Monday Night Shopping
Shopping on a Monday night is a rather dispiriting thing. The shops are mostly empty of customers, and the parking lots, always copious in America, are mostly empty too. It lends everything a feeling decline and one does not have to imagine too much to see the stores becoming derelict.
Inside is even worse, all the customers are off kilter in bad ways, wearing fashions from the 1980’s, baseball hats, many of them seem to have scars… In short, it is not a glamorous crowd that goes shopping on Monday nights….
Granted the environment, tonight was particularly harrowing as I had a tenacious computer problem (lame I know), and to save a lot of details it basically involved my computer dying, at least two returns of items that did not work, and the order of two items which were absolutely useless. Then, tonight, a resultant visit to two stores, before I finally met my salvation at my last stop.
My salvation was to be a sales assistant at a local computer mega-mart, having an afro and rather grown out goatee, he had the sort of face that hinted at perpetual joy, and a total absence of fear or guilt. This was a person that never watched T.V.
“Can you help me?” I said. “Is this your cart?” he replied as he was emptying out an abandoned cart of its items…no doubt one of the Monday night customers had decided to go be creepy elsewhere. “No” I said “I am looking to convert my old ATA hard drive to SATA” I said. “Oh” he said, a grin lighting his face “You da man, aren’t you?”..and then he walked off confidently, and I followed. Much discussion followed from there as to what I had to do, but I want to say this, he was competent, he was bright, he looked alive, he made it seem like he was waiting the whole night for someone like me to come along, so he could finally help me sort my computer ordeal out. He was like a light on the ignorance that had caused me such pain, he was like a cold beer at a dance competition, I wanted to hug this man, I wanted to take him out of this retail hell world, and into my world of tended office grounds, and cushy office chairs, and so much downtime you can read blogs. Later he told me that he had a day job at the post office, and this was his night job. That is when I caught on that he worked just for moments like these. He was the retail savoir, the last of the competent sales assistants in a world of ignorance and apathy. This guy actually cared. Our conversation ended, my problem was solved, “you da man” he said with a grin as he walked away, he really said that. No, I thought, YOU DA MAN!
Inside is even worse, all the customers are off kilter in bad ways, wearing fashions from the 1980’s, baseball hats, many of them seem to have scars… In short, it is not a glamorous crowd that goes shopping on Monday nights….
Granted the environment, tonight was particularly harrowing as I had a tenacious computer problem (lame I know), and to save a lot of details it basically involved my computer dying, at least two returns of items that did not work, and the order of two items which were absolutely useless. Then, tonight, a resultant visit to two stores, before I finally met my salvation at my last stop.
My salvation was to be a sales assistant at a local computer mega-mart, having an afro and rather grown out goatee, he had the sort of face that hinted at perpetual joy, and a total absence of fear or guilt. This was a person that never watched T.V.
“Can you help me?” I said. “Is this your cart?” he replied as he was emptying out an abandoned cart of its items…no doubt one of the Monday night customers had decided to go be creepy elsewhere. “No” I said “I am looking to convert my old ATA hard drive to SATA” I said. “Oh” he said, a grin lighting his face “You da man, aren’t you?”..and then he walked off confidently, and I followed. Much discussion followed from there as to what I had to do, but I want to say this, he was competent, he was bright, he looked alive, he made it seem like he was waiting the whole night for someone like me to come along, so he could finally help me sort my computer ordeal out. He was like a light on the ignorance that had caused me such pain, he was like a cold beer at a dance competition, I wanted to hug this man, I wanted to take him out of this retail hell world, and into my world of tended office grounds, and cushy office chairs, and so much downtime you can read blogs. Later he told me that he had a day job at the post office, and this was his night job. That is when I caught on that he worked just for moments like these. He was the retail savoir, the last of the competent sales assistants in a world of ignorance and apathy. This guy actually cared. Our conversation ended, my problem was solved, “you da man” he said with a grin as he walked away, he really said that. No, I thought, YOU DA MAN!