Book Rush: The term used in the college textbook industry to describe the first week of classes for a college semester.
It's finally over. Yesterday was my first full day off work since December 26th, and it was long over due. I slept until 10:30a.m., ate a huge lunch at P.F. Chang's, went and saw Juno, took a nap, and watched Kentucky get beat again. It was a pretty glorious day.
Overall, the book rush experience (our second at Wildcat Textbooks) was very positive. Our in-store sales were good, and our online sales were through the roof. The best thing about working at Wildcat Textbooks, however, is that most of our customers leave happy. Nobody enjoys buying textbooks, but students do appreciate finding the cheapest books, which is why we are here. Our goal this semester was to provide the absolute lowest textbook prices UK's campus. We sold two thousand different titles, and after it was all said and done, only two customers were able to find a single book cheaper at any other store.
The long hours of book rush inevitably brings about chaos, fatigue, elevated tempers, and drama. The spring 2008 book rush was my 18th as an employee, and it had a sprinkling of all the usual ingredients (crazy customers, concerned professors, lying/cheating publisher sales reps, and moronic coworkers). Don't get me wrong, 99 out of 100 people that walk in our door are perfectly stable, pleasant human beings. When thousands of people come into your store in the course of one week, however, you get your share of people who are full-time residents of Crazy Town. This year we also decided to throw a guy in a gorilla costume to add a little flare. In the end, the spring 2008 book rush was a success.
This past Friday, we celebrated with margarita's and a Dora the Explorer pinata. In the words of Mahatma Ghandi, it was a hoot.
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