Filed under: thoughtful | Tags: booksellers, bookstores, christmas, elections, holidays, politics, retails, shopping
It is November already, can you believe it? and it has been many weeks since* I’ve said anything about working conditions at the bookstore. To say the least, the holiday season is upon us and I am not at all looking forward to months and months of Christmas music being piped in that I can’t ignore despite my best efforts.
The holiday season is not a period of jovial festivities in the retail world, but rather more reminiscent of war times where we’re all encouraged to bunker down, ration our resources, and heaven-help-us-all please wash your hands or we’ll all have strep throat by the end of the week! It doesn’t help that I’m not too keen on the holiday season to start with, and that yearly a handful of bad nuts wreck any optimism or hope I have for humankind.
On the good side, within two days the agonizingly painful maintenance count of the Obama versus McCain books will cease.
*Thanks Carson!
6 Comments
Adventures in Reading 
Yeah, I know! I worked at Red Robin for 3 years, and Christmas was always the worst. People were cranky and rushed and took out on you what they couldn’t take out on their in-laws, and then stiff you on the tip and say sorry, it’s Christmas and I’m broke. You know what? No. If you have money to eat out, then you are not broke. You know who IS broke? College students who work crappy serving jobs to pay the bills and then get stiffed on the tip, THAT’s who’s broke.
Comment by raych November 2, 2008 @ 5:00 pmMy partner just started a retail job today at Circuit City. I’m looking forward to horror stories!
Comment by Claire C. Cake November 2, 2008 @ 6:57 pmWar time, huh? I try to avoid the mall at all costs during this time of year. I’m not a big shopper anyway–but those crowds are enough to drive me batty!! I do love my Christmas music, though. I have several CDs on my ipod and sometimes one will sneak into the mix and I have a hard time turning the song to something else. :P
Comment by Trish November 2, 2008 @ 7:15 pmI once worked at Wal-Mart as a Customer Service Manager in December.
I am not really cut out for retail, I’m not.
Comment by Christine November 2, 2008 @ 11:17 pmI don’t do Christmas so I’m spared from the madness. Usually I visit my family in Hong Kong but this year I’ll be here for Christmas, first time in I can’t remember how many years! Am I supposed to assimilate? Will see.
Yes…thank god the election will be over in less than two years and I’ll never hear of it for another 4 years.
Comment by Matthew November 3, 2008 @ 1:37 amraych: Service, too, is another terrible industry to participate in around the holidays. (I remember the Olive Garden! Oi! The only thing worse was perhaps Mother’s Day.)
Claire C. Cake: I wish him the best of luck! It really is pretty terrifying, though I can only imagine what electronics must be like around the holidays. (I’m imagining a bunch of know-nothings my grandmother’s age needing help.)
Trish: I debated using the “war time” metaphor, but I hated the holidays so much last year I couldn’t avoid it. The only Christmas music I can handle is the soundtrack to White Christmas, which isn’t all that Christmassy (is this a word?) excepting the title song…
Christine: You win hands down! Christmas at Wal-Mart!? Geeze – I thought I had it bad!
Matthew: While I don’t personally get involved with Christmas, I’m unfortunately employed in a company that is very involved on the Christmas side and I often find it unavoidable; but I admit the handful of things I do enjoy from the holidays (like eggnog) are largely ruined from insane customers.
Some of the hokey parts of Christmas aren’t too bad, and it might be an interesting experience to assimilate for at least one Christmas.
We’re at countdown time for the elections now and I’ve already seen multiple people cry because of… certain verbal exchanges. Let’s hope it quiets down over the next few days.
Comment by bookchronicle November 4, 2008 @ 4:26 pm