anyone here ever work in a bookstore?
-chain or independent?
-strangest/worst/most memorable purchase/customer?
-any interesting stories?
also bookstore general thread
>>7405328
i mastrubated in a book and my cum sealed it, when an old lady bough it she cant stop smelling it.
I work in a second hand book store, recently we started stocking records too, we're independent.
No one buys books anymore, so the store just barely keeps afloat thanks to the owner's deep pockets. My job is exceptionally easy.
We're discerning with what we stock, so I mostly don't have to deal with shitty books or people who buy them. An exception to this is the self-help people. They always come in and ask for the same fucking books, i tell them we don't have them and they leave, but they NEVER STOP COMING. Just of the top of my head they usually ask for:
The power of now
The 4 hour work week
The Alchemist
The happy Sikh (or some such shitty title, the titles always have "happy" in them)
They also never have the courtesy to look on the shelf first like most customers, rather they just walk straight in and ask.
People get pissed when I don't accept their books, they come in with like 5 bags of trash no one wants and, after i tell them I don't want any, ask if they can just dump them there, because they don't wanna carry them and they're that worthless to them. I tell them no cause we don't want bags of shitty books crowding the store and they can get very angry.
I've fucked in the back of the store after hours before, if that's interesting to you.
One dude comes by almost every day and checks for bibles, we can't stock bibles anymore cause he'll buy every one and is clearly mentally ill so we felt like we were exploiting him, we stopped stocking them years ago and he still comes by very regularly.
>>7405794
Honestly the only store I go in besides groceries are used book stores these days. I've always wondered how you price beyond condition. Are owners proactive/technologically literate to search for what books sell for online?
>>7405328
>marx has own section
>>7405794
>Independent
Since it was a private university and the town didn't have the much in the way of an actual bookstore, we did carry a lot of fiction that wasn't class books which made me happy.
>Interesting/weird
Bible dude reminds me of a lady that used to come by, she would always ask for help with looking for random textbooks, and then would waste half an hour of someone's time looking at stuff and talking in circles.
"It's important to know your math, you use it every day."
"Yes ma'am, it is."
"Do you use math every day?"
"Yes ma'am, I do at the cash register."
"Good, it's important to know your math because etc."
Then (usually) she would try to buy a $300 engineering textbook or something. If I were working I would tell her the textbook system was down or some other lame excuse so she wouldn't buy anything expensive, but since my boss was a beta he would sometimes let her buy stuff. He would actually go hide when she came in the store most of the time though, so we steered her away.
>>7405328
Also because bookstore general, what is the best bookstore everyone has been to that isn't Shakespeare and Co.?
>>7406608
the strand in nyc
i work in a chain bookstore, most of my coworkers are big into harry potter and the ilk but i get a decent discount so it's not all terrible
i get a lot of people coming in buying glenn beck/rush limbaugh books and the biography about george hw bush. a lot of em are shitty old people.
also we have to pitch the rewards card or else we get our hours cut. it's really shitty.
>>7405794
Okay, question
If you guys can barely afford to keep your store open, and there's a demand for self-help garbage, why not have one shelf or something dedicated to the most popular or trendy meme self help books?
The extra income can't hurt.
>>7406621
B&N?
I've never worked in a book store but I go to them regularly and I really dislike the teenage girls who come in and giggle with their friends and take instagram and Snapchat photos to show everyone how literary they are. Not even fedora. I don't care if women come to the book store but put your fucking phone away and stop acting like children. You aren't a special snowflake because you read a couple of pages.
>>7406634
But they ARE children
>>7406642
Please go, /r9k/.
>>7406645
What are you talking about? You just said they were teenagers. They're kids, dude. Don't expect them to act any different.
>>7406655
>I don't care if women come to the book store but put your fucking phone away and stop acting like children.
From the structure of his sentence, it sounded as if you were saying women are children generally.
That anyone would think it's viable to ban all women from bookstores for the actions of a few teens in the first place is about as /r9k/ as it gets.
