amphichon

I used to work in a bookstore, and spent my share of time in receiving, so I know that every good-sized bookstore has tons of cardboard boxes coming in every day. These book boxes are particularly good for packing your own books in, since they’re a slightly heavier gauge cardboard and they’re smaller than average, since books are heavy but you want to pack them into the box solidly to prevent shifting or crushing. Almost any bookstore has these in stacks by the dozens and will gladly give boxes away to folks who need them for moving or shipping their own books.

Almost any bookstore except for Oregon’s own Powell’s, sadly. They were my first call, since I figure the local-boy-makes-good hometown bookstore is likely to be friendliest to Portland natives, right? Unfortunately no.

Powell’s:   Powell’s, this is Ellipses.
Me:   Hi there Ellipses. I’m going to be packing kind of a large number of books shortly, and I wondered if I could stop by to pick up a few boxes from you.
Powell’s:   What?
Me:   Er. I’m moving, and packing a lot of books… I’m thinking you probably have a lot of boxes… I’d like to stop by and pick up some of your used boxes, if that’s at all doable…
Powell’s:   ...
Me:   ... I mean, most bookstores do, so I kind of assumed…
Powell’s:   ... I don’t think we do that.
Me:   ... er, okay…
Powell’s:   Hang on.

—bouncy hold salsa—

Powell’s:   Okay. No, we don’t sell boxes.
Me:   (slightly irritated) To be honest I hadn’t expected to buy them. Most bookstores give them away.
Powell’s:   ...
Me:   Most bookstores besides you, then, I take it.
Powell’s:   Sorry, we don’t do that.
Me:   Your books do arrive in boxes, right? Not dropped down the chimney wrapped in soft blankets?
Powell’s:   Hang on.

—more bouncy hold salsa—

Powell’s:   They do arrive in boxes. We don’t have a chimney.
Me:   I see. So, these boxes get emptied, and then…
Powell’s:   ...
Me:   ... you throw them away, do you?
Powell’s:   No.
Me:   No, of course not.
Powell’s:   ...
Me:   ...
Powell’s:   We recycle them.
Me:   ... right.

—five minutes later —

Borders on Third:   Hi, Borders on Third, how can I help you?
Me:   Hi there, Borders on Third. I’m going to be packing kind of a large number of books shortly, and I wondered if I could stop by to pick up a few boxes from you.
Borders on Third:   Of course, I’m sure we can help you. We’ve got tons of them. How many did you need?
Me:   Oh, I dunno. Ten? Fifteen, maybe twenty? Probably twentyish?
Borders on Third:   That’ll probably be fine, let me just check.

—slightly less bouncy salsa—

Borders on Third:   Yeah, that should be no problem. Stop by any time.
Me:   Awesome, thank you Borders on Third. Can you believe that Powell’s refused to give me any boxes?
Borders on Third:   Really? Wow, they must suck.
Me:   My thoughts exactly.

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