Had the best conversation with a customer tonight at Best Buy. It was this mid 40s white woman who came in looking for "something to play music on". We started looking at ipods and mp3 players but she didn't know they cost what they did. I asked her if she had a smart phone and she said "Yea" and should me an android phone that was older than mine, and if you know me, you know that's terrible. Anyway we proceeded to sit down in the middle of the aisle and I began to walk her through the process. It turns out that she didn't even have a google account and thus no access to the play store. I began to sign her up for an account which you could use either gmail or facebook to register for, she had neither...
I told her she was the only person in the world that had neither a gmail or facebook account. She laughed and told me the reason she didn't have one is because she doesn't want the government to have all of her information and monitor her every movement. She began to tell me how the government knows everything in your home from your purchase history and knows your whereabouts based on data from your purchases and sites like facebook. She told me that when the economy collapses the government was going to seize all that information. We kinda talked back and forth on the matter, point counterpoint kind of thing. Then she said this statement: "I hope I don't offend you, but...."
We all know how that goes.
She followed that up with "I don't know if you like Obama or not, but I don't agree with everything he does, particularly passing the acts that allow the government to come into your home and seize you and your possessions without a warrant or anything under the notion of national security." I told her that she couldn't offend me and that I doubt there has ever been a single person in the world with whom I've agreed on everything with. She said "It's not that I don't like him, it's just that that thing (the homeland security stuff) and the Snowden leaks (Facebook, Apple, Google, Verizon, etc. sharing data with the NSA). We literally sat on the ground in the store for 30-40 minutes talking about the government and the future that is in store for today's youth. We even talked about economic collapse and the end of civilization as we know it.
The reason I'm writing this post is simple. Me and this lady disagreed on nearly everything. But it was probably the best conversation I've had in a long time (not to offend anyone). It was uplifting and refreshing that two adults could have a conversation around two different viewpoints and nobody get upset or say something out of line. There have been many things said recently that made me sad and lose hope in humanities ability to literally agree to disagree and move on and still be human beings. This woman showed me that there's still hope. There are still people out there that can just disagree, and that's OK. We're not always going to agree, but we need to respect each other when we don't.
When we finished our conversation she left the store with a new pair of headphones and a phone where she could download some music and convert CD's over through her computer, she was ecstatic. The best part was, as she was leaving she said to me "You converted me." I asked what she meant and she just said "You made me look at things in a different light, things I've never thought about. Thank you." and she left. Here I am literally thinking the same thing and when she said that I was stunned, absolutely stunned.
I don't even know your name, but wherever you are my customer lady, THANK YOU. You helped restore my faith in people.
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