Friday, July 29, 2011

It Might Be Cheaper Revisited

I had a gentleman (His manner reminded of Hercule Poirot as played by David Suchet.) this week who was somewhat frustrated that he couldn't have all the movies he requested to come in at the same time. I explained that we do the best we can to get them as soon as possible, and the variables are - is it already checked out, is there a waiting list, where is it located, has staff been able to pull it yet, and has our runner already been for pick up that day. He explained to me the math for his gas and driving time that worked out to $.50/movie. Then he told me that if he couldn't get them all at once, driving back and forth multiple times made it closer to $1 a piece, and he might as well go to Redbox. This was not said in an "I'll take my business elsewhere" way, just as an explanation. I imagine this senior citizen is pretty concerned about managing his fixed income. I explained that we hold all requests for 5 days from when they come in, and perhaps it would work best to wait and come on the 5th day after the 1st notification. That would give time for more items to come in and be there when he did drive over. Well, perhaps. And he supposed he could always pick from what was on the shelf to round out his quota.
I tell ya, after the guy who was so mad about the paper, this man's logical penny pinching just made me smile. Maybe it's the Scotch in me.

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