The Continuing Saga…
As I said at the start of my last post, I enjoy working as a bookseller. I like selling books and I enjoy providing advice and customer service to the majority of people. These posts might seem like I’m ranting. And I am. But it’s in the name of humour. So that makes it okay!
We are not the most famous bookstore in the World
Until we do become the centre of the Universe, here are some things that we cannot do for you:
Get hold of a book that we don’t carry - If we don’t carry it, we don’t carry it. We can only sell the books that our distributors can provide. Go on, keep asking. See if I suddenly change my mind.
Ask an author to hurry up and finish their book. – We do not maintain intimate relationships with book authors. I do not have brunch with Ken Follett in NYC or pay quick visits to California in order to walk Dean Koontz’s golden retriever.
You cannot talk to “the company owner” by calling our store. Like the majority of bookstores these days, it is a chain store and although ownership has changed a few times, it has been a chain store for decades. The CEO is at home receiving a massage while watching Oprah as a servant prepares Foie Gras for supper.
Sales Clerks are people
Sales clerks are not all stupid. They are also not omniscient. I’ll write more about hiring and staff another time, but basically you are not going to find biologists working in the medical reference section of the store. We all have varying degrees of general knowledge, but for the most part we don’t have *actual* degrees. You need to be able to communicate your needs to the person helping you. If you are either pressuring the sales person or you are purposefully withholding information from the sales person simply so that you can patronise them for their supposed lack of knowledge, then it is you that is failing to communicate.
Sales clerks are people and can only hold an interest in so many subjects. It is part of our job to know our stock…. But let’s keep some perspective. Most retail workers aren’t going to feel obliged by their sub-$10-an-hour-wage to research the excruciating details of the latest New Age nonsense fad.
We are more likely to learn about Mayan Prophecies, Pilates, Freud, Quantum Physics, Acupuncture, Edward Cullen and other subjects we don’t care about (often in our own time) because we enjoy doing a good job and not because we are paid the top dollars. Being treated like an idiot makes you feel resentful rather than motivated.
Another note: I find it bewildering that customers occasionally tell you they are looking for a particular book that was here a year ago and had a purple cover (totally useless information 99% of the time) and then treat you like an idiot when you don’t whip the book off the shelf for them. Browsing a bookstore and looking for advice is great – that’s one reason we’re here. But if you’re looking to buy a very specific book, you really should have a specific idea of what the hell you’re looking for.
Will you sell my book for me?
Very unlikely. You probably think it’s better than anyone else thinks it is.
Part three coming eventually…
