Paquet Cadeau
I have to admit, one of the things I miss about living in France is the way you can get stuff wrapped at the store when you buy it, for free. Actually, most of the places I shop for gifts in New Orleans will do this too, but that's because they are mostly small boutique type stores. Here in Washington, there just aren't as many cool stores, and I end up ordering most of my gifts.
That said, there is a Barnes & Noble right across the street from my office. I do buy a lot of gifts there, for several reasons. The first is of course convenience. The second is I like books and I like to give books. They also have CDs and DVDs. And the third is that they wrap the gifts for me.
Last night, I went over there and bought two gifts. I asked the cashier to wrap them. She said, "I don't wrap and I can't leave the counter." I said, "OK. Can someone else wrap them for me then?" She replied, "Maybe I could just give you the paper and you can wrap them yourself."
Oh. No. The reason I want the store to wrap my presents is not because I love their paper. It's because I don't like wrapping gifts. I've got paper at home. I don't need their weird green Barnes & Noble paper.
She finally paged someone, who came down and did a fine job wrapping my gifts. Although it's no where near as fancy as the wrapping in France...
3 Comments:
Nothing like hired incompetence! I hate when people refuse to do something that is PART OF THEIR JOB!
At least she finally relented and got someone to wrap your present. I'm all for wrapping myself as I tend to be too picky to be satisfied with someone else's wrap job :-)
I know, I thought it was a little weird too - I've never had a cashier there tell me they don't wrap. it seems that if the store is going to offer the service, they should make sure someone who can do it is working all the time.
Ah, I understand how you feel. When I lived in Japan I learned the fine art of gift wrapping. Anytime I bought something (with the exception of most food and clothing) it would be wrapped beautifully, free of charge, without even having to ask! It's a gift-giving culture, so it's the shop's way of giving you a gift. Oh how I miss that. Now the only thing I get wrapped for free is my packet of fish and chips, wrapped oh so carefully in white paper. Grr.
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