Sunday, October 23, 2011

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

I call him “Copenhagen® guy”.  He’s in his late 40’s or early 50’s, chews Copenhagen® tobacco and has a serious Napoleon complex.  Although he doesn’t come in often anymore, he’s been buying his tobacco at the Chevron since before I started working there.  And he’s always arrogant, condescending, rude and impatient.

The other day he struts in and commands “4 Copenhagen pouches.”

There’s only one tin up in the display, so I look under the counter to see if there is any more.  I grab a roll of what happens to be Skoal® pouches, not recognizing the difference since they are both brown and I don’t chew the stuff.

“Those aren’t pouches” he barks at me.

Looking at the roll in my hand, right to where it says “Pouches”, I respond with “what?”

“Those aren’t pouches!”

“Says ‘pouches’ right here.”

I his best condescending “are you too stupid to understand what I’m saying” tone, he replies “Not Copenhagen pouches.”

“Oh, not Copenhagen, now I see what you meant to say.”  I wanted to say “Well, why the $*&# didn’t you say that in the first place?”, but I knew that I was going to ruin his day by having only one tin anyway, so I just let it go.

He bought his one tin and stomped out, dissatisfied with our store once again.  Dude, if we suck so bad, why do you keep coming back?

On a lighter note, here are some pictures I took that same day, of the evening sun shining on the Wasatch Mountains.

And one final picture I just took a minute ago, that was just too cute not to post.

3 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

Gorgeous mountain shots. :)

21 Wits said...

I believe Mr. Copenhagen Man needs to take a drive up and check out the lovely views of your mountain sides...maybe that will cheer up his mood, that and if quit chewing he might feel better...or not! some people just like being bullies! I'm impressed with how well you kept your cool too, not always the case these days!

Max Sartin said...

Lisa - thanks.
.
Karen - What he needs to do is take a long drive on a short pier. :) As for keeping my cool, 16 years of teaching Junior High has honed that skill.