Down here at the pawn shop

[Undertoad]

Probably 96% get their stuff back.

Maybe half treat it like a payday loan to pay their bills; these people get their stuff out in a week or two. Those are the people I respect the most; they are doing standard ghetto business, and the interest they pay may be less than what we middle-class people pay in bank and ATM fees..

[Undertoad]

A guy came in and did a pawn and we realized his name is Cleveland Brown. He noted that he gets this often and no longer found it funny.

[Nirvana]

Next time don't bat an eye and say Hi I'm Peter [or Quagmire]

[ZenGum]

Had a library client years ago named Lisa Simpson.

[Chocolatl]

I was just browsing an article earlier this week about the poor bastard whose name is Harry Potter.

[Undertoad]

Dude: Hey you know that phone I sold you today
Me: Yes
Dude: I want 5 dollars more for it.

Earlier in the day, the gentleman had sold us a minor iPhone, for which we paid him $50. He signed on the deal, on a contract that we keep with the goods.

Me: You want 5 dollars more?
Dude: Yeah.
Me: No, that's not how it works.
Dude: Why?
Me: We made you an offer, you agreed to it, the deal is done.
Dude: But the phone is worth more than that.
Me: We offered the same amount we offer to everybody.
Dude: I need five dollars more.
Me: It doesn't work like that. You can't just come back in and ask for more.
Dude: You know you can do it.
Me: I can't do it. The boss would kill me.

Dude is staring at me, trying to intimidate me.

Dude: You know you can help out.
Me: I help out all the time. This is not one of those times.
Dude: It's just five dollars.
Me: The deal is done. You agreed to it.
Dude: But I need more.
Me: You didn't need it then!
Dude: You can do it, you know you can do it.
Me: If you would have asked for five dollars more when we made the offer, we wouldn't have done it.
Dude: I need five dollars more.
Me: You are wasting your time. You are wasting everybody's time.

He is relentless because he is ignorant.

Dude: It's just five dollars.
Me: It is what it is.
Dude: You know you can do it.
Me: I won't do it. This is ridiculous.
Dude: You know the phone is worth more than that.
Me: I have no idea what it's worth in 90 days when we can sell it.
Dude: You know you can do it.
Me: I can't do it and I won't do it. I give everybody the same deal on that phone. You are wasting everybody's time.

This goes on for about three minutes until he finally gives up and leaves in disgust.

[sexobon]

Perseverance
By Edwin Carp

Somebody said it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied,
"Maybe it couldn't, but I will be one,
Who'll never say 'No!' 'til I've tried."

So he buckled right in,
With a trace of a grin
On his face, if he worried he hid it.
And he tackled the thing that couldn't be done,

And he couldn't do it.

[ZenGum]

That's beyond ignorance. Once the deal is done, and you've signed and left the shop ... that's it, bro. Now he's just doing targeted begging.

I'm still far enough away from your reality to feel sorry for these poor people. I would *really* struggle to work there. Hurry up and get yourself a better job, Toadster. You got skillz, you know.

[Lamplighter]

They're just doing what larger businesses do.

For example, drilling companies pay property owners a pittance
for the rights to drill fracking gas wells on their land.
Later the owners find out their property was worth more,
but by then the damage is done.

The corporate managers tell their friends:
Those dudes must be retarded or high to sign those contracts.

It's not personal... it just business.

[Undertoad]

One kind of people we encounter regularly here, that you don't find in real life, are those who do "clean-outs" of abandoned houses. They will come in with stuff they found down some rat-hole and want to know whether it's real gold, etc. It's the side-benefit of doing that job, which in the ghetto must be highly unpleasant to say the least.

Well one of those guys just came in, and told us that he did a clean-out yesterday, and in the house were 62 pictures of Barack Obama. "In the kitchen, in the bathroom... everywhere."

[Crimson Ghost]

As long as they're not of his kids...

[classicman]

What was Obama doing in the kitchen - cooking?

[Crimson Ghost]

Originally Posted by classicman

What was Obama doing in the kitchen - cooking?

Only the books...

[neilt0]

UT, having read this hugemungous and fascinating thread over the last couple of days, I was expecting to read you had quit the Pawn Shop in, I dunno, 2012?

I think anyone reading this who has ever worked in retail (me included) must marvel at how you are still there!

I think I would have lasted about an hour!

P.S. I think the fact that banking is free in the UK and there are no ATM fees means that Pawning is rare. We do have a huge problem with Payday Loans here, though.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Welcome to the Cellar, neilt0.
I doubt if many of these people have anything in the bank to draw on. They live in a cash world, except for benefits cards.