, they are a huge retail book store in Canada. Originally it was just Chapters. Then, Heather Reisman decided to open a rival, Indigo. With the help of her husband, who is in charge of Onyx Corporation ( A company that buys struggling or takeover ripe businesses. Lies and then fires employees so they can turn it around and make a buck.), she bought Chapters and made one huge monopolizing company that owns Coles and pretty much any other major and medium book store in Toronto and probably all of Canada. Even that World’s Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto is owned by them as far as I know.
My story begins many years ago when I was young and naive. I started a small business and went to one of these waste-of-time small-business-networking-and-lecture things. If you’re starting a business, don’t believe the crap the books and speakers tell you. The networking events are full of other small business people that are hungry for sales. You’re way better off focusing on sales and improving operations instead of listening to BS and meeting people whose only desire is to sell you something for money you don’t have. Think about it. Isn’t that why YOU’RE going to the networking event?
Sorry for the tangent. Back to my story.
The speaker at this particular networking event, held at a church near Yonge and St. Clair of all places, was our good friend Heather Reisman.
The following is a paraphrased synopsis so you’ll pardon me for not reciting it word for word. It was several years ago and only one point remains crystal clear from her speech. More about that later.
She started a sob story about how she was depressed after leaving her job at Coca Cola. “I was driving around feeling lost. I didn’t know what to do…” Blah blah blah blah.
Yeah. Just picture it. Her husband is worth hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions for all I know. She is driving around in her Benz or Lexus or whatever, feeling lost. I’m sorry lady but I just don’t feel bad for you. I’m heading home in the cold after listening to your drivel.
“Then one day I got the idea to open Indigo.” Got the idea? What the hell do you mean you got the idea? Chapters had the idea first and they were already in business. This should have been my first clue to her delusion.
So, I’m sitting there fairly irked by this point but she had more for me.
She went into how at Indigo you can sit and read a book. And this is the part I have never forgotten. “I think that in the future, libraries will become obsolete.”
What …?! Holy mother of… no wait I’m in the church. Did she just say that? Did she just say that she wants to get rid of libraries? Obsolete because she stole an idea for a book store and put in a couple of chairs and then had her husband buy out the competition so she could have a monopoly?
What in the hell is wrong with this woman? Are all rich people this arrogant and disconnected or is she on medication?
What about all those people that can’t afford to buy your books? What about the kids who need libraries to study because they have to live in a cramped apartment with their family? Or the ones that suffer abuse and go there because they can’t study at home? Are you going to loan them some books and invite them for tea so they can get into university, or is that just for your little rich kids, too?
What about society’s right to free knowledge without greedy little …. like you controlling everything we see and read? Putting their own political, personal, or religious bias on what can and can’t be said.
That was just too much. I can’t believe something like that would come out of anyone’s mouth. The sick part is that I could tell she believed it. I will never ever buy a book from Chapters or Indigo or whatever she decides to call it in the future.
Buy your books at small book stores if you can. Jut make sure Heather doesn’t own them.
If you think that that’s too expensive and you have to buy books online, at least get them on the net from some other company. Not this corporation whose delusional CEO’s goal is to make our libraries obsolete. Or better still, go to the library so the politicians that cut the funding this year get the message that we need libraries.
I don’t know what kind of dirty deal was struck to allow this kind of monopoly in the Canadian book markets. It’s not surprising but it is disappointing. As a society, we deserve better.
She finished her speech with this. “…so if you have an idea, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it better.” Let me get this straight, Heth’. All us small business people who have just invested most of what we have in our business should copy an idea, get our spouse to come up with a few million dollars so we can buy our competitors, then take over the industry. Okay. I’ll get right on that.
Actually there are two parts of that evening that stood out. The first was her crack about libraries and the second is that people clapped once she finished speaking. They actually clapped for her. Let’s all go and burn down a library after this! Yeah! (They didn’t actually say that but you know…)
Maybe it was out of politeness or maybe most of them weren’t listening. I for one was not clapping.
Still want more?
For those that are not averse to wading through manure, you can listen to a CBC radio interview with Heather Reisman at the time that the takeover of Chapters happened.
Some highlights are her talking about the major differences between Chapters and Indigo. The height of the shelves and brightness. Stand back! The creativity and stark contrast is overwhelming.
