So I went to the movies the other day and actually saw it inside out too. It was actually a really good movie.
Have you even seen the first one?
I haven't seen the first one. Sir, you should know my track record when it comes to seeing movies, but what is it about?
Pre-tell.
It's about, well the first one's about this girl Riley and it's basically following the emotions like inside of her head.
And so it's really cool and they all have like different personalities so like Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust.
Those are like the five main ones, but now that she's going into middle school slash high school now they're having to deal with puberty
so now they have all these new emotions like embarrassment and anxiety and jealousy and so it's really cool to see how all those new emotions interact.
It's probably really thought out like I thought it was very well thought out because it's like oh yeah like these emotions actually have personalities and how she's reacting and different things and it was pretty relatable.
So I thought it was.
Your mom has emotions is all I have to say to that.
What was the last movie that you went to go see in theaters? Do you remember?
Oh man.
Was it The Killers of the Flower Moon?
Yeah it was actually. It was The Killers of the Flower Moon which was a pretty decent movie except it was I mean it was typical De Niro's Corsese stuff but I mean.
Yeah well wait what was the one before that that you went to? Was it American Underdog? Was that the last one?
Yeah I think so. I think so. So there you go track record I think.
What was the last kids movie you went to go see?
Oh Lord. In theaters or like at home on TV?
No no just in general like whether it was at home or the last one you saw.
I had to watch the live action Beauty and the Beast whenever that came out.
Oh okay so 2016, 2017 yeah that was horrible.
Yeah something like that. Yeah with all Emma.
Yeah that movie was horrible.
But anyways I'm Chris.
And I'm Micah.
And this is the Dona Box Podcast.
Hey man guess what I told you this I texted you this this week but we now officially have a listener on every continent except Antarctica.
Are you telling me that my goofy behind has been heard around the world except for in America and oh my gosh I can't even say it Antarctica.
Yes in Asia, Africa, South America, North America, and Australia and Europe dude it's wild.
Man don't make me start singing the song.
I feel like there should be some like you know educational music behind what you just said in the order that you did.
Help the kids out out there.
Can you believe that someone in Africa listens to our podcast.
I don't know what they think of us around the world.
I'm curious to know like what people think or if they're like dishumers weird or I don't know.
I feel like maybe in Canada they get our humor but who knows.
I have no idea.
Maybe we're liked maybe we're made fun of.
I have no clue but we enjoy doing it.
So here we are at the Dona Box Podcast and Chris it's a free flow episode man.
It's a free flow.
We've been kind of alternating it.
I don't know if you've noticed that but we've kind of been alternating it.
It's like one normal format one free flow.
So here we are with the one free flow here and you know we've talked about it before.
And you know what Chris I built it up enough.
I think you need to build the rest of it up.
What are we talking about today man?
We're calling this episode the dark side of boot crowd.
Now if you've listened to us for any number of time you'll know that Mike and I used to work at this westernware store that we like to call the boot crowd.
And we've told multiple stories about multiple characters but we've tried to keep it positive.
Yeah wasn't it like part six of the characters of boot crowd I think we talked about.
Yeah I think there was like six parts seven parts whatever but we are going to go into like the nitty gritty like the behind the scenes the dark stuff that we have never told anybody before because that place was interesting and there was definitely a lot of drama and a lot of crazy stuff that happened.
You may walk into your average retail store thinking to yourself huh.
This is nice.
It has shirts and jeans and some are folded some are not but you never know what's actually going on behind the four walls at that building.
I'm telling you it's very interesting.
It takes on a environment of its own or what would you say how would you put that.
And this will kind of lead into I think what you're trying to get at.
The manager that ran the store Ben will call him Ben and Ben he created a culture of toxicity.
Now Ben was very narcissistic.
I would say the definition of a narcissist very all about himself and anything that you did was always your fault.
It was never his fault and he would like to create competition between the salesman particularly.
So he would start everybody up and that was how he would generate more revenue more business and he would say things like oh yeah well I bet you can't sell as good as Micah.
He's going to run laps around you.
He's way better than you are.
You're a crappy salesman.
You should try to be more like him.
It's like well Micah said that you weren't nothing and it's like and then you go to Micah and be like dude I never said that.
Yeah.
No it was it was a pretty crazy environment and so I've heard that.
So I first came in there and I was actually the first one to start the job there at the boot corral and I actually started in the back.
I wanted to start in sales right.
That's where everybody wanted to start like and you know that might not sound idealistic to a lot of people but the sales floor at a Western warehouse store after and I'm going to give some context.
We just moved from Georgia to Texas were enthralled with Western where we shopped at this place all the time.
So it's like oh man we can work here.
Front the stuff get a great discount.
You know it sounds like a fantastic deal.
So I go there looking for sales.
