Friday again

- I did an exchange for a woman who had received a book as a gift and months later realized someone had torn pages out (more on that later).  We didn't have the book in stock to replace immediately, but we could get it in the fall.  I explained this to the woman with careful, deliberate, honest statements.  I gave her other choices, like getting a different item or a gift card to use later.  Using her mouth, she told me that she wanted to wait and get a new book.  I wanted to confirm that it would be a long wait, so I said "it will be like getting it for Christmas all over again!" but I said it in a friendly, fun manner.  She laughed and said yes, which I assumed (dummy me) that she understood the time line.  Satisfied, I went to lunch.  When I came back, I was told that the woman came back minutes after I'd left, and asked my co-worker when her special order book would be in and kept insisting she find out the date it would arrive.  AAHHH!!!!!  I should know better than to assume that 1) people won't be dicks and 2) people will understand anything. 

- Who the FUCK tears pages out of books?  This has happened a couple of times at our store.  And I've checked reference books out of the library with the same problem.  These page tearers must live so in the moment that they cannot think of a way to find the information any other way than to tear it out.  I don't understand it and I don't like it.

- The woman complaining and complaining about her small and useless wallet:  I really wanted to tell her to just get a bigger wallet.  Some might say that about me and this blog and my job.  If I complain so much, why not just get a different job?  To which I would say:  a wallet is a much easier thing to fix than a job.  Seriously.  Get a new wallet.  I probably have an extra one at home I could let her borrow.

- There was a woman that spent close to an hour looking at napkins without being able to make up her mind.  When she was ready to check out, I was on the phone, finishing up a call I had picked up way before she came to the counter.  She waited at the counter for 5 seconds (I'm not even exaggerating on the time) before she stormed out the door.  I was off the phone when she was 15 feet from the counter, but she didn't come back when I said in a 15 foot voice "Didn't you want the napkins?"  I felt desperate and weird for sort of begging her to come back.  The annoying thing is that she is probably going to turn this into a story of how lousy our service is and tell all of her friends that she was ignored and that is just not true.

- There were some people sitting and talking at one of our tables yesterday.  I overheard bits of their conversation and it sounded like an interview.  Which I think is really weird.