For the first time in my long tenure as a register jockey at the game store, somebody actually brought back what they stole. A kid had grabbed a bunch of DS games, and her mom dragged her back into the store and told me:
"I THINK MY DAUGHTER WOULD LIKE TO BUY SOMETHING."
I was like, whoa. You're new at this, aren't you? I've never seen an honest customer before.
Around the same time, a teenager came in with his grandma and was looking at used 360s. As we may remember from my super helpful guide, there are a couple different models of 360. The kid of course grabbed the cheapest one and came up to the register.
"What are you planning on using the 360 for?" I asked.
"To play games," the kid said, like I was stupid.
"Which games are you planning on playing?"
"I dunno."
"This model doesn't come with any memory or wireless internet capability- you would have to buy those separately. The next-most-expensive model comes with 4 GB of flash memory and a built-in wireless adapter, but some games require a full hard drive. The next-next-most-expensive model comes with a built-in wireless adapter and a 250 GB hard drive."
The teenager stared at me blankly.
"Ok, I'm not doing this," said Grandma. "Figure out what you're buying and come back with your parents."
I wanted to give her a high-five. THANK YOU FOR NOT BUYING THE WRONG THING AND THEN RETURNING IT BECAUSE I HATE THAT! YOU ARE MY HERO, RANDOM GRANDMA! I WISH EVERY CUSTOMER WAS YOU!
I like the good customers.
I also once had a customer who came back to return something that their kid stole. The girl (6-8 years old?) had walked out of the store with a stuffed animal and her dad made her come back in, give it to me, and then apologize. Why are good people (and parents) so rare? These people are the exceptions that prove the rule.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for reminding me of why I left retail. Never going back!
-Shira