One of my personal favourites is her “commitment to the people in the stores”. Talk to an Indigo employee some time and find out what it’s like there.
Thanks for reading and whatever you buy, vote with your wallet. Or in this case, your library card.
November 24th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
hello there! i used to work for these assholes and i can attest to how mixed up their ideas can really be. i read somewhere that reisman’s idea for indigo/chapters was for the merch sold to go from 70% books and 30% non-books up to a 60/40 split. hello? even our biggest (monopolizing) bookstore is more interested in selling lifestyles now than books. they make more money on selling chocolates at the counters than they do on award-winning novels. i want to be sick.
the other problem i have with them was about my working there, how they treated us. i started at a coles bookstore before indigo bought us out and we had a great time. all of a sudden, we’re owned by reisman and our store is being made over, or re-branded. we basically looked like a mini-indigo, with colour scheme, lighting etc, just no chairs. we were the first store to have this makeover and as such, reisman was in all the time commenting on this and that, changing colours, etc. she once looked at me organizing calendars and said something like “are you going to display them like that?” in a really haughty tone. no, heather. this is organizing. no point doing the pretty stuff unless you have the actual stock in order.
we also went from being comfortable on the job to wear uniforms: miraculously, i could have my nose pierced; a friend could have her lip done and come to work with a mohawk, but the dress code sounded like this (i had to buy a new wardrobe to keep my job):
- black or khaki pants, no shorter than ankle length (no skirts)
- solid, muted tone cotton button-down shirt
- no belts wider than 2 inches
- no hats, non-religious headscarves, hair-bands
- no open-toed shoes
and this only changed when we went from your friendly neighbourhood mall format store to an indigo appendage. erg!!
things got really stiff around the store and there were quotas to meet, etc. it wasn’t about loving books and sharing lit with people. it was about pushing product.
ps — i’m not sure who here noticed, but reisman is selling diamonds on the indigo website now. and you call yourself a “bookstore”?
January 6th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
My last year of Uni I interviewed with them at thier Kennedy/401 location in Toronto.
I felt like I was interviewing for chief of medicine at the local hospital! I was there over an hour before I lost it and left. It’s a bookstore for crips sakes! A minimum wage job!
There were about 12 people at that interview, the question they were shooting at us were unreal.
One woman broke down in tears because she really needed the job and the pressure was too much for her.
Funny that she talks about all the chairs, etc they have available. During my interview the staff explained to us how they were trying to cut out on people just reading by taking away more chairs and piling stuff on window sills so people wouldn’t sit there. They did not appreciate all the people from the “buildings across the street” coming over and not buying.
I happen to own a condo across the street and everytinme I have my niece or little cousins I take them to Chapters to read books and enjoy the childrens section…FOR FREE! hahahaha
I will never buy a book from them either!
January 9th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
I don’t know why anyone is even remotely surprised by how Heather Reisman behaves. She is a classic JAP (Editor’s note: JAP stands for Jewish American Princess) of the worst order and a striving member of her Chosen Tribe. She makes Barbara Streisand and Barbara Amiel look like WASPs in comparison! Folks buy your books from anywhere BUT a Chapters/Indigo owned retailer. Don’t encourage Heather’s delusions of acceptance. ‘Nuff said.
January 10th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
A friend of mine once worked at a very ritzy dog grooming place in Yorkville (if that isn’t all redundant).
One of her clients was Heather Reisman.
I didn’t believe it until my friend showed me the invoice, but Reisman used to have the shop bill her by sending an invoice for “Books”. As if that was her dog’s name. And no, it wasn’t….
February 3rd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Whatever you think of chapters (I too had a blog-worthy experience in December http://www.magnetstrategy.com/2006/01/05/closing-your-customer-service-phone-line-2-days-before-christmas-is-never-a-good-idea/ ), the best part of this entry is the fact that Google adwords displays a Chapters/Indigo ad on this page!!
J.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:35 am
I find all your comments interesting, but not surprising. I’m a local author. I’ve had two books published through PublishAmerica. I approached Indigo/Chapters in an attempt to promote my books. Their response was:sorry, we do not stock PublishAmerica books, but customers can order them through our on-line store. That’s great, but how do I make my books visible to the consumers? The sad thing is, Indigo/Chapters has monopolized our bookstore market. What chance has a local author against such an adversary? Canadian mainstream publishers are not interested in you, unless you’re someone famous! So too Indigo/Chapters, it seems. Pity, really.
