{"id":31712,"date":"2019-11-25T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31712"},"modified":"2019-11-25T08:00:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T13:00:38","slug":"the-sound-of-music-in-the-retail-4th-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=31712","title":{"rendered":"The Sound of Music in the Retail 4th Quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long days in the shop followed by longer evenings at offsite events have left me just exhausted the last few weeks, and I’m sure my fellow retailers understand. It seems selfish and shortsighted to complain, of course, for the long cold stretch of January will make us wish for a calendar this full, or at least make me forget about aching feet and a constant sense that I have forgotten some task, neglected some special order, or failed to tell a staff member about where to find the extra printer ink cartridges. A few nights ago I came home and fell into bed too tired to even read, and instead indulged in some Julie Andrews therapy, and fell asleep to the classic film The Sound of Music<\/em>. I woke up humming parts of the score, which I’ll invite you to sing along with me (I might have changed a few words, with apologies to Oscar Hammerstein):
\n\"\"<\/a>Raindrops on boxes of plush dogs and kittens,<\/em>
\nCarrying trash out again without mittens,<\/em>
\nNo-invoice-boxes the UPS brings –<\/em>
\nThese are a few of my least favorite things.<\/em>
\n
\nFor the third time today, Point-of-Sale crashes.<\/em>
\nRubbing the sleep from my eyes and eyelashes…<\/em>
\nSo much for makeup, my hair hangs in strings-<\/em>
\nThese are a few of my least favorite things.<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a>Faking a breakfast with yesterday’s strudel,<\/em>
\nToo many lunches are ramen with noodles.<\/em>
\nTen extra pounds that 4th quarter stress brings –<\/em>
\nThese are a few of my least favorite things.<\/em>
\nOh, the tape’s gone, and it’s sleeting…<\/em>
\nNow I’m feeling sad.<\/em>
\nI’ll wish for the days I can just read in peace –<\/em>
\nAnd then I won’t feel…… so bad.<\/em>
\nOr perhaps you’d prefer this childhood favorite, in a slightly higher key?
\n\"\"<\/a>Do<\/strong>ugh, oh dear, we need that cash<\/em> –
\nRain<\/strong>ing down to meet our bills.<\/em>
\nMe<\/strong>an old loans must all be paid-<\/em>
\nFa<\/strong>iry tales cannot be left\u00a0unsold.<\/em>
\nSo<\/strong>, we open longer hours….<\/em>
\n 
\nLa<\/strong>sting on stale snacks and cups of…<\/em>
\nTea<\/strong>, we reheat once again….<\/em>
\nthat will keep us selling books-oh-oh-oh…..<\/em> Do<\/strong>ugh.<\/em>
\nOf course, it’s just too tempting to hum a few stanzas of every bookseller’s favorite tune from that classic film:
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nEdelweiss, Edelweiss, Every markup we can see.<\/em>
\nComps and buzz, grids to do…<\/em>
\nBut no tour visits quite near me.<\/em>
\nHow do these booksellers read so much?<\/em>
\n 
\nBlurbs spring up like heather……<\/em>
\nEdelweiss, Edelweiss<\/em>
\nI’ll be hopelessly behind you forever.<\/em>
\nHere’s to “climbing every mountain” of the 4th quarter successfully, my friends – right after we get a little sleep.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bookseller’s version of ‘The Sound of Music’ for the busy, exhausting 4th quarter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31712","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\/31712","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}