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JoelFan
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13 Aug 2015, 11:56 am

Well guys today marks the first day of my new job at a college bookstore and from what I have seen it looks like I'll be dealing with a lots of people (I hate crowds but need the cash) So wish me luck.


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kraftiekortie
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13 Aug 2015, 1:41 pm

You will be dealing with lots of people in the two weeks before school starts, and the one or two weeks after school starts.

Afterwards, you'll be dealing with less people--until early December.



Rudin
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13 Aug 2015, 8:22 pm

JoelFan wrote:
Well guys today marks the first day of my new job at a college bookstore and from what I have seen it looks like I'll be dealing with a lots of people (I hate crowds but need the cash) So wish me luck.


I like college bookstores, I tend to go in the summer when they are not busy.

I notice, for mathematics textbooks at least, college bookstores tend to sell a large amount of the same two brands of textbooks, Springer and Dover. Dover is really cheap which is probably why they get them, Springer is okay I suppose. I'm not saying Dover is bad, but it's not as high quality as some of the other books.

You could pick up 4 low quality real analysis textbooks for $60 or you could get something like Principles of Mathematical Analysis by the late Walter Rudin, or Real and Complex Analysis. I would choose the latter.

From what I've seen, college bookstores are quiet, like a library. The most people I've seen there is more or less 15 people so it shouldn't be too bad, and this was in a big city.

Your job also doesn't require too much interaction, unless you're a cashier, you just arrange books and tell people where to look. It sounds like a job I'd like to have.


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Xenization
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13 Aug 2015, 8:39 pm

Is it a famous college/a tourist attraction? A college bookstore actually seems like a job that involves minimal crowd interaction...


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JoelFan
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14 Aug 2015, 4:00 am

Xenization,
Nope just a local tech college slight learning curve as to where the books are located and explaining to the student what the difference between book A and book B is what is recommended and what is required.

Rudin,
Normally the bookstore doesn't have a lot of foot traffic however the college is starting a new semester and on top of that we're also dealing financial aid so that brings in more and more people.... and of course I get the typical arrogant type "well, if you can't help me find the right book then why are you asking to help?!" I felt like saying: hey listen, I really don't want to help you in fact I just want to say fu©k you smile and walk away but you see I need this little thing called money so I have to deal with a$$holes like you while being forced to smile and make pretend I give a sh!t about your woes. but I just sand there and look for somebody else to help. Tho honestly it wasn't all that bad in therms of crowd size tho this morning I'm going in at 7:45am and leaving at 3:30pm so we'll see how that goes tho thankfully the store closes early today and Saturday.

kraftiekortie, Yea I've been briefed on that for the short term I'm kinda shadowing somebody whom knows what they are doing and learning by listening to the verbiage they are using and being more hands on rather then tackling stuff on my own. after the rush I'm not sure if I'm staying or leaving as this is a temp job. (hopefully I'll be staying)


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SocOfAutism
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14 Aug 2015, 9:18 am

If any funny anecdotes happen I think we would all like to hear them.



JoelFan
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14 Aug 2015, 9:19 pm

Well today I got moved to another section of the bookstore mainly to provide textbooks to those whom are taken English or math classes in where the books are a part of the tuition which is cool because it cuts down on having to remember the whole sales pitch and I am focused on one thing.... and I don't have to kiss ass either! Also, today our POS terminals have locked up 3times thus causing long long lines I asked around as to what OS they are using I was expecting to hear ME or vista due to the amounts of crashing lol only to be told it's phucking XP I don't think anybody is using XP anymore....hell microsoft has even giving up on XP I started to think for a company that will prob clear 100's of dollars in a 2-3 week time they could up grade to a different OS say windows 7 or failing that windows 10.

That's the good the bad...I had been up for 20 hours before I left today so by mid morning early afternoon I was dead tired seeing triple vision had very little to eat and my damn heals were killing me from standing for so long so I had to leave an hour early (I hate when I can't get any sleep the night before) however my supervisor was ok with me leaving due to the fact the crowds were thinning out. So tonight (8/14) I'm planning on calling it a day early.


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androbot01
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14 Aug 2015, 9:31 pm

I advise getting to know where the books are. If not each specific book (obviously) the categories and sub categories. Knowing where stuff is or at least the general area will make things much easier and smoother with the customers. (I worked in a bookstore for a number of years.)
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I guess they want you to upsell the recommended books. That's a pain.