Anyway, that’s all from me. I don’t know if this has been of interest to anyone.
Cheers
Lena J.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Sorry, I’ve just corected my email address.
Lena J
April 9th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Yes! I can attest to the extremely high expectations of the part-time staff. With only 30 minutes of training at the til you work the til. Coles used to be a nice place to work. The dress code is ridiculous. I also had to buy a new wardrobe at my own expense.
Finally, I just picked up and took a job in a bank. THEY didn’t give me a math or alphabetization test. The dress code is more relaxed. And, it was weeks before I worked unsupervised- they made an investment in training me.
Heather Reisman had a team of yes men to fawn all over her instead of a trusted team of advisors and it will begin to show. The selection sucks in the stores. Service in Chapters in almost non-existent. No one cared what our manager did as long as the sales target were met. The independant book store is unfortunately gone the way of the general store in the Wal-mart generation.
May 27th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
i found your ‘rant’ while searching for a place to do the same. today i read that ms. reisman had pulled all copies of harpers off her shelves for publishing the famous ‘hate’ cartoons that sparked riots in the muslim world. she has a ‘god’ complex and her money, or should i say her husbands money has afforded her the luxury of tearing down an entire block in rosedale to build her mega-home. god would not approve or whatever higher being one might believe in. having money does not give anyone the right to censor what the public can or cannot read. her refusal to sell adolf hitlers’ mein kampf was an insult to any educated person who has read this intensely insightful look into the mind of her most hated historical figure. she wants the world to never forget the holocaust and fills her shelves with stories of survival yet misses the one piece of the puzzle that puts everything into perspective. not to say that 6 million deaths is perspective. knowledge is power. reading his book is part of the whole picture. history should not be censored. how dare she force her beliefs on the rest of the world. her money could never buy her dignity or pride. that is our only solace.
December 28th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I just read about this woman and she makes me sick. I didn’t even have to read about the stuff she has done but now I see why she was chosen to attend the bilderberg group in Ottawa. Well I will have to find out every company she and her husband own so to make sure I don’t give them any money. I suggest everyone does the same. Crush Indigo.
June 27th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
I had heard about a book called “StarSitter” that was recently published and have been dying to get it. The author, Andrea Dana, has been all over the news in Canada for the past couple months. She is from Toronto. I had gone to a indigo a bunch of times last month to find it, and they said it wasn’t in. Then I saw it up online so figured the stores must be carrying it, so I went back, and it’s still not there. I found out through her website that indigo will not carry books by the publisher she is published through because they will not refund them if the books don’t sell.
So basically indigo will not sell what will probably be the next Devil Wears Prada book (as it was coined on BT_ because they’re nervous they won’t get their money back?) I am completely disgusted, and have now ordered it from amazon.com, where I will now order all my books from and not give those penny pinching idiots a cent.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I agree with you Lisa. It’s annoying that Andrea Dana’s book is not in the stores. She has done so much press for it. It actually makes no sense whatsoever, considering all the crappy books indigo carries. Also she’s a Torontonian herself, so you’d think they would jump at the chance to have a successful Canadian author’s book. This one is almost a no-brainer. She’ll probably sell thousands without their help anyway. So oh well.
I’ll order it on amazon too, I guess.
September 16th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I think Indigo books is also screwed up due to the same reason regarding the book “StarSitter,” by Andrea Dana. I tried contacting the stores to figure out why this book is not available, and got some bogus answer. This author’s buzz has been going on longer than I have ever seen for a book not on a bestseller list, nor in stores. I did hear an interview where she said that she is selling a lot of books online and through her website, and that she’s in the midst of making a movie deal.
What a shame that indigo is missing this book, when they have tables and tables of crappy books that no one bought, on sale.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am
I wish I could say something that redeems the company I work for, but I can`t.
I have been trying to find an indie bookstore to work at, but Reisman ate them all.
It`s hard loving books so much and wanting to sell them to people who also love books, but at the same time, feling the weight of the vest on my back and hearing myself state how wonderful it is to own a discount card for a mere $25 bucks.
