Monday, January 21, 2008

The Tortured Artist

I stopped by DeSerres (the arts & crafts store) after work because I was in need of some sheets of coloured paper and there was nary a business supply store to be found. Nevermind the fact that I was doing this as a favour, or the fact that I ended up having to was like 3K from one side of the mall to the other, I had offered, an I was happy to get away from my end of the mall/take a field trip.

I approach a woman measuring an ugly poster for framing and I stand, within eyesight, off to the side, waiting for her to look up and ask me if there's anything that she can get for me. Normally in the context of working in a store, if someone is standing in front of you waiting it generally indicates that they'd like to ask you a question (thus necessitating that you take a step down off your high horse).

She looks up at me, and quickly looks back down, so I clear my throat and ask her if she knows where I can find coloured paper that I would be able to run through a printer. She immediately cuts me off and holds out her finger to silence me and asks me to wait a second (because you can't go back to measuring something) and flatly stats that I need to go to Staples.

'I know' I quickly reply, 'but that's not really an option because there isn't one in the mall and I need this stuff now'. 'Well this is a craft store', she counters, 'we don't really sell bulk paper. How many sheets do you need, hmm? 5...10...20...?'. 'Not sure', comes my response. 'Well you need to know' she says huffily 'because this paper is really expensive and it's not going to be worth your money. You really just need to go to Staples' she emphasizes again.

I finally just ask her to show me where the paper is and let me be the judge of just what's 'too expensive' and she complies, but not with adding (under her breath) that it would be a waste of time, and that maybe if I were making wedding invitations or something it would be a good choice but not just for posters. She half-heartedly showed me the paper again emphasizing the excessive cost and stared at me expectantly, almost waiting to interject an 'I told you so' when I finally admitted defeat. 'And I can't guarantee that it won't bleed' she said. I've never had that problem before I replied and she spat 'Well that probably because you were using printer paper' before I could even finish my sentence, once again.

I left feeling somewhat defeated and annoyed because she was being such a wretch about something so inconsequential. I could kinda understand her pain because I used to have to regularly talk girls out of buying snowboards based purely on the pretty graphics and more based on what kind of terrain they'd be riding. But at the end of the day, if someone plops down the $800 for the Forum/Luxirie collaboration board I'm going to sell it to them - of course not without showing them other boards that might be more appropriate for their skill level/wallet-friendly. But I can't tell you not to buy something based solely on the fact that you have no idea what you want, unfortunately.

I conferred with The Pansy, which is who I was buying the paper for anyways and she just told me to pick up a couple of sheets now, and that she'd get more at school on Monday.

I paid for my purchase, silently vowing to avoid DeSerres for all my crafting needs.

The funniest part about this exchange that you'd probably guess by the immature tone that the sales associate took that she was just some insolent high schooler, but sadly that wasn't the case. This woman was easily pre-menopausal, and most likely the manager.

2 comments:

Rae // theNotice said...

Ouch! The last time I was there, I absolutely *adored* it: the woman that helped me was really sweet, and the notebooks I ended up buying were gorgeous.

(Also, I stared at the pretty brushes for like, five minutes, and none of the sales associates bugged me. lol!)

Pandora Wilde said...

Some people just shouldn't be behind a counter--what the hell is the deal with telling someone to go to another store? What a bunch of crap.