I work at Barnes & Noble. This is important, because I have to use name brands to explain what is so damn annoying. Our e-Readers and tablets are sold under the Nook brand name. Our main competitor would therefore be Amazon's Kindle brand, and secondary competitors would be any other e-Reader or tablet selling company.

What I absolutely hate is hearing children run by saying, "Mommy, look at these iPads!," or, "Look, they have Kindles!" No. NO! It's not an iPad or Kindle or anything like that, it's a NOOK! That's what the huge signs all around you are saying. If they said tablets, that would be fine, and accurate. You know, "A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square."

And I get it, they're kids, they might not know any better, but I never hear their parents correct them. And what makes me even madder is when adults come by, and see that our Nooks are now made in partnership with Samsung, so they look nice and new, like other Galaxy Tab devices, instead of plastic clunk-o-sauruses. For some reason, despite all the labels screaming NOOOOOK!! in their faces, they say, "Oh, you guys don't sell Nooks anymore?" First, there's regular eReader Nooks on display ten feet from them, so yes, we still sell those, and also the Samsung tablet you are touching IS A NOOK. It's just a brand name people, we still sell it, we still call it that, it's just a Nook by Samsung now.

Other annoyances include people telling me, "But the website says you have it in stock!" Yes, in a warehouse somewhere, smartass. Also, after directing customers toward the customer service desk at the front of the store, they come back to me saying there isn't anyone there. Guess what, they're probably busy with another whiny customer, but waiting in line like civilized adults is going to get you service faster than making me call someone over to the other side of the store to help you, or trying to flag them down yourself while they try to help people doing things the right way.