The Fine Art of Missing the Point

I work in a high-end art supplies store. We carry many items that are high quality, hence not cheap or inexpensive at all.

I’m ending my shift and saying goodbye to my colleague (I’m also in a bit of a rush) when I see a lady looking at me like she needs help immediately, so I decide to go see if I can rapidly help before going (always a mistake!).

She points at her daughter, a girl who could be at most twenty years old, and loudly says:

Customer: “SHE has to find a gift for her father-in-law! He paints!”

I start showing them a beautiful handmade sketchbook, it’s a great item, beautiful gift, that is usually much appreciated when I receive that kind of request, it’s the “go to” option which I use to convince people immediately, but she’s not listening to me. 

She points somewhere else.

Customer: “How about those pencils?”

Me: “Sure, these are watercolor pencils, and the price is [price].”

Customer: “Wow! That’s a lot! And are you sure they are watercolor?”

I almost start to laugh and say:

Me: “Well, yes, we do use these every day. I can show you how they work.”

The daughter, very embarrassed, says:

Customer’s Daughter: “Mom! She works here, she knows!”

Customer: “Well, you never know… and what is that thing?”

Me: “That is a watercolor set with a watercolor tin by [top brand]. Price is [three times the pencils].”

She is appalled.

Customer: “WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?!”

I explain that quality goes with price and the watercolor tin alone is half the cost of the set. She can’t believe it.

She then points to a luxury wooden box, with even more pencils in it than the previous set.

Me: “Well, ma’am, that is [higher price].”

Customer: “Oh my God! They sure didn’t look that expensive!”

The daughter looks even more embarrassed, of course, and I start my spiel again about professional quality, materials, and so on, but she’s not convinced.

At a certain point, she starts telling my colleague and me, who want to save me and send me home, that she used to come in all the time, but the shop was different.

Customer: “When did you open here?”

Me: “Seventeen years ago.”

Customer: “Impossible, I used to come here ten years ago; it was a different shop, with a different name.”

We are honestly speechless; the daughter is even more uncomfortable and tries to take us back to the real purpose of the visit.

Customer’s Daughter: “So, tell me more about the sketchbook.”

We go back to how beautiful it is, how it reflects our history, and it’s usually very much appreciated by artists. The mom is still blabbing about the fact that the shop had a different name and we are surely wrong, because she used to come in ALL THE TIME.

At this point, I find a way to excuse myself and leave them to my colleague.

The lady is nice, just very oblivious, and tells me she noticed I was in a rush and let me go.

In the end, I was told they decided on the sketchbook.

While they were paying, my colleague repeated that it’s all handmade.

Customer: “Yeah, yeah, it’s beautiful and everything, but nowadays we know that everything is MASS PRODUCED!”

My colleague facepalmed, and the daughter dragged her mom out, while she was still asking herself what the name of the shop was ten years ago, because she used to work ON THE SAME STREET and used to come in ALL THE TIME!”