He's like nah because I mean what he's looking at is a high school kid who is below part time.
I played football at the time so I only could work I think like eight nine hours a week maybe.
And so he's like yeah I'm not putting you on the sales floor but what I'm going to do is I'm going to help you by putting you in the back and so you can't familiar with the stock.
So I started stocking the closing stuff during the summertime when it was really really slow and you know got familiar with the product but I'll tell you this much man that was a hustle and it was only 725 an hour.
It was minimum wage.
That was a really really tough time and then they hired somebody else because one of the under managers was running two jobs.
So they said you know what there should be this receiver job and we're going to hire this person.
And so we've talked about them before have we not.
Yes.
Yeah we've talked we've talked about them we've gone through that all that good stuff.
So Michael eventually ended up getting moved to the sales floor.
Oh you're zooming way past.
We like you're like we're not we're not going into none of that.
Yeah.
Yeah they already know they already know like the general stuff I'm trying to get to the good stuff you're trying to get to the nitty gritty.
Okay.
I trust you.
Where were we landed.
Mike got on to the sales floor and at that time it was a very cut throw.
I mean people would be.
Yeah it was rough racing to try to outsell each other.
They would be like I don't know they would be taking each other's customers like that was a like that was a.
Almost a proud thing like and the manager Ben would be like yeah like you need to be shark and other people's customers because if you if you're able to shark their customer they weren't that even good of a sales person to begin with.
But there was supposed to be rules but anyways I'll circle back to that.
I think the biggest thing was when I got out there they would also do things prime example they would you had a section that you had to upkeep as a salesman and this was a big one.
And this was a pure commission job.
Like no hourly pay at all.
It was purely commission.
You started off at 4% commission of whatever you sold.
And so yeah and you had a certain amount which amounted to minimum wage which was 725.
And if you didn't sell up to you know making that hourly amount equivalent then basically you would have busted and you only have three bust and then you get fired pretty much as what would happen.
So pretty much it was it was pretty stressful because think about it.
It's it's and these people they were definitely hustlers.
Some had kids so how they saw it was you know any sale is putting money in their pocket any sale that you're trying to steal from them is stealing from them and their kids.
So sometimes it gets pretty pretty hairy.
I mean sometimes it gets pretty pretty bad.
There was other rules such as five minutes if the customer has been attended to in five minutes then a sales another salesman can go up and essentially take that person over and that's that's my person.
But it gets really hairy.
Some people can say it's five minutes and it definitely was not.
But back to the whole section thing you had this section and you had to keep it.
So say you had boots or something right you had to keep things not only on the shelves but you had to keep it all straight.
You had to keep it.
There was a particular order that old Ben had you put it into it was kind of random.
I think he made it up.
I don't think that it was a very he said that customers it like flowed for them.
But I don't think they understood what was going on and I had been to other stores and they don't do it like that.
So I don't it was very very weird.
But anyways so you had to have it in very particular order and then would come around and check.
So you had to make sure it was good.
They would come around and mess up your section on purpose.
So either a Ben would come around and say hey you know your sections bad you need to come work on this which takes you away from your customers which means they all get snatched up.
Or you're already stuck on your section to where you can't take new customers and the ones you already have are gone.
So it was like a really it was a really cut through thing.
Yeah it was very cut through and Ben was of the mentality.
He thought that that little Western World store in Lubbock, Texas was God's gift to the Western world.
And he expected all of his employees to work just as hard as he did.
And there was no taking Christmas or Thanksgiving off.
And if you even were like hey because a lot of college kids weren't worked there.
And if you were like hey I want to go home to see my family be like okay well we don't need you anymore you're fired.
Like it was almost like you do not ask for any time off if you want to keep your job during those holiday times.
So he was very big about that.
Again creating toxicity.
Kind of going into the nitty gritty one of the managers she wasn't a sales person.
She kind of stayed in the back and she was Ben's favorite.
And the story goes the rumor goes that they were having a thing on the side together.
Because whenever Ben's wife would come in and she would get mad and she'd be like oh where's your work wife?
And like she would she wouldn't say it like jokingly.
She'd be like oh yeah I know y'all doing something.
Great.
Yeah it was pretty wild.
They'd be acting real weird towards each other and things like that.
But yeah going back to the old Christmas thing don't ask off.
And the whole thing he would say oh Ben is well I haven't had what was it.
Like every time I feel like the number was different it's like I haven't had it eight years.
I haven't had it in ten years or whatever.
Like my wife and kids just up and leave and go to wherever and they just know I'm going to be here.
And think about this man that kind of goes into another bit.
A dark side of it too was the turnover effect of that.
There was a lot of people because think about it a lot of these positions besides the salesmen that were commission based were just 725 like the cash years and things.
