December 23, 2003
Assaulted by Martha
During college, I worked as a bookseller at a national bookstore chain. All of the associates were instructed to push the store's discount cards onto customers as much as possible. The card cost a small yearly fee, but with a $50.00 purchase, it ended up being free. I absolutely hated selling these cards. Don't you hate it when all you want to do is pay and someone is trying to upsell you? Well, we hate upselling you. So we'e even.
One day, a man came in buying the new Martha Stewart Cookbook. This thing must have been 700 pages, fifteen pounds and $60.00. I asked him as I rang him up if he would like to have the store discount card, since it would not only be free for him, but it would take a couple of dollars off the cookbook's price. Suddenly he started screaming at me. He threw all fifteen pounds of the cookbook at me and stormed out the door. I was stunned and I started crying, partly from pain (that cookbook whacked me pretty hard!) and partly from shock.
The next customer in line (who witnessed it all) put her books up on the counter and sighed impatiently — she could care less that I'd just been the victim of assault with a domestic diva. I rang her up and ran to the back to tell the store manager, hoping she would at the very least offer some sympathy, or possibly even alert security. Instead, she handed me a piece of brown industrial paper towel to wipe my face and said, "Hey, there's no one on register. Get back there."
Comments
Ahh... memories. That's what the holiday season is all about.