Sunday Insanity

'tis the season...for frantic and impatient customers all approaching the register en masse after browsing the store for half an hour...why they all swarm like this, I'll never know. Some sort of weird group mentality...they see one person checking out and suddenly they remember the hundred other Very Important things they must do with their Very Important lives that day....

Anyway. So yesterday, I get a frantic phone call from my harried coworker who sounds nearly in tears as she tells me the gift cards are malfunctioning and the crowds are overwhelming. After walking her through fixing the gift cards, I headed into work early to help her. I send her to get coffee and take a breather, because at the moment it was semi-calm. As usual, not a good idea. I got mobbed, of course. I have a line of about five people, and of course the first three want a stack of books wrapped. The first two agree to wait patiently, but the third just wants a calendar wrapped, and was too absorbed in her own head to notice that she had two people ahead of her in the wrapping line. I tell her this, but she proceeds to hold up her sale describing in great detail exactly what she wants done with her calendar, which is to wrap it in paper, then another layer of inside out paper so she can write on it and mail it...all this while still holding her credit card, so I can't finish the sale and get anything else done. Helpful.

So eventually, I get her rung through and shuffled aside, and am still in the middle of ringing people out. She asks me repeatedly to wrap her effing calendar, and I explain that my coworker will be right back, and that will speed things up. Poor L. walks back in the store and is immediately attacked by this woman, who makes L. listen to her ENTIRE speech about the particulars of calendar wrapping and then makes her wrap the calendar before the other two people in line. L didn't even have time to take off her coat! Ugh.

Luckily the other two people were ok with waiting, and didn't seem to notice in the chaos that this lady jumped them in line.

Also, I enjoy the fact that not one copy of Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes had sold or even been talked about until I moved it to the "New Arrivals" table, and then I promptly sold one. Win. :)

A book called Too Much Money just came in. The people in this town should relate to that.

Bring on the cookies.