The Book Store

In this town there are no book stores outside of downtown. It's strange b/c downtown there are a ton of bookstores. Last week I needed to go to a book store and wandered around town until I made it down town at 4. Apparently all the book stores close at 4pm so we basically got to the front door of about 3 different stores just in time for it to be closed.

This week we left a little bit earlier and went to this huge book store...5 stories!!! Although, imagine Barnes & Noble without the chairs or carpet, without air conditioning or coffee but probably about the same amount of books which is a wonder in itself...this place was huge! We wandered around for an hour and I accumulated a huge load of children's books. Then the lady came and said that it was time to leave...except that it was exactly 4pm, the time they close. I'm not sure that the lights were even on when we got there but they were off at 4. Then we began the checkout process.

First off I'll say that I was very impressed that they even had computers. So on the fifth floor with the lights off the ladies entered my books into the computer, only there were no identifying numbers or bar codes and no prices. They actually typed in the title of each separate book and then in the end printed out a huge long receipt and handed me this arm load of books, then left. I was a little confused when they just got up and left and I was standing there with all those books in the dark but my local friend was like 'I guess we pay downstairs'.

So we walked down 4 flights of stairs in the dark and all the floors on the way down were locked up tight so we didn't see even one person. When we got downstairs where everyone was leaving. We went to the first desk to pay but all their computers were off. After about 5 minutes of heated discussion they decided to just make a note that we paid, hide the money in a drawer and stamp our receipts that we paid.

Then we walked to a desk 5 feet away where they had been standing there, watching the whole money ordeal, and they actually went through our books one by one and checked them off of our receipt. We were the very very last people in the store and these 2 people were taking forever....forever to count our books. I mean, we did have a lot but they were the slowest people I've ever met. And everyone else was just standing around, waiting for us to leave so they could leave. Finally the manager came over and was like 'it's fine, they bought them, let's go.'

I'm sure they have their reasons for doing things the way they do. I just think that there's got to be a better way to purchase books than going to the 3 different desks...especially when the lights are out and the computers are off...Y'all enjoy your Barnes & Noble!!!