So say you like oh I'm going to you know I want to take off.
Most people would just quit.
They'd go okay I'll just find another job like the college kids.
They'd just be like I'll just find another job when I come back.
So it was a lot of rollover.
Didn't you this this is kind of going I'll go back to the other question I had.
Didn't you go on a work trip with Ben and he brought another woman into his hotel room.
Yes there was an occasion where that happened.
Please tell us a story.
We're divulging it all.
I mean it wasn't it was just a typical sock on the door and I showed up and then I was like Michael Scott who had to wait around.
A in the hotel lobby and then B in one of those little ice vending machine rooms.
I hung out there for a little bit and I think it was about 4am that I was given the all clear.
Did he did he text you and let you know what was happening or did you just show up to the hotel room and was like oh yeah there's a sock on the door.
Bro you know he old school he wasn't going to text me that was going on.
It's like sock on the door you know what's going on.
Well how did you get the all clear.
Did you have to just have to keep going back and check in or what.
Yeah just well at least where the vending machine was like the vending machine room was it was kind of like you got poke your head out a little bit and you can see down the hallway and you can get the all clear.
And then I remember there was this other guy.
He was a cool dude and I don't know why he just stayed up really late and then finally he was like yeah I'm going to go to sleep but for some reason they gave him a like a single bedroom without divulging names.
You know who it was that he that he brought into the room.
No I have no clue.
I know that where was she from.
I can tell you a store she was from potentially.
All right going back to the whole going back to the whole Christmas working all this thing.
Do you want to tell them about the time that you walked out and quit.
Yeah we can talk about that.
So right before Christmas right before Christmas.
So this was actually the second time that I worked there.
And so basically I was pretty fed up with what was going on because I had been there at that point for about a year and a half straight had been through Christmas and that doesn't sound like much but going through Black Friday and Christmas at this place was a hellish experience.
I guess it's not a an enjoyable time mainly because Mr. Ben they he is very he expects you to be devoted he expects you to be dedicated he expects you to work 12 hours like the stores open 12 hours you should be there 12 hours 9 to 9 baby.
Like Christmas times here you should be raking in as much cash as possible and whenever I first started working there was actually interesting when I first started working there there was a lot of cash to be made like I remember the first Black Friday I worked I made.
I sold I think it was $9200 worth of merchandise which was a low amount but I like just.
No that was that was the first year I'd been there like a little bit of time but it was still low amount I remember everybody roasted me for it.
And then the next year it was like a lot higher than that but everybody else had a really low number it was just really interesting because every year Black Friday essentially went down.
Like the number of people who came in the number of sales that were made but towards the ending of the time that I was there it was pretty hard because the assistant managers.
Were pretty much like they were really lazy right all they wanted to do is hit on the cashiers and things like that.
And so what would happen is and how you get commission for your sales is you have these little cards and so if a customer comes up to the little cash stand there and puts boots up there or whatever they decide to purchase and nobody has carried it up to the front or is not with the customer.
Anybody can put their card up there you know as long as the cash is going for it and if you're a manager are they really going to tell you no so a lot of these guys would just stand up there and poach a lot of that stuff.
And it got to be a whole contention point on on that whole deal because there's a lot of times where you're dealing with three four customers especially during Christmas it could be more than that like six seven at a time right you're dealing with six seven people all in a vast variety of an area.
And say they float into another section of the store you got to chase them over there as well as manage everybody else without other salesmen coming in on you kind of thing.
And so it's very easy for somebody to come up to the front just put things on there and then you know like I said all of a sudden your four or five hundred dollar sale is gone because you know and you did all the work but this guy just stood by the cash stand and just put his card on there.
So there was a lot of that.
Then it got to the point where Ben put a lot of that on me that real narcissistic behavior right where we were talking about that.
He's like you know everybody's just poaching everybody we need to stop all of that and it's like what do you want me to do about that.
And it's like well our our house numbers which is like still basically the number of people who are not being helped and just getting checked out without getting helped by a salesperson is really high and you need to be fixing that.
And basically he was telling me to poach people but at the same time telling me not to poach people which made no sense.
And day to day it was just a different story right and then nothing became good enough after a while like it was like your section wasn't ever good enough like nothing was ever good enough.
And it's like you're for a while there I was like the number one salesman I got like another a bunch of bonuses stuff like that like things were good for a bit and then it just became like everything was just really bad.
And so it became OK we're going into another holiday season and again he's really overbearing and he really wants a lot of numbers because that's how his money is affected every year that's how he's his you know his raise and bonuses or salary is affected.
So it's based on numbers and you know how it goes to the percentages on like a jazz.
So it was just really relentless and I didn't really want to do it. So long story short I remember we had this meeting every year before Black Friday and I hated that meeting.
