Prince Books & Coffeehouse

Margaret (I think she is the owner) was kind, friendly and welcoming! She also was wearing the most fabulous dress made of book fabric. It was iconic and fantastic! Prince Books had a nice selection of best sellers, fiction and non-fiction as well as a cute little children's book corner. I appreciated the fact that they had beautiful editions of classics and other pretty books. In addition, they had a whole section dedicated to ocean/sea life as well as local history to Norfolk and Virginia. During our visit, there were quite a few people that came in the shop which was fun to see. You can tell it's a local bookstore for many frequent visitors who want to support small business.

I visited Prince Books for the first time today, and fell in love! A beautiful, well organized store with a wide variety of books, including some I've been wanting for months and hadn't found in chain bookstores. The employees were kind & knowledgeable, and gave me recommendations for a few other authors based off what I purchased today. I'll be back very soon, to buy up their entire fantasy section!

I found a job posting for Prince Books on Indeed. I filled out an application there and was referred to a skills test. I completed the skills test and received a message saying to come in in person. When I got there, the woman behind the desk gave me another application to fill out and informed me the owner wasn't going to look at the online portion. Two of the employees and a customer were unmasked nearby on a record-setting day of the Omicron wave of Covid as I filled it out. After applying twice, completing their test, and showing up in person, they filled the position with someone else without a word. What a disrespectful waste of my time/effort. I will say the woman behind the desk was masked, helpful, and seemed thrown into the middle of this by the owner. I saw her politely dealing with two other applicants who had been put through the same thing while I was there.

Owen, Mandy, and Sarah were and are all true lovers of listening and excellent employers of present-focused communication. I will appreciate them each again in the future dull, difficult, and aggravating logistical moments of life where people are often not as clear with their communication. Sometimes, it is just nice to not be manipulated, or professionally strung along when you've lived your whole life having that happen to you even at home. Thank you for helping me to see via my practice -- that life is funny enough all by itself without a habitual people-pleasing need to tell jokes all of the time for people. (That may or may not be a thing I am recovering from, in my pursuit of getting people to tolerate my existence) I wish you all the best in your careers, and I hope that you're able to conquer and reconquer your fears -- which are often only tiny little anxieties that we think we have forgotten, like the fear of asking someone what their name was, again. It's strange how a handshake (or exploring someone's interests, or both) in nine years of retail could've been the missing beat that helped us remember the names of so many regulars before. Rest well and try not to listen only to what others think you should or will become -alexander

I have ordered quite a few books here. One book I ordered arrived damaged. They ordered a replacement copy. I chose to purchase that damaged copy and they gave me a 10 percent discount. They went out of their way to be accommodating and make sure I was happy. I really enjoy this bookstore and stopping in the restaurant to eat and read. It's a really fantastic place.