Saturday, January 31, 2009

Marshall's? Really?

I went shopping today and decided to check out Marshall's. As I'm walking towards the door, a young couple is entering the store, the woman first, and the man holds the door open for me. Now I was just far enough away that it required the just-more-than-a-jog speed to not make him wait too long. But it's a nice gesture. As I was about to say, "Thank you," he asked how I was. I ignored the question and went with my original statement. But as we entered the store, we had the following conversation:

Him: "Do you live around here?"
Me [mildly confused]: "Yeah."
Him: "So you must work in the area, too, right?"
Me: "Um, yeah, I work at the College."
Him: "Oh, are you a professor?"
Me: "No, I'm a post-doc. I do research."
Him: "Oh, really, in what?"
Me [exceedingly bored at this point]: "Physics."
Him: "Wow, that is interesting. Do you like it?"
Me: "Yeah." [I'm a great conversationalist.]
Him: "Do you think you'd be interested in something else or perhaps something on the side?"
Me, realizing what is now happening: "No, not really. I like what I'm doing."
Him, not to be deterred: "Well, the reason I'm asking, see, is that I'm starting a small financial business here in the 'burg and was looking for some good people who may be interested."
Me: "Ah, well, thanks anyway."

He then proceeded to still introduce himself and a few minutes later I overheard him going to some other dude and doing the same thing. Now, seriously, if you were starting up a real business, would you be finding randoms at the local Marshall's? I felt violated and had to hide behind clothing racks until he finally left the store.

by Topher at 3:00 PM |