NTKOG #238 & #239: The kind of entitled diva who, on the sheer strength of her winning personality (ha) demands you free her from the laws that govern mere mortals.
I am: getting better all the time about being direct with my needs, on the basis that it never hurts to ask. That said…
I am not: above the law. Especially laws of conduct.
The Scene: A few of my local jaunts where, after eleven months, I feel just comfortable enough to cash in my regular status for a few obnoxious favors.
Obnoxious favor the first (aka: NTKOG #238): Making a mid-afternoon sanity run to the big-box convenience store near my work, I set out on a mission for a Fresca, for me, and a bottled Starbucks Mocha Frappucino for Co-Worker.
Scanning the refrigerated beverage racks, though, problem: the six slots for Starbucks goodies were stocked in a Siberian-white blitz of vanilla, vanilla, nothing but vanilla. Were the errand for myself, no problem, I would have picked something else. But you know how we always need to treat other people than we do ourselves, so, come hell or high water, I wasn’t going back to the office ‘til I was clutching an ice-cold mocha.
The store was completely empty, so I walked up to the nearest employee and explained the situation. He walked over to the refrigerator to confirm, then gestured impatiently: “There are lots of frappucinos! Lots! Just take one of those!”
But – but I really needed mocha. Could he possibly check the walk-in fridge to see if there were any boxes of mocha waiting to be restocked?
He rolled his eyes so hard I could see the eyeball stems, but I grinned sweetly at him, until he unlocked the freezer, liberated a box of mocha, and handed me one – frosty cold.
You know the funny thing, though? As he rang me out, I troweled on the thanks pretty thick (and sincerely!). The next time I came in, far from eye-rolling, the same cashier asked me right away if they had the flavor I wanted. Over the last month or two, he’s been uniformly sweet and attentive and, yes, even braved the huge walk-in fridge a few more times to placate my demanding caffeine fix.
I’m not sure what this tale goes to show, but if he and I keep up our solid rapport, eventually I’m totally going to ask him if I can sneak into the fridge myself so I can reenact the walk-in freezer scene from The Goonies in there.
Obnoxious favor the second (aka: NTKOG #239): After a Friday night of Beaujolais and 30 Rock in the apartment, developed a sudden need for Fresca and Junior Mints, so headed across the street to one of the two convenience stores in my local homebase rotation.
This one, I’ll admit, I’ve tended to avoid lately for one simple reason: the owner always seems too happy to see me. Whenever I stop in for a dollar-fifty soda or packet of M&Ms, he fixes me with a look of liquid gratification so intense that I’m immediately wracked with guilt for not doing the rest of my shopping there. The day I told him I was quitting smoking, he begged me to reconsider, or at least to buy more sodas to make up the revenue difference.
Which it’s somewhat reassuring to know that someone else’s finances are shakier than mine, the situation has become too emotionally fraught for me to readily deal with.
Nonetheless, it’s open a bit later than my guilty-conscience replacement store, so in I traipsed, hoping to make my tipsy purchase with as little eye contract as possible.
And who knows how well this would have gone, were it not for one little problem: in my boozy urgency, I’d only managed to grab a one-dollar bill, instead of the fiver I’d placed on the coffee table for this very purpose. Like the genius I am, couldn’t even cover one item of the $3.25 purchase.
Usually I’d apologize profusely, replace the purchases and sneak out. But dude, this guy’s given me more guilt trips than my friggin’ mother – we have a history! Surely I could ask him for one horrible favor.
“Um, I grabbed the wrong change. Is there – is there any chance I could give you this one now, then run back with the rest of the money?”
I expected any mention of possibly shorting his register to spark a look of shock or scorn, but instead he beamed: “Go ahead! Don’t hurry yourself, just go home. You’ll pay me back next time you’re in here.”
Early the next morning – a bit blearly and hungover – dug up that elusive friggin’ fiver, slinked into the store and dropped it by the register. Maybe it’s hush money, but hopefully it’ll take some of the burn off of my quitting smoking.
The Verdict: Gosh, aren’t people nice? I’m usually afraid to be direct about my desires and strange requests when I’m in retail situations, because I don’t want to be any excess burden to the employee. Although if I think about it fairly, people come to my job and ask for special treatment all the time and – on those occasions when I don’t have much else going on, or their demeanor has struck me just the right way – it’s an honest pleasure to be able to go a bit above and beyond to help them.
As my mother told me fifteen times a day growing up and I’m only now beginning to actually listen to, the worst someone can say is no. And, hey, sometimes you get a yes.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome. And honestly, I don’t think your first request was unreasonable at all. The employees are supposed to keep the fridge properly stocked, and if they don’t, it doesn’t take that much effort to go back and check. (This is coming from someone who worked in a store, and has had to do that as an employee many a time, except I was usually liberating 12-packs of beer. :P)
But it is nice to see that when you ask nicely, people will usually respond nicely in return. Yet again, you have made me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.
“Please” and “thank you” can take you far sometimes! That’s true!
Gotta agree with ReticentPurple (love the name by the way!) on that first favour – my philosophy is along the lines of “do you want to make a sale or not?” I’m not hesitant about asking to see a manager if I feel the sales person is being rude either. That said, I’d never have had the guts to ask for favour #2!
Eyeball stems.
Girl, you can write.
It’s amazing what people will do to be nice, isn’t it? Last Halloween, I convinced the staff at my local sushi place to lend me a uniform. They wouldn’t even hear of me cleaning it for them after I was done. Needless to say, I was quite a hit on Halloween :D
As others, case (1) you were just asking someone to do their job.
Case (2) is why I love what you call “Mom & Pop” stores and hate chains. I’ve done much the same thing with my local one a couple of times too; if these guys know you, they’ll trust you, and odds on you’ll repay their trust.
Maybe I’m the exception, but when I used to work retail I loved when customers asked me to check on a size or color in the back. Unless it’s totally swamped it was nice to have a few minutes pause from the folding or organizing I was usually doing to keep busy. Besides, at the end of it, you know someone got what they really wanted.
As for the second case, I guess a good rapport should never be underestimated.
Whenever I’m asked to do a favor for someone, I feel a little bit more important.. and that’s a good feeling. I have to remind myself of that when I ask someone else for a favor… And I def. don’t think you were unreasonable.
just a thought: we have a little over two weeks left on this epic blogsperiment of ours… WHAT WILL YOU DO – stay or go?
Skydiving this Sunday, btw… will be thinking of you. (and almost death-by-splat, but whatever)
SANDY! Sky-diving! I’m petrified on your behalf! You are far, far braver than I. I wanted to do it — I really did — then I realized that if I cried and swore my way through rock-climbing six feet off the ground, no WAY could I jump out of a plane…
Also, as for blogsperiment, definitely staying. There’s too much stuff left to do!