I stopped at Fry's Electronics earlier this week between dropping kids off to preschool and getting into the office. I needed to check some pricing on an item or two I'm considering as something for my Christmas Wishlist. Now, for anybody not familiar with the "Fry's Experience", it was perfectly captured on the internet some years back in the guise of this humorous yet painfully accurate employment application. The thing about Fry's is that you can't go in expecting anything in the way of reliable service or advice. You just hope to find what you need at a really good price and be prepared for everything but a smooth experience doing so.
As I was exiting the store, the Door Nazi they have positioned at the exit doors, poised to jump and wrestle to the ground anybody that fails to provide a receipt for their bagged purchases on the way out, regardless of it's being completely illegal to do so, allowed me to pass without being detained, as I held no items as I walked out. The woman walking behind me was also not in possession of anything, but from her response to the statement by the clerk at the door, she'd had a typical Fry's experience. Perhaps she'd had to go through 5 different salespersons directing her to yet another until she'd gone full circle. Perhaps she'd struggled with trying to ask a simple question in simple English and somehow get a clear and simple answer. Or perhaps, poor thing, she'd actually attempted to return a defective item for a refund.
Whatever the case, for 9.10am on a Monday morning, there was a surprisingly long line at the registers, so much so that even the most seamless of Fry's experiences could go horribly awry after being forced through the cattle pen that is the checkout line.
As we exited, the clerk at the door said "Have A Nice Day" to the woman behind me. Her response was a curt and irritated "Oh, I Will NOT!". So, it seems, she was pissed off at her retail experience with the electronics superstore.
But what struck me as odd was if she'd somehow expected her snappy retort might accurately convey her dismay or make any significant point. I'd understand a reply like "It can't get any worse than my morning here" or "I was until I got stuck in a line for 30 minutes"; but "Oh, I will NOT!"? Just what does that mean? That leaving Fry's means the rest of the day is nothing but downhill? Or that the day ahead can, in no way, prove to put the grind of a Fry's experience into perspective, and of lesser importance?
It just goes to show that snappy responses need to be well thought out in advance, or you might stumble over your own ineffective "Oh, Yeah?" without said preparation.