The View from the Back Office

Hello to all…..

I am Jenna, the General Manager here at Morgenstern’s. I thought it would be fun to say hello from time to time and give you all a glimpse from our world behind the scenes.

We have been open for a couple of years now but we are still trying to nail down job descriptions. I have yet to have one, but we seem to still make it work.  Here is a little peek of a typical day from my view:
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​Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen…..Bless Dolly. Love.

OK, The actual 1

1. Walk in the back door, bag still on shoulder, keys and coffee still in hand, and am immediately sidetracked seeing all the super cool books we received the previous day. Hmmm. I don’t remember ordering that one. That means Harry must have bought it. I always blame Harry for the weird titles I see but in reality, half the time it is me. Book buying is my favorite thing in the world. Well, almost.

2. With bag STILL on shoulder, keys and coffee STILL in hand, I say hello to the receiving team, Jack and Ryann….we get lost in mindless conversation about things like "why isn’t there a book that____" or ‘wouldn’t it be funny if____ ."  It always ends up awkward and no great way to back out of the conversation. Probably one of my favorite parts of the day. We are all awkward.

3. Get to my office, fire up the laptop and cautiously glance at my email inbox. I left the previous day with 5 emails, today there are 93…..tears. 

4. I procrastinate reading said 93 emails, wait the allotted 45 minutes (exaggeration) for my office lights to come on and walk the sales floor. I pass by all the tables full magic (books) and am reminded of all the books on my TBR list. Mentally I take note of which one I will purchase today, tomorrow, and the next day. I spend more than I make….

5. While greeting all my fellow book nerds who showed up for the morning shift I glance toward the cafe, trying not to feel the pull it has on me…..No, I do not need a Matcha. No, I do not need a matcha…No, I do not…I’ll take a 20 oz Matcha, ’Jenna Style.’ (I am not pretentious, the baristas have named the drink.) You will have to come in and order it yourself to know what ‘Jenna Style’ is. Delicious. Our baristas are better than yours.

6. Face the rest of the day saying things like "Helmut, apologize" ... "‘No, we can NOT put that on social media" ... "Harry, your shirt is wrinkled" ... "Matthew, I can hear your laugh all the way in the back room!, and lastly, "Scatter" (Morgenstern's defines scatter as "stop congregating")

​Wait, did I eat lunch today?

​Todd is here for coffee… look busy.(Todd is an owner)

Before I know it, I have cleaned up the accident in the bathroom, found the children’s book that was hiding in Science, gently asked the customer that fell asleep in the chair if they are ok, and my favorite, rebooting the computers ……because the internet went down…. Again. 

I love every aspect of my job, even the gross, irritating, and annoying moments. You see, at the store, we all are in this together; we want the same things. We work together to make the store better than the previous day. Running a bookstore is a labor of love. No one gets into the book business to make money or have banker’s hours, but I have the coolest job in the world and I wouldn't trade what I am doing for anything…..well, I guess there are SOME things I’d trade my job for. That will have to wait for another time.
Find your books here, buy your books here, keep your bookstore here

~ Jenna