Returns.

So. Sometimes people buy things. They get home, realize it was a bad idea--the skirt is too small, the gift isn't perfect, the book isn't "The March" by Doctorow but "March" by Brooks. Things like this happen.

A bookstore? NOT A LIBRARY. Do not "buy" books KNOWING you will return them because you are just using them for a paper. First of all: If I use 25 minutes of MY time to help you find books and then you come back the next day to exchange them because they weren't right? That's annoying, but acceptable. It happens. But if you then "exchange" them for books on the same subject THAT YOU THEN RETURN TO ME THE NEXT DAY, I'll be irritated. Then if you then exchange them AGAIN, a mere day later, that's when I'm flat-out pissed. You might say, "Who cares? It's a huge corporate bookstore. They don't care if a person brings home a couple books and decides he doesn't want them."

And this is my answer: It may be a corporate bookstore. But real people, who have jobs that take up eight hours of their day--jobs that they work hard at and care about--are being paid by this bookstore. If you take their time--time that they could have spent on the numerous tasks that don't involve nicely showing you memoirs that fit into your specific description--and then buy books that you plan on using and returning, that's screwing US over. We don't make budget, cuts are made, less employees are on the floor, and the next time you really need help you won't be able to get it. Why? Because they won't be able to afford people like me, people who can take 25 minutes to assist you on a topic that isn't even covered on the floor she supervises. Also, it makes me less inclined to really help people. I get excited when people are looking for books that I know a lot about; I also know that they may not buy any, WHICH IS FINE. But everytime something happens like today, it makes me a bit more apathetic. That's not a good mind-frame--I'm skeptical of people from the start.

I mean, we are HAPPY to help you research a topic, find books for you to peruse, talk to you about the subject. We don't always expect a sale (and we're not paid on commission). But buying a bunch of books, using them, and then returning them? That's what a library is for. It's free. I'm a big advocate. But it's unethical to "borrow" books from a bookstore. In fact, it's basically stealing. Come in, spill your coffee, trash our magazines, toss books anywhere. We can (grudgingly) deal with that. But don't act like a grateful customer when you're stealing my time and effort and knowledge in order to "use" our resources without paying. If you continue on that path, soon you'll be greeted not by a human, but by a computer terminal that won't be able to explain that memoirs are shelved by subject, not author, and certainly won't help if you're confused by the alphabet in fiction.
Now that? Would really be a bitch. And for once, my name wouldn't be associated with it.