Fooling Around at Fogarty's

It is one of the secret treasures of Port Elizabeth and you are now sworn to keep that secret if you are reading this.

If book fanatics hired a pirate and the pirate stored the treasure - then you have discovered it inside Fogartys' book store in Walmer Park shopping Centre, Port Elizabeth.

 Of course my kind of fooling around is looking at books. Each peek offers me a trip of great adventure that I would otherwise not be able to enjoy.

The treasure is not just in the pages, though they be enchanting in themselves.

 The collection of top class treasure is in the old fashioned values that are followed by the owner and the staff.

 The above picture shows the beautiful shop assistant Lindsey Nell doing her magic.

What prompted my desire to share this with the rest of PE and the world was an incident of unashamed eavesdropping that I engaged in recently.

I crept into my secret little bookstore the other day, intent on spending some time adventuring through numerous pages, when I noted a mature gentleman cuddled into the bookshelves. He looked like a skilled cuddler so I was tempted to ask him to cuddle in to me instead. Discounting that notion as possibly inappropriate, I was preparing to walk to the counter to ask a question of the assistant when he beat me to it.

It is not a large shop so overhearing what others say is compulsory. At least, this is what I reason to myself whenever I happen to hear other peoples' conversations. This is what he said;

"I think you have one book on order  and I will take this one today." He raised a book in the air and placed it carefully on the counter top. It was too obscured for me to see the title, so my curiosity remained unsatisfied. He continued, " This shop is great - you always respond to my every request. Whatever I want you find for me you do so. I have never had a problem and you always attend to me. Thank you." 

How often have you heard that in the last year, ten years?

What did the sales assistant reply? "Well thank you, that is our aim. We will always do our best to help you and get the books that you want".

So satisfying to hear. I am not making this up. I stood with my face turned away so they could not see my jaw so seriously dropped in astonishment. This is best service in action.

I could barely contain myself and rushed to the counter as soon as he left and said "He must be related to someone here or you must have paid him to say that"  No, she assured me, he was a regular customer with particular arty crafty interests and the staff enjoyed him as much as he appeared to enjoy them.

"Relish these moments"  I said to myself in appreciation. A small retail store that is threatened by several mega chain stores, is holding their own through excellent, respectful, caring service. These moments inspire me. I turn to them when I am feeling overwhelmed by bad news out there and in my own life. In fact, they sustain me. I basked in the mutual appreciations flying around the store and left buoyant and skipping. Actually, the old knees would not take the skipping, but you know what I mean.