(no subject)
Schools out, and at my bookstore we cringe in fear at the thought of...rowdy teenagers. Seems not too long ago that we were all rowdy teenagers ourselves, and we still remember what bastards we were.
Last night, a sudden thunderstorm chased the teenagers who were hanging out in our parking lot. Real problem, that, as they don't have the survival skills to get out of the way of a moving vehicle, forcing that vehicle to stop moving for minutes at a time. Getting out of the lot is hell at night, with literally crowds of teenagers freezing in the middle of the street and staring at your car, then staring in at you, then staring at your car some more, then staring in at you, trying to work out why you're there. It most definitely brings to mind the cows of more rural areas, who are allowed to roam at will and frequently block up traffic for miles around. But I digress.
In any case, in come the teenagers from the rain, screaming and running and deliberately splashing water on the books and just being a nuisance in general. In they come, and straight they go to the Sexuality section, stinking of teenager hormones. They immediately commence destroying the section, screaming and giggling and throwing books and making loud, crude jokes in front of toddlers and their very annoyed parents.
Eventually I grew tired of this, considering that it was I assigned to clean Sexuality that night, and asked my manager if I could claim that the sex books were 18+ only and start asking for IDs. He says no, but grants me permission to go over and ask them if they need help.
So I did.
I went over, looked at them, waited until they noticed me, looked pointedly at their sex advice book, said "Hey guys, it looks to me like you definitely need some help..." looked up at them..."You know, with finding a book?"
They scattered like lemmings for a cliff. About five minutes later, one of them figured out the implication present in my statement, which set them howling, but they stopped destroying things :)
crossposted to
customers_suck
Last night, a sudden thunderstorm chased the teenagers who were hanging out in our parking lot. Real problem, that, as they don't have the survival skills to get out of the way of a moving vehicle, forcing that vehicle to stop moving for minutes at a time. Getting out of the lot is hell at night, with literally crowds of teenagers freezing in the middle of the street and staring at your car, then staring in at you, then staring at your car some more, then staring in at you, trying to work out why you're there. It most definitely brings to mind the cows of more rural areas, who are allowed to roam at will and frequently block up traffic for miles around. But I digress.
In any case, in come the teenagers from the rain, screaming and running and deliberately splashing water on the books and just being a nuisance in general. In they come, and straight they go to the Sexuality section, stinking of teenager hormones. They immediately commence destroying the section, screaming and giggling and throwing books and making loud, crude jokes in front of toddlers and their very annoyed parents.
Eventually I grew tired of this, considering that it was I assigned to clean Sexuality that night, and asked my manager if I could claim that the sex books were 18+ only and start asking for IDs. He says no, but grants me permission to go over and ask them if they need help.
So I did.
I went over, looked at them, waited until they noticed me, looked pointedly at their sex advice book, said "Hey guys, it looks to me like you definitely need some help..." looked up at them..."You know, with finding a book?"
They scattered like lemmings for a cliff. About five minutes later, one of them figured out the implication present in my statement, which set them howling, but they stopped destroying things :)
crossposted to
customers_suck