Karma

Years ago, I bought Gary this tool chest, which he almost immediately broke.

I put something too heavy in a drawer, it got off the track, and Gary used brute force to twist the drawer into a half-out position – where it stayed stuck for at least a decade.

Does that go with the tidy organized basement I’m fashioning? No. I thought I might visit Sears to see if I could buy a replacement drawer or slide.

Sales Guy: May I help you?

Me: Do you sell replacement drawers or slides?

Sales Guy: I’m afraid we don’t.

Me: Then I need to buy a whole new tool chest.

I imagine that made Sales Guy’s heart skip a beat, because he is on commission. Instead, he recommended a curvy hook tool I could try first to pry things unstuck.

So, Sales Guy Mark (or maybe Mike) at Sears at Mid-Rivers put customer service before his commission. I was impressed. I was still thinking about it when I was at the Bed Bath and Beyond looking for a dustbuster. I was tempted by the Dyson handheld, as we all are, but settled on the Black and Decker, which they did not have.

Then I had these thoughts.

1. Go buy a dustbuster elsewhere.
2. WAIT NO.
3. Buy a Dyson at Sears from the Sales Guy so he gets the commission he would have gotten if I’d bought a tool chest.
4. I am a GENIUS.

It was some high level rationalization. I wasn’t buying an overpriced Dyson for ME, I was buying to for HIM. For Karma. I had to buy a Dyson. I had no choice.

Sadly, Sales Guy was momentarily not at his post, and the vacuum section was staffed by a woman who was very much ON commission. She shadowed me. I couldn’t grab a Dyson and sneak back to Tools. It did not work out. I ended up just writing a nice review about Sales Guy online.

Still, the rest of the day I kept thinking I was getting Karma credit for my good deed, only to remember I hadn’t actually done anything. I caught a falling sheet of glass in my bare hand and my hand was not severed. Karma! Oh that’s right, I didn’t do my good deed. I then unearthed a dustbuster I didn’t know I had – but it didn’t work. There’s some aborted Karma right there.

That was a week or two ago. Since then I bought a rehabbed Dyson on Amazon (25% off) (shut up) and I took that curvy tool and just last night finished fixing the tool chest. It works like a dream.