Reaching New Tea Totals

I walk into my favorite tea shop in the early afternoon and am greeted by the owner.

Owner: “Well! Glad to see you… You’re our seventh customer today!”

They’ve been open since nine am.

Me: “Well, you’d better get your restroom breaks while you can. You know what happens when I come in.”  

We’ve been joking about how every time I come in, they immediately get slammed. The owner’s husband replies as he goes into the restroom.

Owner’s Husband: “You snooze, you lose.”

I get a cup of the tea they’re sampling and then go about picking out my teas to refill my stash as we chat.

Just as the last of the shop’s staff goes into the restroom and the owner’s husband is weighing and bagging my tea, the door opens and two groups come in — about seven people.

The owner helps one group and her employee helps another. Several more groups come in.

By the time I’ve been there for twenty minutes, the shop is packed. People keep coming up and asking me about various black teas.

Customer: “Thanks! I will get all these. Can you ring me up?”

Me: “Just take it over to the register.”

Customer: “But we want you to get the credit.”

Me: “I’m sorry, I don’t have a register login because I don’t actually work here.”

Customer: “Oh! I’m sorry!”

Me: “If it bothered me, I would have made an excuse and escaped!”

I was doing that for over an hour. When everyone finally cleared out, they had made more than $1,500 in that hour! They’d been under $100 when I walked in.

They gave me my tea for free; they said I’d earned it.

This story is part of our Best Of April 2021 roundup!

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