It's true, what they say about you.

[raybear]

On Saturday before meeting Educating Esme for dinner, I went into Feminist Bookstore, my place of former employment, for the first time in....a very long time. I chatted with one of the owners (the "dad" of the mom&dad) and left feeling that any residual guilt, stress, agony, and frustration from the experience had finally disappeared into the ether. I've been spending lots of time in bookstores lately. It's soothing again.

Last night we went to Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park before dinner. I was about to check out but wanted to take a glance at something first, so I went to the information counter.

Clerk: Can I help you?
Me: Yeah, I couldn't find it on the shelves, but I'm looking for The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath? The edition that came out a couple years ago.
Clerk: Okay. [typing on a computer] Hmmm, I don't see it. Do you know what it's called?
Me: Um....The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath.
Clerk: Oh.

He should be happy I didn't ask for "the red book". We used to joke about this all the time at Feminist Bookstore, about how people would come in looking for a book, insisting we would know it because "it was on the front table a couple weeks ago....a red cover...." Um, hi? Can I get some more clues like title or author or what it's about or even the picture on the cover? One time someone asked about a book we had in the window display weeks earlier and I said, "I can't see the front of those books because I'm always inside the store."

Ah, retail jobs. Another gentle reminder that I shouldn't complain about my current gig.

Comments

ahh retail

[keetbabe.livejournal.com]

my favorite is when people would be looking for a gift for their girlfriends/wife/s.o. (always women) and they would pick up a pair of earrings and ask: "do you think my wife would like these?"

in the beginning i would stammer, not wanting to take that responsibility, eventually i would just say 'Yes, of course she would. They'd look GREAT on her!' as if I knew her.

so happy not to be working in retail.

Re: ahh retail

[raybear.livejournal.com]

whereas i was always the jackass (though one with impeccable manners and not a drop of sarcasm in my voice) who would say "what sort of books do they like, so i can make a recommendation? you don't know what they've read? oh dear, well, i'm just not sure then....you don't have any idea? any hint? fiction? non fiction? something?" i got even more bitter when i actually WOULD give a REAL recommendation that i put thought into, but they'd buy something else that didn't seem appropriate anyway.

now that i think about it, mistress minax and i first became friends because she shopped at the bookstore on the nights i worked and we had great conversations about books and music and we'd make recommendations to each other that we actually followed through on.

[queermarcus.livejournal.com]

Ok but what about the blue one?