A keen country lad applied for a salesman’s job at a city department
store. In fact it was the biggest store in the world – you could get
anything there. The boss asked him, “Have you ever been a salesman
before?”
Yes, I was a salesman in the country” said the lad. The boss liked the cut of him and said, “You can start tomorrow and I’ll come and see you when we close up.”
The day was long and arduous for the young man, but finally 5 o’clock came
around. The boss duly fronted up and asked, “How many sales did you make
today?”
“One,” said the young salesman.
“Only one?” blurted the boss, “most of my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth?”
“Three hundred thousand dollars,” said the young man.
“How did you manage that?” asked the flabbergasted boss.
“Well,” said the salesman “this man came in and I sold him a small fish
hook, then a medium hook and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him
a small fishing line, a medium one and a huge big one. I asked him where
he was going fishing and he said down the coast.
I said he would probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat
department and sold him that twenty foot schooner with the twin engines.
Then he said his Volkswagen probably wouldn’t be able to pull it, so I
took him to the car department and sold him the new Deluxe Cruiser.”
The boss took two steps back and asked in astonishment, “You sold all that to a guy who came in for a fish hook?”
“No,” answered the salesman “He came in to buy a box of Tampons for his
wife and I said to him, ‘Your weekend’s shot, you may as well go
fishing.'”