Pro tip

The Institute for Literary Trends is located on a busy thoroughfare, which means the road noise often is quite loud.  For that reason, we try to keep the door shut unless it is really swelteringly hot and close.

I noticed the door was ajar and walked over to close it.  An incoming customer prevented me.

"What do you have by [author]?" he demanded.
"Sorry?"
"[Author]. He writes on Christianity," He clarified, still standing directly in the doorway.
"We have quite a large Christianity section, it's right over--"
"I can't, I have my cart with me."
I was about to invite him to bring his bike inside and leave it by the window, when I look outside the door and realize he does mean an actual cart.

One piled high with bags.

And on top of the mountain of bags, a dog.

"Bring me all the books you have by this author and bring them to me here." The man instructs, imperiously.

Normally I would tell him, as politely as possible, to go fuck himself.  But the sight of this dog perched majestically like a cake-topper on top of Mt St Crap-heap amuses me so much that I go and check the shelves for him, pick the only title we have by him there, and fetch it to him for his perusal in the doorway.

So I guess the moral of the story is bring a cute* dog with you and you can get away with murder.

* Which is all the dogs, ever.

Are they books? Or are they texts sewn into some sort of binding?

"Yes, we have new Lee Child books as well.  They're right over--"

"Are they BOOKS, or are they SOFTCOVERS?"

Subtitle: Folliculitis As Seen From Below.

"I'm looking for Memoirs of a Jacuzzi." 

He meant, of course, Confessions of a Yakuza.

Bookstore Mysteries, Part II

A common occurrence:

Customer brings books up to the counter for purchase.

Staff member rings up books and states total.

Custom evinces shock and says, "Wait, how much are the books?" --as in, how much is each book?

Staff member then has to walk customer through each item and re-shelve books the customer has decided are too expensive.

Putting aside the subtle clues like each book's price being stated on the physical book, printed above the barcode if new and penciled in front if used--
do these people do this in other establishments, as well?

Do they walk into clothing stores or restaurants or automobile dealerships, never bother to check the prices, and then display astonishment at the bill?  Do they expect the person handling the transaction to simply accept whatever amount of money they felt like paying, a figure they nebulously calculated on baseless assumptions?

Who does that?  Apparently, an awful lot of people.

Look, if you don't take the price of any object you're buying into consideration at all before you try to buy it, you're either so wealthy that money is no object, or you are, at best, clueless and functionally stunted^[1], if not just an asshole.