If you go down to an SPCK bookshop today

This is what you can expect. According to a source - I am still awaiting a comment from SPCK management - this letter from was sent to staff at St Stephen the Great SPCK bookshops from the desk of the company's president Philip Brewer with a note that they disseminate it as widely as possible for "maximum impact". I hope Mr Brewer is grateful for my assistance in this matter. The background to this is that last October, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, a British charity founded in 1689, transferred its 23 bookshops to the ownership of the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, an Eastern Orthodox body. First to go from the shelves was the Koran. And things have been, as they say in the East, 'interesting' ever since. Enjoy. (Update: sorry this and the other post disappeared for a while yesterday, I took them down to change them slightly and forgot to repost. rg)

'This is to remind all shops managers that your primary responsibility at all time is to manage your shops.  This means what it implies.  You are deemed responsible for all actions of your shop staff and the condition of your shop premises at all times.  This includes when you are absent.

'The Shop personnel must always, within 3 seconds of a human being (this implies that it may or may not be what you consider a customer) entering a shop, someone is to recognize them, smile courteously, and say “Hello”!  This could be a “Hi, or Welcome” or other such welcoming salutation.  All shop staff must not assume that someone else has done this or that it is the responsibility of someone else to do this.  If they are wearing a name badge of SPCK, it is up to them to be done.  However, if it is not done, it is the manager’s responsibility that this did not occur.

'(It is essential that someone who has entered gets this greeting and the following one, even if you are presently engaged in assisting another customer.  Look up, make eye contact and make the appropriate greetings!  Then resume assisting the person you are working with at that time.)

'The next most important task, in order, is the offer of help.  This could be, “May I help you find something in particular?”  If the customer says something like, “I am just browsing.” Thank them, and ask them to please let them know if you can help.  Additionally, please let them know that if they don’t find what they want, you would be happy to order it for their delivery.

'As a person (any human being), is leaving, please thank them for coming in.  This could be “good day, Thanks for coming in today.”

'If this appears to be an oversimplification, it is because IT IS!  I have been amazed at how many overtures have been made by me that this MUST occur, every time without fail.  And then I, or a shopper reports back to me that this did not occur to them.  I witness it continually.  This must not continue.  Failure to follow this means that management is failing to manage.

'Additionally, there should be no square centimeter that is within our shops (anywhere) or on the space outside our shops (sidewalks, etc.) that is not ALWAYS tidy and spotless.  I do not  care if the windows were washed ten seconds ago, if they are dirty again, then they need immediate attention.  If the shop floor was vacuumed (Hoover’d, Henry’d, etc) 30 seconds earlier, if there is dust or dirt on the floor, then it is the responsibility of the shop manager to ensure that this is promptly remedied.  Again, this does not matter if the manager is on or off duty.  Failure here means a failure to properly manage. (picture inserted by me,rg)

'Music must always be played loud enough to be heard, but not too loud as to cause shouting.  It must be displayed on the counter as being played and must come from our existing audio sales.  If the music has just stopped when I or a shopper comes in, than it is a failure of management if it does not immediately recommence.

'As there are a number of shops that believe an empty packing box, on the floor anywhere at any time is ok, let’s sort that out now.  The shop must always look perfect.  Like the Queen herself is visiting.  Every Human being that God made is special and should have that same level of continuous importance when they enter Saint Stephen the Great SCPK Bookshops!'

There are numerous shops that have been getting this right.  But, since there seems to be a larger number that are not, we must continually address these items.  Formal letters sent on file will commence as of this letter for any future discrepancies.'

 

These two cartoons are of course the work of Dave Walker, where you can read lots more background to this fascinating story.

Comments

[Neil]

If you go down tomorrow you will find that it is not an SPCK bookshop any more!

[Holly Walters]

If you want to talk to Mr Phil Brewer, find out what is going on, give him some support or just order a book, then you can catch him at the SPCK Bookshop in Exeter. Following the resignation of all the staff he's there running the show on his own.

