Absurd Singularity

Dropped by Best Buy earlier today to pick up a pack of CD-Rs for Erin and Grand Theft Auto - Liberty City Stories for myself. At checkout, wound up with a cashier that was easily at or over retirement age. Picking up the 50-pack CD-R that I had chosen, he asked if I was sure I wanted this one cause they had another brand that was like $6 something. Startled, I said I hadn't seen any that were priced that low (not that I really looked all that hard). So he said, "Alright, well let's go take a look." And with my CD-R pack in hand, walks out from behind his register and heads off towards the optical media section towards the back of the store. At this point I noticed that he had a bad hip or leg or something so while following this rather earnest fella as he's hobbling along, I'm feeling kinda bad for making him do all this walking.

Anyway, we found the pack that he was talking about and he did a swap. Upon arriving back at his register he goes on to tell me that this brand (Dynex) was actually Best Buy's own brand and that they had other similar setups for other types of products in the store. And he pointed out that the CD-Rs could burn at 52x speed which was the fastest available. I was rather impressed, this guy clearly took his job seriously and does his homework. Even at an age where typically he should've been sunning himself on some veranda down in Florida. Maybe he figured he needed to keep up with the predominately much younger crowd that usually makes up the bulk of Best Buy employees. But I liked the guy, he was unfailingly polite and seemed genuinely concerned with helping out the customer. Usually the cashiers could give a rat's ass about what it was you were buying and appeared primarily interested in getting you to buy their extended warranty for this product or other. So his attitude and conduct was an unexpected, yet refreshing change.

So anyway, to Craig at the East Hanover Best Buy store, thanks very much for your help and keep up the great work! =)