Two work anecdotes to share, both from customers who came in the store today.
A woman came in early this morning. “I need that new Smackdown game,” she said with an uncertain tone in her voice. “Smackdown versus Meat.”
“Smackdown versus Meat?” I repeated, not quite sure what I’d heard. “Would you possibly mean Smackdown versus Raw?”
“That’s it!” she exclaimed.
Okay, someone had raw meat on the brain.
The other craziness came later in the afternoon.
A grandfather came in with his grandson. The grandfather had an avuncular look to him–jowly, a little heavy, thinning hair, but a face I’d say had a happy look to it. He brought me three games–NBA Live 97 for the computer, and two games for the PlayStation 2, NBA Live 06 and Star Wars Episode III. “What’s the difference between these?” he asked.
“This one,” I said, taking the NBA Live 97, “is a game for the computer, so you’d play that on a personal computer, while these other two”–pointing at the two PlayStation 2 games–“are game you’d play on your PlayStation 2 console.”
“What’s that?” he asked. “A PlayStation 2?”
“It’s a video game console that connects to a television.”
The customer turned to his grandson, who was standing about fifteen feet away playing the demo of Major League Baseball 2K6 in the store’s XBox console. “Josh! What do you have at home? Do you have a PlayStation 2?”
The grandson, Josh, said nothing, intent on the baseball game.
“Josh! I’m talking to you!” The more the grandfather yells, the more pronounced his Brooklyn accent becomes.
Again, the grandson says nothing.
“Yo, Josh,” I said loudly, attempting to get his attention, “what games do you have at home? What do you play?”
At last, he turns and looks at his grandfather and me. “I’ve got the Mario baseball game…”
“You’ve got a GameCube,” I said.
“…and the Mario fighting game…”
Super Smash Brothers. “That’s GameCube.”
“…and Mario Sunshine…”
“He’s got a GameCube,” I said to the grandfather, hoping that Josh would stop his list of games.
But no, Josh continues reciting games. I shook my head. He would name a game, and it would be, like the others he’d named, a GameCube exclusive title, and I’d say quickly, “GameCube!”
Eventually Josh ceased rattling off the names of the games he owned, and at that point I was able to help his grandfather find games for Josh’s console. Even though Josh was pretty certain that his GameCube did not, in fact, work.
Sigh.
ahh yes, the joys of working retail, i remember it well.
me, working at a record store and a customer who has just asked for a song i had never heard before.
me – i’m not familier with that song. what kind of music is it.
customer – it’s people singing with music in the background.
yeah, that narrows it down…