Two weeks ago, I stood at the counter of the store where I usually buy my beauty products, waiting. I did not have to wait, really, I could have had one of the other sales clerks attend to me. I decided to wait on the clerk who normally serves me because she is engaging – she goes the extra mile to try and find what I want or recommends a replacement if its not available.
I have often wondered how much she earns, standing on her feet all day. If her employer realizes what a treasure he/she has and how many customers remember to say thank you to her. I wouldn’t be surprised if when I went there next she was no longer there. I can imagine someone else who runs a similar enterprise offering her a better position with more pay. I hope too that her sales clerk job is a stepping stone to greater things. She would do well in public relations.
But back to my wait at the counter; the sales clerk was attending to a particularly picky customer. You know the type that wants to see every brand, compare all the prices, read all the labels, look at several different products. Often, such customers eventually leave the store without buying anything, which I suppose is their right, if the range of products available does not suit them. However, in this case the customer did make two small purchases. But she left without ever cracking a smile and without saying thank you, although she had been served with the utmost patience and goodwill. Perhaps she was just having a bad day, I thought.
A week later, I had to ring a certain public place for information. I prefaced my questions by saying that I required information. The person on the other end of the line was short, almost to the point of being rude. As I persisted, though my hand itched to put the phone down, she (it was a she) changed tactics and spoke to me as though I were four years old. As I listened to the tone of her voice, I could visualize the expression on her face, even though I had never met the woman.
When I finally ended the call, I chose to laugh. I could have easily been annoyed, but I thought ‘why let this person who you have never seen determine your mood?’ I laughed it off.
My telephone call for information occasioned a visit to the same office the next day. I wondered whether I’d be able to recognize my phone friend as it is not a small office and I had not taken a name. It was not difficult.
As I sat waiting the telephone rang and I turned to look at the clerk who answered it. To my surprise, I recognized the picky customer from the store. And not only that, although I could not hear what she was saying, I knew she was the one I had spoken to. There was hostile body language (hand on hip and tapping feet); rolling of the eyes and grimacing. Exactly what I had envisioned during my telephone conversation!
As luck would have it, when it was my turn to be attended to I ended up in front of that same clerk.
“Good morning,” I said, smiling. “I called yesterday concerning this [proffered my document] and I believe you were the person I spoke to.”
She took my documents, looked at them and said, “No, it wasn’t me” in the same voice I had heard on the phone the day before. She then attended to me, without once looking me straight in the eye and did not acknowledge my “thank you, so much” at the end of the transaction.
As I left, unbidden sympathy welled up in me. No one could be this sour all the time without good reason. Perhaps, she’s just having a bad year…
(thescene@stabroeknews.com)
