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…
Mike: Bookseller
1729 comics.
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…
I’ve experienced a fair few insistent “Merry Christmas” wishes from customers. I really find no problem with “Happy Holidays” (except for the stupid song). There are quite a few holidays that happen around this time of year. A nice “Happy[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Beulah was a really hard person to deal with. From the outside it felt like she would purposefully not remember simple instructions, or conveniently not know how to answer a phone. Beulah was a person who just wanted to do[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Well, in actual fact, you bought it for me. I’m still riding high from purchasing this amazing giraffe! Thank you all so much for all of the support you’ve given me! People have been asking how I’m going to fit[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
A group of readers and fans of my comic got together and crowdfunded money to buy me a giant 8 foot tall giraffe figure. When I saw this happening I was floored by the generosity. I love giraffes, it’s not[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
With regular daylight times reestablished the sun goes down WAY early. We have had a collection of customers coming up to the Info Desk asking if there’s something wrong with our lights just after sundown for the past week or[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
During the holiday rush you’ll be seeing a larger demographic of customers, customers that only shop at your store maybe twice a year and both of those occasions happen in December. Most of these people are the normal type asking[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There are many times that I have gone off to search for a book only to realize it’s nowhere to be seen. The book straight up disappeared. There are some times you can tell that there was an inventory error,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Check out that nice button up there in the right corner of your browser! Isn’t that pretty cool looking? There are some seriously fun things you can see by supporting my website on Patreon! Black Friday weekend has concluded. We[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Feeling generous? Supporting me on Patreon is a nice way to drop a dollar or two per month to help me make more comics! Potlucks at work are hit or miss depending on your coworkers. I’ve been lucky enough to[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Wanna see extra comics, drawings, and other fun stuff? Why not become a Patreon supporter to my comic here? You could even be part of the comic like Trevor here! When I was first introduced to the headsets I was[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Hi! By becoming a Patreon member you could help support my comics AND gain access to all sorts of fun extras! Check it out! These mascot teddy bears we’re selling are pretty cute. They even come with a companion dog[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Hey, wanna see my comics early? How about seeing some cool giraffe drawings? By supporting me on Patreon you get to see these things and more! There are scented markers out there in the world. Scented pens are I guess[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
