The Helpful Shop Assistant

When was the last time you went for shopping? Yesterday, last night or did you just finish  your daily shopping spree? 

Last night I went for shopping with my husband. We were looking for some stationary and school wear for my daughter, plus clothes for my son. We went to this shop that sold foot gear and school items like bags and lunch boxes and I met this shop assistant that I would NEVER EVER forget!

Yes, I'm sorry if I've disappointed you...I'm not going to talk about shopping. I don't hate shopping but I go for shopping when I have no choice at all! Nope, sorry...I'm not a shopaholic!

Any way, back to the helpful shop assistant I just referred to at the beginning...he is a foreigner, perhaps he is Bangladeshi. I don't know him that well. He speaks Dhivehi (our mother tongue) fluently and I would say he's not one of those annoying shop assistants who breaths down your shoulder as you browse through the items and definitely not the sort of shop assistants who are too lethargic to lift their bottoms from the chairs and when asked whether a certain size was available, would careless mutter, "Every item available are over there, just check them on your own!"

This happened about 7 years ago. We were newly married and we were looking for a shoe for my husband. We were just browsing and then we came across a very nice shoe and we were checking it out when this helpful chap appeared by our side. I bet he must have been observing us for a while and couldn't contain himself, so he came over to help us out!

Helpful Shop Assistant: "That's a very nice shoe Sir". 

My husband: "Yes, it is. What can you say about the quality of this shoe? For how long can I use this?" (He prefers durable items and like good quality shoes). 

Helpful Shop Assistant: "Oh Sir, it's made in China!!!!! See the sole of the shoe, it's very strong, and it would be very easy to polish this shoe as well. Even after months, if you just polish it up, it would look like a brand new shoe!"

I looked at my husband, you know trying to warn him and the helpful shop assistant must have gotten my signal as well. 

He tried to promote the shoe with such passion that for a minute or so, I almost thought that this nice gentleman standing in front of us actually did own the factory where the shoe was manufactured! Seriously! His eyes were glazed as he went on and on about the product being the best shoe that they have important to Maldives. And my husband happened to be holding the only shoe of the kind made, EVER! It was the ONLY shoe important to Maldives from CHINA that year from this particular company where only one shoe was manufactured of this quality!

I know! CHINA!!!! 

May be we had a neon light which was only visible to him lit on top of our heads saying, "DUMB and DUMBER!!!" We didn't want to buy the shoe of course, so my husband kept it on the display shelf. 

The lovely shop assistant was so determined to sell it to us, that he finally yelled out with all his heart, "Sir, this would NEVER EVER break! As long as you use it, it would remain in 100% perfect condition".

We quickly walked out of the shop because we could hardly contain ourselves. Yes, as soon as we were out on the pavement, we laughed out loud! And I kept on laughing and laughing..eventually my husband stopped, but I laughed for the rest of the night....you know like...I stopped after sometime but the minute I was reminded of the incident (which was like every 5 minutes) I'd start again. No, it was not intentional...I found the whole promotion bit genuinely funny and laughed all night. Even after years, when we needed a good laugh or wanted to share a joke, we recall this incident and successfully manage to entertain our friends and in my case, my students most of the time!

I'm not surprised with the fact that he's still working in Maldives or the same shop. It would be hard, or I'd rather say, impossible to replace such dedicated shop assistants who put so much effort into promoting the items being sold in the shop. May be he was new when I initially met him because last night, he did promote the lunch boxes that I checked out but didn't go beyond extreme levels of human imagination!