This has happened on a few occasions since we've recently started camping out in Agrestic. I find it annoying and indicative, symptomatic of something. Today the incident took place at the local incarnation of a large chain store specializing in technology and related paraphernalia:
Redhead and I are in need of a new backup system for our collective computers and we went in looking for what we knew we wanted, having spent some time previous to this trip researching the possibilities online, including going through this company's own website (a company for which we have a gift card obliging us to find use of it). After explaining what we wanted, "Daryl" waddled off to pass along his question to someone less uninformed, returning a little later telling us that the chain didn't carry this item. We explained that we'd seen it listed on the company's website earlier that day. Daryl then proceeds to being asking why we needed it. Why, Daryl, why do you need this information? Are you assuming that we - who came in knowing what we wanted and who only wanted a straight answer - don't know what we're talking about and don't really need what it is we're asking for? Daryl, if you don't think you have the item, what business is it of yours why we would need it? It's insulting - condescending and ignorant - to presume to understand our situation better than we do. This also happened regarding a nice pair of shoes I'd rather have repaired than throw away, when the potential cobbler was more interested in explaining how the necessary repairs wouldn't be worth the cost/work - reciting a laundry list of potential expenses in a tired, whiny tone - than to simply answer my question: which was whether it would be possible at all. Instead I just left. The business could have been his had he not just assumed he'd understood my complete perspective.