I guess what I can say is that it`s a little different in the smaller stores. In Coles and Smithbooks, most of the people really do care about the books over the company, but mostly because they, too, have been screwed over by Reisman.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Hi all,
She also just attended the Bilderberg meeting in VA http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/120608_a_canadian.htm.
How do these people sleep at night…I really wonder. I will make sure I don’t support their companies either. Her meeting with the Bilderberg Group makes me worry about libraries….
-A good Heather-
June 12th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
They sleep in very expensive and well made beds
June 18th, 2008 at 4:55 am
anyone what their minimum wage is? And how strict are they with individual quotas? Im looking for a pt job and chapters is like right across the street but if it really sucks as much as this board claims, then hell no.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:56 am
I just bought a Deluxe Edition Scrabble at Chapter’s as a gift and paid $79.99 CD plus tax. Have just looked up the manufacturer’s (Hasbro)suggested retail price on their web site and it is $46.98 American. With the Canadian dollar just about at par, how can Chapter’s possibly justify such a wide difference in price? Absolutely my last purchase at Chapter’s/Indigo!
July 12th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I was at the Chapter’s store
I parked in one of the four reserved disabled stalls. When I got out of my vehicle an older gentleman was waiting in front of Chapters for me to approach. Once I got within his earshot he told me that I had no right to park there as it was for disabled people. I told him I was disabled and I had hung my required pass on my rear-view mirror. He said no you are not. You are just taking advantage of it. I asked him what a disabled person looks like. He told me someone in a wheelchair. I said no. Some people’s disabilities are not always visible. He still told me I should not park there, I am not disabled or in a wheel chair and I am just taking advantage. This continued into the store where customers began to look. He then told me that if I can walk around the store I am fine. The picture even shows it is for wheelchairs, and I am not to be parking there. I became offended and very irritated the way this person was talking to me.
I walked a different way as people were looking. To get away from this ignorant person, gather my head and calm my nerves. I could not get over how I was treated out of my mind. I then proceeded to search for what I was at the store to purchase. After finding out Chapters did not carry in stock the book I wanted, I continued to browse to see if there was anything worth purchasing. Making my way to the music where I spotted the older gentleman who had the confronted me was a Chapter’s employee behind the counter. I was very shocked to see that it was an employee of Chapter’s Store that treated a customer in this manner.
I made a purchase although still feeling irritated. I went to the main check out counter and asked to speak to management. I was directed to a lady wearing a blue shirt under a Chapter’s vest. I asked if I could have a word with her and we stepped off to the side. I informed her of the way I was treated by this employee. She informed me that Chapters does not instruct any of their employees to act this way, and maybe he was just looking out for the best interest of the parking spot. This statement was disturbing as I have every legal right to park there and if the required parking pass was not visible then action should be taken. She asked if I liked Starbucks and offered me a beverage.
I was and would like an apology for the verbal abuse I received from the employee. I should in no way have received this discrimination.
It is not a choice to be disabled to park closer. I wish I wasn’t. If your employee’s are that closed minded that disabilities are only visible then you need to have a training session on discrimination.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Where do I begin? It’s been a few years since I worked for Chapters, but here are some of my fondest memories:
-after working at two different stores for a combined three consecutive years, my salary was just over $10 an hour as a full-time employee.
-I was eligible for “benefits” (if you can call them that), but couldn’t afford to pay the initial deductible. I still opted to pay for these benefits just in case, but could never scrape together the cash to actually go to the dentist after paying rent and phone bill. I lived on pasta and rice to save money.
-One year, Heather hired a “music programmer” (whom I later heard was an extended family member), who used to follow me around the music department I worked in to overhear what I recommended. He would then take his supervisors on tours of the department spewing my exact words, title for title.
-The staff room has a communications bulletin board. One year, my little sister was fundraising for a school trip and I put a notice up asking if anyone would like to purchase muffin mix, along with the order form, just in case. Management removed it, claiming I was “soliciting.” The order form was not given back to me.
-I took ONE extended weekend off and was forced to work every single weekend for the rest of the summer in return.
-There is a “Loss Prevention” bulletin board, also located in the staff room. Each quarter, the poster is changed, but it’s almost always the same message: our employees are thieves. If you tell someone something long enough, they’re bound to believe it. Many of us “borrowed” books purely on principle based on these demeaning posters.
