I’ve worked in a bookstore for seven months now. I haven’t really been asked for anything crazy. Until Saturday. On the scale of crazy, this is only like a 2 or 3, but I was surprised when I was asked for it.
I mentioned in my last post that last week was coupon week at HPB. I’ve explained it before but here it is again. For the seven days of the week there will be a coupon for each day. Monday and Tuesday will have 20% off one item. Wednesday and Thursday will have 30% off one item. Friday and Saturday will have 40% off one item. And Sunday will be 50% off one item.
So on Saturday a customer asks me if we have any Street Fighter chess sets. I may have wrinkled my forehead. I told him no. He then asked if I could check the inventories of other stores. I honestly thought it was pointless. I’ve never heard of or seen a Street Fighter chess set, and I ran the games section for six months.
But of course there was one available to be shipped to him. It cost $100. He told me he’d be back in on Sunday to make the order and save an additional $10. I didn’t see him. I also don’t know if he bought it or not.
But in my time at HPB I’ve seen a few things that made me scratch my head. I’ve seen an auto tool kit thing. I’ve seen a mini tool kit of screws and bolts. And I’ve seen a unicorn Bluetooth speaker.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve come across in a bookstore?
Johnny Reads 
I frequent HPB on a regular basis, and can’t say I’ve seen anything that strange. But then again, I live in a boring area of the US. Too bad. A Street Fighter chess set might be cool…not $100 cool, but still cool.
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Haha I checked Amazon. $120 for the set. So if he bought it for 50% off yesterday for $50, then it may been a nice little bargain.
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Oh, I’d love to regale you with the story of when I found a prosthetic limb in the Horror section or the portal to another world in Fantasy or Matt Damon in a spacesuit in Sci-fi. Truth is, I haven’t found anything much weirder than board games, calendars, greetings cards, cardboard robot kits and a cafe which was more like a creche.
The very weirdest thing I’ve found in a bookshop? Other patrons probably 🙂
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Hahaha you’re right!
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At any given time i might be the strangest thing in a bookstore.
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Oh boy.
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The bookstore I worked in had a magazine section. This isn’t strange in the meaning of your question, but I thought it almost defied belief that any time I glanced in that direction, the amount of ad cards that had fluttered to the floor was huge. I wanted to scream at the customers “PICK UP YOUR DROPPED CARDS.” And I wanted to scream at the magazine companies “NO ONE READ THESE SUBSCRIPTION CARDS.” So perhaps I was the strangest thing found in our bookstore.
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Hahaha I’ve only seen a few. And they actually aren’t even near the magazines.
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So maybe it was me….
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Haha maybe!
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