I didn’t want to say a bad word so I put beep in the title. The beep stands for a person who starts with the letter b. Chrissy and I went to a small local bookstore downtown. I’m actually surprised to see independently owned bookstores these days. There are several small city sized bookstores such as Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Books-A-Million. There are also online book retailers like Amazon.com for the reclusive people who don’t like to leave their home. Chain businesses offer a large selection, competitive prices and longer operating hours. The locally owned business usually doesn’t have the financial resources to compete with the larger chains. This can make it difficult for small businesses to thrive. The economy is also horrible and several of the larger chains have had to close their doors. Like most people I love Barnes and Noble and I could spend hours and lots of money there if given the chance. However, I love to support local businesses. I try to give my money to local businesses every chance I get. I always chose the locally owned restaurants or business before going to a large chain. The money I spend there usually goes back to the community that I live in and helps the local economy. Usually the owners of local business give a caring service the bigger chain businesses do not give.

We were at the local bookstore and I picked up a book. When a person goes to a bookstore they normally look at the book and flip through the pages. This gives an idea of what the book is about to see if it is worth the money before deciding to make a purchase. I am looking through a book that I am interested in when I am approached by a person who works at the bookstore. She may have even been the owner. She says “that is a good book”. So we began a dialogue about the book. I am not sure what I said, but she began asking me questions. She asked “is the book in your price range?” I don’t remember how I answered. I basically don’t think I said much. I just wanted to look through the book and be left alone. I didn’t realize at the time that her questions were loaded ones and she was trying to make a point. After her line of questions she proceeds to tell me that a description of the book is on the front flap. I thought to myself “really because I have never picked up or read a book in my life.” I had no idea a book was designed this way! She then says something like “when you look through the book it makes it look used.” She was basically telling me not to look through the book. I was in utter shock. Barnes and Noble encourage customers to look through the books. Why else would they have chairs for people to sit down?

Right after she said this a few more people entered the bookstore. This lady picks up a book and starts looking through it. The bookstore worker starts the same line of questions. She then proceeded to say the same thing to her “when you look through the book it makes it look used.” People look through the books at Barnes and Noble all the time and those books don’t look used. It was not like I had a highlighter ready to underline sentences while I put dog ears on the pages. We were definitely not going to buy a book now and so we left. Why would I buy a book that I cannot look through first? If I didn’t want to leave the house and look through a book I would have just gone to Amazon.com. She should put the books in Ziploc baggies with a statement saying “do not open!” The bookstore beep should read one of the books she sells regarding business and how to treat a customer. How does she expect to sell any books when she scares potential buyers away?

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 1:30 am and is filed under books, bookstore, reading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.