Wednesday, I was in line at The Gas Station Chicken Store behind two women buying scratchers. That hardly ever happens. They were buying tickets I don't buy, so it didn't affect my purchase. What DID affect my customer experience was a malfunction of the stapler.
TGSCS has an automatic stapler. I've never used one, but it looks like a little cylinder. They stick the winning scratchers, with a receipt of the amount of the win on top, into the bottom edge of the cylinder. VOILA! It staples them together. Wednesday, it did nothing.
The Smiley gal clerk was working. She left the previous customer's ticket and receipt laying in place at the stapler, and hollered back to the Man Owner, "The stapler isn't working." He came up front and lifted the drawbridge to get behind the counter, while Smiley continued my transaction.
VAL: "I would have just pounded on the top of it, to see if that made it work."
SMILEY: "I thought about that, but I remembered they [both owners] were in the store! I didn't want to get in trouble."
MAN OWNER: "We have a new one ordered. It should be in tomorrow."
SMILEY: "I actually prefer the manual one."
She put my winners and receipt into the end of a regular stapler on the other side of the counter, near the drawbridge part. A Swingline, perhaps. Like I'd used at school. Pounded it down. Worked like a charm.
SMILEY: "You have fifteen dollars, babe."
VAL: "I'll take the new Christmas ticket, and a Blues."
MAN OWNER: "Oh. Did I tell you the Blues ticket is now $5.25?"
VAL: "Only when I'M here, I guess!"
SMILEY: "Oh, I thought it was $5.50..."
VAL: "Of course. So you each get a cut!"
They're always pulling my leg at The Gas Station Chicken Store.
I don't understand people who pound the end of the stapler. I just press it very firmly, works just fine. But I've seen people put their papers in and whack it good and hard with a fist. If my stapler or any other stapler wasn't working I'd assume right away it was out of staples, which I keep a box of somewhere if the desk.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI agree. I would never pound MY OWN stapler. But a malfunctioning weird work stapler is fair game. I had the best stapler ever, a Swingline, that lasted at least 20 years. I even put my name up inside with orange construction paper and tape.
I had to steal it back from the Athletic Director at the end of one summer. The NERVE of him! He raided my desk to staple together the athletic handbooks. More likely, he had a STUDENT raid my desk. That's the down side of having the classroom closest to the offices. Outweighed by the up side of being closest to the teacher workroom with faculty restrooms.