I don't know about you Chris I hated that meeting because it was it was always really long.
It was always after work so it was like 9 30 p.m. and it could go till 10 30 11 12 just depending on how long the dude wants to talk.
And so it was just a whole thing I decided you know what the day of I was like I'm just not going to show up that day and I'm not going to show up that night to the meeting.
And I'm just I'm just not going to show up to that because he also was talking to my now wife.
He was talking stuff about my girlfriend at the time and I had gotten our promise ring and he told me that rings don't plug holes which you can read between the lines there.
And so at that point man I was pretty done. I was like you know what I'm pretty done. So I was like I'm not showing up to this little you know to the thing tomorrow or to Black Friday we'll see her like to the Black Friday meeting.
We'll see if I show up to Black Friday itself. And he called me before that meeting and he's like so you didn't show up to work today huh.
And he he was but he was like surprisingly nice. And he's like you know why don't you come to the meeting tonight we could take to you know we could talk about it and everything.
And I said you know how narcissists can be they'll be real nice to you and you'll be like oh nothing's going on and then they set you up.
Anyway so I get over there and he always had this iconic thing man and he would call you over the intercom and everybody know and like he was watching in between he had to be like he was watching from his little manager
office through the little blinds he watched me walk through the door he picks up the phone and he tells me to come to the back over the intercom and I was sitting here just like oh this mother trucker.
So we go back there and I mean he just berates me about everything about how you know I'm going to throw my life away for a woman and all this other stuff not just that and it's like you're going to walk out on a Christmas and you're going to walk out on us and you're going to walk.
I mean just through the whole kitchen sink and he put down a termination paper like you sign this paperwork like you know we're sending it to HR and you're done basically it's it's always a threat with him he's got a bunch of printed out.
He's like you want to quit just quit basically is what he's saying so I had to think about it.
So I went to the break room the little crappy break room that there was that always smelled like crap.
And I you know I called my girlfriend at the time and said you know what am I going to do and then I called a former manager of mine and I said bro I don't know what to do and he's like dude just quit you'll find another job he's like that place is garbage you really want to go through another Christmas.
And I was like enough said so I went back in the office and I told him old Ben I said you know what I'm a sign that paper.
And at this point he had gathered everybody up in the meeting out like out front.
Like by the cash stands it's the big open area and so he was like come with me and he walked me all the way to the front made me sign that termination like he told the whole basically the whole crowd of employees.
I mean there was like 25 people right but the whole crowd of employees is like it's like anybody want to quit like him could sign a paper toe and he like slams a stack down and here I go sign in my thing.
And you know I was always taught to be really nice and you know even though it was a business difference at the end I wanted to be a nice guy so I stuck my hand out to him and I said Ben I always appreciate you for giving me my first job.
I'm sorry I had to come to this he literally told me to take a step back shut the door of my face and locked it didn't even shake my hand.
It's like dang bro. It was a it was an interesting feeling very interesting feeling.
That's crazy. Well yeah definitely crazy for sure.
A little bit. No thank I haven't actually talked about my time as a salesman.
Y'all didn't know that I was a salesman.
No we haven't talked about that. That was a little known time of Sir Christopher.
Yeah I don't remember if it was because I if it was be I don't know why they moved me to the sales for sales.
You got moved to the sales floor for one or two reasons one because you were really good and they saw that you it was a promotion or they wanted to get rid of you.
If you can't hack it. That's an yeah that's an easy way for you to get fired.
So I don't know if they were giving me a promotion or if they were trying to weed me out but any who's it.
So I this was in the time of my life that I was just kind of doing my own thing.
I was not really following God and I was just kind of doing whatever I wanted to do.
I was working two jobs and going to school full time so I was not in a healthy place at all.
And so I remember that there was this one kid. I don't even remember what his name was but he was talking to this cashier that was definitely like one of those nasty stripper types.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I just remember like having beef with him because he would just come in like kind of not take things serious.
And I remember one day like people were just not doing anything.
And I just ran the whole floor bro. I shark every single person's customer. I shark everybody like I didn't care no more.
I was like oh you ain't going to take care of your customer. I'm going to take care of them for you.
And so that week I ended up selling 32 grand of merchandise in one week because I just shark everybody bro.
And then they they moved me up to being an assistant manager which is like oh that sounds great but you're still working off commission.
You just get a little bit of percentage bump but you still got to do the assistant manager duties and manage the employees and try to sell at the same time.
Oh it's a garbage deal. It is a garbage deal. Anyways go ahead.
So I remember this one guy this one the same guy. He was just standing around talking like not doing anything.
I just remember I walked up to him I said are you going to sell something today. And he just looked at me and was like are you going to quit.
And for lack of terms right. Are you going to quit griping at me today. I said oh really I'm griping at you. I said well do you want to write up. And he was like he was like yeah I want to write up.
