The James Logan Courier

By Krystyna Wolny, Courier Staff Writer

Having a job exposes you to a variety of situations and people, including their endless ability to annoy. Working at a bookstore especially forces you to interact with others, fulfilling their needs, no matter how ridiculous. Customer service is a major part of what I do, and sometimes, it can be extremely nerve-wracking.

My patience is constantly tested with people who come up and ask if they can “look up a book” themselves, without even considering the fact that they’re asking someone trained and paid to do the job for them. Some even go as far as grabbing onto the computer, turning it towards them, and attempting to figure out a book finding system they’re not familiar with, then asking me to explain what all these “numbers and words” mean, before I even have a chance to look the book up for them.

They also ask me what our rival bookstore Borders carries and get angry when we tell them that we have no access to their inventory.

Customers will also ask what the price of a book is, and then say obnoxiously loudly, “Well I’m sure it’s cheaper on Amazon, I think I’ll just get it there,” and start a whole speech on why we don’t have cheaper prices like they do, completely ignoring the fact that most retail stores are charged shipping for each order they get.

Some will even go as far as to be completely blind to all cameras and employees watching them, and steal things in obvious areas of the store. And when confronted, play it all off thinking we’re idiots.

A very common pet peeve booksellers have is customers leaving piles of books and magazines around carelessly, or putting them back backwards, upside-down, or in completely different sections on the shelves.

The children’s section is hated by most employees because of how trashed it gets all the time. Careless parents allow their children to run around, throw books off the shelf, and scream loudly in the section. And once they leave, it highly resembles a tornado that ripped through the entire area.

Job RevealsAfter working here for 6 months, however, I’ve learned to keep my patience with people and that the kindness of customers always outweighs the obnoxiousness of others.