[Pax Vobiscum]

This trail may be cold but the story is not over yet. The chances are that by 15/10/07 at least two branches will be closed (temporarily?) as all the staff resigned rather than sign up to the new contracts being ‘offered’. Several more have less than a bare minimum of staff to safely attend to their duties let alone do the vital work that is needed to bring in new business – and retain existing customers. Speculation in the trade is rife that the chain is in meltdown and publishers are seriously concerned.

Yet it didn’t have to be this way. SSG were right, the bookshops did need a radical shake up - the business model being used was not versatile enough to deal with shifting customer buying habits. The shops had been chronically underfunded for years because SPCK as a charity simply didn’t have the money for investment. At the takeover by SSG staff were hugely demoralised after a year of aborted deals and threats of imminent closure.

What assets the shops had lay chiefly in those staff who were often to be found working evenings and days-off resourcing conferences and church events. Many of the most knowledgeable, dedicated and highly regarded booksellers in the Christian trade worked for SPCK. The shops also carried some of the deepest and most widely ranging theological stock in the country. SSG rightly picked up on the low staff morale, which often manifested itself in poor front-of-house management – messy displays, untidy shop-floors and sometimes ambivalent interaction with customers. And they saw that inadequate stock control was causing the breadth to be confused with volume and was costing far too much.

Then they threw it all away, as you have seen, with a series of unsubtle memos (and much more) which created a climate of fear and distrust among a stressed, but still dedicated staff network. There was no possibility for open and honest debate. Any staff member who stood up and used the weight of their experience to point out some of the deficiencies in the new strategies was, by implication at least, accused of disloyalty and in several cases their positions made so uncomfortable that they left their jobs. The initially correct attention to tidiness became nigh on an obsession at the cost of the more urgent reform of stock control. Which has led to the situation where the shops have been banned from buying any stock, but no workable central-purchasing system has been put in place. They have had virtually no new stock in the last two months and have completely missed out on all new titles during the key academic seasons and the start of the run up to Christmas.

At the managers’ conference in June SSG admitted that they didn’t believe they could afford to have experienced managers in the shops and they felt that they did not need their knowledge and skills. When SSG took over on 1 November, 2006 there were 23 SPCK bookshops with 23 managers and a senior staff team of 2. As at 15 October, 2007 21 members of the managerial structure will have left, for one reason or another. In some cases legal action against SSG is being, or has been, pursued. Most managers who have left have not been replaced.

Regarding some of the points raised by others who have posted here, I cannot condone the actions of ‘Anonymous for fear of reprisal’ in posting confidential company messages while still an employee, but I do understand the fear and frustration that led them to do this. Why didn’t some of the staff leave sooner? Because of loyalty to colleagues, customers and publishers and because there was always the hope that SSG might learn to listen to what those with more experience in the field of Christian bookselling were saying a revived chain needed.

Why does any of this matter? Because the shops still employ some wonderful, talented people who are being treated very poorly. Because the shops were safe places for Christians of all denominations and people of no faith to meet, discover new and more challenging aspects of theology, discuss, debate and explore. They were ‘fresh expressions of church’ before the term was a cliché. Because many of our most thoughtful, dynamic and provocative Christian publishers would struggle to exist without the support from these shops. If they close, if their stock breadth is reduced, then informed, intelligent Christian debate will begin to be stifled in this country and new, challenging authors will find it harder to get their work published.

In short, the fall of the SPCK Bookshops means the triumph of knuckle-headed fundamentalism and a crushing of openness to the true, radical, empowering spirit of the living God.

[Gsus shopper]

I think the staff are past caring too. I tried 2 order a book from them at the weekend, an thay wanted me to pay upfront, which i never do, then when i asked about a cd she told me they were not sure they would be getting ne more in cos they were getting no stock in! Hve thay run out of money to bye stock?

[joe]

I'm sorry, as with most other ex-customers of SPCK, I am past caring.