I’m sure there’s more, but I’m writing off the top of my head, fueled by the angry memories this blog post has dredged back up. I hope that if we all keep this dialogue open, something will change…
December 19th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Oh man, where do I start?! I just started working at Chapters a month ago (I’m a college student, and I needed a part-time job to make some extra cash) and I’m already as jaded as if I’d worked ten years there.
Don’t pick up this job as a way to make some extra money. It’s not worth it. Notable disadvantages include:
-You are not going to get enough training, ever. I was trained to be a cashier for about twenty minutes, and the very next day was scheduled for a cashier shift…on the busiest sales day of the year, Customer Appreciation Day.
-You will get in trouble every week if less than 8% of your personal sales are iRewards/Chapters membership cards. All your sales transactions are tracked by management.
-Your fellow employees are encouraged to rat on each other to management. I’m not talking about things you should be reported for, like theft and harassment, I mean for things like failing to circle the website link on customers’ receipts.
-Your employer will never, ever, ever trust you. Before leaving the store at the end of every shift, a manager has to escort you to the door and then check the inside of your bag to make sure you’re not stealing anything from the company.
-Just in case you think the bag-checking is a formality, you will also never meet the guys who are Security Guards/Loss Prevention Enforcers who work in your store; in fact, you will never know who they are. Security guards wear plain clothes so that neither customers nor employees will suspect they are being watched.
-You will begin to suspect that women’s suffrage had no impact on the company you work for. Every store is required to have a table with the sign “Gifts for Her”. Guess what’s on it? Bargain cookbooks and child-rearing books – nothing else. Hey Reisman, I’m not the CEO of a major company or anything, but I think the average woman would be pretty offended if she knew that you and your R&D team think that she’s only interested in cooking and having babies.
-If you are scheduled to work at 10:00am, you will be reprimanded for punching your time-card in at 9:59am, or 10:01am.
-You will be encouraged at every turn to take advantage of your Employee Discount…thereby putting the very money you earned from Chapters BACK into the company.
-If you are a student, or have another job, or have another project in your life that takes up a significant portion of your time, be aware that management will schedule more shifts than you asked for. If you write on your availability form that you can work Monday OR Tuesday but not both, you will be scheduled for both.
-If your store does not make the projected sales quota for the previous day, management will make you, as an individual, feel personally responsible even if you did not work that day. This is supposed to motivate you make more sales.
-If a customer asks if books on the “Heather’s Picks” list are really books she personally read and recommends, you are supposed to say yes and not feel like a dirty stinking liar.
Don’t work here. Don’t shop here.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:45 am
I am from vancouver and i wanted to say that Heather Reisman reminds me of Ronald Reagan and the Iran contra affair.Im not a supporter of fascism myself and i don’t deal with anyone who supports fascism.I think that if many of the people who went to your bookstore knew that the bookstore gave money to mercenaries to fight for the fascist Israeli gov.they would’nt buy books there.As time goes on more and more people will find out about that.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Reisman makes me nauseous, I think she has mental health issues. Have you ever seen her walk through her stores? Spend a day at Indigo Manulife or Eaton Centre – chances are you will see her. What she says/does to her employees – wow. I imagine those people file a lot of grievances ….
April 19th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I work for this insane company, since times are tough,
who can afford to leave. Most staff at my store are
looking for other work. I got paid as full-time staff
about 7.50 to 8 dollars an hour most of my many years
here. I have been subjected to sexual harrassment, bias’s of all kinds, other harrassment, managers who
are complete rejects, low-self-esteem riddled, idiots,
don’t communicate, a psycho GM who has OCD, an area manager who is as bad as the GM, and so on.
If customers tell you to fuck off or throw books at you, your manager will give the customer a free drink
or hope they weren’t offended. We get screwed out of
breaks, have to clean shit off washroom walls and toilets (not in the job description), are questioned if we are faking our illness, we’re all apparently thieves, and the managers are NEVER wrong, ever.
