tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384027358660553150.post2065183468431037873..comments2024-03-25T17:15:43.606-04:00Comments on Wild, Wicked & Wacky: The Comic Book Store ConundrumSuzan Hardenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04600258874634909988noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384027358660553150.post-20659545023685008782017-11-21T16:31:04.170-05:002017-11-21T16:31:04.170-05:00I've never understood that mentality either, A...I've never understood that mentality either, Angie, and I worked in a freaking bookstore. I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes too, but there's no way one person can know everything. If a customer had a question in an area outside of my knowledge, I'd grab a co-worker who did know, but I'd never sneer at someone else's tastes. I've had it done to me too many times.<br /><br />However, I am glad you were treated with respect in comic shops.Suzan Hardenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600258874634909988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384027358660553150.post-83094776242225199772017-11-21T16:02:50.524-05:002017-11-21T16:02:50.524-05:00I never had that problem at comic shops, whether b...I never had that problem at comic shops, whether back in the 80s or later. Maybe the Bay Area was different, or maybe I was just lucky in the shops I went into.<br /><br />I did have that experience in a bookstore, though. A new, large, independent bookstore opened up near where I worked, and I stopped in one evening. My reading interests have always been eclectic, so I was there for over an hour, slowly examining almost all the shelves, picking books here and there. They had a lot of cool stuff, but their romance section was skimpy -- only one shelf section, and most of what was on there was Harlequins, which I had no interest in.<br /><br />I finally went to the register with a stack of ten or twelve books, totalling around a hundred dollars. The young man at the register asked me if I'd found everything I wanted.<br /><br />I said the store was great except for the romance section.<br /><br />He sneered and said, "Oh, you mean because it exists at all?"<br /><br />I said, "No, that's not what I meant," and said nothing more while he finished the transaction. I paid, took my books and left. And I never went back.<br /><br />This was before Amazon, before you could be pretty sure of easily finding whatever in-print book you wanted. A really good bookstore was a gem, but no matter how good their selection in other areas I was interested in, I really didn't need to subject myself to a store where a clerk would sneer at me while I made what was quite likely his largest sale of the day. If he couldn't be polite for a very good customer, what must he have been like to a woman who went up to the register with nothing but a couple of Harlequins?<br /><br />Yeah, no, I don't need to reward the assholes.<br /><br />That store went out of business about a decade later. No loss to the universe.<br /><br />AngieAngiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920578701763415331noreply@blogger.com