I got an email from a reader a little while back: “I got to work today I was told by all my fellow booksellers that the new store manager was talking crap, “…kids is a disaster, books everywhere, hopefully our[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged Fab
147 results.
So here’s the very first $10 Patreon supporter guest appearance! I’m a man of my word! Thanks so much for your support, Rachel! The re-categorizations are still taking place. Some moves and changes help, others, many others hinder. Adding a[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
When you’re working in a customer service oriented job you’re going to face a lot of questions. Sometimes these questions won’t come from a customer but a coworker. Maybe a new hire needs a little bit of a guided hand[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We got a ton, a literal ton of plushy toys over the holidays. We sold quite a bit, but we’re still finding more hiding in nooks and crannies. We never get enough giraffe plushies though…
For all of those instructions from home office saying that a ten inch Lego box will fit on a seven inch tall shelf, or how the flimsy cardboard displays they say will hold forty copies of the World Atlas, I[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Glitter. Glitter is the worst. I think the reason that Mariah Carey movie bombed was from the title alone. If the movie is called “Glitter” everything else about it has to be awful. This time of year is filled with[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
These are all sadly based off of true stories. Granted, not all of them were perpetrated by a single manager, but it goes without saying, there are a lot of stupid people that get into management positions that have absolutely[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Sadly, not every interview is this easy to sniff out the feeble and uninspired, those looking for a job and hoping you’re desperate enough to hire ANYBODY. I’ve had coworkers from that type of situation. They drag the whole team[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It happens every year. It happens earlier every year. I get angrier every year. Holiday creep is the absolute worst. We aren’t allowed to celebrate any other holiday besides Christmas. Just after Independence Day we have to start setting up[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We’ve had some bad smelling people walk into our store recently. Really bad. So bad you can smell them across the store bad. I’m pretty sensitive to odors and this guy had me hiding in the stockroom for fear of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There have been recalls of products before, heck, there’s a pretty recent one that happened this past week: Can anyone spot the glaring typo? I’m just wondering if there ever was a product that had such an impact on people[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So a new Nük tablet came out yesterday… with all the fanfare of an awkward fart. It was unexpected for the most part, and once it came out everyone wondered why we weren’t warned about it sooner. Display signs were[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There are little things that can lead you to believe that you may not have the best janitors working in your store. They leave trash bags everywhere, they don’t change out empty soap dispensers, the toilets are still brownish… We[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s hard to fathom that a manager, or the management team in general doesn’t devolve into passive aggressive threats and outright insults when holding the daily store morning meeting. Now, I have been in stores that have hosted such meetings,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Loss prevention, basically providing almost overbearing customer service, is pretty useful. Getting a pin for filling out those Loss Prevention quizzes doesn’t really need to be done I feel. I’d rather those pins be used to gouge out the eyes[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There are times that you hear things about the personal lives of coworkers and employees that make you mad, sad, or even more cynical. Hearing that a coworker’s normal everyday not-work clothes are ALL sweats is unbelievably depressing.
I had some squirt bottles come into the store a little while ago. I was really hoping they were for what you would use on a misbehaving cat, except on bad customers. It was not to be, sadly. The janitors[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Throughout the years at The Bookstore I’ve seen a few people get fired for stupid stuff. Nothing I think is more indicative of the stupidity of the employee than getting fired for harassment. Common sense gets thrown out, they’ve been[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Some of the worst customers we have to deal with are those that want to argue, they want to create a scene. They want to find something to complain about. We aren’t getting paid to listen to you, we’re getting[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Happy Memorial day! Also known as: Happy Catch Up On the Stockroom day! I still cannot understand how the distribution center works. They ship out too much product for it to be able to be finished within a reasonable time[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
An email from Tracie: “About once to twice a month we have meetings at my store yo go over numbers, what’s going to change, and to remind us what we signed up for when we took the job. Just the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Dusting, we are forever dusting the shelves. I don’t think having customers in the store helps matters.
