New York bookstore banks on homeless - 26 Feb 08

[Carterofmars]

Long live the printed book!

Reject eBooks.  They are great for newspapers and some magazines but there should never be anything between the person and the printed page. eBooks are useless if you don't have a reader or it breaks. Then the data is inaccessible.

Books never break.

[punkrocksknot]

@ 0:38 it looks like that dude i pooping or farting... seriously though, awesome idea.

[xlovenuggetx]

LOL

[filmerado]

Probably paid some elderly woman $3 for the signed Capote and wouldn't make eye contact with her, the way of a thief.

[filmerado]

Strand also was caught in the 1990s issuing lists of hot titles to "homeless" to steal from neighboring Barnes & Noble and Shakepeare & co (not to mention old Bill French right across the street). Sorry Fred & Nancy Bass, the cat's outta the bag. Too bad not one of your ex-employees had enough grist to really spill the beans on your enormous tax-evasion schemes either. Or your regular low-balling of significant art libraries (remember the George Perret library at Westbeth? $1000??)

[tumadoireacht]

i was at strand before the events you allege. i saw guys arrive with boxes of books and fred offer them a low take it or leave it price. i emptied the libraries of dead men from their apartments(greek classics concealing yellowed playboys) that fred had bid for and won. his is a perfect capitalist business. it is also a great social service in recirculating many titles.

[saxquiz]

It is amazing that that store can stay in business if they buy any book that is brought in!

[armita22]

Fred Bass fired me after working for him for a month and a half at Strands bookstore. He and his daughter Nancy were very disrespectful and rude to the employees. Everyone was afraid of him and I wasn't so i respectfully but firmly told him that he u may own strands but u don't own me! The next day he fired me. Six months later I got hired at NYPL to be a librarian and now I make 70,000 a year. Life is Good and when I see Fred, I laugh in his face lol.

[tumadoireacht]

i worked there 9 months in early eighties. fred bass had good psychology. i got 4 raises of a quarter an hour each time! all new staff swept out the store early each a.m. for a period that depended on ones punctuality. each new employee was given a mini literature quiz to qualify match 10 authors and titles. good if poor times.

[armita22]

...and your point is...? I don't mean to be a smart ass but are u tryna tell me that despite my bad experience with Mr. Fred Bass he treated you right?

[tumadoireacht]

librarian salary runs 47 to 62k.what is YOUR point? that you were cheeky to your boss and got canned? surprise! and you still resent it? and further you resent contrasting experiences? bass is a gruff old coot and the store staff is famous for its funny curt nyc service delivery. strand has been a stop gap for thousands.

[armita22]

I do resent "your" contrasting experiences because your "contrasting experiences" where better than mine. It could've been jealousy. But because i'm a growing human being I do apologize for my juvenile remarks. I admit I was hurting and resentful at the time I wrote this. We all gotta grow sometimes and the pain I went through definitely helped.

[armita22]

Sorry did I upset u lol? Oh yeah and about me getting CHEEKY with Fred his old wrinkely ass deserved it. Later.

[melodramakid]

Dear god! You're a librarian and you can't even type out the word you?!

[armita22]

I know u posted this ages ago but like the saying says "Past is prologue" and it still is, and like Eddie Murphy said in Coming to America "Fuck You, Fuck You, and Fuck You, Next" Lol. And by the way, it's called short hand typing it is the 21st century, get with the program or get left behind it honey...now piss off!

[melodramakid]

Well excuse me for thinking a librarian would have some respect for the English language.

[filmerado]

Those are awful AWFUL people who own the Strand. I worked there a year, was groomed for managerial, and after I abruptly quit was in the NYC book trade for 15 years, and oh could I tell some stories about those monsters. They are primarily a criminal operation.

[Abvance]

Most of them are probably stolen books!

[clockworkorange1986]

great bookstore

[Arroyoribera]

What is important about Mr. Bass is his respect for the homeless. If a Wall Street swindler comes in & buys thousands of dollars of books, no one is going to question where he got the money.// As to the comment above about Americans treating the homeless like shit, this is certainly true which makes Mr. Bass's statements of respect all the more wonderful. If you type == SPD officer shit bags == into google you will find a story about a Spokane Police officer calling the homeless shit bags.

[rezasantorini]

Good for the USA. We try but it always doesn't work out this way. The homeless need every chance and this is sure better than just a handout.

[ogjimkenobi]

Its true, I just found out that early this morning a highly organized group of them, executed a successful strike on the New York Public Library completely cleaning them out! Also all of the trash cans had apparently been gong through. And according to the report, only a single tinfoil shoe was found at the scene. Sound familiar? We are dealing with City wide emergency here, things are gonna only get worse from here.....

[DamNationDiplomat]

What kind of a building do you live in? Where i lived in Chicago, there were bars or bulletproof glass on practically every window, and even though it was next to a crime rich area, it was a decent university neighbourhood.

[ogjimkenobi]

I live here in New York and just last night we had a break in, I heard a loud crash and fumbled around for a bit looking for a bat or something, when i got downstairs the window was smashed, curtains blowing in the wind and right next to it my gigantic bookcase....empty!! And laying on the ground one of his shoes made of tinfoil had fallen off. An obvious clue! Guess I'll head to the bookstore and look for the homeless guy with only one tinfoil shoe.

[LouisianaGatorGirl]

Stealing is wrong, but if the burglar who stole your books is so impoverished that he doesn't even have a decent pair of shoes and has to wear footwear made out of tinfoil, then I believe he needs those books much more than you do.

[afrircans1970]

Your statement means nothing. The man is poor so he has to steal? Thieves steal. Poor people are poor. When poor people steal, they become thieves.

If you do not excuse socially dysfunctional behaviour, those who do so - will not look for excuses and will begin to honestly confront what they do wrong. If you give them excuses, they will never learn.

You obviously have never been poor. Poverty is not a behvioural prescription. We must always take responsibility for what we do.

[DamNationDiplomat]

That's good; the vast majority of americans treat the homeless like shit, and, even if many will never succeed in a 'classic' sense, EVERYONE deserves a chance, and most of these people haven't had one.

[breaks0]

Strand has two locations in ny, one near wall street and the other near union square. It's easily the best used book shop in the city and one of the top book stores period. If you ever come here, by all means visit.