Posts tagged Life in a bookstore

Those Crazy Customers

  • Me: [Answering the phone]
  • Customer: What is your phone number there?
  • Me:
  • Customer: Hello?
  • Me: I'm here.
  • Customer: Okay, good. What is the phone number there?
  • Me: Didn't you just call it?
  • Customer: [A long drawn out . . .] Y e a h
  • Me:
  • Me:
  • Me: [Finally giving the customer the store's phone number and wondering what the world is coming to]

Crazy Customers

  • [This happened to me twice in one hour]
  • Customer: [Walks up and asks] Do you work here?
  • Me: [Standing next to a cart full of books wearing my name tag which dangles from my neck holding a price gun in my hand]
  • Me Wanting To Say: No, I just come in on Saturdays, grab a cart and rearrange the books on the shelves.

Crazy Customers

  • Customer: My husband has an Amazon gift card, can he use it here?
  • Me: Ma'am, this is a Barnes & Noble.
  • Customer: Right, so can he use it here?
  • Me Wanting To Say: Sure, we always take our competitor's gift cards. Our goal is to go out of business.

Crazy Customers

  • Customer: Where do you keep your digital books?
  • Me: Pardon me?
  • Customer: Your digital books, where are they?
  • Me: [Clearing my throat] On the Nook.
  • Customer: What's a Nook?
  • Me Wanting to Say: It's that small corner in hell reserved for idiots.
  • [Yes, these conversations actually happen at my B&N. I could write a book about various customers who come into our store.]

The Internet . . . Not the Most Reliable Source.

  • This is a conversation I had with a customer yesterday on the phone.
  • Customer: Do you guys (Barnes & Noble) take Borders' certificates?
  • Me: No sir, we don't
  • Customer: Didn't you guys buy Borders?
  • Me: No sir, we didn't.
  • Customer: The internet said you did.
  • Me wanting to say: Well, the internet said the world would come to an end last year but it didn't, did it?