free gift bag? Also, returning without a receipt?

[depechemodefan]

Story one:

My cw was helping this woman. She bought 4 books and she asked my cw for a gift bag for one of the books. CW shows the store bags, which are nice (they are not the generic white bags on them that says, "Thanks for Shopping With Us"), and points out the gift bags that you buy. Other words, we don't have free gift bags. So she went to the gift bags that you buy and then decides that she doesn't want to buy one.

Another cw (let's call her Cas, she's cool) pipes up that we can wrap her book (which we do for free).

SC says, "well, that's what I wanted!" As if a gift bag and a wrapping is the same thing. I guess I could have said something, but since I'm new I let my co-workers lead the way. I knew we could wrap.

So SC is writing in the book a message for her friend who is going through a tough time. She wanted to know how to spell "resilience". She tried to look it up in the internet, but didn't find it(so in other words she doesn't know how to use the internet) and she wanted me to look up the word. CW says we have dictionaries behind the counter, though all I could find were Medical and Law dictionaries. So I pull out a medical dictionary, figuring I can find the word under "Multidrug-resistant." Woman kept on asking me, "did you find it? did you find it?" So no luck, then Cas told me to get a dictionary from the floor. Of course, I don't know where anything is so I'm wandering around. Cas calls me back; I don't know how SC found the word.

Also sidenote, a friend with the SC was talking to me while I had my head down looking up "resilience" from the medical dictionary. She wanted me to get a book behind the counter. Do you not see me working, twit?

So I get the book from the sc and I go to the end of the counter to the wrapping paper. Before I leave the woman, I ask her if she wanted to pick the paper (there was only two kinds). Woman came over and before she gets to me she says, "I want something masculine." There is paper with books on it and one with "U"s on it. She picks the paper with the books. I start wrapping ( I think I get why my new cws don't like wrapping; they seem afraid of wrapping), and got one side done and she says, "are you doing a good job?" in a condescending voice so I show her what I've done so far, and she seems satisfied.

But really what bothered me is she thought stores handed out free gift bags. I'd probably use the Abercrombie and Fitch bag as a gift bag (because half-naked fit dudes) or if I went to Tiffany and co (because that is the point of the bags of Tiffany's) but a book store? That makes money off of gift bags?

Second story
Guy didn't have receipt for item that he bought the day before. First he said he paid with credit card, which I could use to find receipt and make the exchange. But no go with cc. He realized he paid cash. He kept on saying, "I was here yesterday, who worked here yesterday, they can tell you I bought the item." *sigh*

Third Story
I have half a mind to write up a Harry Potter thread about all the problems from the new book/screenplay. Anyway, woman didn't know the new book was a screenplay. My cw was explaining to her the JK Rowling did write the story, other people wrote the screenplay, because she was thinking Rowling didn't write the book at all. eh.

[depechemodefan]

Forgot a detail with the woman who wants a giftbag. After I wrapped the book, she wanted a bow on it. I told her sorry, we have no bows.

[AnaKhouri]

I feel you on the bags! My bookstore also has very nice paper bags with handles that people just freakin' love. They always ask for them. We're not actually supposed to give them out unless the purchase fits the bag, since they are way more expensive than the flat paper bags or plastic bags. At my old store people would giggle, "I need one of your bags, they make such great lunch bags!" and I just wanted to punch them. Why couldn't they buy a reusable lunch bag, for God's (and the planet's) sake? Once a woman bought 8 of the same magazine (I guess she was in it or something) and wanted 8 bags to give them away in. I made up a policy that we could only give out one per customer.

We also gift wrap, which usually goes pretty well, and we sell gift bags in theory, though I'm sure you can guess how many we actually sell.

[Sidhera]

I used to work at Media Play. If you purchased a gift card, you would get a free plain white envelope to go with it, except around the holidays. That's when our manager would hide the envelopes, so people would instead buy the fancy envelopes we had for sale. �� Not too fun explaining we had no free envelopes when someone was spending a lot of money with us.

[Sparklyturtle]

I sew tote bags, and the smaller ones make very nice gift bags. Once I made up two of these bags for a "white elephant" type Christmas party that were just solid brown, and filled them with freebies that we'd gotten over the year in charity letters (I'm sure you know the type of thing I mean - stickers, calendars, etc.) One person told me, "I didn't pick yours because the bag isn't fancy enough." Well, excuse me.

[depechemodefan]

I guess she didn't understand the concept of "white elephant". Though at the library, I wish my coworkers had chosen gender-neutral items. Most were geared to women (about 10-20% of my cws were men) and most cws like making jewelry for Etsy, In theory I guy could trade the jewelry for something but it happens guys usually got stuck with the jewelry.

