dearest customers

[Rorschach]

Ideas =/= train of thought.

Paragraph breaks are there to avoid great walls of text.
Rather than thinking 'Why should I use one?', you should be thinking 'Could I use one here?'.

[Terrene]

Your self-righteous rage over people wanting to save hundreds of dollars by purchasing their text books online, and your anger at having to stock and shit. That is what you are paid to do. Get over it.

[Sophira]

Next time you need something right now and can't wait for shipping or pay for it expedited, remember the whiny sales monkeys you have to rely on.

Of course, they'll probably just spit in your eye, because that's what people should do to asshats.

[ampersand]

Well, if you ever go into an American Aldi's, you'll get a taste of that wonderful German hospitality to their customers.

[Shadowknight1]

Sorry guys, I don't mean to rag so much on those people. I just have to deal with it day in and day out. I know book prices are ridiculous. I pay for the things too. If we could set those prices, we'd certainly be trying to give Amazon and so forth a run for their money. But we can't. The company has to pay the publishers for those books as well as the freight to ship them to us, and we have to make some kind of profit off of them or we wouldn't be much of a business.

I hate giving customers bad news like their books for one class are going to be costing them a hundred dollars or so. Especially when I know the person. But it just irritates me when they say something like, "Well I just get them cheaper on Amazon." It's like going into Wal-Mart, having someone show you where an item is on the shelf, tell you the price, and then say, "Well, I'm going down the road to K-Mart because they have it cheaper." Now, if they do that kind of thing without asking for help, fine. Good for them. But to ask someone in the store help you so you can undercut the said store just bugs me.

I'm not trying to come off like a jerk or something. It's a small thing that just gets under my skin. For the most part, we do a lot of business with customers who come in needing help. I can't count the number of times we've gotten compliments because we actually help the customers find their textbooks rather than just pointing in the general direction of the aisle they're in.

And our prices are honestly low compared to some other stores. For example, we receive used books from wholesalers and sometimes they come with price stickers on them from their previous "home". One time we got in a book that we were charging $90-something for and the price sticker it had on it from another bookstore listed it at $300-something. And we do get customers who say that our prices are better than online shopping. Not to mention that they can just come into the store and get them without waiting.


And I do love my job, my coworkers, and my bosses are awesome. Their bosses....eh, not so much. But oh well, right?

[ampersand]

Yes, we do have Aldi's. It's where the poorest of the poor shop in the USA. (Or in my parent's case, where the cheapest of the cheap go to shop.) Customers have to bag their own groceries (or swipe the boxes the groceries come in), pay 25¢ for a shopping cart, 10¢ for a paper bag (or $1.10 for a recyclable bag). They've only accepted food stamps and the Discover credit card maybe five years ago.

[bagheadinc]

It's like going into Wal-Mart, having someone show you where an item is on the shelf, tell you the price, and then say, "Well, I'm going down the road to K-Mart because they have it cheaper."

It's called consumerism.

[raptor9k]

I don't mind people shopping around, but the worst part of working retail that I remember (worked at Books-A-Million for a couple of years) is assholes finding what they wanted, looking through it and then leaving it randomly perched on a bookshelf in a completely different section of the store.

[StruckingFuggle]

Of course, they'll probably just spit in your eye, because that's what people should do to asshats.

That's why when you have to deal with people, you never tell them what you think of them, when it's negative. At least, don't do so unless you are beyond the reach of their fangs... even then it's not really pragmatic-ish, on the chance they may be of some future use, still.

[Sophira]

Eh. I usually don't hold back with people, but then I mostly don't dislike a whole lot of people enough to spit in their eye.

I say what I think, most of the time. The exceptions are work-related. For example, why the FUCK did my boss hire a creepy fucking weirdo but hey, whatever.

[Shadowknight1]

I don't mind people shopping around, but the worst part of working retail that I remember (worked at Books-A-Million for a couple of years) is assholes finding what they wanted, looking through it and then leaving it randomly perched on a bookshelf in a completely different section of the store.

Heh, I see that too. Not as often as in a larger store I'm sure though.

Eh. I usually don't hold back with people, but then I mostly don't dislike a whole lot of people enough to spit in their eye.

I say what I think, most of the time. The exceptions are work-related. For example, why the FUCK did my boss hire a creepy fucking weirdo but hey, whatever.

Unfortunately the creepy fucking weirdos typically work cheap and/or have some sort of disability so they HAVE to hire them. Isn't "equality" grand?

[Sophira]

In this case, the dude is just apparently well-versed in his field. You'd think they'd require social skills, but doesn't appear to be so. :/

[thejerseyminx]

Unfortunately the creepy fucking weirdos typically work cheap and/or have some sort of disability so they HAVE to hire them. Isn't "equality" grand?

If that's the case then the person doing the hiring isn't doing their job... it's much much harder to fire some one with a disability than to not hire them.

[Teranfirbt]

You're trusting that he's not going to send you an instructor's copy or an international edition that you can't get rid of.

I'm rather fond of international editions. Cost is typically 1/3 of what the bookstore charges, and the only difference is the cover material. Not being able to sell them back doesn't really matter when the difference in initial price is greater than the pittance the bookstore gives back.