I think almost every store has a manager who doesn’t really know how to order in books. Quantities of titles and exactly how much space they take up is inconceivable for them. Or they’re lazy and just order everything without[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We have all had the bad manager, we’ve all had the really awesome manager. Sometimes we get the worst of the worst: The Idiot manager. Someone who SOMEHOW got into a position of power despite the obvious lack of intelligence[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Each bookstore is different, unique, and should be catered to its local clientele. When big decisions come down the pipeline from the centralized entity know as Corporate, or The Home Office, a lot of what they’re telling us to do[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I have been tempted to show up on days off just to mouth off to stupid, annoying, self entitled idiot customers, but I always get the better of myself. It’s my day off and giving grief to customers, while enjoyable,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This is the type of comic that gets created when the study aids season starts up again. We get way too many of these to fit on the shelves, most of them sit in overstock for the rest of the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The other day we had a volunteer gift wrapping group forget to show up for their scheduled gift wrapping duty. Yes, they were indeed representing Alzheimer’s. I can’t not share these jokes now: How many Alzheimer’s patients does it take[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Ever have a project assigned to you by a manager, and you finish that project exactly the way the manager wanted you to do it only to have that same manager come in and tell you to undo all your[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So, this ALMOST happened to our special story time. Almost. I thought far enough ahead to give us more prep time in case certain scenarios like this one could happen.
We’re setting up displays for the evil “Elf on a Shelf” already. Already!! Halloween has been completely ignored! Is it too much to ask the retail businesses out there to respect the timing of the holidays? Our Halloween displays have[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I got a tweet-is that what you call it?-I got a tweet from Cait who shared with me a question she fielded from a customer the other night: “I think I left my wifi at your store.” …yeah… We get[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Got an email from Tracie: ” My manager was doing a quick walk through the store. As she was going towards the cafe she sees a little boy take some Yu-Gi-Oh cards from the card spinner. The boy then proceeds[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There must be a familiar topic that crops up at The Bookstore’s Home Office meetings. Something about how certain sections are just, you know, not quite right. They need to change it up a bit. The problem is that they[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I got a great email from Ian a week or so ago about “a particular type of customer, the one that would place merchandise in the chairs to “Hold their place” leaves for 20 minutes and then complains when we[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I think we either attract some bold-faced stupid idiots, or the population at large contains a lot more sociopaths than I thought. These four panels are sadly based off of real things that happened. One specifically to me, a couple[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It was a very odd day in the middle of summer to hear that “Chestnuts Roasting” song start to play over the P.A. system. To see our manager dash off to change whatever glitch happened was pretty funny looking back[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It was pretty clear from the first few days as a manager that Beulah had no idea what she was doing. “Oh, I didn’t know” became her catchphrase. So many mistakes were made. These things will of course be made[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This has happened to everyone at least once, yes? I know it has for me, and a few managers I’ve known. Those opening shifts weren’t too bad. Waiting outside the store for 2 hours while the manager finally realizes they’re[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I’m sad to say that this has happened to me on more than one occasion. After 11 years of driving to the same place to work the auto-pilot tendencies are thoroughly entrenched. I got some t shirts for sale! check[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Enjoy your day off tomorrow, for it will be your last!! …Until Christmas day. But the days in between! I hope you all survive! I’m planning on hiding as much as possible. It’s going to be a mad, crazy, violent[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I got this email from Jade just yesterday: “So this only happened about ten minutes ago. I am emailing from the breakroom, while it’s still fresh, so I can get it over with and never have to think about it[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Inspired by me biting into those delicious chocolate covered cream puffs we sell in the cafe. I got some on my nose, thought to myself, “Heh! I look like Lark.” I’ll probably not have any time this year to get[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So the company is rolling out payroll cards. Yay. What a complete sham. I’ve heard only BAD THINGS about these programs and any program that comes with a thick booklet with pages of small print isn’t worth signing up for.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Rachel’s problems with these Beats Headphones didn’t stop here there’s more to her story: “I managed to get the headphones free of my hair but they went skidding off the side of the other counter. I left them, grabbed the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Harassment sensitivity training is BOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRIIIIING. If I had the foresight, I would have grabbed a few blankets and pillows myself. The best I could do was kick off my shoes and curl up in a comfy office chair. If you[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Elayne sent me an awesome story a couple weeks ago and I finally got a comic made to go with it! From Elayne: “one of the other managers was On Duty while I was at lunch. A customer walked into[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
