Business Sense

You can file this under "automation destroys independent thought" or under "customer service is dead," as you choose. I ran my mother to one of the huge office supply stores (the one where you can purchase staples). She & Eldest Weed searched for a new wireless router. I noted there was a terrific sale on school supplies -- boxes of 24 crayons for 25¢, 5¢ folders, marble composition books 2/50¢ (and St. Jerome's requires 1/subject). So, though I hadn't planned it, I did my back-to-school shopping right then.


As often happens with such sales, there was a sales limit. Crayons: 25¢/ a box, limit 3. But see I have 4 children, so I loaded 4 boxes into my cart. At check-out, the following conversation occurred.

Nice young clerk, very politely: Ma'am, you can only buy 3 boxes.
Me: I understand I can only have 3 at the sale price. Just charge me regular price for the 4th.
She, still polite, but as if to an imbecile: There is no regular price. These are on sale. You can only buy 3.
Me: Surely the limit is on the sale price. Are you telling me I can't buy a 4th box at any price?
She: You can only buy 3.

It was like a mantra. If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have given Eldest Weed a quarter and had him stand in line behind me for the 4th box of crayons, but I was so flabbergasted by the inability to think, I just took my supplies and left. I purchased for $40 what ordinarily would have cost $150, so I'm not mad, just amazed. And still in need of one box of crayons.