Mob Mentality

I've been working the New York International Gift Fair for the past week hawking books and I have never been happier to see something end. The manner in which it ended, however, was absurd.

I had heard that at the close of the show it gets crazy because we give away all our product and people stop by in droves. But, I didn't realize that I would lose my temper, yell at old women and have to physically remove people from the booth.

All day people were stopping by to ask when we were giving away our books, and can they reserve some for later because "I have the cutest granddaughter" or "my son would really love this book." I said no politely at first, but then I had to put my foot down and say, "Lady, everyone has an adorable granddaughter - no piles, no reservations, no exceptions."

The only exception of course was if you were willing to trade me product from your booth. I got some LOVELY items including a "Glow-in-the-Dark Flesh-Eating Zombie" figurine set, a business card holder, an acupuncture session and a telephone! Seriously.

We were giving the books away at noon, and by 10:30 there were people milling around holding stacks and stacks of books. One woman started loading them in bags; when I saw this I politely, yet firmly reminded her that the show was still going on for another hour and half. "But, people have already taken them from outside of your booth." She was right, people had started to steal all the books I couldn't police anymore. But, this woman was trying to negotiate with me why her rude behavior should be acceptable. By 11 am, there was this nutty woman who brought FIVE boxes and said she was mailing them to Israel.

Finally, my boss showed up and laid down the law with an announcement to the tune of "You are allowed only five books each, the show isn't over, you people are greedy animals." This hit the Box Woman really hard, who had come by the booth five times prior to let me know her plans with the books.

We had over 200 books in the booth and at noon, it took 5 finutes for them all to be gone. I heard one thank you.