I went on a big road trip with my wife these past two weeks. Visiting coasts and beaches to mountains and friends and family. Also bookstores. Specifically The Bookstore. Booksellers out of state were nice, well kept, well staffed, and[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Mike: Bookseller
1691 comics.
There are even more awful odors that can be experienced while working in retail. A few of the more common ones that you can’t avoid anywhere are here in this strip. The easiest to fix is the dirty diaper, change[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There are people who come into The Bookstore asking casually about where the restrooms are, for a just in case scenario. Others come in with a determined look, concentrating on making sure things are under control, that ask where the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Most mornings during this time of year are slow going for retail. Spring time isn’t usually a big rush out and buy the stuff season, and hours get shaved down to the bare minimum for everyone. Mid-shifts are practically nonexistent,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I don’t quite understand how important things like cell phones or WALKING CANES can get left behind at The Bookstore. It happens all the time. Cellphones are average 600 dollars a piece, signing contracts and paying monthly may hide that[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The headsets we’ve been issued have helped us booksellers communicate to each other “customers” with suspicious behaviors. It’s gotten a few of us a little riled up, inspired by all those cop shows and spy movies where people are staking[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This one goes way back for me. When I first started at The Bookstore I was the regular shelver scheduled, day in day out, every workday morning. I’d arrive about five to ten minutes before the 7am start time and[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The baristas have to take out the trash regularly from the in store cafe, and with our cafe being the “island style” in the middle of the store set up, there are no close exits for them to take the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There have been some picky customers asking for us to grab a “fresh copy” from the magical back room. The stockroom isn’t anything special. It’s where we receive in shipments and then push those shipments out to the floor. That’s[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’ve been working at the Stevens Creek store location for over five years now and I can say that ALL of the good options for food are gone. The crappy pepperoni pizza has been replaced by even crappier “healthy” flat[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We have some issues with our store locks for sure. If they aren’t almost completely broken and bending our keys to the breaking point, they’re not staying locked like they should be. There are tricks that the management team has[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There are many questions I have about the efficacy of these mystery shop things. An outside company hired by The Bookstore comes in to watch us do our job and catch us NOT doing our job the way Home Office[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We have an abundance of choices for customers looking in to vindicate their feelings on the President of the United States. While most people have come in to buy that “Fire and Fury” book, a lot of other customers are[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Of the many toys that we have supplied to our stores to sell, I hate these cheap, wooden push along toys. I don’t know how many are actually sold, I’ve only seen them broken, dirty, and left spread throughout the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Let me preface this comic by saying this first: I totally understand people with legitimate health issues and crises that pip up that need a day or more to figure out. I hope you all have an understanding management team[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I was helping an elderly woman track down a copy of “Lincoln in the Bardo” a couple weeks back, we are fairly short staffed at the moment too. Phones ring until the ONE bookseller available on the floor can answer[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
From time to time we get in some oddly shaped, oddly proportioned books. A lot of those weird shapes lend themselves to kids books. Books with wheels, books shaped with a bite taken out of them, that sort of thing.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
While working on this comic I was watching a Twitch stream of a group of people playing Dungeons and Dragons. I think that’s awesome. Nerd culture has normalized so much now that all the cool board games are spreading out[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Visits from district managers and higher ups are questionable for me. They’re always a lot of hullabaloo around the impending walk through from a district manager and too many people running around trying to fix things. I understand there are[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s safe to say that not many people are happy with what happened last week. Not hearing much of anything from home office hasn’t helped matters either. I expect some subversive and disobedient Bookstore employees are going to find subtle[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’ve been thinking about this dissolving/removal of full-time positions at The Bookstore for the past week or so now. I think we’re going to feel this change for a long time to come. A lot of people are understandably angry.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
For those of us who have survived the cuts and removal of full time positions at The Bookstore, we are still dealing with it. That whole “Why not me?” thought has run through my mind along with “Thank goodness I[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The hammer came down really heavy this week. A lot of my fellow booksellers were let go. I had been hearing things left and right about an investor or two wanting their money back. Hours were being cut way too[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I work in customer service of course, and we are required to ask customers if they need help finding stuff. Plenty of people say “no” in perfectly reasonable tones. Some customers say “yes” and actually mean it. Then there are[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I find too many half finished cups of coffee left abandoned on our shelves in The Bookstore. There has to be some sort of mental goof that happens with customers and their drinks when they’re in a bookstore. Coffee nowadays[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We get a lot of students calling or asking us if we sell and/or rent textbooks. We don’t rent anything at a BOOKSTORE WHERE YOU BUY THINGS, and rarely carry any dependable selection of textbooks. I haven’t run the numbers[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
