Random bookshop adventures

So, here it is Thursday, but it's also my Sunday. I love my work schedule, but I have yet to remember to spread out my to-do list to cover both my day's off. On the second day I'm usually left with nothing to do but sit on my butt or run sprints down my block. Or drive out to my mom's house and take over her computer and/or TV. Anyway, this morning while in a brief coma on my couch I came up with the brilliant notion of writing a blog with a mini antidote of just some of the craziness that is my job.

I love the bookshop I work in, mostly because we sell both new and used books, and when people bring in used books, the workers get first dibs. My book collection has increased at least twice since I've started working there. My patience has also increased, since I can't exactly predict when a book I want is going to come in. I've also gotten some really good reads that I've never even known existed. That's how I got hooked on the Morganville Vampire series, which I'm sorry to say is better than the Twilight books. I loved those too, don't send hate mail!

Anyway, on an average day, we can expect to receive 200 or more used books, and we usually sell that many, sometimes more or less. And occasionally our customers don't really pay attention when they pack up their books to bring in, much to my amusement. This has led to quite a few surprises in their book bags. I've found, among other things, dead bugs, photographs, money(which i returned to the owner), used plane tickets, once I even found a tiny black lace thong. That one was kind of disgusting since the person who brought in that bag was an old lady. But one customer has topped them all.

It was a boring Saturday, when two guys came in the front door. The older one said his wife had sent him to turn in a bunch of boxes of books. Since this was pretty much normal, I said Sure! bring in the boxes and we'll count them up. We give 1/4 of the book price in credit for used books people bring in. That credit is only good for any of our other used books, like a trade. Just had to include that in case you were wondering. Back to the story: So after getting the okay from my coworker and I, these two guys proceed to bring in boxes, all labeled "books" on the outside. They end up bringing in about twenty boxes, and while this in itself isn't unusual, the fact that they were all liquor boxes made us giggle. And these were not little boxes either. Hee hee

After they brought in all the boxes we told them it will take several days to count up all the books and did they want us to call them when we were done so they knew what their credit was. The older guy said the following:(this is not verbatim, this is just what i recall) "Sure give us a call. Oh, and by the way, if you find anything valuable in any of those boxes just set them aside and we'll come back and pick them up." And with that, they left. My coworker, "Jenny" and I each pick a box and open them to start counting. I heard a gasp of surprise from Jenny, but I was too busy being freaked out myself to look over at her. Inside both our boxes, was socks, knick knacks, sheets, and a few books. We started ripping open all the other boxes to only find the same things! There was maybe five or six paperbacks in each box, but the bulk was filled with the everyday things of someone's house!

We went through about six of these boxes, taking the miscellaneous stuff and putting it inside trash bags, and counting up the few books we found inside. After doing this, we looked at each other and I said, "You know, I really don't want to run the risk of contracting some disease or finding underwear." Jenny agreed and we stacked the remaining boxes and trash bags of stuff in the back. When we came in on Monday, we explained the situation to our boss, "Emily". She called the people who brought in the boxes and told the woman who answered that they needed to come get their boxes back, go through them and pull out the books, then bring back just the books. Turns out the woman had no idea her husband and son had brought the boxes in, she had told them to go through them first and bring us only the books. We could hear her screaming at them while she was still on the phone with my boss!

They came and got the boxes, I unfortunately wasn't there to see it, but Emily told me the woman was pissed beyond all reasoning at the guys. I guess they were getting ready to move, but the guys weren't really into helping with the sorting stuff out and packing it all up. They thought that since all the boxes were labeled "books", that's all that was in there, not stopping to actually look inside any of them. Oh, and in case you were curious, the reason they were all liquor boxes was because they got them from a bar to save money instead of buying new boxes. It probably won't be the last time something like this happens, but it'll probably end up being one of the weirdest.