That’s what the paint counter barista at Home Depot told me last night when I said (with a friendly smile),
“Thanks – have a nice night!”
I thanked her for mixing the beautiful paint that would punch up my tv table by several orders of magnitude, and she looked at me like she was in pain, mumbling, “thanks…I’ll try.”
Maybe she was. In pain, that is.
But assuming she just had an attitude problem:
Am I just old fashioned, or is it the #1 rule of retail to always fake a positive attitude? I remember when I worked in retail in high school, I always faked it till I made it. So what if I never made it? I kept faking.
And I faked and I faked and I faked.
When I had to be a Ralph by Ralph Lauren pusher even though I think that perfume smells like hot garbage, I smiled.
When I had to tell the old lady how bitchin’ she looked in every pair of doctor-prescribed-looking shoes, I smiled.
When I had to give unclean-looking people hand massages with Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion at the good ol b.b.dub, I smiled even though that lotion should have been called High Fructose Corn Syrup and gave me a headache.
It’s just what you do when you’re working retail. You fake cheerfulness. That’s why they pay you the big bucks.
But the thing of it is, I love paint. It’s a weird thing to say, but I do. And if I were a Home Depot paint counter barista, I would be high on life (and paint fumes). And having a good night would not really be much of an effort.
3 comments:
Is that what they're calling those Home Depot paint people these days? Baristas? BTW - I just bought some paint at the HD, so I know who you're talkin' about. She was a crankster. Actually, they were all cranky. Maybe it's because HD is going out of biz. My mom bought me some Ralph by Ralph Lauren because she thought that's what I wore, but I actually wear Lauren by Ralph Lauren. Ralph smells like Lysol shower cleaner. I'm sorry you had that job.
I just call them baristas, because if I were mixing paint at Home Depot, I would want that to be my title.
haahhaahha....I hate ralph by ralph, it makes me want to ralph. I worked with a girl @ Nordies who wore it in extreme quantities b.c she was a smoker and I wanted to gag everytime she came around. I have never hated a fragrance as much as I hate ralph by ralph lauren. really, I take personal offense to it. ohhhh and aqua di gio, it it ralph by ralph lauren for horrible sketchy guys, who are also forced to wear uncomfortable amounts of it so you can smell them coming from a hundred yards away. barf.
Post a Comment