Dithering Answers

So I was just leaving the area behind our fish wall, with my hands full of hayballs for our guinea pigs when I noticed a couple of girls, probably in their first year or two of college, looking at the fish. So I paused in my walk to the guinea pigs to see if they were doing alright. 

To which one girl was like "Yah!" 

To which I was like, great they're just looking, and was about to turn away when the second girl was like "Well we actually want to get some fish." 

Which...I never understand why customers do that. Say that they're fine, and then two seconds later decide they need help. Maybe it's a knee jerk reaction to say you don't need help? 

In any case. 

I was like Okay they need fish. So I set down my hay balls and asked them "What fish do you need?" as I went to grab for the net. 

"These ones." 

Was the answer that I got....which isn't helpful when I'm not looking at the fish when they say that.

But I assumed since they were standing in front of the feeder goldfish tanks, that they were the ones that the girls meant. 

So I moved to the tanks and was like "How many do you want?" 

"A bunch." 

.....

.......

.........

You do realize that that doesn't tell me anything right, dear customer? I have no idea what number you think a 'bunch is' and apparently they didn't know either.

As when I asked them "How many is a bunch?"

They reacted like I had just asked them how to do calculus. 

and honestly...it's not rocket science to say "I need this many fish." 

Yet to some people...it does require a good deal of thinking. 

The two customers turned to each other. Debating how many they wanted.

I helpfully suggested the number thirty. 

To which they eventually agreed on.

And then as I was bending down by the small feeders I was like "You want smalls right?" 

To be met with the clueless stares again. 

"Smalls?"

"Yah, the goldfish come in large, small, or extra small." I told them. "The large are 29 cents, the small and extra small are 14 cents each." 

And one of the girls was like "So what's the difference?"

....I just told you. But I gestured to the tanks "Those tanks over there have large goldfish for 29 cents, these four have small goldfish for 14 cents and the last two over there have extra small goldfish for 14 cents as well."

And the girl was like "So these ones are extra small?" she pointed to the tank I was crouched next to.

"No, these ones are small." -Obviously she hadn't been listening the first time around. *exhales* 

"So the ones over there are smaller?"

"Sometimes. The extra small and small come in sometimes the same size, but that's why they're the same price." 

"So what's the difference then?" 

THE SIZE!!! I wanted to yell at her. >.< ugh.

And her friend was like "I guess the other ones have been in the tanks longer because they're larger."

"Uhm no. They come into our store at the same time, these ones are just smaller those are larger." 

Thankfully her friend was just like "we'll get thirty smalls then." She was the decision maker of the two. 

But then the first customer was like "....well maybe we should get extra small as well?" 

To which her friend logically replied. "No one wants an extra small fish when they can have a larger fish, we'll just get the smalls." 

So I fish out the smalls, counting them out into a container.

And when I was nearly done the first customer was like "how many fish is that." 

So I finished counting out thirty and held them up and said. "This is thirty."

I was met with disbelief. 

Because thirty fish doesn't look like thirty when you first see them.

No it looks like only ten or so at first glance.

Because numbers are visually deceiving. 

But they were like "That's thirty?! No, we need more than that!" 

"How many do you need?" I asked them. 

And to no ones surprise they had to dither about that number too...

And finally settled on a hundred after discussing numbers between fifty and five hundred.

I fished out that hundred as quickly as I could.

And happily sent them on their way because I didn't want to have to deal with their indecisiveness about making decisions any more. 

-Sarnic Dirchi