A Tale of Two Sales

While traveling through Europe last summer I got this gold crucifix in Vatican City but I never got a necklace to wear it with. Finally, over the weekend I decided to get one while I was at the mall getting my watch battery replaced.

The first store that I went to, let's just say that the name starts w/ a Z and rhymes w/ sales. One sales lady was busy w/ customers and the other, obviously bored had walked out to socialize with the one of the carts in the mall walkway. After waiting about a good 10 minutes with a neon flashing sign over my head that says "BUYER! INTERESTED! $$$" and boom box in my hand that's going "Cha-Ching! Cha-Ching!" you know, obvious signals, a girl that looks like just finishing her shift finally decided to "interact" with me and went to get the social butterfly.

How do I put this gently.... hmmm... she was TERRIBLE. She treated me with no respect at all. No hello, how you doing, no pleasantries at all. I don't know if it's because I'm a male in a jewlry store that maybe usually says I have no clue what I'm looking for, but I did tell her that I'm looking for a gold necklace. She said it in almost a snotty way: "This is all we have." She didn't really assist me in making a choice, as if I was interupting whatever juicy gossip she had going on with the Cosmetics Cart Lady about Food Court Boy or Cell Phone Contract Sales Guy, not even when I was struggling to put the necklace on and off and trying to find a mirror.

But I decided to get the necklace. It was 50% off, pretty good deal and I gave her my credit card to ring it up. This is after I told her the half of $380 is $190 and she double checked me on her calculator as if Asians are terrible at math, as if I'm terrible at math and completely not capable of taking the half of a easy even number. She asked me for my phone number for their customer database and when she couldn't understand me she gave me the best impression of a Long Island old hag with big hair of a "WHAT?" Think Joey's agent from Friends mixed with Janice.

I asked her about the store's return policy. Part of me, well actually, pretty much all of me knew that when I get home I'm going to think about this brief 10 minutes of the worst shopping experience in my life and get pissed off and come back and return the necklace. Finally, she handed me back my credit card, not in the traditional "Gentle Slide" or the "Here You Go" with my number facing me. No. She held my card, plam up, with her blood red nails, the opposite direction, half checking if she broke a nail during this laboring work.

"Excuse me, how long have you been doing this?"
"Thirteen years," said Joey's agent, almost as if she's proud

Estelle returns back to the cash register to get the slip for me to sign.

"You know what? Just forget it. I don't want it anymore."

Estelle gave me a confused look, wanting some kind of explanation. I told her what I think about the credit card hand off. She scoffed, as if that's the only reason I just stiffed her out of a 35% commission, so I let her really have it. This is a jewlry store for crying out loud. I expect some kind of service. If I was ordering a bowl of noodle soup from some street vendor in Southeast Asia it's a different story but this is just ridiculous.

I went into Store B, or Store "K"... if you know what I mean. A young sales guy saw me and asked me if I needed any help and proceed to give me just that. While the price he quoted me was higher than Store Z I didn't mind it at all. He even did a little assumptive closing on me by asking if I'd like to join the K-Member Club and save on future purchases. I joked with him that if I knew I was going to propose to some girl soon or if I was a rapper I would, but for now I'll just take the neckalce. I asked the young guy same question I did earlier at the first store when he's ringing me up.

"I'm still fairly new. I've been doing this for about three weeks."
"Well, if you ever make it over there to Store Z on your next break you should thank her for your sale here"

And that's that.