By now people know that the original title for the first Harry Potter book is “The Philospher’s Stone.” It’s hard to change twenty years of seriously entrenched pop culture though. Scholastic isn’t going to update their paperback editions over here[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We’ve gone through a couple versions of what to call the Self Improvement section over the years and I don’t feel like we’ll stop any time soon either. It’ll get changed up again the next time Oprah has a new[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The state of California in which I currently reside has water/drought problems. My wife tells me most of the state is a semi-arid desert environment. We don’t get rain as frequently as we need and we have huge portions of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
These “customers” are one of the worst types or people to deal with. If they aren’t squirreling away stacks of books into low trafficked areas of the store just to read and eventually abandon, they’re the type that complain about[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We get visited by big head honcho types at our store from time to time. It’s more annoying than panic inducing, but the feelings of thinking we’re wasting our time on stuff that the bigwigs care about but never captures[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Every time that photo turns up on my Facebook feed I grind my teeth. It’s not a funny joke for those on a closing shift. We’re usually understaffed and already having to deal with a call out or two. The[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I smile or stifle a chuckle from time to time with customers asking for books while getting the author or title wrong. They’re so close! And they’re in the store trying to get the book! I’d also like to add[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I come home from work everyday to be greeted by the best gift I ever received. I can’t not see a giant, eight foot tall giraffe when I step into my apartment. It reminds me every day of how generous[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I love Nerf stuff. All the darts and guns, swords and bows, and freaking bazookas that this company puts out, they’re a weapons manufacturer for children and I think it’s hilarious. They do a good job of keeping these things[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
James Patterson is an advertising man first, author last. It’s worked for him for sure, and it’s a wonderful source of capital for us. But you have to admit, from a distance, all of his books, written “alone” or co-authored,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Let’s welcome the new Booksellers coworker John! Another John! Back in the Westgate days I was working with three Davids, a Jason and Chason, and three Johns. Overhead pages had to be very specific for these coworkers. It was fun[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There’s a weird phase going on in that self improvement section for books. Things have gotten a lot less safe for work. Employees have gotten fired for saying words found on these book titles. Customers themselves are embarrassed to say[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’m still liking these headsets. Less overhead noise, quicker response times. Good decision overall supplying stores with radio headsets. Most of the radios work just fine. It may be personal bias but it seems like I’m constantly getting stuck with[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So everyone and their mother in law want this book. As of the creation of this comic my store is still waiting on the book to be shipped in. We aren’t getting very many to start with and I’m sure[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
John told me of a time when a manager of his was giving a huge rallying speech about getting back on track after the holidays. The speech was given in a way that this manager was leading the charge, they’d[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We get these calls way too frequently. Most people calling in to see if we have some obscure textbook understand, that as a commercial bookstore, we don’t carry textbooks. Others though, cannot seem to grasp the concept of “No” to[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Sue Grafton died a couple days before New Years. While I haven’t gotten around to reading any of her books I have had a lot of fun with her Alphabet mysteries. I spelled out so many fun messages and silly[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
These voice changing toys are pretty cool in theory. The toys themselves are unfortunately not loud enough to drown out the person who’s speaking into it. I’m sure there’s a way to augment the voice changers after market, but who[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing holiday. I spent a wonderful amount of time sleeping. Seven day work weeks have been catching up to me and finally having an opportunity to catch up on sleep was great. I’m extremely[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It was a mad dash to the finish. I don’t recall the last couple of holiday seasons being this crazy. I hope everyone gets to relax and rest up. We made it!
We have as of this update only three shopping days left before Christmas. Even at the beginning of this week it’s pretty much too late for getting too specific of a gift for people. I’ve seen a lot of people[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The holidays bring in a lot of customers you don’t normally see anywhere else, and they’re looking for things that usually have to be ordered into the store. It’s pretty straight forward. To place an order for them we get[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I am really not a fan of these Elf on a Shelf demons. I am grateful to see that the emphasis on these stupid things has diminished somewhat. At least from my perspective. More people are focused on getting the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This doesn’t happen to the point where one can predict this outcome but this has happened with a frequency that you can’t ignore. People want to be independent, they want to find what they’re looking for on their own. Others[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
