The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
how do you fuck this book up?? its maybe the most fruitful starting place for a book - People Who Have Annoyed Us In Retail. i mean, ive been in the book trade for about ten years, and i have waitressed and bartended and scooped ice cream and been exposed to so much in these jobs along the way. i could tell stories for days with all the material i have in me, and it would be way funnier and more interesting than these essays. and i dont think that is arrogant or bitchy, this time it is just a fact. i wish i had read the other reviews of this book before i picked it up, because im not alone in this. and its too bad - there are some good writers in this batch, but these stories just arent funny and the book is way too short to please me. next! Man, I had hoped for so much more from this book. I had really been banking on "crazy things that customers do" horror stories. Some of these stories were so lack-luster. Colson Whitehead's story "I Scream" discusses how he worked at an ice cream store for 3 summers, and that's why he doesn't like ice cream. Really. That's pretty much all there is to that story.Many of the essays in this book have the same kind of content as "I Scream".One of the highlights was "Free Spatulas" by Wendy Spero, which recounts her days as a door-to-door knife saleswoman. At one point, she slices her finger in the middle of a demonstration, bleeds all over the place, but manages to sell a boat-load of knives anyway.Spero's essay was hilarious and ridiculous, but stories like hers are few and far between in this collection.
What do You think about The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles (2008)?
Read James Wagner's essay on some enlightening and offbeat moments in selling plumbing supplies.
—anneteddy45
This book was such a delight to read and the author is so cute!
—Panda
A work of friggin' genius!**--Jeff Martin is a friend of mine.
—missnursecj
A fun little piece of brain candy- perfect vacation reading.
—Vidu
Collection of essays on retail. Some great, some so-so.
—annemarie300
