Tweet
Like most of the remaining used book stores we have just plain used books that are usually sold at half the current cover price and the collectable books that are in cases.
Again, like other business that have stuff in cases, we have to deal with lookie loos. We've learned to live with it, because every once in a while, the person we assumed was a lookie loo turns out to be a buyer.
Yet gain, like most similar business, we have to deal with people who treat our stock like they're in a library, they pull it off the shelf, plop down and start reading.
Today an older woman (although in the last few years some women I've though of as "older" have turned out to be several years younger than me) asked to see a book in one of the cases. What we usually do is:
1) Pull the book from the case.
2) Look at the price.
3) Tell them the price.
At this point people who were seriously interrested in buying but not at our price thank us and move on.
4) If they haven't balked at the price. we hand it to them.
At this point a real potential buyer will check several things, the condition, the table of contents, the back of the title page. They may look at some of the pictures. They know what they want and what to look for.
5) Wait while they examine it, at the case. I probably should have mentioned earlier that some of our cases are across the aisle from the till.
It takes a real buyer less than a minute to decide if the book meets their standards.
Not with the women mentioned earlier. She asked to see a hardcover (people who say "hard copy" when they mean hardcover need to be killed, we don't sell e-books.) of Heinlein short stories. I pull it, check the price, tell her and she asks to check it out. As soon as I hand it to her she dashes to a chair, plops down and starts reading the front flap.
I figure that maybe she has a bum hip and lit it slide.
Someone comes to the till to be rung up. I do so. Then a few others show up and I ring them up. When I'm done, she is still sitting and fucking READING the book. I'm starting to get irritated, but I decide to give her a few more minutes and step outside the front door for some vitamin N.
When I'm finished she is still reading so I tell her:
"We pull the books so you can examine them for purchase, not for you to read them."
She hands the book back to me and tells me that she was just checking it out.
When you stare at a page for a minute or two, stare at the next page for a minute or two, turn the page, stare at it for a minute or two, stare at the next page for a minute or two, turn the page...lather rinse repeat...you are reading the book, not examining it.
I tell her that she was not examining it but reading it as she starts to storm out saying...wait for it...:
"You just lost a sale."
I respond that you can only loose a sale when someone is a genuinely interested buyer. I think she only heard half of it. I didn't get the chance to accuse her of being the type of person who buys something for a event, uses it, and then returns it. I know she was the type to do that.
Bitch.
Again, like other business that have stuff in cases, we have to deal with lookie loos. We've learned to live with it, because every once in a while, the person we assumed was a lookie loo turns out to be a buyer.
Yet gain, like most similar business, we have to deal with people who treat our stock like they're in a library, they pull it off the shelf, plop down and start reading.
Today an older woman (although in the last few years some women I've though of as "older" have turned out to be several years younger than me) asked to see a book in one of the cases. What we usually do is:
1) Pull the book from the case.
2) Look at the price.
3) Tell them the price.
At this point people who were seriously interrested in buying but not at our price thank us and move on.
4) If they haven't balked at the price. we hand it to them.
At this point a real potential buyer will check several things, the condition, the table of contents, the back of the title page. They may look at some of the pictures. They know what they want and what to look for.
5) Wait while they examine it, at the case. I probably should have mentioned earlier that some of our cases are across the aisle from the till.
It takes a real buyer less than a minute to decide if the book meets their standards.
Not with the women mentioned earlier. She asked to see a hardcover (people who say "hard copy" when they mean hardcover need to be killed, we don't sell e-books.) of Heinlein short stories. I pull it, check the price, tell her and she asks to check it out. As soon as I hand it to her she dashes to a chair, plops down and starts reading the front flap.
I figure that maybe she has a bum hip and lit it slide.
Someone comes to the till to be rung up. I do so. Then a few others show up and I ring them up. When I'm done, she is still sitting and fucking READING the book. I'm starting to get irritated, but I decide to give her a few more minutes and step outside the front door for some vitamin N.
When I'm finished she is still reading so I tell her:
"We pull the books so you can examine them for purchase, not for you to read them."
She hands the book back to me and tells me that she was just checking it out.
When you stare at a page for a minute or two, stare at the next page for a minute or two, turn the page, stare at it for a minute or two, stare at the next page for a minute or two, turn the page...lather rinse repeat...you are reading the book, not examining it.
I tell her that she was not examining it but reading it as she starts to storm out saying...wait for it...:
"You just lost a sale."
I respond that you can only loose a sale when someone is a genuinely interested buyer. I think she only heard half of it. I didn't get the chance to accuse her of being the type of person who buys something for a event, uses it, and then returns it. I know she was the type to do that.
Bitch.
Comment