Today a man came to the counter with a small triangular clock. I thought he was going to be a simple customer. Boy, was I wrong.
First, he wanted to know if the clock worked. I pulled a AA battery from a drawer behind the counter, popped it into the clock, and showed him how the second hand began moving. He was pleased.
This fellow was somewhat flighty and was very conversational. Thus, while I was about to ring up his cheap-o $1.99 clock, he asked me if we ever had sales on our leather jackets. I told him that we did, but I had no idea when such a sale would occur or what type of discount it would entail. We actually have lots of leather jackets, but they don't sell too well--which I find odd because I think we have some very nice jackets at decent prices.
Anyway, I told him even though we did not have a sale going on right then, he was always welcome to make an offer on a jacket and we could see how far down we could knock the price.
This excited the man.
There was a specific leather jacket he had in mind. He informed me that the price was originally $29.99 and that he would take it in a heartbeat if it was $15.00. I told him that if he showed me the jacket that I could talk to a manager about the price.
The jacket he showed me was in very good condition. It was genuine leather and very soft. I didn't care too much for the design, it was retro in all the wrong ways and looked like a biker wannabe jacket that was also trying to be respectable at the same time. The designers were clearly confused about what they wanted to do with that cow hide. Anyway, the man repeatedly asked me if it was a man's jacket. I assured him it was (even though there was some doubt in my mind of the jacket's concrete masculinity) and took the jacket to a manager. His response was that we would sell it for $21.99.
I brought the jacket with the adjusted price back to the customer and he persisted that we should sell him the jacket for an even $20. I refused, he nagged, I continued to refuse. I told him twenty-two bucks for a jacket was a steal and that he would never find one that cheap ever again. He agreed that he probably wouldn't, but continued to whine about the price.
Eventually, he decided to try on the jacket, but as we did not have any full-length mirrors, he was unsure about how he looked. He then took off the jacket and told me to model it for him--so he could see what it looked like when someone was wearing it.
I obliged with many feelings of awkwardness and turned around for the man a couple of times. It was kind of fun. I'd never been asked to model anything for anyone before. But it did the trick because after my little catwalk turns, the man exclaimed "Sold! You should have been a model!"
After quickly removing the jacket, I began to ring up the man. As I was doing this, he repeatedly asked me if I could sell the jacket for $20. I replied that I couldn't and assured him of the great deal he was getting. Eventually, he gave in and told him that, after all, 22 was his lucky number. I responded that it was fate he was getting such an amazing jacket for $22, after which the man began to hound me to throw in the $1.99 triangular clock for free. I gave him twenty cents off instead. What a cheapskate.
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