Tuesday, December 12, 2006

PornGuy in my Bookstore

There is a guy who comes to our store regularly. I suppose I could call him a customer, but it would only be in the lightest terms possible. I call him PornGuy. PornGuy is an older guy, probably in his seventies or so. He looks older than 65, but younger than 85, so I guesstimate him to be 70 or so. He is shorter than me, probably about 5'8" maybe 150 lbs soaking wet.

He used to come in and open our "sophisticates" (that's a fancy bookselling term for "adult magazines") and flip through them. There were two problems with this. First was if the sophisticate magazine is opened, that is out of outs plastic bag, we can't sell it, that's not that big a deal. We just throw magazines that don't sell into a box, slap a label on the box and ship 'em out and get credit for the unsold ones. So, in that regard, no big whoop. (We probably lose fifty percent, or more of our sophisticates through that means).

The second problem was much more severe. He started bugging our female employees and showing them the pictures in the magazines. We had to ask him to leave and finally my store manager kicked him out of the store and telling him not to return. That was a Sunday afternoon. I was there for that. It was actually kind of funny. My store manager is probably 6'1" close to 300 lbs. He's a big guy. This little PornGuy threatened to punch him in the nose... I think I'da paid to see that; well, the guy left and wasn't seen or heard from for a couple months.

PornGuy is back, but he doesn't look at our sophisticates any more. Now, he looks at the sexuality books (i.e. Joy of Sex, Kama Sutra, Penthouse Letters, etc) and the Gay and Lesbian books. That's all he looks at, he's usually there for a few hours reading. He slinks in and then kind of slinks out.

He's knows I watch him. I make it a point to walk by every-now-and-again and I let the management know when he has "graced us with his presence."

For a while, I wanted to punch the guy. He made me so angry that he was in my store, bugging our employees, and just being sleazy; my feelings have changed a bit. Now, instead of wanting to beat the living crap out of the guy, I feel almost pity. I feel kind of sad for the guy. He must be lonely. I don't know anything about the guy.

I've been thinking about him the last couple days when I've been driving home from work. I've found myself praying for him at night when I go to bed. He is a guy that is in the clutches of something. It is my fervant prayer that the Lord work in him and show him His Grace.

I'm not sure what I can say to him, particularly when I'm on the clock. I don't think my mental and emotional revulsion will allow me to say anything (that's my own Old Adam, I'm sure). So, I will continue to pray for him and watch him to make sure he doesn't bother anyone.

1 comment:

Genuine Lustre said...

Ewww. I'm sorry you have to deal with the sleazy side of life.

We have an adult bookstore at the highway exit to our town. Everytime I go by I see cars in the lot and guys going in or out and I can't help but wonder what their lives are like, are they ruining their marriages, where are the kids, etc.