I am Brain Dead and Easily Amused...

[lagilman]

In other news:

-- I have fallen victim to the netflix side of the force. Maybe some day I actually will be caught up on all the movies I've missed.
-- I adore this weather. Bring on the cold! It's snuggling Time! :-)
-- the holiday insanity has begin, based on the number of people who were shopping (and buying blindly) at the place of occasional employment today.

"I'd like a wine."
"Okay. Do you know the name?"
"I don't remember... it was a red."
(thinking: well, that's a plus) "Merlot? Pinot noir? Cab?"
"Merlot. I think. But I don't remember the name."
"French, American, Australian...?"
"I odn't remember. I'm pretty sure it was red, though."
"Do you remember what was on the label?"
"No... but I'll know it when I see it."

We carry, um, a LOT of wines. A LOT of merlot. And wineries change their labels -- sometimes mid-vintage. At this point, you simply smile and say "if you need me, I'll be over there" and escape gracefully. Because what are you going to do?

And it beats the folk who (I kid thee not) come in and say "I want a wine."
"Okay... red or white?"
(puzzled look.) "I don't know."


*headdesk, scurry off to commiserate with co-workers*

Right. Back to the real work.

Comments

[debg.livejournal.com]

And it beats the folk who (I kid thee not) come in and say "I want a wine."
"Okay... red or white?"
(puzzled look.) "I don't know."

Only sane answer is a vague broad wave at the shelves, and a cheerful "Rock out, pal."

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I reminisce about my days owning a bookstore, and then I remember questions like, "I'm looking for a book, but I can't remember the author's name, but it had a blue cover with a woman holding something, like a candle, or maybe it was a sword. Do you have that?"

*headdesk*

Wines, hunh. You'd love my mother and sister as customers. I've actually witnessed them in wine stores asking, "I'm looking for a wine. Doesn't matter what, really. Well...actually, do you have any with really cool labels or that are really unusual shapes?"

Yes. That's the way they pick wines. Sometimes it works and sometimes... one can only cringe, but at least the label's cool-looking! Damn artists.

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Netflix is a joy and a delight. We are finally, if slowly, working our way through decades of movies that we kept thinking we would see some day. And now we can. I always seem to have forty or so movies in queue, and there are always three in the house to play with.

They also have lots of documentaries and concerts available, and that's enormous fun.

Finally, I can put stuff like Elizabethtown, that I know I will never see in a theatre, in the queue when it comes out, and it will turn up eventually.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

*headdesk, scurry off to commiserate with co-workers*

I'll take an order of *headdesk* x2 please!

On the flip-side, I've been prompted by wine specialty store employees to buy a significantly higher priced bottles ...what they didn't realize is that I was armed with nose and palette of wine snobbery +2. Sorry kid, you won't see me walk into a wine store and ask for, 'your most expensive pinot please'. *sigh* who's raising these people?!
-=Jeff=-

[debg.livejournal.com]

You haven't lived until you've worked in a guitar repair shop and had a guy walk in with a vintage Les Paul, worth - conservatively, and this was thirty years ago - five thousand dollars, and ask if you can "make it sound yellow".

[a-vogon-poet.livejournal.com]

You had the "blue cover" customer too?! She's a patron at my library along with woman that calls and asks for the book about which she knows nothing except she just saw it on Montel this morning.

"It was just on! You didn't see it?"
"No, I'm sorry. I was at work."

*g*

[lagilman]

Normally we get an even number of "I don't drink wine, my wife/partner/mother/son sent me to get something, help me!" buyers and "I had a chardonnay that was really good at dinner last night, it was buttery and soft" buyers. The former you can sell almost anything too, but it's not enjoyable. The latter type are joys, because you can actualy turn them onto things and teach them about what they like, and why.

Enabler? Moi?

(we don't work on cmomission, so I don't care what $$ of wine I sell them, so long as I think it's good and they'll like it and come back)

We also get the "do you have a 2000 Stag's Leap Cabernet" buyers, who are a both a joy (low stress consumers!) and a pain (most of them don't want to try anything new, they want what they've had before, or what's gotten a 90+ WS review). But they're a smaller portion.

Oh, and then there are the "I want a sweet red wine for dinner" types. "Maneschevitz, aisle eight" and keep on movin' folk, nothing to see here.

[lagilman]

See my comment above -- we don't get paid on commission, so I don't care how much money they spend per visit so much as I want them to think "hey, they steered me right on this wine" and come back. I'm already developing a clientele who come in and ask specifically for me. The boss notices things like that. :-)

And hey, most of them know I write, too. Have already exchanged cards with one bookstore manager, one librarian, and a reporter...

Re: Customers

[a-vogon-poet.livejournal.com]

I so feel your pain! Library patrons are just as bad. You know that myth where people who go to the library are quiet and enjoy reading? Just a myth. I spend most of my time faxing documents and explaining the copy machine and/or Internet to 80-year-old Southern women. It's a fun time. *l*

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Heh. Reminds me of the time I went into our local wine store (which has a REALLY knowledgable guy behind the counter) and offered the stumper:
"I've been invited to a celebration of the Jalapeno harvest. What wine goes with Jalapenos?"

Because part of the harvest celebration was a blind wine tasting, where we all decided what wine really DID go best with jalapenos. (The answer, in case you're wondering, was the german name that starts with a G and sounds like a sneeze -- I know how to say it but no idea how to spell it)

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

I so need to go to Manhattan sometime so you can teach me. See... I canNOT drink wine. I get migraines almost instantly. Red AND white. I've TRIED. (sigh) So I've no idea what a good wine is, how to buy, anything. And I'm FINALLY at a point where people are coming over for something to gnosh and sip... and not out of plastic cups.

Eeeee.

I'd be one of those people.

[lagilman]

Gveurtztraminer, which I'm probably misspelling. Goes great with spicy Asian foods, so I can imagine it would work with Mexican as well. Although what works with Mexican, I've decided after years of trying, is a dark beer.

[lagilman]

Sounds like you might have a sulfite allergy. Try drinking very young, fresh, more fruit-forward wines (nothing aged!) and see how that works. (all wines have sulfites, but the more they ferment the higher the concetration, I've been told. Some folk, though, are so sensitive they simply can't drink wine)

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Erp! I hope that didn't come off as me accusing you of ye olde wine bait n switch. I couldn't work in most customer service or specialty positions without making faces at folks...
Have already exchanged cards with one ... and a reporter...
Did he have a mild-mannered appearance and insist on changing in telephone booths? ;)
-=Jeff=-

[lagilman]

Erp! I hope that didn't come off as me accusing you of ye olde wine bait n switch.

Nah, no fear. But a lot of folk do wonder, so I figured I'd be up front on the reality.

I couldn't work in most customer service or specialty positions without making faces at folks...

What makes you think we don't? If someone says something totally inane or pointless, eyes will roll. And IMO anyone who holds themselves on higher moral ground needs to walk around with a mirror held to their face during normal daily interactions before they start tossing rocks...

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Alright, alright, I can take a hit. *adds mirror to shopping list* The things we're taught while talking over/about wine. :P

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Wines, teas, and a chunk of cheeses used to set them off (and you do NOT want to know what champagne did to me (wince))... that is until I developed this lovely lactose intolerance. Bleh.