After taking Graham my copy of The Good Lord Bird for him to read for a history class, I took a walk across campus. 90% of the time when I do this I head straight for what used to be the main commercial block of Franklin Street, which when we were growing up was the center of the universe but has since fallen on hard times. It really has never been the same since the Pump House and Barrel of Fun left. Those were the days.
But I digress. So there on the block, I went into Prologue Books to see if they had anything to sell me, really in the spirit of sharing a little revenue with a business and particularly a used book store. I consulted with my Amazon list, where Jeff Bezos is kind enough to keep track of the books I will buy from someone other than him whenever possible. Sure enough, I found something, a Phillip Kerr novel. On the inside cover was pencilled a price of $2.50, a good buy.
At the register, however, this kid wearing short shorts and a mask rings me up for $7.52 and I was momentarily confused. The $2.50 was from some other used book store early in the book's history. There was also a $4.95 sticker on it, but the correct price was $7, which Prologue had put on a sticker. I said, "that's OK, my goal was to give you some revenue." And the kid says "What the businesses on this street need is lower rent."
Let's review what good customer service might have looked like. He might have said: "I can see how that would have been confusing. We could do a better job erasing pricing from old used-book stores." He could have focused on how they could serve customers better. He could have thanked me for a kind sentiment. Instead, he blamed the outside world. I think Epilogue/Prologue is doing OK. I want them to do well. But that's the second time I've had to deal with an asinine kid working the cash register. They need to watch out.
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