>>7406608
The Strand in Manhattan
Raven Used Books in Harvard Square (the Harvard Co-Op, Harvard Bookstore, and MIT Press bookstore are also great and clustered nearby)
The University of Chicago Co-op in Hyde Park, Chicago
>>7406608
Powell's in Portland OR
>>7406674
Man I went to Raven Used Books all the time when I lived in Boston.
There are so many good bookstores in Boston.
Harvard Bookstore and Brattle Bookstore were also favorites of mine.
Back home where I live (the Netherlands) there really aren't any.
Oh, I also worked in an independent book store for about a year that sells architecture and engineering books.
Has anyone been to Lemuria in Jackson, MS? It's seriously one of the best new bookstores I've been to in the US.
>>7406706
I live in Oxford, MS to teach at the university. Lemuria is quite good. My girlfriend asks to go there regularly so we pack up and make the trip.
>>7406706
>>7406737
Meridian, MS here
I have to go to Lemuria to get to a decent book store. It's an hour and a half drive. Makes for a good date though. I've taken three girls from my university there when they're having the small events they do and they always love it. Nice to be able to walk around and talk about books to figure out if someone is compatible or not. The answer is usually no. This just got internally depressing for me so I'm going to stop typing.
>>7406660
If you are a woman this post is hilarious because that post you quote from had a topic sentence with the word teenager in it which renders your reading a retarded conclusion.
>>7405328
I moved to Dallas recently and have been getting to sample all the Half Price Books around here. Still haven't been to the flagship though.
They send out coupons almost constantly, it's pretty neat.
The selection is usually good, for me. People seem to randomly dump collections of something or other. I found a lot of very old New Directions once, a set of old Mishima another, and there's a constant stream of NYRB Classics coming from somewhere. I wish I could know who the people who brought in books were.
>>7405328
Best bookshop in London please?
>>7406615
strand's good and probably accounts for ~75% of my book purchases over the past couple of years, but i feel like it's just too big and chaotic and "sells everything"-y to really have any character. if not for the fact that it's the best place to find a large number of gently used/remainder copies there's no appeal for it over, say, amazon
>>7406660
>I don't care if women come to the book store
Why are you on /lit/ if you don't know how to fucking read?
>>7406737
How's Square Books? Lots of hype, but is it justified?
>>7407313
skoob, bloomsbury. or gower st. waterstones. or theres quite a few between charing x and cambridge circus.
>>7407317
>it's just too big and chaotic and "sells everything"-y to really have any character
That just sounds like NYC to me, so it didn't throw me off when I visited Strand. It seemed like a perfect encapsulation of the city's feel.
>>7406684
I visited Portland last March and I spent a fair amount of time there, even got interviewed by some college girls. Nice place, but somewhat crowded.
>>7406625
We do, but it's the same very small amount of books people ask for every time, and being second hand we can't exactly order a surplus of specific books.
I like the little shop in the back of my library; it just has random shit people donate, but the prices are good (1 dollar paperbacks, 2 for hardcover) and last week I snagged a bunch of old biographies
There's only one independent bookstore left in my city of 200,000, and almost all they sell is second-hand genre fiction. Romance and mystery shit for days, then a single bookshelf for lit fic.
All I want is a nice bookstore that doesn't smell like mold with some comfy chairs and a qt at the register who I try to impress with my patrician taste in books. Is that so much to ask?
>>7409304
Yes sadly.
>>7406674
Hyde Park is Chicago's best book neighborhood by far.
>Sem Co-Op Bookstore, utterly unrivaled
>57th Street Books
>Powells
>O'Gara & Wilson {antiquarian}
>millions upon millions of volumes in U of C library, guest access not that hard to get if you have academic affiliation anywhere
other fun Chicago bookstores:
>Myopic Books (Wicker Park)
>Quimby's (Wicker - has more than just comics)
>Unabridged Bookstore (Lakeview)
>Open Books (River North)
>Bucket-O-Blood (Avondale - pretty small but I like it, specializes in speculative fiction & horror)
>Bookworks (Wrigleyville)
>Women & Children First (if you MUST buy feminist literature)
>>7405794
>The 4 hour work week
Indigo Books CER here, the FUCKING Alchemist. Can totally relate.
