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 buy 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 five 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 three hundred and thirty-four 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 Land 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, "Sounds like the weekend's a loss; you may as well go
fishing."