Two things recently became very clear to me through a personal experience: 1) we have become so spoiled that we think others should cater to our every whim and 2) we've lost track of what is really important. This story wouldn't be that interesting if not for the fact that it's a perfect example of these two points.
The following story is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The company I work for rented a space a few weekends back at one of the local
malls in St. Louis to help increase business because of the lousy economy. The owner, let’s say his name his Bob,
thought setting up a manned display at the mall would be a great idea, even though most people don’t go to malls to buy products like ours; let’s say our product is wooden decks.
So, we’re supposed to sell a deck to a woman whose sole
purpose for visiting the mall is to buy a new negligee to spruce up her and her
husband’s love life.
“Hi mam, I see you’ve been to Victoria’s Secret to buy some ‘private attire’. Would you like to buy a nice exotic wood deck to really turn your husband on?”
Well, you get the picture. I’m not particularly excited about the whole setup and prepare myself for the worst. The first day hundreds of people walk by, which is more than I thought would be there, and two stop to speak with me. That’s two, as in between one and three. One asks if we could just sell the wood, because her husband can actually build the “deck”. The other one says our deck looks great but we just bought a new house with a deck and won’t need a new one for another twenty years or so. I tell her to take a card and call us in twenty years. After all, estimates are free.
So, the first day is a bust but that’s ok because tomorrow, Sunday, is “the day”. We’re going to have a “balloon guy”! He will make latex giraffes, turtles and toucans for the kids. We will lure the kids into the area and sell some decks to their parents! It will be a great success!
After the initial enthusiasm waned, I thought about it some more. Will balloons actually cause someone that might not otherwise be interested in a deck to stop and purchase one? Doesn't seem plausible, but I don't know for sure.
The next day, Sunday, I’m the only one working the display when the “balloon guy” arrives. He’s really a very nice man. We talk a little bit as he prepares his act. I ask him how he got into balloons. He says he was an actor at one time and loves entertaining people. Somewhere along the way that evolved into wearing a felt derby hat, bright orange suspenders and multi-colored Converse tennis shoes while making latex creatures that delight short, immature people.
Of course, who am I to judge? I’ve spoken to two people in two days, haven’t sold squat and he’s making a hundred bucks an hour.
As he begins the show, a crowd of children begins to grow, just like he said it would. The excitement in their small faces is palpable. I think to myself how wonderful it must be to get so excited about such a simple thing. Where along the way do we lose that sense of wonderment?
He’s working his shtick and doing a great job. He has the children and their parents laughing hysterically. I’m walking through the crowd handing out refrigerator magnets that are embossed with our company’s name to the parents. I tell them, “We can’t let the parents go home without something too!” They feign excitement about receiving the magnet. I feel like an idiot.
“Are you interested in buying a deck?, I say.
“No, just getting a free balloon animal for my kid. Thanks anyway.”
At some point, I begin to enjoy the show so much that I stop the sales attempts just to watch the balloon guy do his magic. As soon as I settle into my stance - someone taps on my shoulder.
“Excuse me, do you have just a minute?”
I reply, “Sure.” I’m thinking, great, someone wants a new deck! Maybe my negativity about this whole event was ill-founded after all.
“I’m Lisette (name changed) and I coordinate these mall shows. I really love the entertainment you guys have set up, but I need to let you know that you can’t have any balloon guys.”
Thinking I might have misunderstood her I ask her to repeat what she said. “No balloon guys.”
“Why not?”
“I think it’s because of the latex, but I’m not sure.”
“Are you absolutely sure we can’t have balloons?”, I ask.
“Yes, check line 8 of your contract. It specifically states, ‘no balloon guys’”
I’ve not seen the contract, since the owner set this up, so I ask if I could have some time to contact him and let him know what’s going on. The first time I ring him there is no answer. I leave a message. Because of the urgency of this crisis I ring again and he answers in a whisper. “I can’t talk right now, I’m in church.” Turns out he was closing the last song for the service and his drum solo was coming up. I could hear the other instruments in the background. “I gotta go.” Ratta tat tat.
I am now alone and must make this decision on my own. How will I handle hundreds, alright eight, crying children when we tell them we can’t make them any more balloon animals?
I interrupt the show and pull the balloon guy to the side.
“We have trouble, you’re being shut down. Our contract says no balloon guys.”
He replies, “What? I belong to the International Ballooners Association (IBA) and we do balloons in malls all the time. The contract probably says ‘no helium balloons’. The malls don’t like to pay to retrieve all the ones that float to the ceiling. Anyway, ask her about the kiosk over there in the middle of the mall. They have balloons, and some of them are filled with helium too! Go ask her why they can have balloons and we can’t.”
