The failing and desperately flailing corporation that owns my no longer favorite video store persists in its belief that the way to save itself from impending bankruptcy is to have its minimum wage and commission-less employees badger customers into buying junk at the last minute before checking out their movies.
The assumption you’re faced with whenever you go in there now is that while you may have thought you wanted to spend five bucks to rent a DVD, what you really wanted was to spend ten dollars to rent the DVD and buy a couple of boxes of Dots, two bottles of lukewarm Sprite, and a packet of Orville Reddenbacher popcorn, because as you know ‘most every kernel pops, to go along with it.
A while back, I had the manager put a note on my account warning the clerks not to try to sell me anything.
The guy ahead of me tonight didn’t have a note like that on his account.
“Would you like some candy to go with your movie tonight?”
“No, thank you.”
“For five dollars you can get two boxes of movie theater candy, two bottles of soda, and a popcorn single!”
“No, thanks. Just the movie’s fine.”
“We’re also offering pre-sales on Alice in Wonderland. Five dollars down will reserve your copy.”
“No, that’s ok.”
“Have you heard about our Rewards program? It’s a great way to earn free movies. Only fifteen dollars for a year!”
“No, thank you. I only want to rent the movie.”
“Do you like to play video games?”
This exchange began to seem familiar. It was reminding me of a conversation I’d heard before. Then it dawned on me.
It was this:
I didn’t go back and rent Young Frankenstein, because we own it.
But I did buy some Dots.
So the badgering works.
Posted by: actor212 | Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 07:11 AM
Badgering, no. Guilt? Like a charm. I like the clerks at that store and I feel bad for them having to do this because their jobs depend on it.
Posted by: Lance | Friday, May 21, 2010 at 10:36 PM