links

Monday, January 30

serving

During the eve of cny or even the day before, i've been on the sales business inwhich i'm selling clothes to people. Those who know me well will know why, i wouldn't elaborate.

I've sold items which add up to thousands of dollars throughtout the day and served more then $100 customers. Most of them i've forgotten how they look like, nevertheless there are a few which gave me very deep impressions.

1) One of them was the middle age lady who i served two yrs ago. She was wearing black with blue jean material shorts. She came to me to buy a pair of westen pants at around 9pm during chinese new yr eve.
Her hair was messy, her face seems older than she should be, tired and worn out. The black shirt and shorts of hers were old and torn and dirty. In another words she was really poor. Of cos as someone who is doing sales we will recommend the most expensive goods we have first, and so i offered the $100 type pants to her. Her face immediately saddened. From what i inferred, it was too expensive for her. Nonetheless, she seemed deperate to buy a western pants.
'Its for my husband' she said sadly in chinese,'i'm buying for him for chinese new yr'
At that time, ours was the only shop that was in the district which was open.

Feeling sorry for her, i brought her to the shelf which sold pants at great discount. I can see her beaming with joy when she knew about the orginal price and the price it was selling. Eventually she choose a nice black westen pants. She digged into her pockets and took out the notes, it seemed to me that that was all she got.

I was filled with both joy and saddness then. All she wanted was to buy her husband a pair of pants for cny. Its rather hard to describe the effort this lady had made to choose a perfect pair of pants for her husband. It was so late at night and the lights were weak, and there she was scanning each and every pair slowly and carefully one by one. Spending away all she had just for her love.

2) another of them were an old couple. Don't know if they were the same one, but i've served one two yrs ago and another few days ago. Can rmb the exact description but the things they had done were exactly the same.

it was also at night then, an old couple in their 70s or 80s (i cant really tell, but they were really very old to the extent that walking was a tedious task for them) came to buy shirt. Both couples seemed rather poor as well. I couldn't bear myself to sell expensive goods to them so i referred them to the cheaper ones straight. The old lady (both times) slowly picked the shirt of her likings and unwrapped it then laid over the man's shoulder to see if it fits.

As a salesman, we always recommend people not to unwrap the goods as this a) we will need to wrap the goods up again if the customer doesn't wants it b) will not look as new upon repacking.
Nevertheless, seeing the difficulty there were having in unwrapping as they have no hands to support themselves while doing so, i unwrap the plastic case willingly. While doing so i was thinking, 'why were these old couples shopping alone so late during cny eve? don't they have reunion dinner? where were their childen? dont they have a child to bring them around?"

Despite all those negative thoughts i had about them, i was rather happy for them, 'at least they were together.' They were already so old and they were oout shopping at night together just to buy something new for the yr for each other.

3) Lonely man.
Few days ago, he was one of my last customer for the yr. Wearing grey shirt and short.
When i first hear him talking (in chinese), i thought he was midly retarded or something as its as thought he has difficulty in his speech. It was only when i start to have long conversation with him regarding what type of shirt he wants, he unconsciously started speaking quickly in dialect.
For sure, he is not well educated. He speaks simple chinese, having a hard time to say the word "tight" in chinese. He knows i don't really understand dialect and yet he couldnt resist the urge of speaking out his thoughts. I had no choice but to try my best to make out what he was saying.

I dont think he is married or has a family. 'He shouldn't be here alone if he possesses either of those' i thought. He reminded me of another old man who shopped alone moments eariler whom i dare not serve as he seemed glumpy and sad and doesnt speak my language at all. That man was poor as well, he likes specific brands and colours and size. I had a hard time in searching the shirt he liked. Finally found one he liked, he wore it straight. He was wiggling inside it so happily, commenting how comfortable it is and how much he liked the shirt. Rather hard to imagine a man in his 30s or 40s doing such actions.

Certainly, that guy is a sad and lonely person, little things make him happy. Will i be like him?

|[ zofz | 2:11 AM ]|