A Clue
This afternoon after class, I went to various office supply stores in search of the cheapest price for an antivirus program. My journey took me to Sam’s Club, where I picked up a few supplies.
As I was headed down a main aisle, I noticed a small group of people gathered around a man. The man was giving a demonstration on a knife that will evidently outlive its owners in the sharpness category. My senses on high Scamboozle Alert, I paused several feet away from the group to watch him as he handed a hammer to someone in the audience so they could verify that it was, indeed, a real hammer. The gentleman verified the realness of the hammer and gave it back to The Demonstrator.
The Demonstrator then began to hack away at the hammer, stating that he wasn’t claiming that he would saw thru the hammer, but that he would create dust. Then he began hacking on the wooden cutting board after which he went back to slicing the tomato into small delicate slices. Sharp as ever!!
In the midst of the presentation, another lady that was, like me, standing on the outskirts of the group sidled up to me and whispered in my ear that the man was giving away a paring knife at the end of the presentation to everyone that watched and that I should stick around and at least get a free paring knife. “Well,” I thought, “I am Me, after all. And ‘if it’s free, give it to Me.’” I thought it was quite nice of the lady to clue me in on the free knife.
I watched the man as he kept adding knife after knife to the stash of knives on top of the table, all for the price of one knife that currently sells on TV for $39.33. He ended up with a pile of knives valued at $261 for only $39.33. At one point he said that he’d throw in an extra filet knife to the first 7 people in the group to throw up their hands. Not wanting to get left out, people were throwing their hands up all over the place.
I saw the women that clued me in slip up around the group in a place sort of behind The Demonstrator. “Ah,” I thought, “Isn’t she clever? She’s going to slip up there and pretend that she was highly involved in the group in the first place so she can for sure get her free knife.”
As The Demonstrator was finishing up his sales pitch, he threw into the pile of knives two more boxes of knives, just because he’s such a great guy. It turns out that anyone could have a filet knife because they were all prepackaged. How clever was it to get people to commit to buying knives in the heat of the moment of only 7 people getting them? Very clever, I thought.
As he went to give the first person their boxes of knives, Clue Lady slipped up behind The Demonstrator and picked up two of the boxes that he needed to finish out an order. “How nice,” he said, “A helper.” I thought it was quite bold of her, and my Scamboozle Alert went into overdrive.
I watched for a few more seconds and came to the conclusion that she wasn’t just a helpful bystander, but a part of The Demonstration. Disgusted at her for thinking I was too naïve to notice her shenanigans, I decided to let her keep her paring knife and walked away. As I passed by a few minutes later on my way to the checkout, my suspicions were confirmed as I saw the two of them hanging out waiting for their next round of eager shoppers.
Embarrassingly enough, I’ve fallen for a few high pressure sales pitches in my time. And I wish it was only for $39.33, but unfortunately for those people, I have developed a healthy level of cynicism. I hope Clue Lady didn’t take me as an easy target because of my religion, because what she doesn’t know is that under this white bonnet of mine exists A Clue! And I didn’t get it from her.
As I was headed down a main aisle, I noticed a small group of people gathered around a man. The man was giving a demonstration on a knife that will evidently outlive its owners in the sharpness category. My senses on high Scamboozle Alert, I paused several feet away from the group to watch him as he handed a hammer to someone in the audience so they could verify that it was, indeed, a real hammer. The gentleman verified the realness of the hammer and gave it back to The Demonstrator.
The Demonstrator then began to hack away at the hammer, stating that he wasn’t claiming that he would saw thru the hammer, but that he would create dust. Then he began hacking on the wooden cutting board after which he went back to slicing the tomato into small delicate slices. Sharp as ever!!
In the midst of the presentation, another lady that was, like me, standing on the outskirts of the group sidled up to me and whispered in my ear that the man was giving away a paring knife at the end of the presentation to everyone that watched and that I should stick around and at least get a free paring knife. “Well,” I thought, “I am Me, after all. And ‘if it’s free, give it to Me.’” I thought it was quite nice of the lady to clue me in on the free knife.
I watched the man as he kept adding knife after knife to the stash of knives on top of the table, all for the price of one knife that currently sells on TV for $39.33. He ended up with a pile of knives valued at $261 for only $39.33. At one point he said that he’d throw in an extra filet knife to the first 7 people in the group to throw up their hands. Not wanting to get left out, people were throwing their hands up all over the place.
I saw the women that clued me in slip up around the group in a place sort of behind The Demonstrator. “Ah,” I thought, “Isn’t she clever? She’s going to slip up there and pretend that she was highly involved in the group in the first place so she can for sure get her free knife.”
As The Demonstrator was finishing up his sales pitch, he threw into the pile of knives two more boxes of knives, just because he’s such a great guy. It turns out that anyone could have a filet knife because they were all prepackaged. How clever was it to get people to commit to buying knives in the heat of the moment of only 7 people getting them? Very clever, I thought.
As he went to give the first person their boxes of knives, Clue Lady slipped up behind The Demonstrator and picked up two of the boxes that he needed to finish out an order. “How nice,” he said, “A helper.” I thought it was quite bold of her, and my Scamboozle Alert went into overdrive.
I watched for a few more seconds and came to the conclusion that she wasn’t just a helpful bystander, but a part of The Demonstration. Disgusted at her for thinking I was too naïve to notice her shenanigans, I decided to let her keep her paring knife and walked away. As I passed by a few minutes later on my way to the checkout, my suspicions were confirmed as I saw the two of them hanging out waiting for their next round of eager shoppers.
Embarrassingly enough, I’ve fallen for a few high pressure sales pitches in my time. And I wish it was only for $39.33, but unfortunately for those people, I have developed a healthy level of cynicism. I hope Clue Lady didn’t take me as an easy target because of my religion, because what she doesn’t know is that under this white bonnet of mine exists A Clue! And I didn’t get it from her.
posted by Sharon @ 3:06 PM
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