When A Kind And Merciful Bystander Unlocks The Solution
I work at a big box store where I am the key person. I cut keys; whether it’s regular house keys, auto keys, or general keys, I’m your gal. I’ve got two machines: one that is super easy to use and one that’s a little older but still extremely trustworthy.
It’s an average Tuesday morning, somewhat gloomy in my small corner of the world, and my keys desk has been somewhat busy. Everyone is out doing renovations and determined to get keys for their new doors and whatnot. Unfortunately, I’m moderately grumpy, but I still have that retail chipperness.
A woman comes in, and she’d like some keys. Sure! No problem! I’m the wizard of the keys.
While my machine is aligning the keys and cutting, the customer starts looking in a basket I have on the front of my desk. In that basket, I have description tags for keys in packages of five. She finds a single tag and sets it in front of me.
Customer: “And I’d like this, please.”
One, I don’t sell the tags individually, as one can guess, and two, I can’t cash out anyone at my desk. Thus, I inform her of such, and I am met with a dead-eyed stare.
Customer: “But I want this one.”
Me: “I understand, but like I said, unfortunately, I can’t sell you that one. I believe someone pulled it out of its product packaging.”
The same dead stare.
Customer: “But I want this one.”
Ma’am.
Me: “I understand that, but unfortunately, I do not have a product code to sell you that one, and I can only sell them in packs.”
The largest sigh in the world, followed by:
Customer: “But I don’t need all of them! I just want this one!”
Y’all, I nearly lose my mind and end up just staring at her, so confused.
But there’s a happy ending! A customer behind her picks up a package of tags.
Customer #2: “I’ll sell you one for a dollar.”
As if sensing my complete and utter loss of emotions, this customer came to my rescue and proceeded to buy the whole thing, selling the first customer her SINGLE tag while she was still going off about how I couldn’t sell her one of them.
