{"id":468,"date":"2008-06-02T19:11:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-02T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/02\/bookstore-no-swim\/"},"modified":"2008-06-02T19:11:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-02T19:11:00","slug":"bookstore-no-swim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/02\/bookstore-no-swim\/","title":{"rendered":"bookstore, no swim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I went to a bookstore this weekend in Wheeling, WV called Books-A-Million.  Based on the store name alone, I had high hopes.  Unfortunately, I had a bit of a headache when we got there.   I couldn&#8217;t find a Horror Fiction section, so I headed over to SciFi and began to peruse the selection.  I noticed two things right off:<\/p>\n<p>1. The staff was doing some kind of inventory with those bar-code scanner guns that required them scanning every single book one at a time.  The scanner gun beeped every time they did this.   I was instantly homicidal, but didn&#8217;t act on my impulse.<\/p>\n<p>2. They were completely missing several of my favorite and prolific authors.  Irksome.<\/p>\n<p>I tried another section, only to have another staffer begin beeping.  My headache getting worse, I finally gave up and headed for the checkout.   Before they clerk began checking out the items, she asked if I had a rewards card.  I told her no and she began to explain the stickers on the hardback books and how I could get a discount if I signed up.   I politely declined and she continued with her pitch.   I declined again, still politely, but with a slight increase in tone.<\/p>\n<p>Still, she continued with the great features of the reward card.   I interrupted her and told her I was not from the area and that I had never heard of this store before.  Undaunted, she asked where I was from and I finally trumped her by saying Akron, Ohio.    She tried to come back by staying that they were expanding up north, but really had nothing to go on &#8211; if I&#8217;m unlikely to come back, why would I &#8220;need&#8221; a rewards card?   I thought it was done, but just before giving me the total, she hauled out a sheet of  paper and suggested that I could sign up for a magazine subscription.  I declined again, polite in words, but not in look or tone.    Transaction complete, I headed for the door and freedom.<\/p>\n<p>As a coda to the story, my room-mate was behind me in line and tried to get her stopped by telling her he was from Akron as well, but she essentially ignored him in favor of her &#8220;speech&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Rude behavior in the name of customer service.    Annoying and disturbing.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve got a headache again this afternoon &#8211; though I think this is work related and comes from staring at a computer screen too long.   I also forgot my swim trunks today and so missed my swim.  <\/p>\n<p>Almost time to go home &#8211; later&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img width='1' height='1' src='https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7938355-3747006732211843943?l=approximatelyequalto.blogspot.com' alt='' \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I went to a bookstore this weekend in Wheeling, WV called Books-A-Million. Based on the store name alone, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I had a bit of a headache when we got there. I couldn&#8217;t find a Horror Fiction section, so I headed over to SciFi and began to peruse the selection. I noticed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}