2004-03-12 ~ 2:31 a.m.

STORE Manager Against The FORCE!

I joke with people about how BRE waves his little arm around like a Jedi Knight and gets people to do his bidding. More than a few of my friends, when in a buyer/seller situation think to themselves "What would [BRE] do?" (I swear I'm getting trendy little bracelets made.) I realized tonight how little of a joke it is.

Whenever he starts to haggle with someone, I usually just kinda walk away. I hate haggling. I HATE It. It's a part of shopping I can't stand. I despise Mexico for this reason. Tonight I decided to stay around for no particular reason, and the sight was truly one to behold.

Now, the situation wasn't really a haggling thing. There were discrepancies in what someone said they could get us for a certain price and what they were actually going to charge us. And, generally, when someone says they can do something, and then they can't, you can usually get SOME kind of discount. I mean, that's just the way neo-corporate America works, even I know that.

The issue was, the person who said they could get us something for this price denied that they said that they could get us THAT PARTICULAR something. We must have misunderstood. Our fault, clearly not theirs.

At this point, we had the STORE manager there. Generally, STORE managers *can* do something. That is why they are the STORE manager.

This particular STORE manager had already heard our story earlier in the day from the person who had insisted that we misunderstood her, and that she had never said what we were saying that she had said. And we could CLEARLY tell from the firm jaw that this STORE manager had decided that was how the story worked. He even said *more than one time* "You can pay for it, or we can refund the money you've already paid, those are your options."

Silly me. I thought that meant the discussion was over. In my world, the discussion would have been over. I would have started to get angry, hyperventilated, and probably would have yelled out the curses of my ancestors before agreeing to the refund and spitting out the good ol' standby, "FINE. I WILL SPEND MY MONEY SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

And that is why I would have failed, and apparently, that is not when you give up.

You just keep waving that little arm around, and I saw it happen. I saw the STORE manager's jaw clench even further, but I could still see the change. I watched how this STORE manager hated himself for doing it, but there he was, agreeing to a discount plus taking a fee out.

Truly amazing. If you ever get a chance, I do highly suggest being with him when he knows he's going to have to fight with him.

Four stars and 2 thumbs up. WAY up.

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