Fellow employees are definitely encouraged to rat on
other employees for the tiniest of things, and are rewarded with raises and praise for it, although that
is hidden in some ways. You get bag-checked even if
you go out for lunch, and that usually takes a manager
ten minutes to get to you, so you’ve already clocked out, your lunchtime is now 20 minutes. You ALWAYS have something wrong on your performance evaluation to
have you be just on target or not, so you don’t get
a decent raise on purpose. Managers either are in the office laughing and talking, taking personal phone calls, or micromanaging you to death, even though they are idiots and have no clue about anything. Unless you get one like we have that thinks
he’s the centre of the universe and knows it all. Most of our managers have no clue we all hate them, and have no respect for them. The morning meetings are a joke. And what is really majorly offensive, is
Heather’s “Love of Reading Fund”. You ask for donations from customers, then, once a year she asks
for write-ups from schools who need books, and she picks some and calls them like she’s Oprah, and teases them then announces they’ve won, but it’s all
SELF-SERVING bullshit, because it’s the customer’s money she’s spending, on her own product!!! Not her own money. What a CROC! You could go on ad nauseum.
It’s deplorable. It says in the handbook that CEM’s,
the 2nd line managers if you will must have a degree.
Excuse me? Ours have barely high school! Unreal.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
“a psycho GM who has OCD”
Um, excuse me?
You speak about discrimination, but then you say that your manager has OCD like it’s a horrible, evil thing to have.
Shame on you.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
So I just left the Coles in my town, where I have worked for over 4 years. I started as a CER and it was the managers last day, so I was rushed trained, which I could deal with as the tills are super easy and finding books isnt all that hard. I actually really loved the job until we moved and they made our store look like a mini chapters. They didn’t send anyone to help us move, it was just 6 of us working from 8 in the morning to 3 in the morning for a week, rushing to get things done, and our RM only showed up 1 day to tell us we needed to hurry up. The store was always busy and we made good sales but were always pushed to do more, sell irewards, circle receipts, upsell, greet, blah blah, oh an you need to put out stock, do returns, tidy the store, remerch sections, all in an 8 hour day. When I was promoted to ACEM, I rarely had breaks, worked overtime constantly, I never got holidays because we had to give them to the CER’s who only worked there for not even 3 months. I understand some of you who were CER’s hate your managers, but keep in mind you complain of no training, managers get NO training. I was just pushed into the role and expected to know everything, and to do more and more, an sell an sell. Honestly the upper management like RM’s and head office, don’t care about CER’s at all. They tell us to fire them if they dont sell iRewards, and if we dont harrass them and fire them, then we are threatned to be fired. We don’t get good performance reviews either, and we are judged not by someone who see’s us everyday like your manager, but by some guy who visits the store twice a year and thinks he knows everything thats going on. Our employees blamed us for everything as well, but they didn’t realise we were treated just as badly, because we had the responsibility of all the staff. If 1 staff member messed up, it was on our heads. We weren’t trained or coached on how to deal with it, but we were told to deal with it anyways.
Being in management at Coles wasted so much of my time, I had no time off, no life. Staff called me on my days off all the time, and I just got tired of dealing with a stupid RM, an HR that doesnt even listen, and a low low wage for what was expected.
I still haven’t been paid what’s owed me and I have been gone for 2 weeks, I keep getting my emails returned as… we are looking into it.
Definatly one of the worst companies I’ve worked for. And yes, Heather is a bitch who does nothing and knows nothing.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Yeah, I worked at a Coles as well, and for the first year it was actually good. Granted, I was underpaid, but I worked with books, so I was able to overlook it.
However, when an ACEM got promoted to CEM, she made it her vendetta to get me ousted. Why? Because I made her look stupid.
And this is a manager who could take tantrums on the sales floor, embarrass employees for no reason, and once left in the middle of the shift and hopped on a plane to another province because her husband was cheating on her again.
In the long run, I quit, but she made it her business to ensure that I would never get hired again. But then, een after I blew the whistle on her, she was never fired, or reprimanded, and I looked like the bad guy.
I never ever want to work for such a shitbag company like this. Who do they think they are?
November 1st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
For those of you looking for a job at Chapters, I hope you like forcing people into buying something they will never use, and then feeling bad about it. I am speaking of the dreaded Irewards card. The managers will get mad at you if you dont sell memberships to a certain percentage of your sales. And YES they track your perenctage every hour and do friendly “updates” about how you’re doing. Talk about pressure. Ive been working at Chapters for 2 years now, and justtttttt about had it for selling the Irewards card. An expensive membership that people really don’t need. Honest to god, I don’t even mention the card anymore and have even talked people OUT of buying the ripoff discount card. Muaahhaa dani is making Chapters crumble from the inside…..
