Synopses & Reviews
From mom-and-pop general stores to big-box, strip-mall chains, it is impossible to consider the American experience without thinking about the buying-and-selling retail culture: the sales and the stockrooms, the shift managers, and the clock punchers. If you've ever worked in retail and most likely you have you probably have a funny, frantic, moving, mortifying, outrageous, or ridiculous story to tell.
The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too-revealing collection of essays by writers from all corners of the literary world writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rocky's Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well. If it weren't for the customer, after all, our economy would not function nor would we slaves-to-the-paycheck get our turn to shop until we drop. And for every abusive customer or moronic employee, there are those people who come into our stores and our lives and change them forever... one price tag at a time.
Synopsis
From mom-and-pop general stores to big-box, strip-mall chains, it is impossible to consider the American experience without thinking about the buying-and-selling retail culture: the sales and the stockrooms, the shift managers, and the clock punchers. The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too revealing collection of essays by writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rockys Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well.
About the Author
Jeff Martin was born in the summer of 1980. Growing up in Tulsa, Ok, Jeff never expected his adult life to be filled with customer complaints and secret shoppers. With various aspirations from superhero (unrealistic) to the next Bob Dylan (impossible), he paid little attention to his school-work. His retail career began at a video store. Jeff soon began idolizing director Quentin Tarrantino for the simple fact that he is the only ex-video store clerk to go on to win an Oscar and make millions of dollars. Upon graduation, Jeff decided to leave his hometown and make his way in the world as a writer. A little over a year later, he returned home with his tail between his legs and a lot of bad poetry. With the writing not paying the bills, he was forced to look for alternative forms of income. A week or so later, he was working at a local bookstore. Seven years and one wife later, he’s still there.