13 Conversations I Had As A Bookseller
1. Me: Hi, how may I help you?
The Customer: I’m looking for a book on war. The cover is red and the letters in the title are white.
Me: Um, there’s no search field in our data base for colors.
2. 9:00 am: the store opens
9:01 am: an outrageously incensed gentleman approaches the info desk, where I, of course, am on duty.
Customer: Last night I was reading a book, and I left it on that table over there. Now it’s gone. What happened to it?!
Me: Um, at night after we close we put all the books back on the shelves.
Me (silently): looking slowly around the store to convey the subtle message that we, in fact, keep all our books on shelves and not in piles on the furniture.
3. December, in the middle of the holiday shopping madness
A customer corners me in the back of the store where I am unsuccessfully trying to blend into the romance section.
Customer: Where is your luggage?
Me: (stunned into silence)
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: Your luggage. My son was just up at your other store, and he told me all about the great luggage he saw there.
Me: (struggling so hard to keep a straight face that I’m sure my eyeballs are going to pop right out of my head and drop onto the floor).
Me: (searching desperately for a tone that does not at all suggest that I am in any way mocking the customer).
Me: We don’t have any luggage.
4. Customer: I’m looking for a book. The author’s first name is John.
Me: I’m sorry, but there’s no way we can look up authors on the computer using only their first name.
Customer: (makes random noises of protest and disbelief.)
I enter “John” into the data base.
I turn the computer around to face the customer.
Me: OK, there are 485,972 possibilities that came up for “John”.
Customer: Oh.
5. Customer: Hi, I’d like to check out.
Me: I’m sorry, but you can’t check out here.
Customer: Why not? The lines up there are S-O-O-O long.
Me: Well, because see how there are no actual CASH REGISTERS here? That’s because this is the INFORMATION DESK, not the checkout counter.
6. Customer: Hi. I found this book I was looking for, but I only want this one page. What do I do?
7. Customer: Um, I’m sitting over there in the cafe trying to study, but I can’t, because the people behind the counter are being REALLY loud.
Me: Well, this is a store, not a library, so there’s nothing I can do about it.
Customer: (stunned that I am not leaping into any kind of action that confirms that she is, in fact, the center of the Universe.)
Customer: Well, they’re being really loud.
The customer stomps off in indignation.
Me: (silently) Ooh, good comeback. You really told me!
8. Customer: Hi, I need a Bible. But I really need the easy version.
9. Me: I ring up a purchase.
Me: That will be $27.95.
The customer writes a check.
Me: May I please see your driver’s license?
Customer: Angrily. Why? Are you profiling?
Me: No, we’re just like every place else that needs to see some ID when you pay with a check.
Me: (What I wanted to say: Yes, we are profiling for short, bald, ugly, angry old men.)
10. A customer approaches the information desk, clearly trying to impress me with her important “business woman” persona.
Customer: I’m on my way to give a presentation, and I need this book.
We don’t have it.
I call all of our other stores.
They don’t have it either.
Me: I’m sorry, but none of our stores have this book in stock right now.
Customer: That is unacceptable.
Customer: Gives me her “intimidating” stare to try and spur me into some kind of action.
Me: I think to myself, “Lady, I make $6.00 an hour working at a bookstore. There’s nothing you can do to me.
I just smile back at her and wait her out.
Customer: Flounces off. I guess I’ll just have to go to [our competitor].
Me: Would you like me to call them for you?
11+. Customer: Where is your/Where are your…
-xerox machine
-fax machine
-stamps
-highlighters
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I’d love to work in a bookshop! Even though some customers drive you crazy! 🙂
My TT is about birthday facts this week.
LOL! Good to see you kept your sense of humor!
I’d love to work in a bookstore, but I suspect my paycheck would go right back to it.
LOL! Very entertaining, thanks for the laugh 🙂
Aren’t customers just great? I played too!!
That was a great read! You have a great sense of humor about it all…dont you just love idiot people? *lol*
Happy Thursday!
I remember working in a video store and once someone asked me where the “S’s” were.
I got into so much trouble for telling him they were between the “R’s and the T’s”.
Great list!
I loved those!
As someone who ADORES bookstores (seriously, love the smell everything)…I would like to apologize for stupid, ignorant people.
Happy T13!
Love #4!!
People can be soooo stupid!
But at least you kept your sense of humor, I would have started running around amking faces at them!
Great list!
Thanks for reminding me how much I don’t miss the world of customer service & retail!
#6 has got to be my favorite, followed closely by #4
Hey, I’ve had similar experiences! I work at one of the big bookstores that begins with a “B”!
he. too funny.
great list!
Somehow I’ve made it through life without working retail. My husband used to manage a clothing store and once had a customer call him to ask what size sweatshirt would fit a 3-pound schnauzer. No word of a lie.
Your stories made me laugh. Thanks for brightening up my Thursday!
Number 8 could have been me, but I need the really easy version. Do you have a Bible for Dummies?
Okay…dont’ get me started……I used to work at a bookstore and I have got the stories…….
Talking about easy Bibles-I always cringed when someone wanted a large print Bible with commentary included that would fit in their pocket—-um, Yeah!
Great list…I laughed all the way through it (and had some flashbacks!)
My TT is up!
LOL!!!! Jenny girl, you are on top of your game with this one. Those memories just don’t go away, do they? :~)
I’m so sad that I’m late on seeing this. I just happened upon your blog and this was the best of this week’s T13’s that I read.
I’ll have to try to remember some of the bone-headed things I used to hear when I managed a pizza restaurant years ago.
They say the customer is always right, and that may be so, but to me that just proves that ‘they’ never actually had to deal with people for any lenth of time.
oh my god. the easy version. sort of like god’s cliff notes? thats freaking hilarious. makes me almost miss customer service.
This was great! I’ve worked with the “general public” both face-to-face and on the phone and lord have mercy! I know just how you feel.
Great 13! (I’m just a tad behind on my reading. Can you tell?)
I envy you for being a bookseller…
Do you read many? Or, you simply don’t have the time to because of those ‘funny’ customers…
BTW, nice to know you
Once again, SO funny! I worked at a bookstore for a while as a shelver. They wouldn’t allow me to talk to customers because I hadn’t been trained to do so. I got in trouble once for pointing a customer toward the children’s section. Yeah, I dealt more with stupid managers than stupid customers.