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I'm still boggled by this.
I was at the post office yesterday to send a package. The main post office here is marvelous. They have number machines at both entrances (three for each entrance, I think), and you press a number, 1 to 8, according to the service you need. There are big boards above the machines describing, in two languages, which number you need to press. Once you press it, you receive a small piece of paper with a number on it, like any other number machine.
Then, you go into the main room and look at the boards that are posted in various areas, showing you which numbers are up, and where you need to go (the number of the desk) to be served. A tone also sounds each time a new number comes up. I love it.
So, I went to the number machine and got my number. A guy in his twenties walked up to me just as I took the piece of paper, and said hurriedly, "Hello! What service do you need! Oh [looking at my number], you need that service? Well, I have a lower number, and you can buy it for just five crowns!
(Five crowns, at the current rate of exchange, is approximately 20 cents, American.)
As I walked away from him, I looked back and said over my shoulder, "That's pathetic."
It reminded me of Steven Wright's routine about getting arrested for scalping low numbers at the deli. This guy really thinks he can try that shit? If a number is called, and no one answers within a certain period of time, the number is canceled, and the next number is called. Selling a lower number means, more often than not, selling a worthless number, one that has already been called, then canceled.
I don't know if someone got after him for this, or if he finally realized what a stupid idea it was, but when I left, I saw no sign of him.
I was at the post office yesterday to send a package. The main post office here is marvelous. They have number machines at both entrances (three for each entrance, I think), and you press a number, 1 to 8, according to the service you need. There are big boards above the machines describing, in two languages, which number you need to press. Once you press it, you receive a small piece of paper with a number on it, like any other number machine.
Then, you go into the main room and look at the boards that are posted in various areas, showing you which numbers are up, and where you need to go (the number of the desk) to be served. A tone also sounds each time a new number comes up. I love it.
So, I went to the number machine and got my number. A guy in his twenties walked up to me just as I took the piece of paper, and said hurriedly, "Hello! What service do you need! Oh [looking at my number], you need that service? Well, I have a lower number, and you can buy it for just five crowns!
(Five crowns, at the current rate of exchange, is approximately 20 cents, American.)
As I walked away from him, I looked back and said over my shoulder, "That's pathetic."
It reminded me of Steven Wright's routine about getting arrested for scalping low numbers at the deli. This guy really thinks he can try that shit? If a number is called, and no one answers within a certain period of time, the number is canceled, and the next number is called. Selling a lower number means, more often than not, selling a worthless number, one that has already been called, then canceled.
I don't know if someone got after him for this, or if he finally realized what a stupid idea it was, but when I left, I saw no sign of him.
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