A young lad from Texas applied for a salesman’s job at a large department store in Chicago.
This store was the biggest in the world and literally sold everything under the sun.
“Have you ever been a salesman before?” the boss asked the Texas lad during his job interview.
“Oh yes, I was a salesman in Texas,” the lad answered confidently.
The boss took an immediate liking to the Texas lad, and told him that he could start work the next day.
“I will come and see how you made out after we close up the store,” the boss said.
Well, the day was long and hard for the young man, but finally it was 5 o’clock.
The boss closed up the store, and found the lad sitting, slumped and exhausted, in a chair.
“How many sales did you make today?” the boss asked.
“One,” said the lad from Texas.
“One?” said the boss, quite obviously displeased. “Most of the sales people on my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth?”
“Exactly $101,334.53,” said the young man.
“How on earth did you manage that?” asked the boss, flabbergasted.
“Well,” said the lad, “this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium fish hook, and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one, and huge one”.
The Texas lad continued, “I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said he was going out onto Lake Michigan. I told him that he would probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department, and sold him that fancy 22-foot Chris Craft with twin engines”.
The store manager was really impressed by now, but the Texas lad continued again.
“Then he said his Honda Civic probably wouldn’t be able to handle the load, so I took him to the vehicle department and sold him a new GMC 1-ton pickup truck.”
“You sold all that to guy who came in for a fish hook?” the boss asked in astonishment.
“Oh no”, said the young lad, “He didn’t come in to buy a fish hook. He came in to buy a box of tampons for his wife, and I said to him, ‘Looks like your weekend is shot. You might as well go fishing.’ “
Image used under a Collective Commons License from: https://www.deviantart.com/yesterdays-paper/art/Vintage-Chicago-Marshall-Field-s-Dept-Store-662189165
