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She loved having co-workers who were almost too passionate about books.
(Andre Aciman opted for a chameleon.)
I saw the Strand as a place of comfort within the city, Smith said.
Being a part of that team is really special.
Ifeltspecial coming to work every day.
Luc Sante worked there.
Patti Smith too, for a hot minute.
(She found itunfriendly.)
Strand employees are expected tohaveopinions.
You dont like Updike?
I dont like … collections, the staffer replied.
That precarious balance came undone last year as the pandemic ravaged the retail industry.
The store remained in hibernation until the end of June, when management brought back a skeleton crew.
Since then the Strand and its unionized workers have beenlocked in a struggleover money, priorities, and safety.
Last July, the union filed a grievance, saying managers were doing union work.
The Strand has pushed back on many of its employees claims.
So until in-store sales bounce back, this is the best we can do.
Despite a recent arbitration meeting and months of conversations, nothing has been resolved.
A place where staff take pride in knowing their stuff and imparting that wisdom to shoppers.
This fragility is something that Strand employees have always known they work in retail, after all.
Without all the good, the bad takes on new weight.
He was known tosleep on a cotin the store during the early, lean years.
Fred Bass bought the Strands current building, on Broadway, for $8.2 million in 1996.
The building was landmarked in 2019, against Bass Wydens wishes; she described landmarking as a bureaucratic straitjacket.
Clashes between employees and the stores management arent a uniquely 2020 problem.
Stories of struggles between the Basses and their staff have circulated for years.
There was even a blog calledI Hate the Strandin the mid-aughts, apparently maintained by a disgruntled employee.
Still, employees mostly respected him for his deep, borderline obsessive love of books and of his business.
He knew his people, Bobrowski said.
If youd been there for a year, he knew your name.
He knew what you did.
Legend has it that 20-odd years ago, a hotshot actor was walking around the Strand.
Holden Caulfield, a staff member with a particularly dry sense of humor told her.
Its not clear if any of this ever happened, although its safe to say that a fictional J.D.
Salinger character has never shown up at the Strand.
The anecdote does distill how many employees feel about Bass Wyden: Shes not one ofthem.
(Also cold: the employee working in the booth for hours.)
And then there was the thing with the sprinklers.
Whether the strategy was hers or not, its become a permanent part of her reputation among employees.
Part of that could be due to the Strands enduring mythos.
(The Strand says it also went toward rent.)
and Let Nancy eat cake!
More frustrating to past and present employees was their bosss personal stock purchases during this time.
Bass Wyden is married to U.S.
I have a message for politicians everywhere,wrote Bass Wyden.
With the Strand faltering, she wanted to ensure she had the resources to keep the Strand going.
It was infuriating, even if its predictable.
In October, these tensions rose to the surface.
Late that month, Bass Wyden used the Strands Twitter account to put out a call for help.
Sincerely, A Former Strand Employee Who Used To Cry In The Bathroom.
But it didnt stop Bass Wydens Save the Strand message from going viral.
(Its now been retweeted nearly 25,000 times.)
Bass Wyden would later tellthe WashingtonPostthat on a typical day the Strand might get 300 online orders.
The weekend after she posted the letter, the store got 25,000.
Bass Wyden never addressed the complaints from former employees.
The other was the family nanny.
Still, the October sales boost was something for employeesto feel hopeful about.
Thats the premise we have to work on … whether or not we know Nancy could secretly afford it.
In the months since then, employees say the situation has not improved.
Spirits at the Strand are crushingly low.
Meanwhile, many businessesPPP loans have dried up.
The stakes are high: The Strands longevity is part of what makes it so important.
I asked one former employee, who wanted to remain anonymous, what their ideal situation would be.
Imagine if the Strand was cooperatively owned, they said.
During the Save the Strand campaign, I worked the registers for a lot of that time.
People were genuinely emotional.
They would pile books on the counters.
They would say, Im buying everything I can.
In February, Jody quit.She doesnt have anotherjob lined up.
A self-described former Strand diehard, shed finally had enough.
Enough of feeling she was more worried about her safety than her boss was.
She told me shes not the only recent departure motivated by long-brewing frustration.
Even though she no longer works at the Strand, Jody attended this months demonstration in solidarity.
Youre making it impossible to run this business!
We all just started laughing.
We were like, Man, its the opposite, Jody says.
We want people to be able to work there.
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