Customers 31

I answered the phone at the bookstore and asked how I could help the caller.

In a thick African accent, the person (gender difficult to determine), said, "I want a book. This book is called DESTROYING THE WORKS OF WITCHCRAFT THROUGH FASTING AND PRAYER. It by Ruth Brown. It flat."

"Um, it's flat? The book is flat?"

"Yes. It's flat. It by Ruth Brown."

"I can order the Ruth Brown book for you, and we'll call when it comes in, would you like me to order it for you?"

       

"Yes. I would."

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A tall woman, dyed light brown hair, faded coral lipstick, wearing a long black coat came up to the information desk.

"There's a book by Svetlana Stalin. She wrote a book about being Stalin's daughter. I heard about it on the radio. I think it's new. Do you have it? She also went by the name Lana Peters."

"Let me look, I'm not familiar with it." I search the computer, both our store-wide search and the internet. I don't find anything in our system by a Svetlana Stalin or Lana Peters. Doing a broader internet search reveals that Stalin's daughter wrote a book in 1967 called TWENTY LETTERS TO A FRIEND and her name was Svetlana Alliluyeva. I tell the customer what I find.

       

"She just died last week. I thought the book was new."

"I'm thinking that the book is older, though they may decide to re-release it, since she died. It would be interesting. They probably brought it up because she died."

"Yes, that's probably it. Thank you for checking on it for me."

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A woman came to the register. She had long, wavy blond hair, was wearing a blue-green shirt and sweater.

She put Laura Schlessinger's PROPER CARE AND FEEDING OF HUSBANDS on the counter, and handed me the receipt. "I need to return this," she said.

       

"And the reason for the return?" I asked.

"It was stupid."

I laughed. She gave a small smile. I looked up as I was processing the return.

"It didn't work. After I read it my husband moved out and left me," she said.

"Oh," I said, instantly serious. "I'm so sorry."

Her face crumpled as she tried to hold back her tears.

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Customers 19

A young girl, maybe early 20's, black hair, dark grey eyeliner, black jeans, a black sweatshirt, a heart tattoo by her left eye and more tattoos visible on her neck, asked if we can ship something from the store.

"To a facility?", I asked, pretty sure she was asking about sending something to a correctional facility. She nodded. I explained that she can select items from the store to be sent to a prison or jail, but we have to treat it like a ship-to-home order where the items come from a warehouse, not from the store.

"What about magazines?", she asked.

"Some facilities don't accept magazines."

"Oh, this one does. I've done it before," she said in her quiet voice.

"Okay," I said. "I thought we couldn't send magazines from the store, but let me check just to make sure." I called the manager and she said that jails accept magazines but prisons don't. I told her and asked her if it was a prison or a jail.

"It's a prison," she said, "But they do accept magazines. They just can't be sent from ME."

"Let me check again," I said. I called the manager back. She said that as far as she knew, prisons wouldn't accept magazines. I asked if we could do it if the customer would assume the risk, that if the magazines never arrived, she wouldn't be able to get her money back. The manager agreed that we could do it.

"Okay, the manager said that we can send them, but it has to be through UPS, and some facilities don't accept UPS packages, or rather, some do not get to the intended recipient. Sometimes we send something, and the customer will come in and tell us that it never arrived and we don't know why. Maybe someone is having a bad day and refuses the shipment. You need to know that if that happens, you're just out the money. We can send it, but if it doesn't arrive, you're just out the money."

"Okay, I understand. I appreciate all your help."

"You might want to only do one or two, just in case it doesn't get there, then you're not out too much money," I said.

"That's a good idea. Thank you SO much for all your help."

She was so sweet. I wanted to ask her two questions...
1) What's he in for? and
2) Are you all right?

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A woman, maybe mid-50's, short brown hair, wearing a brown suede jacket and a scarf comes up to the register. She puts a book on the counter with a receipt in it. It's a book by Laura Schlessinger.

      

"I need to return this," she said.

"Okay, is there anything wrong with it?", I ask.

"No. Nothing wrong with the book. I bought it for my niece, but nothing can help her." She sighed.

"Well, at least you're thinking about her and trying to help," I said. "Sorry this didn't work out."

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A woman, 60-ish, graying brown hair, black corduroy pants, black and white jacket, came up to the register to purchase a book...

      

"I'm going to get this and do what it says. I'll look 10 years younger by this afternoon!"

I laughed. "Sounds great! Maybe I'll have to get that book!"

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A young couple came up to the register. He: 20's, crewcutshort reddish blond hair, some minor facial hair. About 5'8". She: 20's, long blond hair, about 5'9", wearing a beige wool coat. They are buying two books and a bookmark. He adds another bookmark that (evidently) had her initial on it.

"Don't let him buy that," she tells me, laughing. "Oh wait," she says to him, "it has a dog paw on it!"

"Because you love your dog so much," he said.

"I DO love my dog," she said. "This is perfect." She turns to me. "Okay, he can buy this."

"What kind of dog do you have?" I asked.

"He's half border collie and half we-have-no-idea-what-he-is," she said. She gets her phone and pulls up a picture of her dog to show me.

"Is he still a puppy?" I asked.

"No, he's a long way from being a puppy, but he's still a puppy to me."

"He is adorable. What's his name?" I ask.

"His name is Dewars." She paused. "Yep," she said. "I named my dog after alcohol."

"I think that's a pretty great name," I said.

"Thank you!" She was laughing as they left the store.

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