booksellers vs. librarians

I originally started working at the bookstore because I thought it would be a good experience before I applied to library school. It has been, but there are huge differences between working in a bookstore and working in a library. Respect, mainly. People respect librarians. They do not respect the people ringing up their book purchases.

I've realized I'm not very good at the customer service thing. When someone comes to the register, I'm supposed to say, "Did you find everything you need?" I have a hard time doing this, because if they're at the register checking out, didn't they find everything they needed? Isn't that why they're trying to pay and leave?

We're also supposed to ask at the end of the purchase, "Can I help you with anything else?" Once again, if they wanted anything else, wouldn't they ask while I'm ringing up their 15 shot glasses and wrapping them in tissue paper and running their credit card and asking them to please come back and actually sign the receipt? WHAT ELSE COULD THEY POSSIBLY WANT?

I understand these questions are part of the way we're supposed to interact with customers. I really try to do this. I failed today, though. Failed. Two customers blatently hated me. One because I wouldn't put her return back on a different credit card, and one because I didn't have mug boxes. She approached the register with FIFTEEN mugs (and i wish i were kidding) and just stated, "I'll want boxes with these." No hi, no response to "Hello, how are you." When I said, "I'm really sorry, but this is the book department, and we don't keep those here, but the merchandise dept will be happy to accomodate you!" she said, "THEY SENT ME OVER HERE BECAUSE THEY CAN'T USE THEIR REGISTER AND TOLD ME I COULD CHECK OUT HERE. I WANT MUG BOXES." I said I was very sorry, but as this was the book dept, I didn't have boxes, but I had plenty of tissue paper. "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. THERE'S A LINE OVER THERE. THEY SENT ME OVER HERE AND I AM THE CUSTOMER AND I. WANT. BOXES."

This was literally 180 seconds before my shift ended.
And I started to cry for the second time in a day.

[and as you read this, imagine a really REALLY loud banging and clanging in the background. CLANG BANG SMASH BANG BAMB.]