Usually presented like:
"I'm looking for a certain book that my friend told me about... it's kinda not very popular but is like a hidden gem of sorts... it's by, uh, Paul Co-el-Ho [says Ho]..."
"Is it the Alchemist?"
"Yeah! Wow, you know about it?"
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
All those Cliff's Notes.
Do you think that it's better to frequent one big store that has or can order anything you need, or to visit many different places to try to find things for a better deal, find rarer books, etc?
Because I used to live two blocks away from a really good Barnes and Noble I used to visit a lot, but after I moved I've been visiting 4 different smaller places. There are several things I just can't find with any of them, but I've gotten some great deals on books that the mom&pop shops probably didn't know were worth as much
>>7406568
Store books need to sell, my friend.
>>7409304
It is, it sounds like a scene from a fiction book actually.
Volunteered for a volunteer-run cooperative bookstore. Indie as fuck.
We had one curmudgeony old Marxist who would come in and rant about neoliberalism and the corruption of American politics as it tends toward oligarchy.
We had the transgender woman with a stellar rack who liked to just use our bookstore for the free Wi-Fi.
Homeless folks who just came in for the complementary coffee and a shit in the bathroom.
College kids coming in for textbooks, but not before price-checking with Amazon and Chegg on their phones. Dicks.
The grouchy Marxist is the one who actually got me the volunteer position. I was there for a textbook and he came up to me and asked
"You like books?"
"Yeah."
"Like bookstores?"
"Yeah."
"Wanna work here?"
"Sure."
I was there for four years.
>>7405328
>-chain or independent?
Dymocks Australia
>-strangest/worst/most memorable purchase/customer?
There was this middle-aged deveopmentally challenged woman who would come in occasionally and ask where our newest books were. She would then smell the new books. Really suck in their scent. She never bought them, though.
There was also a twenty year old guy, dressed like Neo, zits, greasy hair, who would talk to you for thirty minutes about his semi-erotic cyberpunk quadrilogy if you gave him the slightest in. He only ever bought generic books aimed at adolescents (Sorcerers Apprentice, Eragon, etc...) He would also try to return these books a week later saying 'My cousin has already read this one.' Just before I got fired our little old Asian boss made him cry by barrelling out of the stockroom and screaming at him 'you no return books! this not library! what your name? I never carry your book! you cousin not real!'
>-any interesting stories?
Once felt up a big boobed Christmas casual in the stockroom after I told her I liked her manuscript (I didn't read it). If there was a Venn diagram of 'desperate authors' and 'lonely 6/10 chicks' the overlap would be 'bookstore employees.'
fuck I kinda wish I worked at a bookstore
>>7405328
That pic gave me a boner
>>7406660
>being this assmad
Yeah, kill yourself.
whats the best bookstore in sf/bay area?
>>7413112
>asking for a recommendation for a sci-fi or Micheal Bay-novelisation bookstore
Best of plebs
How often do used books stores get new stock? I'm currently addicted to op/used book stores and I feel like going back to the ones I've already bought books from. Would coming back yearly be efficient?
I currently work in an bookstore
We are independent but also a chain. It's weird, we're basically up and coming.
There are literally too many stories and I have only worked here for 3 months.
Here's one, not really crazy in a dramatic way. We have a little girl who we practically take care of 5 out of the 7 days of the week. Shes...maybe 7 years old, something like that.
This one time she had the idea that she wanted to work at our store. Everyone told her she couldnt but she became very persistent so I told her I would train her. I basically just asked her where the sections are and what certain words meant, like 'philosophy', while standing at the cashier while I ring up customers. Eventually we get to the parenting section. Dumb move on my part. She immediately begins talking about her father and how he left her and her mom. How he said he would quit smoking with her mom once she was born but didnt quit but her mom did. How he hasnt had a job in 7 months. It soon becomes very apparent that she is repeating the things she has heard from her mother.
