To supplement my meagre income, I found a job at the local bookshop that had moved into the Henderson Square (now known as 'WestCity') after Whitcoulls had left a vacuum that was filled by PaperPlus.
When I started, I had to wear the green and black Elves uniform, and had to supply my own black shoes, black skirt/shorts/stockings as I'd thrown all my funeral clothes away. Now I found myself having to buy them all again, and a ten page contract on what NOT to do, plus all the things I could be fired for. This mostly revolved around - stealing money from the till, rather than fingering the merchandise. And there was a LOT of merchandise, so much that the shelves literally groaned with books. So many books that the shoplifters figured the shopkeeper wouldn't really mind if they lightened the load, after all, after 4 months if they didn't sell they had to return them all anyway, and the fate of unsold books was grim- they'd get pulped and turned into toilet paper.
I wanted to rescue these unread books though I knew some would never see the light of day - nobody read Australian fiction, out of date travel guides, obscure rural NZ tomes about the back country, politician's memoirs and badly written vanity books. I read the uncorrected proofs and ARCs (advanced reading copies). I read the first book of the Seven Sisters series and it was so long and drawn out I gave up after the first one. I read Being Pakeha even though I am not (life is such a struggle being white, who knew?!). I read Sex and Vanity that was not as good as Crazy Rich Asians. I read Danielle Steel and Rosie Clarke and books on cars and treehouses. I read a book called 138 Dates about a lass who went on 138 dates before finding 'the one'. I read the Bookshop Book (our bookshop was not listed). Though most of the new books I noted and then put on my library reading list, because I was only being paid minimum wage and books were expensive.
The most stolen book was 'The Secret' and we had a surprising number of witches visit the bookshop - they were always after the tarot cards. I wasn't that keen on selling the tarot cards. I once showed a witch some Bible cards instead as an alternative but she turned her nose up at them. They always came on a full moon.
Another popular card game was Cards Against Humanity, I had never played it, but it sounded even grimmer than the Dad Jokes. I noted there were never any games or books that had Mum Jokes.
My boss got annoyed with me as I was always suggesting ways to improve the store or to bring in more customers - Gold Card discount! Library card discount! Reorganise the children's section by age group! Put some seats in! Have a faith section! Have a Greenie section! But as far as he was concerned I was just a pretty face manning the till to give him a longer lunch break.
I only had ten minutes in which to sit down, check my phone, wolf down a pie, go to the loo and style my hair (not always in that order). When there were no customers I'd be by the till staring off into space until someone came in, preferably with money.
Customer Mary pushed her luck a few times. She never bought anything but always wanted to chat to my boss and complain about the mall, while using the shop as her personal storage locker. Though her muffins were tasty. She was like the children at school who never read but used the library as a personal hideout. I think she was avoiding her (deaf) husband.
I did photocopying with our copier. It was usually immigration forms and passports and CVs but one time I did photocopy someone's divorce papers.
The lockdowns hurt the business (and the tiktok potato chip fire at the Countdown one Thursday evening) but miraculously I did get paid for doing nothing with the wage subsidy like everyone else did. It's just when I actually WANTED to work I got dropped. Funny that...
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