November 12th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I am currently employed at Coles as a seasonal employee, as jobs certainly are hard to find and I took what I could get. I am aware I will be let go in January, but in the meantime, I am not impressed with my treatment. Besides the impossibility of changing shifts, I am actually faced with a major problem. I am a University student with a full courseload and 3 labs, and cannot work as much as is preferred in December. I put as many hours as I can possibly work on my schedule, even sacrificing time I originally wanted to spend on studying for finals. My manager was not impressed with the amount of hours I could work, and so for the entire month of November, I have been granted one 3 hour shift every two weeks, regardless of the fact I AM available all month. I thought I was just unfortunate, but this board has convinced me that getting a new job is in my best interest.
November 26th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I am not an employee, but an avid purchaser of books and DVD’s. As I have a US mailbox, I order from Amazon.com, but for Christmas I want to buy my father two books on the Great War which can only be purchased in Canada, so I was forced to visit Chapters.ca to purchase the books.
I have two complaints: one is the shipping rate. For orders under $39, $4.99 plus $2.50 for each additional item is charged. I understood that if I ordered 1 book under $39, I would be charged $4.99 only, as there were no additional items besides the 1 book. I was shocked to realize that I would have to pay both $4.99 and the $2.50 as the $4.99 is a flat fee that is added right off the top and then the $2.50 is added for each book. So for 2 books that did not add to $39.00, shipping is $10.00.
Next complaint: I received postal mail from Chapters with a $5.00 coupon “on your next online purchase” if using their new feature Interac online. I had purchased in the past, so this was my “next” order, but the $5.00 was not deducted. Upon phoning Customer Service, I was told I had to use Interac for one order, and then it was the next order I would receive $5 off. I don’t plan on making another order after these books at Chapters, so the coupon is useless.
I cannot justify purchasing from Chapters when I can order from Amazon in the US. I want to buy Damages, Season 1 – it is $59.95 and only $35 at Amazon. Double the price.
Also their search feature is horrible. When I type in Damages, Season 1, I am inudated with 148 results from Alfred Hitchcock to Three’s Company.
All in all, Chapters is a big rip-off. I am grateful I live close to the US border and can pick up my books and DVD’s at my US mailbox and bypass Chapters altogether.
I guess Dad will not be getting those books, as shipping and the Interac offer has turned me off.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:53 am
This page was definitely amusing to read. Ranging from somewhat reasonable
(“We get screwed out of breaks, have to clean shit off washroom walls and toilets [...]—that’s not fair, nor is it common; as a CER you don’t have to do that, and no one every approached anyone in my store to do that)
to absurd
(“I received postal mail from Chapters with a $5.00 coupon “on your next online purchase” if using their new feature Interac online. I had purchased in the past, so this was my “next” order, but the $5.00 was not deducted.”—so you received a coupon for $5 off your next purchase, and you wanted the next purchase to be the previous purchase? What?)
Happy employees are obviously not going to go online and rant about their employers; and I assume that no one here is lying when they talk about their bad experiences. However, these are outliers.
People should stop whining about “big corporations” and “filthy rich CEOs”. If you don’t want to buy from the store, don’t. If you don’t want an iRewards card, don’t get it. If you don’t like the owner for being a “JAP” or for having “OCD” (?), don’t go inside the store? Or does it just feel good to complain?
January 9th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I’ve worked at Chapters for over a year and I must say that for the most part, I love my job. There are many times that I don’t agree with the decisions that head office makes, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. I guess I’m lucky in that I work at a store with supportive managers and a great staff that gets along and works well together. I don’t sell an ireward card to a customer unless I believe they will actually benefit from it (and they do save you money if you buy a lot of books!). All this being said I REALLY don’t like the fact that I work for a company run by Heather Reisman!
January 14th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Get a life, people. If you think you will find a retail job where you aren’t required to sell products (whether they’re garbage or not) then you are living in a fantasy world.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Chapters – worst job I’ve ever had. Paid basically minimum wage and expected to do way above what their paying me for. I thought it would be great working at a bookstore – not this company. Employees are underpaid and underappreciated. I don’t give a crap about how many irewards I’ve sold, how much the store made yesterday or what new book we’re trying to push on people today.