Sometimes you say the right thing to the right person. A customer came up to the checkout counter at the Tattered Cover Bookstore and handed me a 20 dollar bill. She told me the reason she was giving this money to me was because of a message I had left for her the previous week.
I had been gathering some books together for her from different stores and I called her to let her know that all five of her books had come into the reserve desk at Colfax Avenue. Her message machine went something like this “Hi this is Helen, I'm not available right now, if you leave me a message I will call you back as soon as possible. I am currently in Las Vegas-please tell me whether I should bet on red or black”
My response to her was as follows “Hi Helen, this is Evan Silverman calling from the Tattered Cover Bookstore on Colfax Avenue. I am calling to tell you that I have all of your books together now and we will hold them for a week. I would also like to let you know that I might bet on black. Thank you.”
Taking to heart my suggestion, she went into a casino in Vegas, sat down at the roulette wheel and bet on black. She watched the ball spin around and around. Finally it slid into a black slot. We won and I bought pizza for everybody!
