The Bigger The Company, The Harder The Fall
Anyone who works in a convenience store with prepay for gasoline knows that every customer thinks they are special and shouldn’t have to prepay for their gas. Some think their status as a “life long” customer makes them too important to have to put up with prepay. Others will tell you how much money they are worth. Some will tell you their religious inclinations. Still, others will tell you how good a friend they are to your mother. The only consistency is that each and every one of these people will drive off without paying for gas. What’s worse is that unwary clerks, not wanting to fight with them, will turn on the pumps without making them pay first and let them do it!
This week, a customer in my store decided to make my life difficult while I was making a new brew of coffee, and lectured me about why he shouldn’t have to prepay. “Do you see those red letters on that white truck out there? Do you know what those letters spell? Those letters spell HALLIBURTON! Do you know that Halliburton is one of the largest companies in the world? I think they can afford to pay for the gas I put in their truck,” he grumbled, sucking on the wad of Longhorn Long Cut Natural rotting away at his cheek.
“Come here, I want to show you something,” I told him, leading him back to the sales counter. “These are drive offs from people who somehow convinced my clerks that they were honest, just like you,” I told him, pulling the most recent slip from the wall where it hung above the cash register.
“Yeah, so what?”
“Do you see those letters on the top of this slip? Do you know what those letters spell?”
He read slowly, his face turning red as his argument fell to pieces in his balding head.
“Yep. HALLIBURTON. Now, are you going to give me your credit card so I can turn on your pump?”
“Fucking assholes,” he whispered, shaking his head as he handed me his credit card and turned to stomp back out to his truck. “Someone always has to screw it up for everyone else!”
My sentiments exactly.
Wisdom
