At the store that I work at now, half of it is dedicated to fish and aquariums. It is amazing how many different types of fish there are, and how many can be successfully put into a home set up.
One sea creature that is particularly difficult to keep alive in captivity is the jellyfish. Those little buggers need fast water movement, and a lot of space. If there is no means for keeping the jellyfish in suspension, they will die. Unless you have a professional tank in your house, it isn’t going to happen.
That is, it won’t happen unless you get fake or plastic look alike. We used to sell fake plastic jellyfish in pairs that had a piece of fishing line attaching the jellyfish to a heavy base. A tiny air pocket is located at the top, causing the jellyfish to stay suspended in mid water. They looked close to realistic, but not quite for a regular fish hobbyist.
Well one day, while I was over playing with some puppies, a lady approaches me with a very stern look on her face. Just as I am about to say “Hi, can I hel…” she grabs me by the sleeve and says angrily “Are you a manager?” I look down to my name tag that clearly reads “Manager”. This enrages her more and she starts to pull me over towards the aquarium side of the store. Now, I do know fish quite well, but I have more than enough work on my side of the store, but she would not let me get one word in edge wise.
We come to an abrupt halt in front of our awesome jellyfish display, but I was not prepared for what came out of her mouth. “Who the HELL do you guys think you are?!?!” I just look at her in sincere puzzlement, and shrug my shoulders innocently. She aggressively points towards our fake jellyfish floating in the display tank and says “What right do you guys have tying down those poor animals?” OMG! I am so sorry but I could not help but smile at her. She puts her hands on her hips, and just before she opens her mouth again I simply point to the FULL rack of packaged jellyfish, located RIGHT NEXT to the display tank.
I cannot accurately describe her reaction. It went from crinkled eyebrows looking at the packages, to a glance at the display tank, then realization, then a gasp. Finally her face blanches beat red, she looks at me and then RUNS out of the store!
Several innocent bystanders were laughing hysterical and shaking their heads. Needless to say we sold most of them that day.
As bad as that story is, believe it or not, it happened almost exactly the same way… THREE times. I don’t even work on the aquarium side, and still cannot figure out how I was the lucky recipient of these angry ladies. Why can’t people just pay more attention to details, and save themselves embarrassment? UGH!
bryan j bailey