Tea and a Book Café

As you enter the store you can instantly hear country music playing in the background, which is a different mix of music from the last time I was in the little café. Business is slow in the café today as well as the bookstore. Upstairs in the bookstore the employees are keeping themselves busy by putting books away. The café employees are busy cleaning the little café, and one female employee continues to wipe down the tables in the café.

In the café, there is only one gentleman who has a laptop open and doing homework. He does not have any food or drink near him. Chatty Cathy to the right of me is busy talking loudly to a friend over the phone. She purchased no food or drink, but sat in one of the smaller tables in the café. There is a young couple at one of the tables, Romeo and Juliet, who seem to be having a casual date, and Juliet continues to blush throughout the conversation. Juliet purchased an iced tea and Romeo had an iced coffee.

The next table over sat a family of four, which both children appeared as college students. The mother and daughter sat by each other across from the father and son. The females had iced teas and the males both had canned drinks one being Red Bull and the other Peace Tea. The family after sitting for five minutes packed up and headed out. Over to my right, Chatty Cathy decided to wrap up her conversation, and also left the café.

From my seat I can see the customers in the bookstore; one man in particular is holding his little princess in one arm while roaming the store for a NMSU t-shirt. Two college students both female enter the store and go upstairs to look for books. Both happen to be wearing their hair down with jeans and lace tops, one blue and the other white.  After picking out some books the girls return downstairs to purchase their books at the customer service desk on my left, which happens to be the busiest service counter in the store. Once their books were placed in a plastic bag the young women headed over to the café and purchased two iced teas, picked a table with two chairs, and began to chat.

Another set of college students, both female, enter the store and are on a hunt for cute clothing. Both seem to be having a splendid time looking around the clothing department with big smiles on their faces. A male college student enters the store with his Ray-Ban sunglasses on his head. He goes upstairs for a while then he returned downstairs and repeatedly walks around the clothing section. An older woman walks into the store and appears grumpy. She walks around the clothing section, selects a navy sweatshirt and instead of purchasing her item at the customer service counter she decided to purchase the jacket at the café area.

Apparently, the line of two people at the customer service counter was too long. After purchasing her sweatshirt, Grumpy gills immediately left the store.In the bookstore a father and son, both wearing red shirts and jeans, were walking around the clothing section of the store. The son appeared in his mid-20’s and the father was middle aged. The son had already purchased an item from the bookstore, and his father seemed occupied with the NMSU themed hat selection.

Overall, the environment of the entire store including the café was quiet and business was slow. The vast majority of people wore jeans with casual shirts. The age group was mainly people in their early 20’s except Grumpy Gills, who happened to be the oldest customer. The left side of the store was the busiest since customers entered from the left side of the store, and also purchased their items at the customer service counter on the left side. The service counter to the right was unoccupied. Today customers seemed to be in a friendlier mood compared to the last time I was at the store. Many of the customers would smile or say “hello” to other customers as they passed by.