Encounters of a Beauty Advisor

Jenessa Gayheart
May 16, 2016
2 min read

On Electricity, How Much Charge Applied:

A customer came up to me the other day and said, "I'm from Virginia. I noticed the electricity pump for electric cars out in your parking lot. I've never seen that before."

I said, "Yeah, that's new within the year! Weird, huh."

"Right! We don't have them in Virginia. I was looking at it and trying to figure out how you pay for it and couldn't find a card reader or anything. Is there no charge?"

I looked at him, waiting for the sparkle in the eye that meant he was being funny. He wasn't.

I said, "First of all, I love the pun, that was great." His eyes darted to the side, thinking back to what he'd said. I didn't wait for him to get it. "Second of all, I have no idea how it works."

- He really didn't know what he was saying about the charge. Huh.

On CEOs, Natural Development of:

He was about as big as a peanut but was quite verbal about getting his Thomas and Friends toothpaste, which we had run out of. I issued his mother a rain check for the buy-one-get-one-free deal, but he wasn't happy with that and asked me why I couldn't get it.

He asked where else we could find it, and I said Fred Meyer's. He called them immediately with his fingers and asked them whether they had any. They had "some." Before he and his mother left, he called out to me to make sure I got the toothpaste in for him soon.

On Making an Impression:

She passed my counter at a quick pace, young and buxom, long pink fingernails, and wearing "around the house" clothing. My counter phone rang. From the ID screen I could see that it was the head register across the store where my coworker was standing, helping a friend of his purchase something. I answered.

He said, "I'm going to make that woman my wife."

I looked over and grinned at him, saying, “Not tonight, you’re not.”

I hung up as she approached my counter and bought fingernail polish remover.

Ahh... the vibrant mindless drive of youthful possibilities is so stirring. I hope he gets to actually meet her someday.

I told this story to my children, emphasizing the fact that ANYONE can have this effect on people. "There were only three people who saw that woman," I told them, "And yet now my coworker has probably told his friends about her, and someone halfway across the country knows what happened when she simply made a quick trip to Walgreens for polish remover because I wrote about her."

I told them, even if ONE person sees or hears you, it could still mean ten people have, depending on what sort of impact you've made. You might want to make sure it's going to be a good impact.