And I was like let's go to the back office right now. We'll get you a write up right now. And why escalated it. So I took him off and I was like I was like this guy wants to write up.
And he was like OK he was like he was like wait till I have to work we'll go outside and we'll fight right now. And I was like OK whatever dude. And like I just remember getting in so much trouble for that because they were like if he would have quit we would have made you come in on your day off.
This and that. So yeah I had a little brief stint as a salesman. It was interesting because at that time we talked about deputy porkers and we talked about our friend Zacharoni and cheese.
And then there was another another girl that she was a cashier but there was so much drama drama that they moved her back to take my old job. And there is a little bit of another story that goes along with that that will tell some other time.
But I just remember I think it was whose birthday was it for Zacharoni and cheese's birthday. We went to Gators Bayou. Do you remember that. Yeah we went to you we went to Gators Bayou.
And I just I don't remember anything about that besides there were some people there and I should I tell that story about the friend. Yes. So we'll call her Judy Judy Judy was there and somehow or another she invited one of her friends.
It was well it was just random because it was all work people and she said yeah I invited this friend and I mean and there were single guys at the table. So it was just like OK sure yeah invite your friend.
And so the friend shows up and you know seems like a normal interaction what not. She says excuse me walks out comes back in kind of disheveled you know put herself back together. And I don't know how it came up in conversation but she was like do you remember what she said.
Or what the how the conversation went. I don't remember. She just said hey I made some extra money to pay for my dinner tonight.
That's what it was. That's what it was. She said she said yeah I just made my dinner money or something like that. And we were like oh and I think somebody even asked like how'd you do that. It was just like oh I have special friends that come by.
And while part was she was married. She was married and I'm not going to say what she said but she said some some interesting stuff to me that made me feel very uncomfortable.
Apparently she was. You remember. Apparently she was. You know who I remember was that. Was that that that Gators Bayou dinner Frumpy Brown and her boyfriend.
Charlton Heston. And he was ugly bro. I mean this you do correct a freight train. I promise you look in the mirror and it breaks man. I'm telling you he hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down.
I mean it was just real bad. She was like physically bigger than him and he was small and he was like he was hitting on her like like physically hitting his girlfriend like not at the table but like he was a.
Yeah yeah like he was. Yeah he was a beater. So it was which was pretty crazy because it's like girl you could take him. He was also at the table sitting next to his girlfriend Frumpy Brown and then right in front of her hitting on Judy.
Like he was putting his arm around her like hitting on Judy and talking talking to her. Man I'm just like I don't even know some of this stuff. Some of these people it's just like why why are you doing this.
Oh there was this other that assistant manager you were talking about the gal assistant manager. She had interesting time too. She was like the one that was like involved with old Ben.
She was in this like relationship but didn't want to be committed all this other stuff. All I remember was one year she thought she was going to get a ring like you're going to propose and all this other stuff.
This man bought her a box like I'm it now don't get me wrong. It was a nice box and let me clarify it was one of these like storage boxes.
You know how do I best put this. It's not exactly like a gun case but like gun case material with like a soft inside and it was like a set of those to store stuff.
And it was like what it was like what it was like what the heck is that I just remember being like that's the worst worst Christmas gift I've ever heard in my entire life.
That was a very interesting case. But yeah sorry back to Frumpy Brown.
Yeah well it was always interesting because if Mike could kind of test this but when we worked in the back that was like everybody's little counseling place.
That's where everyone went to go spill secrets like they would talk mess about other coworkers but they would just talk.
That's where people go fight. So we got to watch the fight.
Yeah people go fight like yell at each other. They would also like dealt their deepest darkest secrets because I don't know.
I don't know why but they were just like yeah it's a safe place back here. We could we could talk all but yeah people tell some wild stuff about like their boyfriends or like who they were what they did that last weekend.
It was wild but I will tell you the one person that really did get on my nerves was Deputy Porcars.
We talked about him a little bit but this guy would just lie like he was a just straight up liar. He but I felt bad for him because I mean I hate to say this.
He kind of didn't have a lot going for him but he tried to make himself out to be better than he really was and he was like he was like yeah he was like those people come up to me.
I'm going to tell him this and this and this and then I'm like no you're not you're not going to say nothing to him.
He was one of these people to where you feel bad for him initially because you look at all of his circumstance all together.
He's kind of a bigger guy. He doesn't look too great. He hasn't had a good background you know that sort of thing so you're kind of like I'm going to give this guy some sympathy.
He was just he was just a jerk about everything and what would happen is it was it was a lot of it was unwarranted but then there was a lot of stuff that he was just overblown about like Christopher was saying.
