Around and Around

Customer: I'd like to order a book
Me: Okay, what book would you like to order?

The customer tells me the book and I look it up. It's not really old but it has gone out of print.

Me: I'm afraid it's out of print. I won't be able to order it. You should check with the used bookstore though, they may be able to get you a copy.
Customer: But it's not very old.
Me: Nope, it's not very old but it has got out of print already. It just means that I can't order it new from the publisher. There are probably lots of copies out there that the used store will be able to find for you.
Customer: But there are lots of older books you can buy. Not all the books on the shelf are new.
Me: They're not necessarily newly written but all our books are new books. We buy directly from the publishers so if something is out of print we can't get it anymore. It doesn't mean that a new book wasn't written a long time ago, it's just that this particular copy has not ever been sold before.
Customer: So you don't have any books that are old.
Me: We don't have books that are used. We do have books that were written a long time ago.



You can see the repetitive circle we went around and around and around in....... I'm not sure if you ever understood what I was saying or if I ever answered her question.....