NOVEMBER 25, 2008
The view from
behind the counter
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 ESSAYS |
This Thanksgiving, let’s raise a toast to those who’ve served on America’s economic front lines — ringing up sales, bagging the merch, stifling the anger and boredom. The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles honors the wage slaves of our service economy, collecting 21 dispatches from the wrong side of the cash register.
The anthology includes a few marquee names: Colson Whitehead writes about his standing summer job at an ice-cream store (“You had to master all things waffle”), and rock critic Jim DeRogatis recalls his apprenticeship at a mobbed-up music store in New Jersey. But you’ll also discover new talents and meet writers who’ve found meaning, and even a measure of dignity, in their work. And, appearing just in time for a somewhat iffy holiday season, it’s one more thing to give thanks for.
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The Customer Is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles (Soft Skull Press; softcover; 192 pages)
