I was pokin’ around the other day and went into a furniture store. On the sofa inside the door were a couple of pillows I liked. I thought they would make good spring-like replacements for my current darker ones. I said to a saleswoman, “I like these pillows. How much are they? She said $50 for the pair. Less than I thought I’d have to pay. Great!

Then she said she couldn’t sell me those; that she would have to order them for me, that it would take forever because the manufacturer would wait til they had reason to cut the fabric, that I could buy the fabric and make some pillows myself (ya, right). Her final suggestion was that I try Bed, Bath and Beyond because “they have nice pillows”. WHAT?

Seriously, why didn’t she just sell me the pillows? She could have found another pair from a sofa towards the back of the store where it was less noticeable (a furniture store doesn’t keep spare throw pillows around??) and then SHE could have gone to Bed, Bath and Beyond the next day and gotten two pillows, for less money I’m sure, and thrown them on the green sofa in the front of the store. Really, who the hell would ever know or care?

Her boss? Would the store owner really want their salespeople to follow rules so strictly that they don’t sell merchandise and instead send dissatisfied customers elsewhere?

Maybe the salesperson just didn’t have the capability of dealing with anything outside the norm. Too bad. Am I missing something here?

Why would someone blindly follow rules or procedures that make no sense and are counterproductive?

Talk about a lose/lose!

More examples of frustrating rule followers?