One of my coworkers and some of the customers started crying.
>a group of dudes came in once, start guffawing at some of the book titles and bandying about the word faggot a lot
>they go to leave but one guy splits off, saying 'i'll catch you guys up in a sec'
>comes to the counter and whispers 'hey man, could you order in the second Harry Potter for me'
>runs out sheepishly
weird experience. wish i worked the second hand circuit but at least i can order some good shit in, although heaps of books are currently out of print -- including William Gaddis' oeuvre, which is irritating af
>>7406608
Was Shakespeare and co that good?
I literally just moved a block away and they closed down this summer.
>>7413112
In Berkeley it is Moe's. It can be expensive but it is just so nice. Living so close by to it, I forget it is nice
>>7413279
(You)
>>7405328
Saw a qt today, She asked me if I had read any Hemingway before, we talked for a bit. How do I make her my bookshop wife?
I've been working in a chain bookstore for about 2 years now. Sometimes it's nice, most of the time it's like any other retail job.
>Clueless grandparents coming to buy a book as a gift
>Only vaguest of indications as to what book they actually mean
>Fat 40-50yo women buying Shades of Grey trilogy
>Bunches of giggly 14yo girls all buying Shades of Grey trilogies
>Again, clueless grandparents looking for a "Gray" book
That fad paid for a month of everyone's wages here, so I don't feel bad about selling crap like that though. A man's got to eat.
>Get a call
>"Good day, do you stock X by Y?"
>Yes we do, Sir.
>"How much does it cost?"
>Let me check, Sir. That would be €18.99. Do I set one apart for you?
>"No, that won't be necessary, I'll swing by later today to pick one up"
>Don't sell a copy of that book for fucking weeks
>A quarter of our shop now consists of agendas, postcards, adult-colouring books and fucking globes
>We have more globes than books by Nobel Prize winners
>We sell more globes than books by Nobel Prize winners
>Except for Modiano's, that shit sold like hot buns when he was nominated
No weird stories (yet?) though.
>>7413447
Do you work at Waterstone's? Your stores are really nice, but it is like you said, you sell more crap than books. Though I have to admit, I haven't bought any real books from you guys lately, but I did buy an adult colouring book as a present for a qt I was trying to hook up with. She loved it, but I still got nothing.
>>7409374
Armadillo's Pillow in Rogers Park is also cozy as fuck
>mindfulness coloring book
>the life changing magic of tidying up
Worked for a while at B&N.
It's like working at 7-11 but you have to wear a tie and we don't sell cigarettes.
We would put the Glen Beck and O'Rielly books in science fiction as a joke.
Got transfered to music b/c I have tattoos.
Worked there when Princess Diana died and for a few weeks 50% of sales was Elton John.
Most sales were based on music that people heard on television. Diamond commercials always use classical music and men would come in and ask for the diamond commercial music so they could play it while they proposed. But there are several diamond companies and several commercials, so we would have to hum the music until they recognized the one they wanted.
Met Oliver Stone because he had just written a children's book or something. We put out soundtracks for his music on display. I put The People VS Larry Flint out , which was not an Oliver Stone movie, but no one noticed/cared.
>>7416383
this is me still
An old man used to come in in a wheelchair. He reminded me of my grandfather and I was always nice to him. He wanted music from the 40's. Benny Goodman, Leo Dorsey. Big band. I recommended Cab Calloway and he said, " I dont want that nigger music".
Co-worker was the daughter of an opera singer, she thought that made her classy, she was dumb white trash. She would always just tell customers we didn't have whatever they wanted without even looking for it. Actually kind of awesome, now that I think of it. I made a point of finding whatever people wanted and giving it to them in front of her after she had just said we didnt have it. We never spoke.
>>7405328
Me pt 3.
read Orwell story 'Book Shop Days' or whatever its called, or you're a pleb.
>>7406608
the best bookstores are The Strand, Powell's and I dont know what else.
>>7416398
>the coop, fgt
>>7413323
thats fucked m8
