Annals of Customer Service
World Cup reading list, bookstore bingo, etc
I’ve been waiting to write this blog post all week, so excited am I about all the literary tidbits I’ve collected for your enjoyment. And so without further ado, let’s get down to it: First, I was super excited when I found this World Cup reading list from international literary magazine, Words Without Borders. It [...]
People get meaner over Memorial Day
Last weekend was Memorial Day, the glorious three-day weekend in which summer unofficially starts, and those with 9-5′s nationwide kick back at the pool or in front of the grill. It’s really great…that is, unless you work at Half-Price Books and everything is 20% off! Thursday to Monday. Yeah, that’s right. While most people get [...]
The perils of bookselling: “my poor hands” edition
Bookselling seems like a tame job. Safe. I mean, I’m not logging timber out in the Alaskan wilderness. Neither am I operating heavy machinery, working around hot stoves, or dealing with screaming kids. I don’t even spend my days at a computer, saving me from the perils of eye strain and carpel tunnel. I do, [...]
Overheard at the bookstore
This exchange took place yesterday morning at Half-Price, while I was running a batch of DVDs, which is located near our CD section. An older woman was apparently shoppping with her granddaugher, who looked to be about 9 or 10. Old woman: Oh, here’s the “The Sound of Music” soundtrack! Girl: What’s that? Old woman [...]
The stuff I learned in college…makes a comeback!
I was working in the world history section this afternoon, and happened to be shelving the general European history books when I came across a book on courtly love and its influences in medieval Europe. Immediately, a red flag went up in my brain: “Hey!” it shouted. “This doesn’t belong here! The theme of courtly [...]
Life goal? Check.
Besides working in a bookstore, one of my kooky life goals has been to make one of those “employee recommendations” you see in the front of bookstores. There seems to be so much power involved in the act of recommending a book to John Q. Public; you, as the bookstore employee, are seen as an [...]
Who does this?
So a moderate-sized snowstorm hit the Cincinnati area yesterday and last night (or #snOMG, as I call it on Twitter), forcing our Half-Price Books location to open at noon today, instead of 9 a.m. per usual. I was a little peeved we were open at all, considering I live at the bottom of a steep [...]
Annals of customer service, part 3
An important part of my job–perhaps the most important part–as a bookseller at Half-Price Books is cleaning up after people. And no, I’m not talking about straightening the shelves at the end of the day, or the lucky person who’s task it is to clean the restrooms at night (ew). I’m talking about the constant, [...]
Annals of customer service, part 2
As the holiday season finally draws to a close (meaning: No. More. Sales.), work has resumed its normal pace once again. We’re opening at 10 a.m. again, and we’re not deluged with idiotic book buyers at all hours of the day. And with a snowstorm paralyzing most of the Cincinnati area, Half-Price Books was actually [...]
