Christmas Dumbass-bitch Encounter

From Morgana:

So, I had this lovely encounter yesterday, December 23rd.

Let me give you some background:

I work for a small, independent bookstore. With Amazon (gag) and Evil-Mart and especially their hardcover bestseller price war, small bookstores have been getting hit very hard.  My store is no different, we recently downsized and our shelves have not been quite as full as normal.

On this day, we had received a large (for us) shipment of books, and many sections were actually pretty nice looking.

We were, however, completely sold out of some of the bigger name, new hardcover titles.

Oblivious Bitch comes in and demands that I show her where our books on classic cars are.

Now, we don't carry those high-end, expensive coffee table books AT ALL, much less during a goddamn recession, and I politely inform her that we don't have anything like that in stock. 

Not good enough.

She glares at me and says "That attitude is why you're going out of business! You're not helpful and you don't have any books here!" 

I turned to her, looked her straight in the eye and said "We aren't going out of business, and the shelves are bare because IT'S TWO DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS!" 

She huffs out of the store while the owner, who was standing behind me, laughs his head off.

Seriously, though, one would think that being sold out of stuff two days before xmas is just common fucking sense. 

Of course, if there's anything that I've learned from my years in retail, it's that common fucking sense isn't very common.

Morgana

Comments

[Pharmacy_psycho]

Here! Here! A thousand retail points to you! I spent the evening consolidating the Hallmark Christmas cards to two sections because we will be pulling them for the Valentine's set-up on Saturday. Yes. You heard that right... the day after Christmas. A full 11 weeks before the blessed event. The only thing we have going for us is that we don't have to listen to Valentine's music, right? Anyway, I seriously had people looking for cards for their immediate relatives (wife, son, sister, brother, aunt, etc., all except husband... there's a clue in there!) at the very last minute! And the number of people wanting boxed cards (I did finally find one stray box in the Christmas aisle), totally astounded me! Nothing like waiting till the last possible second! I can understand gift card holders if you had been trying to find something for awhile, if what you ordered ended up on back order and it turns out it won't make it there until after the holiday due to unforeseen circumstances, if you have someone you have no idea what to get them, or some other situation like that. But seriously... you have NO RIGHT to get mad if you wait till the very last minute to end up in the store and what you wanted isn't there. "Your poor planning does not my emergency make."

[Anna]

Somehow reminds me of the lady who was once giving some crap to the people at our tiny supermarket for not having any bread (in fact, this meant any bread SHE would LIKE rather than any bread at all) some 30 minutes before closing time. Riiiight. Just how much bread do you think they want to be throwing to the garbage can after closing time?

[Claire]

I work at a used dvd store. I laughed at anyone who came in expecting us to have popular Christmas movies 2 days before Christmas. No, we have 2 made for tv movies, Winnie and Tigger's Christmas and 8 Crazy Nights (for our Jewish friends, or anyone who's fond of Adam Sandler). It's not like we have a hidden stock of used Christmas dvds stacked in the back and people don't generally trade in their Christmas movies right before Christmas, because, it's Christmas, ya know.

It annoys me almost as much as having to explain how capitalism works to our customers. We buy dvds from you at a low price and sell them at a higher price to pay our overhead and wages. We do not do 1 to 1 trades because we don't have a sweatshop in the back room. No I can't adjust the prices because then we would not be able to pay our rent or heating or lights and, in turn, those heting, lighting and renting people would not be able to buy dvds from us.

GAH!

[Marie]

As I work in a bookstore as well, I've seen by fair share of brutal Christmas shopping horrors. First year I was there, these two women came in, said they had a book and hold...and when the poor cashier couldn't find it behind the register, they went ballistic. Finally, my GM and three other people on the floor spent 45 MINUTES trying to find this book, all the meanwhile pulling out ANYTHING in the subject that they said the book was. Turns out? It was on hold at a DIFFRENT book chain- right downthe street. And they didn't even have the common curtesy to apologize for their attitudes- they just flounced right out the door.
This year has been diffrent- people have been nicer and much more patient. But we did have a fair share of crazies and one lady yesterday who made me laugh. I noticed she needed help and as I headed down the isle to assist her, she literally blocked the entire isle like a linebacker and desperatly asked "Can you help me!?!"
Happily, I was able to assist her and find what she needed and suitable subsitutes for what we were out of.
Book Bitch

[Bookslave]

Whenever we don't have the one particular book a customer wants they always jump on the phone before they even dismiss me to bitch to their friends "They dont have ANY books here!" I always want to smack them. We have several hundred thousand books in my store. Just because we don't have that book that was crap 10 years ago when it was published, doesn't mean we don't have anything. Expand your horizons bitches, read something unexpected.

[Michael]

Here's one for you bookstore owners:

Just because an adult male is asking where you keep the books in "The Clique" series, don't give them a judging laugh or stare. It was on my cousin's Christmas wish list a couple years ago and the B&N clerk that helped me (who had no clue what the books were about or what section they'd be in) treated me like a child molester for asking. Two weeks before Christmas.