Like he would just make up some just wild and outlandish stuff. Yeah but the thing is he would like it was mostly directed towards Zacharoni and cheese and he would dish it out but like if you dished it back to him then he'd get like really upset.
Like he'd be like he'd get mad stop talking to you. Yeah.
Yeah. Like he would always like yeah I'm good. I remember the thing you say he was like yeah if they come up to me he's like I'm gonna beat him with a pillowcase full of cobers and loose change and I'm like dude you just stole that from the radio like he would always say that he was like he would always complain about like his.
It wasn't a stepdaughter but his girlfriend's daughter was like yeah she does this and that but like anytime she did something or he was out he wouldn't say nothing like he wouldn't he would he was just all talk he was just a.
Chihuahua that barks a lot and in this man it would like frustrate me too because it'd be like this man.
Like at one point he kind of lost everything right he lost his woman he lost his place of living so he goes and lives at this other place he gets kicked out of there because he discharges a firearm.
Bam right through the freaking floor now let's not do that so like there for a little bit he was bouncing between places but bro at the Westerware store he was spending some cash money like I don't mean to judge but it was just like I remember having to talk with him at one point
and dude why are you spending money on Osher boots when you got this situation going on right now.
It was it was wild.
I was just like bro why are you why are you just spending money left and right.
Yeah it was he was also the the mouth of the South.
I remember whenever I was going through it and I was like talking about possibly quitting like he told everybody that I was going to quit so they knew I was going to quit before like Ben knew I was going to quit.
And it was just I had gotten to the place in my life where you know I started you know spending more time with God I started getting back on the right track started going to church again and like I was getting my life back on track and I realized like the people in that environment that was causing a lot of toxicity and it was causing me to do a lot of things and act in ways that I would never have
acted before and I was like man I got to get out of here like I just I really do I got to get out of here because it's not good and I remember going in and everyone's like are you quitting are you quitting and I was like we'll see so I went in there and I talked to Ben and I remember he did the same thing that he did to Mike and he just kind of put the termination papers there in front of me and he told me how much I was screwing up my life and that I could be he would always tell people this he was like you could be the youngest store man.
And the history of Cavenders like he always pipe pump you up with that but I don't understand he was like you have a future set in front of you and like this is a good path and you're just throwing away.
I kind of told him he was like he was like God work here he would come down here and smack you in the face and tell you that what you're doing is stupid and that you're messing your life up.
And I remember he played the whole well now all these people are going to have to stay late because you were supposed to close tonight and this and that and I was just like maybe feel really bad which is what narcissists do.
He was like I'm going to miss time with my family because I'm having to stay here and cover your shift and I'm going to have to do this and I'm going to have to do that.
And I was just like oh man I was like I'm sorry like you know I can stay this and that and I remember like we had an hour conversation just about it we were talking about it and I remember like he got up to go to the bathroom and I barely there's very few times in my life that I've like very clearly heard the Lord like audibly.
But I remember like the Lord saying like what are you still doing here like it's time to quit like you don't need to be hanging around here dude like this is not good for you.
I remember he came back from the bathroom he's like so what's it going to be.
I was like I'm done and then I signed my termination papers and I left.
Yeah that's that's wild.
I don't know man that that place.
At least for me as far as being in sales and things like that and it was different when it was in the back but once it became sales it's a whole different environment and it's a I don't know man it was it was nice to leave it was very nice to leave you think it's just about the money it sounds great right like oh man I get a cut of whatever I make and you know I'm really in charge and that has its goods and its bads right but you know in some
cases if you hustle it's mostly good.
I don't know man it was the other stuff that just made it almost unbearable.
And that's why it you know didn't last too long that's why there was two stints at least for me.
I will tell you after I quit and I remember like the next morning like I because I didn't have to go maybe I did have to go to my other job that night I don't remember.
But I remember like sleeping the hardest I had ever slept in my life like I slept hard and I felt great after I quit and I like I felt like so much peace like after I quit and wasn't there and I was like man and maybe part of that was like oh you don't have to work two jobs and go to school full time now because it was kind of hard because I when I did still work over nights and going to school the next morning.
That was still hard but I was like at least I don't have to go to the other job dude because I tell you I don't know when I slept.
I have no idea when I slept.
Yeah you really didn't dude you really never came came home and slept at all because I would have to I think maybe I would sleep a little because I would work from nine to seven and then get up and go to college and then when I was done with college.
I would I would get lunch and then I go in at one and go work.
And I do know when I slept it was actually in between classes in Sam that actually used to work there.
She we got a couple classes at the same time and there was like this hangout with these couches and she was like you just take a nap I promise I'll wake you up when it's time for your next class.
So I was so she was she was like cool to wake me up so I didn't miss my classes but yeah I'm so glad that I didn't work there anymore.