During his angry response I could only focus on one thing he said.
I reply, “You guys are organized? Really?”
I track down Lisette as he continues with the show.
She doesn’t have a copy of the contract but she states she thinks it is pretty clear – no balloon guys. She says the kiosk people probably were granted an exception but you have to request that in writing and in advance.
“Can we call someone to get an exception?”
“No, they don’t work on Sundays.”
I go back to the balloon guy. Sorry, no luck. We have to shut it down. He proceeds to tell the crowd that only those in line as of now will get a balloon. Several others show up during the time the line is being reduced and he politely tells them no new customers. Each time he tells someone they can’t have a balloon I notice disappointment in the parents’ eyes, but the kids handle it pretty well.
In the meantime my company’s owner shows up. He had gotten the message I left him the first time he didn’t answer the phone and obviously rushed over as soon as church was over. His shirt was hanging out of his pants and he looked a little disheveled. I proceed to give him more details as the balloon guy is making a monkey hanging from a tree for the last kid that was in line at the time I told him to stop the show.
After I gave Bob all the details about the incident, he decided to speak with Lisette to see if there was anything she could do to let the balloon guy continue. She said no. He asked her to see a copy of the contract. After about thirty minutes, she returned with the contract, which was in her car on the far side of the mall parking lot – “no balloon guys”.
While this conversation was going on I noticed a security guard speaking to the balloon guy. I couldn’t clearly hear what they were saying at first, but it sounded as if the guard was repeating what Lisette had told us – no balloon guys.
I noticed there was a woman with her arms crossed standing about ten feet away listening to their conversation. Not saying anything, just listening.
In the meantime, I walked closer to the balloon guy and the guard. Bob walks up as well. I pick up on the conversation.
“But, you told this lady that you were shutting the show down and that no one else could get any balloons. She says she had been in line for ten minutes and you refused to give her child a balloon.”
I’m thinking, holy crap, this lady didn’t get a balloon for her kid, so she goes and complains to the security guard? This is the pinnacle of conceit in my mind. Nothing I’d ever experienced in my past 50+ years could compare to what this woman had done.
The balloon guy explained to the guard how he had communicated the show was over and that he made balloon animals for all the kids that were in line as of that time. That is when the lady stepped in.
“We were in line waiting for that damned balloon and you refused to give my child one. You ignored us!”
I look at Bob, Bob looks at the balloon guy, the balloon guy looks at me. We’re all thinking the same thing but can’t say it.
The balloon guy apologizes to the woman and says maybe they can stop in sometime in the future and get a balloon. She asks if he will be back to the mall.
“Yes mam, we’ll be back sometime soon.”
“Well, I hope you’re never back! We stood in line for ten minutes for a balloon and didn’t get one. You saw us standing there and told us we couldn’t have a balloon. You broke my little girl’s heart! I hope you never work in this mall again!”
At this point she storms away. For the record, she had not been standing in line for ten minutes. She just wasn’t going to accept the fact that her child wasn’t getting a balloon.
Bob looks at me, I look at the balloon guy, the balloon guy
looks at Bob. We’re speechless for about
ten seconds. Then the balloon guys says
to me “If this is how this lady is preparing her child for life, what’s the
little girl going to do when she gets some really disappointing news?”
The whole day at the mall was sort of twilight zoney and the experience with the Event Manager and the nutty mom demonstrated to me how we've gotten so tied up in our underwear that we have lost focus on what is really important.
I'm probably as much of a nut as anyone in attempting to draw such drastic conclusions from the actions of a single day. However, there does seem to be a direct correlation between our own perceived importance and the degree to which we ignore the really important issues.
In excess of a billion people on this planet go to bed hungry every night. Hundreds of millions more don't have access to clean drinking water. Animal and plant species are going extinct at an alarming rate and yet we are focused on things like stopping guys from giving away latex balloon animals at the mall.
Only in our society would a mom take the time to track down a security guard to complain that her child wasn't treated with the same degree of reverence and subservience she so proudly crafted in honor of her progeny. Where else but America?
Yes, these are rather bizarre examples but they do, in my mind, represent in some fashion how out of kilter our society has become. To survive, we need to get back to what is really important in life and realize that other people weren't put on this planet to serve or indulge our own flights of fancy.
It's time to abandon our self-centered behaviors and realize what's really going on in the world. We can't begin to see life as it is until we can pull our heads out of the sand and look outside of our own private oasis'es. Only then can we see the uphill challenges this world faces. Only through open eyes can we realize the need to take drastic action now.
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