My First Day

I'm going to be stepping away from the informative side of my posts for this one. There are a lot of exciting experiences that happen at a pawn shop, and I want to share some of them with you. I don't want to paint the picture that pawn shops are uneventful and boring. Although most of our customer base are people just like you and me, we do have a tendency to attract some of the more "interesting" clientele (then again, so does Wal-Mart).

I'll never forget my first day of work at the pawn shop. I had the same mindset as the majority of the population in that pawn shops were run-down, sleazy places that people went to get their next "fix" or take the stuff they just stole out of the car sitting down the block. I was soon impressed with the professionalism of the staff and the organization of the store along with the cleanliness and bright displays. It was my first time in a pawn shop so I wasn't exactly sure what I should expect.

The day was going by quick, all I was really learning was that there was a lot to learn. My manager at the time had me start off "pulling" forfeited items to clean then hand them off to somebody to price and put out for sell. It was during one of these trips to the back room that some excitement occurred out front. The manager came back and yelled at me, "grab the towels!". I stood there looking at him thinking, how in the hell am I supposed to know where the towels are?

After a few seconds of standing there, I think he realized that I wasn't going anywhere and decided to brush past me and get the towels himself. I walked out front, thinking how strange that last exchange was when I noticed something was wrong. There was a guy laying on the floor at the front loan counter with a pool of blood beside him. My good friend (the assistant manager) was on the phone talking hurriedly to someone, explaining what had happened. Five minutes later, there were two firetrucks and an ambulance parked outside of the shop, all with lights flashing.

Turns out that this guy was extremely drunk and passed out right at the counter, managing to hit his head twice on his way to the floor. Of course, he was fine (wouldn't feel so good about relating this story if he wasn't).

Why did I continue working for the shop after that? Well, I thought something exciting like that might happen on a regular basis but alas, I haven't witnessed a customer passing out since that day.