I guess a little bit of after story to a mind mind worked out really really well after I left actually so I left and I was living with my parents at the time still.
And I mean I was 19 so my parents at the time and that I mean they really got on to me they were really upset that I quit this job.
They were just like man that was such a great sales job you're making so much money and blah blah blah blah blah.
Anyways I found a job listing for a restaurant there in town is a delivery driver you know I had a pretty decent car.
And so I figure I can do delivery driving and they I mean I remember I sent them my resume and within 20 minutes they reached out and they were like can you have an interview.
And I drove over there it was like right around the corner from my house at the time went over there and I mean the interview just took a few seconds and my only question for them was how is your feeling on football.
Because they had TVs all in there too. And so I was just curious kind of like working wise you know are you going to have football on because that was a thing for me.
And they said oh well we're off on Sundays because we're a Christian company I was like oh sold.
I was just like yes I'll come work for you. I was like yes I will come work for you.
Do you do you want do you want to tell them how you were almost part of the boot crowd.
Oh my God I read delvin into that.
Yes Mike almost married into the owner's family almost did.
So she had a she had a thing for me.
And no no no no no.
You're you're dismissing the whole thing.
You better tell them this story.
All right. All right. All right.
So it was the it was the owners of the company's granddaughter and the owner of the company was a husband and wife and it was the wife.
She would come to these we would go on the road and we would build the interiors of the stores.
Of course it's cheaper than hiring contractors just do you know we've got plenty of guys that can work.
Didn't mean it was ever great but hey we got it up there anyways.
So her job the owner would come in at a certain point and what she would do is she would it wasn't charged with decoration so she would have gone out to antique places different other stuff and you know put stuff on the wall like
tractor seats and old signs you know what I mean just to make the place look more rustic.
And so pretty much I don't know how I got on to this team but it was like yeah you're with us every day and pretty much it was with the owner and the granddaughter and the granddaughter would bring in Starbucks and all of a sudden she started bringing me Starbucks
and then all of a sudden it was like OK now we're just hanging out and building the store just the three of us and hanging up.
I don't know.
It was it was just like the three of us all the time and it was like every trip was like that.
It was very interesting.
I don't even remember how it stopped.
No no no you're leaving out stuff you're leaving out stuff.
Did you get a number.
Of course we're not.
Listen we're not going all into all that on the podcast.
Not about it's the dark side of the book around there wasn't anything dark about what happened there.
Oh I get it.
He wants he's playing the he's playing the fit.
He don't want to get in trouble.
I'm playing the marital front.
No man.
No one getting trouble.
Yeah.
Listen I have certain people that listen to this podcast.
I'm going to I'm going to keep it clean.
It's a it's a family friendly show.
That's what I'm going with.
Any other crazy stories that you remember from boot corral.
I remember a lot of them.
Yeah.
I think probably the craziest time for me and this is just crazy retail wise was the time all the fire sprinklers went off at once.
Were you there for that.
No I wasn't there for that.
That must have been the second time.
So all the fire sprinklers went off and started flooding the store.
And so all been had us moving racks of stuff outside and these clothes racks I mean they're hundreds of pounds you got to think and so we're trying to save as much merchandise as we can.
And this water hadn't been cleaned out and I don't know how long so it's like this black nasty stuff coming out of the like the hose and then all of a sudden a water pipe start shooting out of the wall because I guess there was too much pressure built up from all this sediment or whatever it was in there.
So it starts pouring out.
You know where the t-shirts used to be just like right there just started pouring out.
And so again we're trying to save merchandise and everything and we're trying to save electronics like cash registers and things like that.
Meanwhile we have customers coming in there and they're like yeah I want to make a return.
It's like can you not see that we're flooding right now you know we're trying to get everything.
And meanwhile for everybody's safety because it's getting up to the point where I mean it wasn't up up but it was up to the point where the fear was getting to the electrical like the outlets you know like water was going to get into there in certain spots.
And so they had to turn off the electricity before they can turn off the water and so the lights go out. Meanwhile we still have people that are outside the door of the store and they're like hey I need to return these boots.
It's like can you not see that we're closed and we're dealing with problems right now.
And they were like well we just drove from La Mesa and we we're not coming back for another three weeks.
It's like I don't know what to tell you man.
Like we grabbed all of our registers are in the freaking parking lot right now.
People are still demanding. I think I also remember a guy trying to return some boots.
And he's like yeah these just weren't the right ones.
And the boots were like worn like worn worn worn like it's like nah you didn't just buy those like this week or last week like you've been wearing those you're trying to get money.
And I was like yeah I ain't I ain't doing any of this. I also remember having to power up wash the sidewalk because they were too cheap to do that themselves.
Power wash the AC units.
Yeah I also had to remember I remember the summer project was always going back and cleaning the shelves wiping them down like in the back and like reorganizing everything.
