Dealing with the uninformed

[RooJay]

My favorite is when one of the "uninformed" tries to start a conversation with me by making small talk like "I saw Star Trek when it first came out..." or "I LOVE Spock! He's my favorite Star Wars character!". I've gotten that kind of thing a lot from girls trying to flirt so I usually have had no choice but to go along.

[SithDroid]

You guys will all love this one. I used to work in a video store for about 4 years and a girl that worked there came up to my manager and asked, "Who is Darth Vader?" Needless to say it was hilarious for a couple of reasons. First of all if you haven't heard of Darth Vader then what rock have you been living under? And second we worked in a VIDEO STORE !!!!!!!!

Oh, boy she never lived that one down.

[Jargo]

Dear God icatch9, you work in one of those infernal cubicles!!!!!? you have my deepest sympathy and thank god you have star wars to think about while you slave away in those soul destroying cubicle camps. you are so much better off than that empty headed worker sitting in a cubicle thinking about kittens. At least there's a spark wizzing round inside your head that means you're still alive and free thinking and creative and....... that woman with nothing to think about kittens is just gonna go mushy in the head and no wonder she states the obvious because she's lost the power to think for herself. She has nothing interesting to say so she talks about your interest - or attempts to. Envious and a little bit scared no doubt. Envious that you dare to be so bold with your poster and your sticker of exciting images and bold colors. And scared because it threatens the sanctity of her safe little world of pink and flower fairies and kittens and fluff - empty headed fluff.................

I tried to interest my mother in star wars but she looked at me as if I was growing a penis on my head and walked away. She refers to it as my "star wars thing" the hobby - not the hypothetical penis on my head........ moving swiftly on, I think the only way to deal with people who aren't star wars initiates is to smile and cont to ten while slowly walking backwards and away from them. Anybody who isn't a star wars fan is a nobody and not worthy of attention. Store assistants who don't know their arse from their elbow are common to every store and the norm apparently so just take a deep breath and explain your wants and needs to them very slowly and in words of no more than two syllables and several times over so they can manage to digest what you say one word at a time. :happy:

And the way to stop being bothered by people is to blind them with ceaseless knowledge of star wars in a huge monologue of facts and figures that will so bore them to tears they'll drop the idea of ever asking again. Either that or just deny the fact

"me - a star wars fan? No - Actually I prefer The teletubbies..."

[Dar' Argol]

Originally posted by EMPEROR JARGO
"me - a star wars fan? No - Actually I prefer The teletubbies..."

I knew it! The new season is being filmed near your place, isn't it JARGO jk

Two tales from Wally World. One SW, one not.

Non SW
I was walking up to the front of the store b/c I was on lunch and I was hungry. I was in front of the frozen food coolers and this customer comes up to me and asks,
"Where do you keep your fish sticks?"
Now how she knew I worked there is beyond me, I don't wear a vest (b/c I work in the back), and I do not look like a regular employee. But I digress. Without thinking at all I blurted out,
"In my freezer at home."
I relize what I just said and fear grips me. I am normally(whatever) a nice person. Expecially to customers, no matter how dense they are. Just about that time she starts to laugh. Whew! She then said,
"I guess I did phrase that the wrong way, where are the fish sticks. But I like your answer."
I could not believe I let that fly out like that, good thing she had a sense of humor.

SW
I was walking from the break room when I saw Bobby, one of our receivers. He says to me,
"You seen the new trailer yet?"
"Yep", was my reply.
"Did you know that alot of the guys who were in the original trilogy are coming back to do the new movie?"
"Really!?", I said sarcasticly(sp)
"Yeah, I read somewhere that Anthony Baker and Kenny Danials are in it again, but they weren't in Episode 1."
"What about Alec Ginness(sp)?", I said holding back a laugh.
"Yeah, he is. I think they said he was playing the bad guy this time."
"Ohhh . . . . ", I said as I quickly walked to my work area. When I got back there I told the guy I work with about this encounter. He knows a bit about SW and does have an intrest in it. He gives me this "three headed look" and says,
"Alec Ginness, he was Obi-Wan right?"
"Yeah", I said inbetween laughs.
"He's dead right?"
"Yeah", my laughs are getting worse.
"Jackarse" he said. And we both erupted into histerical laughter for about 5 or more minutes. I had tears running down my eyes as I was trying to tell him!

Ohhhhh. I'm laughing still, thinking about it

[Deoxyribonucleic]

Originally posted by Dar' Argol


Now how she knew I worked there is beyond me, I don't wear a vest (b/c I work in the back), and I do not look like a regular employee.

I know this is off the subject but I had to share our experiment...because we figured out how freaky customers know you work at a store even though you have no markings saying otherwise....
Ok OK OK....I tested this one out as an experiment. I also work in a back room of a Barnes and Noble and dress casually as the customers do...clothes wise, there is no way to tell that I work there...this is how people know: It's the WAY you walk through the store. Most employees at their work place walk through the store quickly with a destination in mind...we know where we are going because we know the layout of the store and for that reason therefore, our pace is quicker and we look like we know what we are doing...because we do. Now, this is what me and a coworker did. One day we walked as we normally do and had our normal few customers ask for help..."You work here right?" or "Where's the non-fiction section?" ...that's one of our favorite questions...or "You know, the book with blue in the cover?" Anyway the next day we walked through the store pretending to browse...walking slowly...looking around....moving our heads looking looking...NO BODY ASKED. So that's why these freaky customers know...BODY LANGUAGE.

People should try this out, it's actually really fun.

[RooJay]

I agree with the results of your experiment Deoxy. I'm a pretty no nonsense guy when it comes to shopping, and pretty observant when it comes to finding what I want even in stores I have never been in before (I almost NEVER ask for help, and am pretty good at following the SIGNS posted about the store that anyone who's ever worked in retail knows, customers NEVER seem to notice!), which, I think is why I ALWAYS get stopped by customers asking for help in stores I don't, and never have even worked in! I once went out shopping in shorts and a t-shirt, I stopped at Target, Wal-Mart, Cost-Co, and Toys 'R Us, and I got stopped by shoppers asking for assistance at each place! NO LIE! Which is very strange because, having done quite a bit of work in the retail field, I have known LOTS of customers to ask me and some of my employees, even when clearly labeled as employees by a uniform/ apron AND nametag, "Do you work here?" DUH!
I could go on and on about the retail biz, but I'd just be helping to bring this discussion more off topic!

[scruffziller]

Yes it is very difficult to supress your natural sarcasm when people do that. I have trained myself to let myself know that they really may not know who you are or what you do know because any of us can be put into the same situation of another subject and the roles could be reversed. But yes, it is very difficult to just want to be outrageously sarcastic and back slap 'em into your SW INSIDER!!!