A Chicago bookstore owner received words of encouragement after sharing her frustration at a customer who allegedly returned an $800 purchase.
Rebecca George, co-owner of Volumes Bookcafe, an independent bookstore near Wicker Park, took to Twitter to find out about a return request she allegedly received from a customer who purchased a variety of art books and cookbooks in December, to serve as a temporary decoration.
“Turns out one of our biggest sales over the past month was for the person who staged their home for the holidays and now they want to return them all,” George wrote in her tweet on Monday, January 9th.
“Please don’t do this to a small business, folks,” she continued. “That one sale was a third of our rent.”
george Twitter post has since been viewed 6.8 million times and has received more than 85,600 likes, 5,510 retweets and 880 comments.
Fox News Digital has contacted Volumes Bookcafe for comment.
Twitter users have responded to George’s post by asking where they can buy books online or donate to support the indie shop.
Bookstore employees joined George’s thread in acknowledging the challenges facing the specialized small business.
“Being an independent bookstore is hard,” tweeted Madison Street Books, another Chicago-based bookstore, on Wednesday, January 11.
A Twitter user posing as a bookstore employee wrote that the company he works for has a return policy for similar reasons.
“We can provide an exchange or credit, but no refunds unless there is something wrong with the product,” the anonymous user wrote Monday night.
Another Twitter user wrote that customer return “is sooo not cool” because book rentals exist.
Some commenters suggested George and her business partner change the returns policy at Volumes Bookcafe or add a restocking fee to minimize the inconvenience of customer returns.
Others were puzzled that the customer allegedly told the bookstore staff they were using the books for the staging.
Rebecca George said the return is a third of her business rent.
George said the rude customer was “an unusual case”.
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“Wait, so someone bought a bunch of books to make it look like they were reading? Then returned [sic] when relatives left?” asked a Twitter user Monday night. “I had no idea that was a thing.”
George returned to Twitter on Tuesday January 10th to thank the people who have supported Volumes Bookcafe.
She noted that the deal typically sells “less than 1% [of] Returns” and the most recent customer she was referring to “was an unusual case”.
“It’s not ideal, but sometimes as a small business you jump through hoops to please people who don’t deserve to save themselves from chaos of any other kind,” George wrote. “It’s rare, but it happens. Thank you all! They made a big difference for us when we needed it.”
George confirmed to FOX 32 Chicago that the returned purchase was for $800.
She told the local news outlet that independent bookstores have slim profit margins and compete with larger retail outlets.
“Your decisions have a bigger impact with small businesses than anywhere else,” George told FOX 32 Chicago.
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/01/14/volumes-bookcafe-owner-rebecca-georges-tweet-about-800-return-goes-viral/
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