The Sad, Sad Tale of Mr N64
Many moons ago, back when i was a student, I worked Sundays as a Sales Assistant for a famous stationary and entertainments chain.

It was about 8:30am and the store had just opened that moment. Myself and a fellow assistant were standing by the comper games section, where he was informing me that the managers had decided that the stock room was being cleared out, many a treasure had been discovered, and would be put on sale.

One of the prized items found, was an N64, mint in box. The other sales assistant proceeded to point out another member of staff had resereved this little treasure. The entire conversation was held at little more than a whisper, as we were supposed to be working, and were instead, like all good assistants, slacking off.

To my surprise, two minutes after I had decided to go back to pricing something, HE showed up. He was in his mid-thirties and most likely still lived with parents. He was known to all of us in the entertainments department, as he had once brought several playstation 2 games and proudly boasted that he would not unwrap them as they would depreciate in value.

Anyway, he grabbed my attention and calmly asked whether or not he could buy the N64 that I had just been talking to my colleague about.

Rather than asking if he had been stalking me, as there was no way he could have heard that conversation, I apologised and informed him that it had already been reserved by another customer and was not for sale. At this he simply said "Ok, not to worry!".

What proceeded after that, was the most anal behaviour I have ever seen by anyone. Period. He went around the ENTIRE store, asking EVERY single member of staff what the stores policy was on reserving items for staff. He when into heated discussions with the manager and supervisors. Hounded servers at the till points causing some rather awkward queues.

Eventually he left the store.

About three hours later he returned. He had been around every other local store that had be open to bug every other member of staff in the surrounding area about how staff were allowed to reserve items for themselves. He presented several handwritten pages of what other sales assistants and managers had said to him. At this point he was pactially crying about buying this N64.

Luckly (probably the one time I've ever appreciated having a manager in store)we had one of our new and younger managers in; she wasn't one to stand for this sort of crap. She had him escorted out of the store, and told him in no uncertain terms that if he ever caused a scene like this again, he'd be banned.

And thus, the legend of N64 Man passed into sales assitant lore.
( theoriginalsteve <this space intentionally left blank>, Fri 5 Sep 2008, 8:56, Reply)