[Publius]

Many managers control inventory and tidy up a new business when taking over the helm. These posts seem to me a contankerous fracas over being asked to clean the floor.
(Ruth Gledhill adds: good point Publius. You seem familiar with the situation. Do you happen to know Mr Philip Brewer? My emails to spck requesting a comment or interview have met with no response. If you should know him, would you kindly ask him if he would be interested in granting me an interview? It would make a fascinating follow-up to this blog and would give him the chance to put his side of the story, a chance I think is more than merited.)

[Andrew Feather]

Anonymous-for-fear-of-reprisal, if you feel the way you do, why not just do the honorable thing and resign? Don't you think it's pretty hypocritical to go 'round posting your company's internal memoranda with which you claim to disagree? Frankly, "this is just not acceptable practice" and you should be ashamed. If I were you, I'd want to be anonymous, too!

[anonymous for fear or reprisal]

This was sent today to all spck shops along with the one following on later.
This is just not acceptable practice, and if what is being done is not wrong then why is there always this enforced policy of secrecy and the threats that perenially go with it, This is probably why already we have lost over a third of our managers and others are also thinking of leaving! The stress and worry that goes with all of this is incredible and almost debilitating.

Anonymous for Fear of Reprisal.

Dear Shop managers and assistants.

Greetings. After a great three days in Swanwick, I feel very confident and gratified at your participation.

I congratulate you on a marvelous time.

Effective immediately:

Due to the installation of BACS and BATCH for our accounting and payments, and due to the nature of the installation of Booksolve.net, there is an immediate BAN on all purchases by all the shops for any reason without my specific approval. No purchases made by you effective today onwards will be honored or paid for by Saint Stephen the Great. This ban is expected to be removed when these issues are fully dealt with, and then only on an extremely limited basis.

Customer orders will only be allowed on the following basis:

If the customer agrees to the carrying charges (where applicable), and pays for the order in advance.

(This ban is confidential and shall not be read or posted in any way. Any violations of this, or any discussion of this with any one outside the management team will be considered gross misconduct. Should this need to be discussed, please direct them to me only. Area managers are free to discuss this with your shop managers and if necessary, you may discuss them with me or their behalf.)

Again, I thank you for your team work and your diligence in our joint efforts to raise funds for our work and Charity, Saint Stephen the Great Trust.

Phil Brewer,
President, Saint Stephen the Great/SPCK Bookshops

--
Philip W Brewer
US 520-906-6866
UK (0)79-62646035

Dear Managers and assistants

Thank you all for the many queries I have received about central purchasing. I am pleased to see that you all want to join me in making this work. For the most part I am trying to deal with all of these and get back to you. However, I simply do not have the time today to sit and answer all of these emails and telephone messages. All I can do is request that you read through the original email and if you need further clarification please cc Mr Phil Brewer or Ms Kirsty Smith as they will be able to deal with it if I can not do so first.

I wish to re-emphasise the following points.

* No buying without approval - This means that if you need to get something in stock other than a customer order or account order please email this to Phil and myself for approval. There is always the time!
* Process all customer and account orders - get payment in advance including delivery where applicable
* do not tell anyone about our new buying procedures. This does not and will not cause any problems. If you think that someone needs a call about this then let m,e know and I will do it.

This should cover the main things for mow. Let me know if not.

Please speak to your manager about central purchasing. This must work and I want us all to be involved.

Thank you

Simon

[Susan Huyton]

SPCK staff are now on pain of dismissal for assorted "crimes" such as telling people how demoralised they are. What can we do?

[Mike Homfray]

SPCK has traditionally had a strong academic element in its make-up - there simply isn't the mileage on the sort of thing which they now seem to be plugging. An orthodox version of the typical popular evangelical bookshop won't survive.

And i for one loathe being pounced on by shop assistants. I wish to browse in peace. Thank goodness we have the Internet!

