05 November 2009

The great used bookstore brawl

You can keep your white-gloved price wars, in the secondhand world it's all about real fisticuffs. A San Francisco shopper posted a complainy two-star review of a used bookstore he had visited recently on Yelp. After sending him several angry messages, the store owner then Googled him, figured out who he was and decided to go over to his house -- to apologize, she said -- where they got into a fistfight that had to be broken up by the police.

Here's the offending review:
This place is a TOTAL MESS with minimal organization of titles or subjects.
There are books stacked everywhere - blocking the shelves. Why would someone
want a travel guide from 1982?? I think this place needs to close down for a few
days and do a thorough cleaning and organization and get rid of all the crap!
I think I've been to that bookstore, but it wasn't in San Francisco, it was somewhere else. I think I just shrugged and ducked out -- disorganization and odd stock is pretty standard, and can even be part of the fun. But the following points must be made:

1. I can't wait for the "Dateline" special pegging Yelp as part of the Dangerous Internet along with eBay, Craigslist and Facebook, the three other horsemen of the oh come on you have to be kidding me.
2. The word "fisticuffs" does not get enough of an airing in this modern age.
3. If you are a hater of this blog and you later change your mind and would like to come over and apologize to me, please be aware I live in a yurt in Mongolia surrounded by my herd of very, very mean pigs.

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

I wholeheartedly agree with #2.

As far as #3, the pigs aren't so bad once you get to know them.