And so the back would lead to the hat like the hat room where they stored all the hats.
And so like it locked from one side like on the outside it but they would forget to lock from the other end.
So you would walk into the hat room and you'd see just people going at it and you would like oh oh wow OK I'll come back later.
Sorry.
Yeah I'll be the first to admit to I've partaken in the nod to the secret hat room trick there.
There was something else I want to say to before we wrap this episode up let's talk about some salesman tricks. Did you ever have any tricks. I had a few.
No because I wasn't that good of a sale.
OK well here it's the dark side right so we're going to talk about all the bad tricks that I used to do.
So if somebody's boot wasn't fitting right say it was a really expensive boot that you really want to get this person into.
Say it's an 11 and they really need an 11 and a half. You know how you can get away with it.
11 double you can you can do that.
And if 11 double or 11 double E doesn't work then you can take it over to the steamer give it a couple of puff puffs of the steamer when they fit their foot in there it'll fit in there.
And most of the time it'll warp to their foot and then they won't ever bring it back.
That's just kind of being dishonest.
Oh it definitely is. Guess who taught me that trick old Ben.
Anyways and then there was another one to where it was this was how to shark people and sharking people again is taking their customers.
So again on top of messing up somebody's section I've seen a lot of people.
Now I'm going to say this I was as honest as I could be and what I mean by that is to be in that sales game there's always a little bit of a level of dishonesty which is not good.
But I try to do as much of the right thing and as well as the other like salesman we're all just trying to make money right so I you know we can spread the wealth.
It's the only the people that wouldn't work. That was the problem.
Primarily what you would do is you would wait until they're going to go and they're going to go over to another part over there.
And basically what you would do is you wouldn't directly talk to the person but you would walk down the aisle and say you you're acting like you're straightening something right.
It's inevitable if they have a question they're going to ask you you're right there.
And before you know you struck up a conversation and when that person comes back here's again the game that you can play.
It depends on what's going on in the situation but a lot of times what will happen is another salesman if it's their person they'll walk around there and they'll kind of look at you and maybe give you a little motion of like a buzz off or like a that's me or whatever right.
And you can choose of like do I listen to you or not.
And it's not like they're going to make a scene in front of these people.
Some people would like old bug eye semen. He would make a point.
There are some people that would but most people won't make a scene so that's how you steal from people you know and a lot of people would do that.
They would just kind of sneak around there and act like they're fixing something and before you know they got your person.
They would just pull a bunch of shady tricks man whole bunch of shady tricks that and we had a boot stretch and that was the same thing I've seen people stretch in people's boots to get them in them to buy them.
I've seen them there too just to get the minute.
And I had that happen once where like we tried it was more or less the calf that wouldn't fit and it was the only pair of boots like in the style and size that she are the style and we couldn't get any others and she needed for a wedding.
And I was like hey like I can't in good conscience because she was like oh yeah kind of bits like that and I said I knew if she wore it long enough it was going to just really hurt her feet.
And I was like ma'am like in good con and that was the expensive pair of boots so I was like ma'am in good conscience like I can't sell you this boot like I would feel horrible if I did.
I just want to be honest with you.
So yeah it was it was it was fun but I'm glad that we're out of that now some great stories.
There's the nitty gritty that's not like the deepest darkest things about the dark side of boot crowd but there's one more thing there's one more thing I'm going to throw on top of here.
Did you ever get a big return on you because the policy went if you sold something and it got returned on you it's a negative amount on you the highest amount that I had I had a $2,300 return one time.
Where they returned everything $2,300 worth of merchandise and so I started the day I showed up to work and it's like yeah you're $2,300 in the hole basically you have to sell $2,300 worth of merchandise just to make it to zero today.
That was a pretty bad day.
We got all this stuff for you.
Where's all the socials?
What's all the things?
At the trash can network at the trash can network man.
We've been putting out some interesting things here lately like the origin of some sayings and there's one about you know sharks and stuff.
Did you know coconuts actually kill more people year than sharks?
That's wild I didn't know that.
Well guess what there's a video about it and we're going to be making a social media post about it if you're not hearing about it right here.
So yeah at trash can network over on Facebook, Instagram, all that good jazz.
So these videos are going to be also on YouTube but I'll be posting them over there as well on the Facebook and the Instagrams.
But yeah that's pretty much all I've got for now.
Christopher, oh yeah Aviator Society.
Why am I not throwing that in there?
If you like the plain stuff it's not like I'm not adding that to the trash can network but hey I'm going to suggest you to both.
So there you go.
Cool beans.
Well I think it's time to take this donut box out to the trash.
My friends and I might have been listening to the donut box and have been seeing freaking coconuts.
Come on Jefferson.