I hate when a store attendant sees your collection of purchases and makes an obvious observation.  The one I get most common is during my monthly drink trek where buy 15-20 bottles of diet Mountain Dew and there’s a fair chance the clerk will say “thirsty?” coupled with a low chuckle.   Today, I purchased four bottles of drain cleaner of various stripes (I always pit the name brand against the generic) and some gala apples.  The clerk said “got a clogged drained?” followed by a chuckle to herself.  I slowly panned my head away from the magazine rack until I made eye contact and simply said in a low grumble “they’ll never see it coming.  I don’t need a bag for the victory apples”.  He jaw dropped a bit, but that could have been her normal slack-jawed repose.  I think I found a new generic response.

This Saturday, Zack Kantner and I went on a trek to find a new iPhone and at the first store found the wait to be 3 weeks.  At the next store, it was 10-20 business days or 2 to 4 weeks.  I visited a 3rd store after dropping off Zack and the third store it was 15 days.

Me: But the last store said they could get it in 10 business days?
Clerk:  Well, if they can get it in 10, we can get it in 10.  And we’re usually faster than the Newtown store so we can probably get it in 8 or so.  We might be able to get it in fewer days if you’re willing to wait.
Me: So if I wait, I might be able to get it faster than if I order it now?
Clerk: Yeah.  Wait till the rush is over.

Am I the only one who finds this makes no sense?