Down here at the pawn shop

[Undertoad]

"... it's a nifty way to shop..."

So yeah, one day a week now, I work at the pawn shop. This is why I was in the bad section of town the other day, because that's where I work, North Philly. My job is to eBay the various items. I enjoy it. I don't work with the customers but I generally sit right near all the action and overhear everything.


Black lady: "Did they close down the Popeye's Chicken across the street?"
Staff: "Yeah."
Lady: "When did they do that?"
Staff: "Last month."
Lady: "Don't they know black people love fried chicken?"


Black dude: "You gotta give me five more dollars. I'm Jewish."
Jewish staffer: "Really? OK... what's the prayer we say before opening the Torah?"
Dude: "Uh..." (and he makes the throat-clearing sound, you know, the bit between the L and the Chaim in "l'chaim".)
Staffer: "Not good enough. Not good enough. Everybody knows it's a phlegm-based language."

[monster]

I would love that job. I'm going to start haunting porn shops, too.

[Sundae]

I will do that when I'm dead.

[monster]

(pawn and porn are discernably different in pronunciation in most of the US. Not so much in the UK). Yes, playing chess caused a little discomfort for a while back in those first few years.......

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Black dude: "You gotta give me five more dollars. I'm Jewish."
Jewish staffer: "Really? OK... what's the word we say before opening the Torah?"
Dude: "Uh..." (and he makes the throat-clearing sound, you know, the bit between the L and the Chaim in "l'chaim".)
Staffer: "Not good enough. Not good enough. Everybody knows it's a phlegm-based language."

That's fricking hysterical.

Long ago and far away, I worked at the main headquarters for EZPawn, doing low-level tech support for all the stores nationwide. And when I say low-level, I mean, "That thing is called a mouse. This is how you reboot the system." But they were usually really nice people who called in, lots of joking. I think you have to have a personality like that to be successful in a pawn shop, don't let the customers realize their dreams are being crushed in front of them.

[Trilby]

Sounds like the kind of job I could love -you don't interact but you get to here all the stories.

And clodfobble again hits the nail on the head with the broken dreams bit.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by monster

I would love that job. I'm going to start haunting porn shops, too.

So, many of you know what the 'pull tickets' are, like you get at an Eagles or a Moose club, for gambling. They're folded and you unfold them to see if the ticket is a winner. One unfold, two unfold, done. (I've provided the best picture I can find of unopened ones, for illustrative purposes. Unfortunately I can't find opened ones.)

Back before our Eagles closed, they had 5 or 6 jars of different kinds of tickets people could buy from. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them but there was a new set one week called Pork Chops. (The sets always have some sort of name and theme...this one you probably find a picture of a piggy and win a hundred bucks or something.) From the angle I was sitting at I read the sign as Porn Shop.

I told the bartender and he pretended like he was unfolding one: one unfold, two unfold, three unfold, four unfold, five unfold...

Maybe you had to be there.

[Undertoad]

Today was guitar day at the pawn shop. eBayed five guitars and one bass. I felt 'specially proud to do it, since I could write a really good evaluation of them. Often I have no idea what the item is about - last week there were a bunch of industrial tools, where I have no idea what they actually are.

Today the shop had a few interesting customer events. During the first one, a customer attempted to sell a PSP, but one of the buttons didn't work, making it worthless. She then made a phone call, right in the store, and had a loud discussion with her boyfriend.

Customer: "They wouldn't take the PSP. No. No I tried what you told me, I said exactly what you told me, but they check the buttons."
Staff: "Sorry your scam didn't go as you planned."

The racism in North Philadelphia is exquisite. One gentleman was unhappy at the offer he had been dealt and told everyone that "You are out of your goddamn white brains." We speculated that both his and our brains would actually be a sort of gray-pinkish color.

[Aliantha]

But I thought you northern folk were s'posed to be nice to the 'coloured' folk? lol

[Happy Monkey]

I wonder exactly what he told her to say?

[monster]

It's about damn time we got a replacement for the nuthouse threads. We need more dwellars with interesting jobs!

[Undertoad]

One of the most interesting things about the pawn shop is that it's actually sort of colorblind, and simply has to be in order to survive. Even though the owner and half of the staff is Jewish, and 90% of the customers are black, all that is irrelevant: items are worth what they are worth, period.

[Undertoad]

I should note.

Some people are kind of anti-pawn shop, because they figure people are taken advantage of, and figure the shops are doing that.

But I dunno about you, but I get dinged for $35 when my bank balance goes below zero, which winds up being a higher percentage than just about any interest rate going, including pawning things.

At the end of the day, poor people get a pretty raw deal all around. It's not just bank fees, it's all kinds of things like this. The economy is built on the middle class; the poor people get screwed. The pawn shop just sits at the edge of all this economic desperation, and provides one additional way for people to get by.

[kerosene]

I agree with you, UT. To make matters worse, the middle class threshold just keeps getting higher and higher, while wages don't.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by monster

It's about damn time we got a replacement for the nuthouse threads. We need more dwellars with interesting paying jobs!

First things first.

Else UT is going to have to pawn the cellar.