I talked to a mean phone lady, and it was just like every other day

The other day, a nice grandma was in the store buying birthday presents for her grandsons. One of the things on their list was "an Xbox 360 hard drive," which as we all know from my helpful guide, is different depending on which model 360 they have. Typically, extended family who's buying gifts are pretty understanding about my needing more information to sell them the right product. She calls her daughter to ask what Xbox they have. She clearly wasn't getting anywhere, so I asked if I could talk to the mom directly.

"Do you know what model Xbox 360 you have?"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" Charming. I went in to my list of questions.

"What color is it?"

"UH. BLACK."

"Does it have a built-in wireless internet connection?"

"WHAT?"

"Can it connect to the internet without using cords."

"WELL, I ASSUME SO, SINCE THEY'VE BEEN PLAYING ONLINE," she said nastily.

"Ok. That means you have the slim model, and it requires an internal hard drive." At this point, I'm talking to the mean phone lady and the grandma in the store. "The internal hard drives are $129.99. If you're looking for a less expensive option, you can also use USB flash drives."

"THAT'S UP TO HER," phone lady snarled. I handed the phone back. The grandma talked to her daughter for a little while about the options, and decided to go with the expensive hard drive. She was happy that she bought the right thing, thanked me, and left.

I hope for her kind and patient self that her grandsons are less snotty than her daughter is.

IT'S PRACTICALLY HERE

We just finished hiring all the seasonal people.

Christmas is coming.

I love Christmas, but people get a wee bit irrational the closer we get. And this is the first console launch I've worked, and I've been told that once we're sold out, grandmas will be crying at me all the time. Cool! My grandma would never cry in a store for a video game. If I asked her to wait around in stores to buy me one, she'd be like, "Um, no. You already have too many toys. Go play with your hoop and stick," or something, because my grandma is hardcore.

Anyway.

Last year on Black Friday, we were doing a sale on used games. Sometime in the morning, an elderly woman wandered in because she'd heard about the sale. Ladyboss asked if she could help her find anything.

"THESE ARE ON SALE, RIGHT?" She held up some brand new merch.

"Actually, the sale is only on used items," ladyboss explained. The woman shouted:

"I DON'T WANT ANYTHING USED!" and threw all her stuff on the floor. As she was flouncing out of the store, she turned, looked at ladyboss, and growled: 

"You better shape up."

Ladyboss waved and said:

"Have a nice day! Merry Christmas!"