(Part 4) Top products from r/TalesFromRetail

I took my 90 year old grandmother out shopping last weekend, and she mentioned that there was a book she wanted to pick up, but she couldn't remember the name of the book or the author. She did, however, remember several details about the book:

• it was the author's second book
  
• it was related to cooking somehow
  
• it involved a Mennonite-style religious group
  
  So, we asked the clerk at the lovely little independent bookstore if she knew any books like that, and after some thought, she produced a copy of Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen. Perfect! But... my grandmother looked at it, then shook her head and said no, that wasn't it. She then asked if I would drive her around to a couple of other bookstores to look for it, but I ruthlessly suppressed my beta instincts and said "Grandma, if you ask one of your friends to find out the name of the author or the title of the book, I'll be happy to go pick it up with you, but I don't think it would do any good to just wander around looking for it if you don't actually know what you're looking for."
  
  I stopped in to visit my grandmother again on Tuesday, and she proudly pointed to a new book on her coffee table. "That's the book I was telling you about," she exclaimed, "the one you couldn't find!"
  
  What the hell, Grandma.

Hah! This happened to me too! I had just been paid $10 for babysitting a kid down the street. I wanted to spend it on a Sailor Moon VHS, but my Dad kept trying to get me to save it for some reason. He got mad and yelled at me that I wouldn't even like Sailor Moon in 10 years. That was 20 years ago, just this weekend I put up a shelf to display the Moon Chalice and the Spiral Heart Moon Rod. I would say I still really love Sailor Moon!

When the Borders near me was going out of business, in the first round of store closings before the entire company went bankrupt, they had some (apparently) deep discounts. 30% off the list price on some books I was looking for! That's pretty good.

I guess I'll just check Amazon to see what they have it for... oh, 31% off the list price. And that was the normal price, not some crazy special going out of business stuff.

And at this point I don't even buy physical books any more, unless I have a really good reason to (like say delicious illustrations or it's a reference book of some sort). There's no point when the ebook reader experience is basically as good, and I can fit a thousand books in something that's only a bit bigger than my phone - and I don't buy my ebooks from a physical store.

Yeah they can. This book is ages 6 and up. Its legal in all 50 states to breastfeed in public its just unusual. I don't see how its different to explain to a child that "That lady is feeding her baby, yes she has milk in her boobies" than "That lady has (insert physical/mental handicap here) but she's just like you and I.

Yup. Here are 'zon links for the books (you'll have to google for images of the free ones, both of which, IIRC, take place after the books below):

v1 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595829148/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

v2 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595827390/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

v3 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595825614/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

v4 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616554894/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Don't give up hope! Have you ever tried books geared toward improving handwriting?

I'm a little late to the party, but... milk is a deadly poison.

She was looking for this, this, or possibly this.

I had to go look up the title, it's called "Ghetto Cowboy".

When I had my first bookstore job, I had a lot of requests for "you know, that red book." Fortunately, this book had just come out and was the correct answer 90% of the time.

https://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038

Ahem: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1401308902?pc_redir=1398692196&robot_redir=1

Years of roll searching, and the Whitman's Red Book

I bet it's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Whose-Boat-This-Aftermath-Hurricane/dp/1982121084/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_twi_har_2?

:P

Back when I worked at a book store (former chain that no longer exists) there was the one guy who managed to take all 4 of our DSM-IV hardcovers and 2 paperbacks (about $600 and 30lbs worth of books), put them under his jacket and use the "I'm a fucking psycho" face to walk out of the store.

We could seem him go across the street to the used bookstore to try and sell them for drug and alcohol money, and then we saw him storm out of that store when the owner refused to buy them from him.

edit: DSM-IVs are now kept behind the counter at every bookstore in the area that I've been to, I've seen his picture from our security cams next to a few of them.

Sometimes it is the people who work at bookstores who are the problem. One time I called a bookstore to ask if they had "The Biggest Tongue In Tunisia" and they hung up on me ¯_(ツ)_/¯