wierdest bookbuying/bookselling experience?

Question

been thinking of my days at Waterstone's book shops which are soon coming to an end as my branch is being shut down.
What do you think of booksellers, ever had weird ones. or weird customers who ask for weird things from you as a seller.
What is it about books that makes th whole industry so peculiar?

Answer 1

Hello there. We bought an almost complete set of Georgette Heyer in brilliant condition for a great price. When we started reading them a few weeks later, we found that somebody had gone through them all and tippexed out every single word they disagreed with - every "Damn", "hell" and "Gods teeth" for instance. They had then overwritten in ballpoint with substututes like "I say" and "oh no". The entire set...
Cheers, Steve.

Answer 2

I worked in a BW! store until a few months ago...our weirdest customer was this horrible old guy who always had some comment of a sexual nature to make to any of us at all, guy, girl, didn't matter to him!
There was also a guy who would spend HOURS in the shop just browsing and using one of those wee hand held digital notebook thingys. He would look for ages and then buy several copies each of the weirdest (and usually cheapest) stuff, like "Trams of Glasgow" and "The complete Encyclopedia of Tractors" We were convinced he was flogging it all on ebay.
The most infuriating, however, was the HUNDREDS of older folk coming in to buy calanders and then DEMANDING to know why we didn't stock envelopes for them. Most of them were "being sent to Canada you know, so I NEED an envelope!" No matter how many times you tell them, they can't seem to understand that it's not actually your fault that the shop doesn't stock them!
Working in a book shop is great though, you have such a good laugh about all these things with your colleagues!

Answer 3

Most of the customer's asked for romance. I couldn't keep Nora Roberts in stock. The old ladies were about the crankiest of the bunch, when they couldn't get their bodice-ripper Harlequin fix, and you couldn't make them understand that it wasn't YOUR fault, but the idiots at the warehouse who, whoops! just happened to forget a 48-count box of the next Danielle Steele sensation. Those old ladies could be a holy terror!
That said, I think the most irritating thing was the customer's who came in every morning to read the newspaper(s) and not buy them. The worst offender was a middle-aged man who was quite wealthy and so damn cheap. He wore leather jackets and gold jewelry and drove a friggin' Hummer, but wouldn't ever, ever, ever buy a $2 newspaper. I felt like screaming at him that if he wanted a free paper, the library had daily copies for him to peruse. He always stood right in front of the newspaper rack, blocking other customers and then leaving the copy of the paper he was reading unfolded and tossed haphazardly back on the shelf. Grrrrrrr!!!! So many memories. God, I miss that job.

Answer 4

I had one at a Fully Booked bookstore. The cashier seemed so stressed about something. I was buying around 5 books about cooking. When I handed her the books and was getting my wallet, she just took the books and replaced them on where I took them >_<

I called on her and she realized her mistake, only now she put the books on a plastic bag and gave them to me and asked for the next customer. I told her, "Miss, I haven't paid yet.". She just said, "It's alright, just go.".

I was about to do just that but then I realized that the alarms would go off if I went past those security gates. So I took some money from my wallet and shoved it in her hand and commanded her to scan my books.

Answer 5

I always loved shopping at Half Price Books when I was in America because the employees were all punk/gothed out, but they were all incredibly hyperintelligent book lovers. When I was selling books I always had some great conversations about the books with the guys at the counter.

Answer 6

***edit***
I worked in a bookshop for two years (at a University). I don't much hold with 'weird (irritating) customer stories', Not having a shot at you, but perhaps at some of your respondents. If a person remembers the irritating customers too clearly then I'd suggest that they have a 'memory' for bad experiences and need to lighten up. If folk 'get off' on reading other peoples bad experiences then they definitely need professional help. I prefer to remember good weird - or at least curious - bookshop experiences. Having worked in several other 'service industries' I'd have to note that you get as many odd stories in wood cutting, truck maintenance, computer support and boat hiring. Same holds true for all of them, folk who dwell on the irritating customers shouldn't be in those businesses in the first place. Folk who enjoy their work celebrate their customers, including their 'oddities'.

***edit***

Three things stick in my mind;

Firstly, buying R H Blyth's 6 volumes of Haiku (Kinokuniya) from the Whole Earth Catalogue back in the 70's, which entailed making a long distance phone call from Darwin (Australia) to San Francisco. It took as long to set up the call as to do the deal, operators talking to each other and weird whistling clicking noises. And then the 5 second delay between talking and the person at the other end hearing you - this in the days of phone calls travelling via undersea cables rather than satellites. When I finally got through to their order desk I spoke with a lass who captured my heart with her breezy California sunshinyness.

Second time; having travelled up to Belfast from Dublin 'to have a look around', and - this after the IRA cease fire - not expecting any 'trouble', Popped into a big bookstore there to buy a map, and note that their (huge) map section is hopelessly out of order. Spend an hour putting them back into the right order. When I got back to Dublin that night, heard that a break-away IRA group had left a bomb in the same bookstore that day. Since at the time I had a beard down to my waist I had a strong suspicion that folks in the bookstore had probably pinpointed me as the 'dodgy character' who planted the bomb. No more trips north of the border for me...

Third time; went into a second hand bookstore looking for a copy of Lopsang Rampa's 'Third Eye', to give to a girl who'd lost her copy years before. The fellow running the place knew every one of the (tens of) thousands of books in his shop (piles on the floor up to the ceiling). Told me that he'd had that book in his shop for years, and sold the only copy to another fella only that morning. Ended up buying a copy over the internet. But the bookstore owner and I had a long talk, about co-incidences, and his concerns about going blind. That puts everything else into perspective...

Answer 7

A friend of mine had a woman come up to him on the shop floor with a french dictionary and say
"Have you got one of these I can buy?"
Him: "Is there a problem with that copy?"
Her: "No. But I want one that I can buy."
Him (extremely puzzled now) "I'm sorry I don't understand. You want a copy of that particular book? To buy? But not that one?"
Her: (sighing in exaggerated fashion and pointing to sign) "Yes ! this one is from the reference section!"

Don't know why but I worked in a bookshop for years and they are definitely loony magnets.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

I worked in a bookstore for 5 years and they seemed to attract strange people. I had a flasher, an old lady who demanded to use our bathroom (we had the safe in there so it wasn't open to the public) and told me if I didn't, she was going to pee all over my floor. I told her if she did, I would get a newspaper and rub her nose in it so she left. I also had a quiet man come up to me and tell me that he wasn't a "Vampire" out of the blue. I'm sorry to say that teachers were the worst customers. They always were demanding discounts for books that weren't considered educational. One of them was a kindergarten teacher and was demaning her discount on "The Joys of Sex." They were very rude and were always acting very superior, like they were to be treated like royalty. I'm glad I left.

Answer 10

Overheard in a bookshop, the following truly strange conversation:
Customer: Are you really that short?
Book seller: Yes, I am.