Surprisingly profitable.

Sometimes, all the hard work and patience pay off.

It's bloody refreshing.

A guy came in last night on the cusp of closing. At last call, he wanted to borrow a pen and paper to copy down some titles he'd checked out in the arcade, since the store was closed for the night at that point. He promised a couple times that he'd be in the next day to buy those movies.

People always say they will be back for some particular item. Most often, it's a promise that they will be right back. The next favorite of the masses is to be back tomorrow. It's not all that uncommon for them to attempt to have me promise to set the merchandise aside for them. It's the retail version of "the cheque is in the mail" or "I promise to pull out." Toss in that the guy wandered around a bit mentally and I wasn't about to hold my breath he'd actually carry out his stated intentions.

Lo and behold however, he did indeed come back in. And though he did not purchase the videos he was enamored with hours previous, he did make a purchase. In fact, he made several.

If it took him more than three trips to the register and about as many hours, being alert to a wildly erratic attention span, and negotiation of just which movies he'd been interested in five seconds ago as opposed to what he's currently focused on, well, he kept a pleasant demeanor and dropped a good stack of bills.

When good customer service karma pays off so nicely, it brightens the entire day.