I learned a lesson in office chairs appreciation and sales just the other day. You see, I run my real estate business out of an office downtown with 15 employees working at 6 desks at different times. Two of our long serving office chairs needed replacing. I recalled that I passed the “Executive Office Furniture” emporium on my daily commute to work and they advertise taking office chairs in part exchange for new ones. So I loaded up those sorry old seats in my station wagon and thought I’d get a good deal on two new ones the very next day.
The fresh-faced young sales guy, who greeted me next day when I walked into the front showroom of the giant single story warehouse, must have been new on the job. He was very eager to please and impress me and he did, but not in the way that he really wanted. Or so I thought at first.
He smiled broadly and said “Good morning Sir” (he managed to pronounce the capital ‘S’). “What can we do for you today. We have some great deals on this elegant reception furniture…”. I quickly cut him off before he went into true sales mode and told him I just wanted to exchange two old office chairs for new. His smile faded quite a bit at the thought of no commission, and he asked me to follow him out back. I thought this a little odd but went anyway.
We went through a wooden door in the center of the back wall and I was struck dumb by the sight before me. There must have been 300 plus office chairs in various states of disrepair stretching in a sad sea of seedy seating collecting dust all the way to rear wall of the warehouse. There was maybe two football fields’ worth of office chairs. “What’s wrong with them all?” I asked somewhat awestruck by the sight.
“There are 7 reasons why people cast out their old office chairs.” He said, “What’s up with your two”? “A castor has worked loose on one of them and the other is showing signs of wear on the armrests” I replied. “Oh yeah, a number 2 and a 4. You know a new office chair will set you back a $100 each. But if you took them next door there’s a guy who repairs ‘em good as new for $10 each…. Pick-up tomorrow”.
“Gee, thanks for the heads up.” I said, “I never like to throw stuff out if I can reuse it. But aren’t you losing business by letting people know about the repair option”? He winked at me and looked around furtively to make sure his boss was nowhere to be seen and said “This is just a temporary job for me, I hope to take over the family business soon”.
“Well I hope you do a better job selling for your Dad than you do here,” I said sagely.
“Oh I already do. He owns the office chair repair business next door”.