Wait Until She Asks For “One Thousand And One Nights”

A woman came in looking for a book at my bookstore. That’s what she started with. It was initially like pulling teeth for her to elaborate.

Customer: “I am looking for a book.”

Me: “…”

Customer: “…”

Me: “Okay, well, you’re in the ballpark… Do you have any idea which book, specifically?”

Customer: “It’s about dogs.”

Me: “Fiction? Non-fiction?”

Customer: “It’s a kid’s book about dalmatians.”

Me: “Ah! Okay, it might be 101 Dalmatians! It’s a popular—”

Customer: “No, no, no! 101 dalmatians is too many! I want the book to be about three dalmatians.”

This stopped me cold. I had to stop and wait for my brain to reboot for a second.

Me: “Um, okay… I can look for a book with that title, but I don’t think there are any books in print about specifically only three.”

Customer: “Well, 101 of them is way too many. Just fix it so the book is only about three or fewer.”

I stopped again.

Me: “You want me to… change the published book so that there are only three dalmatians in it?”

Customer: “YES! That’s exactly what I’m looking for!”

Me: “I’m afraid I can’t do that. If you want the book 101 Dalmatians, I can help you, but literally no one in this or any other bookstore is able to change the story.”

Customer: “I would like to speak to a manager about your unhelpfulness.”

Long story short? After an argument, my manager told her that she could either buy the book as-is or she could shop elsewhere because she was being unreasonable. Yes, he did tell her that to her face. I was gobsmacked by the flying pigs at the time.

After fuming, she finally bought the book and stormed out, complaining about how “101 Dalmatians” was just too many dogs.