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[twistedimp]

Browsing yelp, I realized that the only retail context in which I think "crusty" is an acceptable mode of behavior for the staff is in bookstores. I've done both service and retail and, much as it sucks, you do have to be "on" all the time so, while I do have a great deal of sympathy for why someone might be crusty while, say, trying to sell things

Comments

[arseaboutface]

Because you, like me, just want to be left alone when you go into a bookstore, and not pestered by well-meaning clerks as you browse through the rows and rows of leather-bound happiness.

[twistedimp]

That's definitely the case, but I'm not sure it explains everything -- both of these places staff some perfectly pleasant and wonderful people. The owners are just crusty. Maybe I'm just inclined to be more forgiving when it's books they're peddling? ;) Although I agree, a surfeit of well-meaning pestering is terribly annoying, and seemingly unavoidable in the current economic atmosphere. I think I may have snarled at a few clerks while showing some out-of-town friends Chinatown.

...I think that's why I never understood that scene in "Pretty Woman." Why would I want someone constantly hovering at my elbow and making suggestions when all I'm trying to browse and buy something at my own pace?

It's been a while! How are you doing?

[arseaboutface]

I too am willing to forgive a multitude of sins if books are involved. :D

Not too bad. Working, pretending to work, the usual. Yourself?