Just Joined...and I have to rant, sorry

[callist0s]

Hooray! Other people who understand!

I've just started working for a large bookchain in Australia, 30hrs/week.

I hate it so much when it turns out we don't have a particular book in stock ('But we can order it in for you!!'), and the customer acts personally affronted that *gasp* we don't have their really old/technical/specialised book waiting

Comments

[screebonk]

I do know all that stuff. But, um...

I'm a geek. Normal people don't, in fact, read the picture books or know the random book-with-red-cover.

I've gotten yelled at for various strange things, including not having an entire medical textbook store in my store. Never mind that my store is tiny, never mind that the corporate office tells us what to stock, it's MY FAULT. I also got yelled at for "not having the right priorities" because I SPECIFICALLY didn't have a book on Gypsy magic. "But you have this Celtic book! Why don't you have a book on Gypsies? DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT GYPSIES ARE?!!!"

Meh.

-pc

[callist0s]

It's amazing that people don't comprehend that the stores just selling what a)Sells, and b) what the various book companies think will sell.

[txwhiterose]

Next time you get a gypsy rant person, call them a suka. I think that's how it's spelled.

[pwoink]

Any specific reason you recommend calling them a bitch in Russian?

[postmodernpeach]

understood. but it'll get better. and, as sad as it is to admit, i do know all of those things, the book with the red cover, the picture book with pirates... and i feel you on the stock count bit. basically, my advice is as follows: you will, eventually, get to where you can identify the most likely candidates for "red book about so big" and pirate books and whatnot. it'll take time, but you, too, will become a book-selling geek. at least, one can assume, as you've joined the community and have just started ^_~.

[moosefluff]

But regardless, covertly mocking the dumb people can make the day go by nicely.

[callist0s]

This lady came in last week week, and asked for a certain author. After it turned out we didn't have any of that author in stock, she asked if we had another author, who's name was extremely similar. So I asked, 'Oh, is that a pseudonym?'

The woman just blicked at me, then said, 'No, it's just a normal fiction book.'

...

It makes me laugh, yet makes me sad.

[postmodernpeach]

oh jeez... *headdesk*

[cjspock]

Heh.. I hear ya. After a while, you can start to figure out their vague requests. This one day while I was making a display asked me, "Where is that new book by that woman author from California?" *blank stare* Yeah, I didn't know that one.

[yakshi]

What's sad is when you find the book and they still won't buy it.

One this woman came into my store and asked for a sort of humor sort of breast feeding book with a funny title she couldn't remember that was white with two daisies on the cover. It took me ten minutes or so, but I found it and handed it to her. She said, "Hmmm, it's called Fresh Milk. Thanks, but I usually shop at Amazon." And she set the book on a display and walked out.

[callist0s]

Oh yes. It pisses me off so much when you hunt around for it, find it, and they just look at it, then walk away. :( Somebody else will get the sale because we were nice enough to find the vague arse book they couldn't remember the name of.

[eion_weiss]

I think I need to start carrying around business cards for our local library for just this occasion.

"These people went to school for many years to learn how to deal with you. Buy something ephemeral and popular, come to me with a specific title, or go away. I don't care which."

[txwhiterose]

Yup. We all feel your pain. "My kid needs this Indian book about knees for school." "Oh...you mean Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee? Sorry we're out of it. So is every other bookstore in the city." And they just stand there like I'm supposed to magically make it appear.

[cjspock]

Yeah, we get that a lot. What I love even more is when you suggest going to the library to possibly get a copy of the book that no stores have anymore. They just stare blankly at me as if they need for me to tell them what the library is. "Oh, I didn't give that a thought." Yeah,,, no kidding. *rolls eyes*

Rant alert

[shebear]

I had a young woman (in her 20s) who needed to find something about the KKK in the US in the 1930s. This is an incredibly specific topic, and although I was able to show her to the section on the appropriate time period in US history and to the African-American studies section, both of which probably have books with parts on that topic, it's not entirely what she's looking for. So we suggested that perhaps she should visit a library, where they might have something spcific, and where the librarians could help direct her further

Re: Rant alert

[ifreet]

Never. Been. To. A. Library.

How... Wha...?

Even when my teachers/professors began to acknowledge that there are some legitimate on-line sources of information, I still had to cite a minimum number of books and journals for research papers -- which meant going to the library, unless one intended to write based on abstracts alone.

Is it still called a bibliography if every citation is a URL?