[notalwaysright]

I just had to look up what a white elephant party is. I mean, I know what a white elephant refers to, but the concept of a gift exchange of this sort is a little baffling to me. It just sounds like most people will end up with stuff they don't want. I'm genuinely confused by this. I guess wiki says the point is the fun of the game, but it doesn't sound fun.

No one gets free bags at my work, no one! Ahaha! Unless they buy home dec fabric, those special few get a 60" long plastic bag. Other than that, it's five cents or

[Sparklyturtle]

I was in a Bible study with the people involved in the "white elephant" party, and we just did it for fun. Some questionable items bounced around from person to person, like the inflatable guitar Turtleguy got one year. The next year he passed it along. If you're with a group of people who like this type of thing, then it can be a lot of fun, but I've been involved in similar parties where some people got it and some didn't, and there were hard feelings.

When I shop I bring along bags that I've made. The people working in the fabric shop I frequent are always asking me if I've made anything new.

[Sliceanddice]

I just had to look up what a white elephant party is. I mean, I know what a white elephant refers to, but the concept of a gift exchange of this sort is a little baffling to me. It just sounds like most people will end up with stuff they don't want. I'm genuinely confused by this. I guess wiki says the point is the fun of the game, but it doesn't sound fun.

I always make my white elephant gift a 'things people usually need/use but don't think to buy or are just nice to have' you know a candle and a throw blanket, or a water bottle, or a basket with a jar of peanut butter, jelly, honey and a loaf of nice bread.

Also I love the story Wil Wheaton while elephant gift story. Apparently there is a bacon wave that has made its way into the position of every member of the Wheaton family over the years because Wil Wheaton is such a bacon snob the act and thought of actually using it is so alien and sacrilegious that it just stays in the package forever.

[greek_jester]

I just had to Google a bacon wave. WFT? If you're eating bacon you're eating something that's unhealthy. Own the cholesterol!

[bhskittykatt]

I just had to look up what a white elephant party is. I mean, I know what a white elephant refers to, but the concept of a gift exchange of this sort is a little baffling to me. It just sounds like most people will end up with stuff they don't want. I'm genuinely confused by this.

It can be loads of fun with the right group. One group I know does it every year on the holidays. There is this hideous three-legged bowl (the legs have scales and hooves) and it is one of the most sought-after items. It gets passed around every year.

Personally I like to bring alcohol to the gift exchanges and watch the blood spill as people fight over the booze. Because I like to watch the world burn.

[wordgirl]

Arrgh, I hate white elephant gift exchanges. There's always one borderline unstable co-worker who becomes dramatically attached to a Thing, and one adolescent jackhole who decides that watching that person melt down when deprived of the Thing is just the best holiday entertainment ever. (I don;'t think ours ever featured booze. One year was kinda funny though, because a good 60 percent of the gifts were $10 Starbucks cards.)

[dalesys]

White elephant gift exchanges

are a hobbit habit, if you can mathom it.

[depechemodefan]

I just had to look up what a white elephant party is. I mean, I know what a white elephant refers to, but the concept of a gift exchange of this sort is a little baffling to me. It just sounds like most people will end up with stuff they don't want.

The first dept. I worked for at the library had plain gift exchanges. You draw a person's name out of a can (though the person's name you pick might not have picked you), and they have on the piece of paper with their name a list or a general thing they want.

One year I wrote "anything that is cat." So the guy who pulled my name gave me a little stuffed dog, because it was cute. Yes, I'm going to sound spoiled, but how hard is it to find something cat? A sticker would have been fine. Calendars are out around Christmas time. Eh.

I have stuff still from the White elephant. I got a little cork globe and a box of cards for "Wines of the World." Another year I got a wooden toy model and a puppy puzzle that I figured I could give to some young cousins. I guess the point of a White Elephant is people try to find the most particular, odd gift so people will have a good laugh. Gift cards would make sense (at the library librarians spend so much time at Starbucks and bookstores; also yarn stores for most of the librarians I worked with), but at the library people just like to give odd or homemade stuff.

So I wrapped more gifts today. The woman was appreciative at least. Though a cw told me for the holidays they let fundraising organizations come in and wrap for donations. I forgot to ask if we would still wrap for free. I can imagine people saying, "why would I donate a dollar to wrap a gift when the bookstore will wrap for free?"

[notalwaysright]

So I feel like instead of "thing which is hard to maintain" it's more like "frivolous/quirky/random item." Which could be fun. I finally remembered why this seemed familiar. They do Yankee Swap in an episode of The Office and it doesn't go very well, but of course it's a tv show and people getting along is not part of the formula.

In any case, if I was a part of one, I would definitely buy this shirt! If nobody wanted it, I would trade for it.