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  Force Friday is here! A brand new holiday established to make people line up and buy toys.  If you can find one, Hasbro’s magnetic BB-8 droid is probably the most desired. My inbox tells me that you can also buy many toys at Target. An exclusive, remote controlled BB-8 droid from Hasbro that moves and sounds just […]

The Justices ruled 5.4 to throw out a discrimination suit against Wal-Mart today brought by almost 1.5 million female employees of Wal-Mart who alleged that the employer discriminated against them because they were women. Didn't pay equal wages for equal work, didn't promote them the same as men, and so on. Same old same old. Case is thrown out. I have this to say about that: we would not have to sue for equal wages, or sex discrimination if we were equal citizens under the law. Women are do not have equal rights in this country. We never have had. We have yet to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
We have tried. We have come THIS close. We could still do it. We are THREE STATES away from passing the ERA. Still. I know, it seemed like we lost back in 1978, and many of us gave up hope, and the whole Women's Rights movement pretty much fizzled out at that point. There are still feminists, even Second Wave feminists. Now Third Wave feminists. But there is now legal interpretation that shows we can still pass the ERA itself if three more states will ratify it. We need to put life into the movement once again. For this we need new blood. We need our BROTHERS, we need our ALLIES, we need everyone who is willing for women to have equal rights to stand up and be counted.
Please go to http://equalrightsamendment.org/ and read up on this issue. See what you can do, and then take some small (or large or ANY size) action. Be a hero for women's rights. Do you have equal rights in your state? Are you a feminist? What does the word feminist mean to you?

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By Andrew Trask

A decade ago, Betty Dukes, a Wal-Mart greeter (one of the folks in blue vests who welcome you to the store), filed a lawsuit against her employer. She alleged that her supervisors had treated her harshly and, once she complained, had retaliated by demoting her. Rather than sue Wal-Mart on her own, she joined with six other women who also (allegedly) suffered discrimination at the company. These women included one who had been passed over for promotion, one who could not transfer to day shifts, and one who had been sexually harassed by coworkers. Together, these women claimed to represent all women at Wal-Mart, and asked for damages on all their behalf.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument on the case. The media has covered Wal-Mart v. Dukes as a gender discrimination case. And it’s true that the underlying cause of action is a violation of Title VII, the United States’s antidiscrimination statute. But the issue the Court heard is a procedural one: can the women who sued Wal-Mart bring their case as a class action? If they can, the huge damages at stake will likely induce Wal-Mart to settle on generous terms. (No company, even one as big as Wal-Mart, wants to risk a billion-dollar verdict.) If they can’t, then each woman must bring her case on her own. And while some women’s discrimination claims may be worth enough to interest a lawyer, others will not. Since the procedural question could make or break this case, it has taken on the same significance as if the Court were ruling on whether companies are allowed to discriminate against women.

So what is a class action? It’s a method of aggregating a large number of claims into a single lawsuit. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 — the rule that authorizes class actions — the lawsuit begins with an individual plaintiff. If she can convince the court her claim is enough like those of the people she seeks to represent, the court certifies the case as a class action. Once the class is certified, the plaintiff offers proof of her individual claim at trial. If she wins, the whole class wins; but if she loses, then the whole class loses with her.

The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the women suing Wal-Mart had demonstrated they met two of the requirements of Rule 23.

First, it considered whether the women met the “commonality” requirement. Commonality calls for every class action to have a common question of law or fact that, if answered, moves the case forward. The requirement seems simple, but can be hard to meet for a diverse group of 1.6 million women. (Hence the references to the Dukes class being “too big to certify.”) The women argued that their common question was whether Wal-Mart’s corporate culture was “vulnerable” to sex discrimination, and whether allowing managers “excessive subjectivity” in personnel decisions ended up discriminating against women.

The American Booksellers' Association just sent a letter to the Justice Department about the price war going on among Wal-Mart, Amazon, and now Target (with Sears kind of coming in sideways.)

It reads in part:

"By selling each of these titles below the cost these retailers pay to the publishers, and at the same price as each other, and at the same price as all other titles in these pricing schemes, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target are devaluing the very concept of the book. Authors and publishers, and ultimately consumers, stand to lose a great deal if this practice continues and/or grows."

"What's so troubling in the current situation is that none of the companies involved are engaged primarily in the sale of books. They're using our most important products -- mega bestsellers, which, ironically, are the most expensive books for publishers to bring to market -- as a loss leader to attract customers to buy other, more profitable merchandise. The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war."

You can read the entire letter here.

Any lawyers out there? I'm not sure this will work. Companies use loss leaders all the time. It just doesn't usually adversely affect one class of stores.

What Store Hours Say about You
Shane Gottwals
www.gottwalsbooks.com

There is nothing more frustrating than that locally-owned business who chooses to close right before or right after you arrive, correct?  It’s almost like the indie shops should do everything like the larger chain stores, including hold early and late hours.
Why should customers expect this out of privately-owned business?  Well, when you think about it, we often tout that we deserve their business in order to “keep it local.”  Don’t the customers deserve extended hours?  Don’t they deserve everything that the chain stores can give?
This is just the thing.  Indie bookshops are not corporate giants.  Oftentimes, even these giants will keep late hours while not making large profits during those hours simply so that they are known as an all-hour joint.  Confusing?  I call it the “Wal-Mart Effect.”  Anyone will shop at Wal-Mart because of their lack of exclusivity.  In other words, they have, literally, an open door policy.  They never shut!  Psychologically, this gives the consumer confidence, knowing that this particular business does not and will not shut down.
Should the indie booksellers stay open late and arrive early?  Interestingly enough, the “Wal-Mart Effect” has an antonym.  All are accepted into Wal-Mart’s doors.  This has hurt them in some regards, driving away elitists.  It is not exclusive enough.  Why do the liquidation outlets keep 3-4 day work schedules, opening only for a few hours on each of those days?  They are giving off the appearance of exclusivity.  The local bookshop succeeds in the same way.
My wife and I began our first store with hours that topped out at 9:30-9:00.  This wore us out and we weren’t seeing great results.  Customers were coming through the doors, however, so we kept the hours for quite a while.  When we did finally change to closing at 6:00, our sales were honestly unaffected.  Not only do people expect their friendly bookseller to go home to their family, they seem to understand that their used bookshop is worth stopping in earlier.  Gottwals Books is an exclusive shop to its customers, in many ways, because of our store hours.
We are closed on Sundays not because it is a “day for family” but because it is God’s day.  If we own one thousand stores, we will never be open on Sundays, even though Sunday sales are expectedly good.  Worshiping Jesus Christ is far too important for us to be open.  We also close early on Wednesdays so that any of our employees, including ourselves, can make it to their respective Wednesday night church services and prayer meetings.  So, in our case, we hope that our hours don’t scream “Exclusive!” as much as they do “Christian!”
What are your hours?
Have you changed them as time has passed?
Do you think my analysis is hogwash?
Do you still get angry whenever you drive past the big chain stores at 10 o’clock at night?  (Why can’t I have that many cars after 6:00, right?)

image is courtesy of Sally M at Flickr.com