I’m not sure about you, but I love to hear about projects people are working on. We get to hear about a lot of those projects where I work and every once in awhile customers will bring in something for “show and tell.” We’ve seen quilts in progress, finished quilts, scarves, beaded earrings, purses, tote bags, cross stitched items, table runners, napkins, embroidered items and receiving blankets just to name a few. It’s so fun to see how incredibly talented our customers are and I usually tell them how much they inspire me to try new things.
With all of that being said, last night one of our employees had a “show and tell” that held a unique surprise. I can honestly say it was a bit different than any I had witnessed thus far and I suppose it was wrong to laugh when my co-worker was telling me about it but it was rather funny. Before revealing this unique surprise I am going to tell you a little bit about the unique customer that brought the “Show and Tell.”
Her nickname is “Smiley.” Apparently she was given this name by one of the employees before I started working there so I don’t know the whole story. It took awhile before I even knew who they were talking about so one day I had someone point her out and here is what I observed. She doesn’t smile….AT ALL!!! She usually comes into the store about 15 minutes before we close with about an hours’ worth of shopping to do. Almost everyone cringes when they see her walk in the door and they whisper a message into the microphone on their headset to warn all of us when Smiley has arrived! One day she called asking about fleece. Nobody likes to take her calls so they put her on hold and ask if somebody will talk to her. The day I took her call, it was a Saturday around 2 pm and on Saturdays we close at 6 pm so everyone knew she would come in if we had what she was looking for and they feared she would stay until at least 6:30. I’ve worked retail for 30 years so I’ve seen a lot of “Smileys” in my day and I had a plan. I told her we had exactly what she was looking for and that she had three hours to get to the store before we closed at 5:00. I figured this would get her in the store at least and an hour and 15 minutes earlier than if I had told her we lock the doors at 6:00. Upon hanging up the phone I heard an eaves dropping co-worker burst into laughter. She thought my plan was great and much to our surprise, it actually worked!
It was Smiley that brought a “Show and Tell” last night and she shared it with the gal at the registers. After she left my co-worker said, “Yeah, Smiley brought one of the blankets she made for her cat in to show me tonight. It was pretty nice. She had a crocheted edge all the way around it and she did a nice job. The only thing that sort of turned me off was the blob of dried cat puke on it. I don’t think she knew it was there but when she saw it she started flicking it off and the dried bits were flying all over and landing on the counter. It was sort of gross.”
Would this not make you laugh? Okay, maybe I was tired but I laughed and I think I might finally know why there’s a gallon jug of hand sanitizer sitting on the counter near Register Number 1!