andyprickett.com

I have, off and on over the past year, spent some time working inside of Best Buy and Circuit City stores. I work for a company that gets hired by big vendors like Panasonic and Toshiba to send ‘reps’ into the stores and ‘assist selling’ or just provide information. So, I get paid pretty well to talk tech with people.

So there I am, with my Toshiba shirt, and my Toshiba badge, in grey and black (remember, everything in Best Buy is blue), hangin’ out in the computer department. And all day long I am met with a stream of people who come up, look me over very carefully, even take the time to read my badge that says Toshiba, and then proceed to ask me a stream of Best Buy -related questions. Most of the questions are reasonable (where are the wireless routers?) Some are not (where are the Games? “underneath the giant blue sign hanging in the middle of the store in clear view that says ‘Games’). Fortunately, I know most of the answers. But, you should see their faces when they finally realize that I don’t work for Best Buy and can’t ‘ring them up’ for whatever they want. Some laugh. Some get pissed. But overall, they realize that they just wasted some time because they didn’t take the time to ‘meet’ me and figure out my scene, they just started barreling in with the questions.

Now, I understand that my presence there is misleading, and that I can’t blame them for thinking that I work there on first glance. But what about 17 glances later? An entire conversation? I try to head them off if I can with an “I don’t work for Best Buy,” but I’m usually just talking over them as they start airing their needs. And, needless to say, there are some interesting cultural differences between the way people treat retail workers that fulfill some very funny stereotypes. Which I love. Because stereotypes are funny, and largely true, whether you like it or not. I fullfil many, right this moment.

My first job (besides the junior high paper route) was like this, too. I worked at Disneyland, in the Merchandise department in Fantasyland. At the time, they still had the same cash registers from the 50’s or 60’s. Old, with the big typewriter type buttons and the spinning slot machine numbers. You had to add the tax in your head based on some small numbers that were underneath the big numbers. Anyways, all day long, in an endless stream, and in the summer a thousand times a day: “How much is this?” In every accent. With every inflection, from belligerent to self-effacing. The main item this was asked about was the standard, white Mickey sweatshirt. It was the biggest seller, and was all over the front of the stand. The catch? It had a giant sticker on the front that clearly said “$18.00″. Giant.

Eventually, this recurrent scene caused me to lose my mind. I had to quit, because I began to loathe the masses. Lost faith completely in the general populace. All my claims of ‘having a heart for people’ were losing ground as my thoughts turned to bitter disdain. Now, 20 years later, I’m tweaked by this way less. My understanding heart for people has actually grown, due largely to having to learn to accept myself and my own blunders. Remember, you become what you hate, so be careful what you hate. I have been the hapless consumer myself enough now to get some perspective.

But what does this mean on a bigger scale? Is this a metaphor for mass consumerism overall? Is this why most people like ‘bad’ music–they just aren’t…listening? Why movies that have ‘talking and stuff’ are boring? Are people plowing through life so fast and furious that they are blinded to the obvious? Is this why big corporations that ‘target’ certain ‘demographics’ have to strip things to such a low common denominator and literally shove it in your face over and over until you respond? Is this part of the reason that you will see two people cuss each other the fuck out in a parking lot over a parking space so they can hurry to get inside an overly crowded store to buy products they don’t know about for people they want to give the impression they care about all because the ‘Holiday’ no one’s allowed to call Christmas anymore has been commercialized to the point of non-recognition, when in actuality, nobody really understands its historical context but are operating on traditions that are very recent, historically speaking, and have little to do with Jesus anyways?

Sure.