RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30899, 4 November 1965, Page 28

RANDOM REMINDER

CHEAPER, CHEAPER, CHEAPER, CHEAPER

Resisting, for a change, the temptation to put parents on their guard against the prospect of their homes becoming their hearths tomorrow night, the idea today is to dispute the general belief that it is only in the doctor’s consulting room that people reveal their tortured minds as well as vast expanses of unattractive flesh. There are others who learn pretty well all there is to know about the foibles of the human race, and principal among them are shopkeepers, who become adept, after a little, at reading the mind and assessing the nature of the beast.

But even after years of such experience, there are occasional surprises. The owner of a progressive New Brighton business was certainly a little shaken recently, during the negotiations between one of his assistants and a young man over the sale and purchase of a pair of cuff links. The customer asked if i they had any, and of course they did. The assistant showed him a pair costing £2. The customer asked if there were any cheaper ones. There were: s they were priced at 255. The customer pondered, I and then asked if there > were any at a lower price. There were some at 15s.

He looked at these long and earnestly, and this tune he was told, on making the usual inquiry, that those were the cheapest in the shop. He said he thought he had better take them.

The assistant, in the brightly engaging manner of his kind, asked if they were for the purchaser. They weren't Were they to be a present? No, they were not. And then the full infamy of the business came out. The ingenuous young customer said a friend had given him two pounds and told him to come come back with some cuff links.