A first-hand account of "Harry Potter weekend" at a chain bookstore
By: Eve Collins
The manager at the Oxford Valley branch of Barnes and Noble called two months in advance to ask if I could work "Harry Potter weekend." I’m a seasonal employee at the store, and call me crazy, but I couldn’t say no to what most likely would be the busiest weekend since Thanksgiving.
Maybe it was the extra pocket money that attracted me. Maybe it was the thought of my co-workers in funny costumes (we were allowed to dress as the characters). Or maybe I’m glutton for punishment and wanted to be trapped in a building for five hours with hundreds of sugar-happy kids and their oh-so-patient parents.
Despite my pessimistic expectations, the event wasn’t too horrible. The evening was spattered with the usual instances of missing children and rude customers, but no rioting or fistfights broke out.
Even if you don’t have children and don’t watch television or movies, unless you have been living in a cave for the past five years you probably have at least heard of Harry Potter. The fifth installment of the epic about the boy with unruly black hair, round spectacles and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead was finally released June 21.
Titled "The Order of the Phoenix," the sequel has been eagerly awaited by Potter fans, and with good reason. The series has traditionally gotten a lot of press, but fans this time around are particularly excited. If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, the fourth book, "The Goblet of Fire," was out in July 2000. All the previous titles were released one year apart, so fans have had to wait three agonizing years for the continuation of a very open-ended story.
I am a confessed Harry Potter maniac. My first taste of J.K. Rowling’s lovable trio of Hogwarts hooligans came when I was a senior in college and read the first chapter of "Goblet" in a weekly magazine (only that chapter was printed as a promotion for the book’s release). I won’t say I was hooked, but definitely intrigued. I decided to read the whole series when I had some spare time.
It was after I read the first chapter of the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone," that I got hooked.
If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it. Almost everyone can find something in common with Harry Potter or his friends, which probably is why the books are so popular. AndI hate to use another clichéit’s fun for children of all ages. The stories are extremely well written with intriguing mysteries, intelligent narration, and witty banter among the characters.
Poof! I’m a book critic.
The events at the store on Friday night were very carefully planned by management and appreciated by children and parents alike. The children registered and were sorted into their "houses." Activities included face painting, making hats and wands, and other games, and they could answer trivia about the books.
Several of my co-workers estimated that attendance would be near 1,000 for the activities, and guessed that folks would stick around until midnight for the sales to start. They were right, of course. Entire families stayed, curling up on the floor with other books they had picked from the shelves, and waited for the stroke of midnight.
While I don’t have an exact number of how many showed up, I can say that people could barely move around the aisles, and at one point we had to stop letting them in because there were too many in the store.
Customers who ordered their books in advance received a ticket with a number on it; blue if they ordered the book before June 11, or red if they ordered it after that date. Once we started lining people up for their books, some customers were very disappointed to hear that we would not be calling the numbers on the tickets in orderplease don’t ask me, I’m just as confused as you.
At one point, one man was even offering $100 for a blue or red ticket so he could buy another bookfive times the cost of the book because it was 40 percent off for a limited time.
By the time we closed our doors, around 2 a.m., management announced that we had sold 870 of the books since midnight. They patted us on our heads, said job well done, and told us to clean up the mess.
This is where a wand and a charm would have come in handy. The store looked like Peeves the poltergeist wreaked havoc in it, but I think we got most of the books put away by 2:30 a.m.
Not bad for a bunch of muggles.
Several customers told me as they were leaving that, rather than going to bed, they were going to start reading the book, which I thought was a little crazy. But instead of having to wait to get my copy on Saturday night or Sunday, I was able to buy one before I left, and when I got home at 2:45 a.m., I couldn’t help opening it and reading the first few pages before dozing off.
Happy reading!