[Chris Gillibrand]

Just been to an SPCK bookshop in London. They are selling many more icons than in the past (or should I say attempting to sell, as the stock build up is definitely management rather than customer driven)

[John D]

It is not so much the content of this letter (basic management sense , as one or two of your commenters have noted), that gives rise to concern, as the bizarre style of pseudo-ecclestiastical authority combined with management bullying. When one combines this with attempts to justify changed conditions of service with appeals to dubious interpreptations of fourth century church councils, one's concerns for where this whole thing is going begin to mount rapidly.

[Alan Marsh]

Gabe, equally there should be no more Saudi sponsored mosques in the UK until the Saudis permit the building of churches in Saudi Arabia.

[Gabe]

One of writers on the Church Times website JOHN BROWN
Formerly Bishop in Cyprus & the Gulf,laments that since Christian bookstores in Britian will not sell the Koran, Christian bookstores in Bahrain will not be allowed to sell the Bible!
Wow,that's the very definition of a gutless liberal with no convictions of his own, only a terrible fear of offending!

[Phil Groom]

Thanks for this report, Ruth - it makes me glad I didn't respond to SPCK/St Stephen's recent advert for branch managers in the Bookseller... and pity any who did.

I emailed Mr Brewer a while back inviting him to submit up to date info about the shops for the UK Christian Bookshops Directory. Haven't heard back from him yet... probably a senior management problem...

[David Keen]

If the bookshop managers need telling this stuff then they have the wrong managers. These are basic things which any manager worth their salt would be on top of anyway. Maybe they'd be better off sending the letter to churches instead, as your first commenter suggested.

[Londiniensis]

I am not sure whether to be more disturbed by some of the derogatory remarks about non Eastern Orthodox Christian denominations (and Roman Catholicism in particular) on the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust website, or by the fact that since acquiring the SPCK bookshops these remarks have been removed.

If you sincerely believe something you say it, openly and honestly.

Alternatively you either only half-believed it before, and commercial considerations are now more important to you, or you still believe it but want to trap people into your bookshops by dissembling your true beliefs. I'm not sure which is the more morally reprehensible.

Perhaps someone also could enlighten us as to what relationship this Trust (charity registered in April 2005, number 1109008) has to the Eastern Orthodox hierarchy, and more precisely to which bit of it. Some pretty unpleasant things happened within the Russian Orthodox community in London last year and perhaps we should treat anything taking its direction from Moscow with (political, not religious) circumspection.

[Observer]

Possibly someone in the bookshop actually read the Koran, unlike the dhimmi-sounding chaps who posted all those letters deploring its removal from a Christian bookshop. The Koran is packed with a great deal of offensive intolerance against Jews and Christians (and anyone not a Moslem) and calls upon all Moslems to wage permanent warfare against anyone who is 'guilty' of warring against its 'deity,' --- 'allah.' Not really the sort of book you want about the place for encouraging peace on earth, good will towards all men. While these chaps are about it with writing letters lambasting this bookshop's removal of the Koran, do you think Miss Gledhill, that you might interest them in the plight of Christians worldwide, such as the 500 in an area of Pakistan who received letters demanding they convert to Islam by Thursday or risk being killed by Moslems? (They were, of course, being good Moslems, since Muhammad instructed Moslems to 'offer' Jews and Christians the 'options' of either conversion or subjugation as dhimmis; only if they turned down these generous offers, were they to be killed. Just the faithful, following their faith.) Perhaps some of those irate letter-writers would like to start preaching the Christian faith, always presuming they believe in it, rather than the false faith of 'ecumenism' with intolerance, injustice and evil. In a pinch, they might like to contrast the life and words of Our Lord Jesus with the warlord Muhammad and his 'deeds' which are so horrendous that mainstream media, especially THE TIMES, fears to actually mention them. The source of Christianity is Christ; the source of Islam is Muhammad: why do you think Moslems are afraid of THE TRUTH ABOUT MUHAMMAD?

[The Revd WCH Seal]

I emphatically agree with the letter. Churches ought to have a goal to be managed just as well.