hi there. I'm 30 years old, with an english degree. after college I went into corporate healthcare cubicle hell. and now, I want out.

I want to work in a bookstore, and eventually run my own.

I need advice on how to tailor my resume and write a cover letter expressing my desire in spite of having negligible retail experience.

please help!
thanks!

Today, we were faffing about at the cash desk, and one of my co-workers said he'd gone to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday.

"Oh really?" I said, "Did you like it? I've read glowing reviews and angry reviews."

"It was great!," Frank said. "Maybe the reviews were angry because they weren't expecting Dumbledore to die."

At which point someone browsing the new release tables looked up, with a look of utter devastation.

"Dumbledore dies?" he said.

Later he asked me for a discount on his purchase, to make up for being spoiled.

O_o

(For the record, I'm pretty sure he was joking. I think. I mean, I laughed, so either he was joking or I really spoiled his day.)

American Tourist Lady: [hands me a paperback HP & the Philosopher's Stone] I really wanted to get the British edition of this, you can't get it back in America.

Me: Cool, um, you know that the only difference between editions is the word 'philosopher' in the title? [Yes, I have had this question several times] Otherwise, it's exactly the same text inside.

ATL: Oh, yes. But... is this the whole book, or it it a shortened version for children? Like, have they taken things out for kids?

Me: ...

Today, a young woman asked me for a book she said was titled Tell Her. "It's about this girl and her family, in Nazi Germany."

Points to the first person to figure out what she was talking about. (It took me less time than you'd think.)


( And the answer was... )

For those of you who are fortunate enough to own/work in an independant bookstore, Neil Gaiman is having a contest where the store who throws the coolest Halloween party themed around The Graveyard Book will win a booksigning from Neil. :)

This happened last Friday and just made me sad.

A guy came in, wanting to return a book because he had accidentally bought two of the same book. The receipt was a month or so over our return policy and I informed him--nicely--that we couldn't return the book. To which he became angry and demanded to know what he should do with the book. I didn't really have any suggestions other than perhaps loaning it out to friends who might enjoy it. He then defiantly announced that he was just going to leave it with me. I, still apologetic and nice, said he couldn't do that (any paid-for but forgotten/abandoned items tend to live at our store for the next year or more). Then, even more angry, he said he was just going to throw it away. And he did when he walked out.

Really?

Why would you just throw a book away? I completely understand being angry at not being able to return it (though our policy is on the back of the receipt...), but there are so many better things you can do with a book. Trade it, give it away, even sell it on Amazon--why temper tantrum and toss it?

Oh how I savor the look of shock and bewilderment you get when telling a parent they will have to purchase the book their kid just tore apart.

I follow a great blog called "Not Always Right," which is about dumb customer encounters, and there was an awesome bookstore story on it today.

Enjoy!

We said goodbye to two colleagues today who've racked up a shared 20 years of service - it's the first 'real' day of the cutbacks - and it was a very sad thing.

So to distract myself, I was giggling at a colleague's shortened search entry for 'The Unbearable Lightness of Scones' by McCall-Smith, he simply typed in:

Unbearable Scones

It cheered me up for a little while. Small things, and all that...

At work, we had a lady try to return some study aids late last year. We don't refund or exchange on study aids [people often photocopy them] and especially not two months after they were purchased and after the exam period. When we refused to refund the books, the lady chucked a tantrum, threw them on the floor and stormed off. We kept the books out the back for a while but when she didn't return we put them back on the shelf. Yesterday, the woman's daughter came into work with the receipt and wanted the books back, nearly six months after her mother left them here. We had the titles on the shelf and the owner of the shop gave them back, which surprised me. Normally the owners aren't the most generous of people. But come on! You left them here for six months! What if no one knew about the incident? There's no proof she left them at our store.

I'd never think of trying half of the things customers try at our store.