tell me the truth.

Tiffany with the parking meter

it is amazing to me how many people just lie right to a person’s face, and don’t think twice about it. yesterday was just another example of someone straight lying to my face.

this has happen quite a bit with people needing change for the parking meters, they seem to love to hit up my store for change. at least 3 times a week someone comes into my store asking if i can make change for the parking meters or for their bus fare. i now have a rule that i will only do a dollar, because seriously i can not lose that much change every week. i don’t have time to go the bank that often. 

i once had this guy come into my store and tell me that he needed $20 in quarters because the laundry’s coin machine was no longer working, and he needed to do laundry and didn’t want to drive or walk to the bank. i told him i was sorry, but i couldn’t afford to lose that much change and he slammed my door. 

some just ask and others give elaborate tales of how they are needing the change so they can shop in my store when it is so obvious that is not what they are going to do. so i listen to their tales and then watch them run out the door and hop onto the bus yelling “sucker” to the wind. 

or they’ll do what i refer to as the “curiosity lap” because since they’ve told this lie they need to at least pretend they mean it, so they’ll walk around the store not looking at anything and head straight for the door and out to the bus or wherever they were planning on going when they told their story and traded it for change.

its odd really because it isn’t as though i demand that. it isn’t as though my change has “The Pajama Squid Only” written on it. i just wish people would be honest with their intentions. working in retail i have seen plenty of people do this at the other jobs i have worked at and know that it is fairly common for people to lie about.

so yesterday was no different but it just really left me amazed at this woman. she came into my store and said i need change for the parking meter. i said sure i can make change for a dollar. then she paused and said well i need more change because i plan on spending a LONG time in your store. to which i responded well, i am sorry but i really can only give you a dollar’s worth of change. she said well is there a place that will give me a lot of change, and i said well i guess you can try the convenience store they might be better equipped then i am. 

so she said okay, and then as she left said to just keep up with her story, that she would be right back to spend a LONG time in my store. 

she got her change, came back to the car loaded it into her meter and i never saw her again. except for the 5 times she walked past my store to go the other directions she was always planning on going. 

she looked straight ahead or i would have given her a little wave as she past. the bay windows do not lie i am afraid.

i don’t know what to really make of it honestly. it left me pretty annoyed while i was grocery shopping last night. i just kept thinking of her “LONG” time and wondered how it was possible to just look at me and say that when never intending to do that.

oh well i’ll leave it to another day and have contemplated adding a string to my quarters that leads right back to the store, so that all those that wish to lie to the squid will feel a tug on their pockets and watch as that quarter slips between the doors of the bus or gracefully leaves the meter and lands right back into my hands.