Undercover Boss Versus End-Of-Level Boss

Years ago, my then-girlfriend and I were shopping at a local gaming store. This was around the time a popular new game was released, and this location had copies of preorders for customers to pick up. We weren’t there for that title specifically; just browsing.

When we got in line, another customer ahead of us was asking if he could pick up his pre-order copy of the new game. One small problem, however – his preorder had been done through a store in another town, and his reserved copy was there, not here.

Having worked in retail myself, I could sense the argument coming. Not wanting to be held up, I chimed into the conversation.

Me: “Sir, there’s actually a good reason they can’t give you one of their preorder copies. They’ve only got the ones that were reserved for their customers, and the other store has yours. If they comply, the other store will need to ship your copy to them to compensate, which would inconvenience whoever they had to bump to accommodate you today. Think about it like this – imagine you were coming to pick up your copy, and they told you they had to ship it from another store because someone from that store had walked in and taken yours?”

Luckily (probably because I am a big guy who spoke with authority) the customer accepted this explanation, thanked me, and walked out of the store without a fuss. Almost immediately another customer asked me if they had another game in stock, and without thinking, I directed her to it as I’d seen it while browsing. We then approached the counter where the employees asked if they’d failed some kind of secret shopper test.

Turns out they thought my taking over a tense situation meant I was some kind of undercover boss! My now-fiancée still occasionally teases me about the time I took over the game store!