Barnes and Noble

So apparently I've been permanently banned from the Barnes and Noble on the 16th street mall in Denver, Colorado. Before you judge me so harshly, however, you should hear my tragic tale.

Matthew and I had some free time before heading to the Nightwish concert, so we decided, innocently enough, to go wander around the Barnes and Noble. Things started well enough; I really enjoy being in book stores and looking at various books, so a good time was had by all. We were standing in front of a particular shelf looking at some classics and considering, god forbid, spending some money. We were carefully looking at leatherbound copies of the complete works of Lewis Caroll when a balding gentleman appearing to be in his late 30s or 40s, wearing a grey jacket with a red carnation, approached us from behind. He appeared to be talking on his cell phone so Matthew and I did the polite thing and ignored him. Unbeknownst to us, however, he was actually trying to get our attention. He touched me on the shoulder and said "Excuse me," and I got out of the way. To Matthew, though, who was standing in front of me, he was considerably less polite.

Clearly annoyed that we had the audacity to be present in his store when he needed to walk there, he said a more assertive "Excuse me," and shoved Matthew out of the way. He pushed past him and walked over to the Starbucks coffee shop as if he was the most important person in the world. Understand, though, that there were many paths to the Starbucks, some more convenient, than the one we happened to be unwittingly standing in. Being the less assertive of the two of us, I was content to just click my tongue and say "What an asshole," but Matthew, understandably, was less than happy to be shoved aside.

Throwing his hands in the air in frustration, he shouted "Thanks for pushing me!" and then rolled his eyes and began to walk away. In retrospect that might have been a mistake, but I will come to his defense and say that there is nothing inherently wrong with expressing indignation when someone is rude to you, even in a public place. The balding carnation-wearing gentleman, clearly much more important than we drags of the universe, clearly thought otherwise.

He came up to us and started grilling us about how he told us several times to move and that when we made no notice of his presence, he touched us gently to get our attention. This might be so, but since he was on the phone, we figured it would be rude to eavesdrop on his conversation, and thus had no idea that he was trying to talk to us, and as far as I know he certainly wasn't saying "excuse me" loudly enough for us to take notice. Second of all, he did not touch Matthew to get his attention, but clearly shoved him out of the way. Since there were plenty of ways to go around us, this is inexcusable as far as I can tell.

At this point, he threatened to call the police on us, and said in a probably-fake Brittish accent that he would "Like for us to leave and would appreciate it if we didn't come back." Matthew simply told him that it "Wouldn't be a problem," but I, being the shy pussy that I am, said nothing. I regret that. 

First of all, I was unaware that the gentleman was a store employee to begin with. By the way he was acting, however, that's the only conclusion I could come to. That and I'm not sure why a non-employee would go around wearing a carnation on his jacket, but hey, maybe he thought it made him look cooler than everyone else. He clearly thought this to begin with. But anyway, had he just been some random would-be literature snob, any one thing he said or did might have been ignorable on its own, but his attitude was absolutely inexcusable for a store employee. 

Had I been a little bit smarter and braver, I would have asked him if he was the store manager. If he had been the store manager, then I would have told him that he really ought to treat his customers with some level of respect. We really had been looking at books and considering buying them and spending money at his store. But because of the way he treated us, we left without spending a penny, and it is unlikely that either of us will ever spend any money in his store or perhaps any Barnes and Noble ever again. If he values his job at all, he really ought to remember who it is that keep stores like his in business to begin with. If he was not the store manager, then he had absolutely no right or authority whatsoever to tell us to leave the store, and even less of a right to tell us not to come back. I would have loved to point this out to him, and more importantly, to point it out to his manager, who could take appropriate action. However, at the time, I was simply too angry to think of a witty response, and we both just left the store in disgust. I guess this is another one of those situations when I was too damned polite for my own good.

Silly me.

The bottom line is, as a store employee he had no right to treat us the way he did. I have worked in retail and much more extensively in customer service, and I have dealt with all manner of disgruntled customers, many much ruder than we were in retaliation to his initial rudeness. Perhaps we could have been more diplomatic in our response to the gentleman's shoving, however, calling an employee out on his rudeness is NOT grounds to be kicked out of the store, and it is even LESS grounds for calling the police, which the gentleman angrily threatened to do. In the end, I regret not taking the action I could have taken, but until Barnes and Noble learns the value of the customers that keep them afloat, it will be Borders and Amazon only for me.