More Pix For A Laugh

[GDS_Starfury]

working in a bookstore had to keep you safe from gangs though.  ;)
books are like kryptonite to them.

[BanzaiCat]

Yeah, never had any trouble like that. The only thing I remember is the occasional kid trying to shoplift a book, or the underage guy trying to buy a copy of Playgirl and having a hissy fit when I asked him for his ID. Also was just a few doors down from the toy store where I bought all my Milton Bradley big games - A&A, Broadsides & Boarding Parties, Shogun (Shogun at the time, anyway)...good times except for the looking over your shoulder at night part.

I didn't mind Waldenbooks so much because it was relatively small. Book Stop, on the other hand, sucked. The manager was a militant lesbian, the assistant manager was a flower-power hippy that would have made Berkeley embarrassed...it was quite the colorful cast of characters there.

[GDS_Starfury]

Kay-b-Toys was my other mall retail job in high school.
between the two I was well supplied.   ;)

besides, its not like anyone else was buying those AH games.  ;D

[BanzaiCat]

Back in the good old days...yep. I think that's where I bought Third Reich, actually...and yeah, it was a Kay-Bee now that I'm thinking about it. Shame they went out of business.

[GDS_Starfury]

I didnt say I bought them, I just said no one else was.   :-X

[JasonPratt]

Yeah, never had any trouble like that. The only thing I remember is the occasional kid trying to shoplift a book, or the underage guy trying to buy a copy of Playgirl and having a hissy fit when I asked him for his ID.

:o

I guess he could have had it worse...

"SO, YOUNG MAN! YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY OF THIS PLAYGIRL MAGAZINE, DO YOU?!"

[Staggerwing]

LOL. Gotta wonder how many women actually bought Playgirl as I don't think they were the actual demographic.

[BanzaiCat]

I remember he came in every month to get a copy of it. I never checked him out, though, but the one time I did I decided to do it the right way by asking for ID and everything...and oh boy did he get pissed. Nobody ever asked for ID even though you were supposed to, and that's probably why he kept buying it from us.

Now I remember a call I got at Waldenbooks one day when someone tore into me telling me we sold pornographic material (Playboy and Playgirl are porn? Ooookay...potato, potatoe) and was giving me the righteous wrath of God for loose morals and all kinds of crap. When they paused for breath I simply said "fuck you" and hung up. At the time, hindsight told me that wasn't a very smart thing to do, but oh man did it feel good. Never heard from them again though, nor anything about it. Sometimes showing up to work in retail provides entertainment. ;D

Also, the romance novel buyers...hoo-boy. The Harlequin crapola would come out once a month or so, and we'd have about half a dozen or so regular bessies that would moo their way into the store and buy a lot of them. One in particular would buy EVERY copy that was new, and sometimes this was upwards of 30-40 titles. I remember checking her out once and her husband was with her. WTF, sir?

I have memories of hating the discount card we had to sell, just because management was all in a huff about getting them sold and would have competitions among us register rowers each month. I usually only mentioned it if they bought enough so that it would pay for itself...I think it was ten bucks for the card and gave 15% off at Waldenbooks.

If you're into abandoned places like I am, this is a great site: http://www.deadmalls.com/

I bring it up because I recently found my Waldenbooks store in a pictorial on a similar site: http://modsnap.com/deadmalls/

The Waldenbooks signage is vintage and it was kind of cool, actually, to see the old digs again, and the counter I used to work behind. Depressing to see it empty, but still.

http://modsnap.com/deadmalls/2.jpg

http://modsnap.com/deadmalls/4.jpg

No idea who the chick is, but I guess she and the video camera guy got in as Windsor was on its last legs just before shutting down for good.

[BanzaiCat]

I didnt say I bought them, I just said no one else was.   :-X

Ah-ha...the old "employee discount" that didn't involve actual register interaction?   :P

More likely the pick of the litter? I envy you in that. Although at Waldenbooks we'd get advance copies of books, so that was occasionally cool when a military fiction book would come through.

[GDS_Starfury]

I will admit that what I wanted at the time never made it to the shelves.
it that regard Im of much firmer moral fiber now.

in that regard.  ;)

[BanzaiCat]

I tried to work for a Toys-R-Us shortly after I left the "normal" world of work to go back to school in the mid-90s; it was a night stocking job. I quit after three days. So I guess I have worked in a toy store, but there was never anything that cool that I could have "set aside" for myself. Hell I wasn't there long enough to even learn most of the store, it was so freakin' big.

I remembered TRU having plenty of wargames (I bought my first wargame for me, Luftwaffe, from a TRU when I was in seventh grade or so).

[MetalDog]

For our NorthEastern friends, my very first job was at a Child World.  My step mom worked there and got me in.  It was a toy store chain, although, they sold bikes and baby furniture, too.

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