{"id":10329,"date":"2013-02-27T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=10329"},"modified":"2013-02-27T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T11:00:20","slug":"happy-noises-and-kicky-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=10329","title":{"rendered":"Happy Noises and Kicky Feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been selling books a long time and there’s an art to letting customers browse unhindered by help. There are ways to know customers don’t want help: they flat out tell you, “I’m just browsing.” When I hear this it always makes feel like I’ve bothered them one too many times, or they’re just not used to being in a bookstore that actually offers help. It’s often harder to know with families with young kids when they might need help.
\nYesterday, I learned for sure when not to ask a family for help. A young mom was in with her two kids. One was four and the other was just under one and in his stroller. I could hear them having a grand old time. The older boy and his mom were laughing at Shark Vs. Train<\/em> and all I could see of the younger child were his happy, kicky feet bouncing in the stroller. I left them alone until the noises shifted and then I was over in a shot offering assistance.
\nYoung families often come in just to kill time between appointments or, honestly, just to break up the day. I love it when they come in and spend quality time together at the bookstore. There is nothing more fun for me than hearing the sounds of a happy family just enjoying books. The flip side of this is when a family comes in and the little one doesn’t understand why he can’t get a book. This totally adorable boy was practically apopletic when his mom told him they were just looking. “But I need a new book! I need one!” He was lamenting fiercely about his bookless plight, but his mom didn’t cave in.
\nI did give him a sticker sheet, though. It’s tough being four.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been selling books a long time and there’s an art to letting customers browse unhindered by help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}