I usually find it really irritating when people use their cell phones in book stores, but I eavesdropped on the best conversation at a Barnes and Noble in Ohio the other day. Some guy was staring at the manga shelves and needed back-up, so he called his child.
“Hey, (child’s name), I’m here at the store, and there’s no book called ‘Manga.’ There’s like a thousand of them. Which one do you want?”
Pause.
“They have stuff called ‘Negima’ and ‘Imadoki’ and…”
Pause which must have included pronunciation corrections.
“Well, which ones do you want then?”
Pause.
“They have a lot of ‘Narutos.’”
And so on.
Aside from the floor show, this was probably the worst B&N I’ve ever seen. With some slight variations, I’m used to feeling that chain-store space warp that leaves me thinking I could be anywhere, because all of the outlets are essentially the same. This one was really cluttered, and its GN selection was terrible.
But they did have plenty of Narutos.