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aldersprigFor @inventrix's commissioned continuation of Burning Summer Quest (LJ)
In Mr. Ting's (LJ) and
Mrs. Gent's Lemonade (LJ)
; Part 3 of ?
Mrs. Gent was either very easy to flatter, or she simply liked to play the game. She giggled happily at me. “You’re too sweet, dear. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you,” Jordan tried, and, after another moment sipping lemonade, “I don’t see prices on anything?”
“Oh, Mr. Ting sets all the prices when he sees the customer,” she chuckled, as if Jordan had said something silly. “You can’t just write prices on a shelf and expect them to be right all the time. As it is, sometimes we have to change our labels.”
“The labels, really?” That startled me, and Jordan was still stewing over the price thing. “I see some of them aren’t in English.”
“But some of them are,” she snapped. I’d hit an invisible nerve. “And what you need will be labeled for you, and priced for you, by Mr. Ting.”
“He sounds like a very hands-on guy.” So now Jordan was pissed, and Mrs. Gent was pissed, and I was feeling under fire for no good reason, which, yes, I’ll admit it, made me feel kinda pissed off too.
“He is,” Mrs. Gent answered coolly. “He prefers to handle each of his customers with the individual attention they deserve, whatever language they speak.”
“So, wait.” The language thing had clearly tweaked her, but I really didn’t understand why. “You’re saying that the signs are in the languages of the people who might need them? Ma’am.” I didn’t want to get kicked out before we’d had a chance to ask Mr. Ting for an air conditioner. I really, really didn’t want to go home without one.
“Yes, exactly. How else would you do it?”
“Uh…” Jordan frowned. “Generally, stores that we go into around here - that is, in this city - have signs in the language of the neighborhood, or just in English, or both. And the price is the same for everyone.” That part was added sharply. None of this “pricing for the customer.” I think it stunk of prejudice for Jordan; I know it smelled a little bit like that for me.
“What a strange way to do business,” Mrs. Gent complained. “But then, if you don’t read English, or whatever this language of the neighborhood is, then how do you shop?”
“With practice?” I spent a lot of time shopping in Asian food markets; I knew how this worked. “Or buy pointing and gesturing.”
“It seems very inefficient. And the prices?”
“The same for everyone,” Jordan repeated.
“So for you two and, for example, a … what is the word… fat-cat businessman, the same price for a radio?”
“The same.”
“That doesn’t seem right,” she frowned. “When Mr. Ting returns, perhaps I shall go looking at these stores. But in the meantime,” she said firmly, “you are in our store, and our store does not work that way.”
“I see.” Jordan looked with a frown at the lemonade. “We are.” We exchanged a short glance: we were, more or less, stuck with this. We needed that air conditioner.
Next is The "A" Shelves!
In Mr. Ting's (LJ) and
Mrs. Gent's Lemonade (LJ)
; Part 3 of ?
Mrs. Gent was either very easy to flatter, or she simply liked to play the game. She giggled happily at me. “You’re too sweet, dear. Thank you so much.”
“Thank you,” Jordan tried, and, after another moment sipping lemonade, “I don’t see prices on anything?”
“Oh, Mr. Ting sets all the prices when he sees the customer,” she chuckled, as if Jordan had said something silly. “You can’t just write prices on a shelf and expect them to be right all the time. As it is, sometimes we have to change our labels.”
“The labels, really?” That startled me, and Jordan was still stewing over the price thing. “I see some of them aren’t in English.”
“But some of them are,” she snapped. I’d hit an invisible nerve. “And what you need will be labeled for you, and priced for you, by Mr. Ting.”
“He sounds like a very hands-on guy.” So now Jordan was pissed, and Mrs. Gent was pissed, and I was feeling under fire for no good reason, which, yes, I’ll admit it, made me feel kinda pissed off too.
“He is,” Mrs. Gent answered coolly. “He prefers to handle each of his customers with the individual attention they deserve, whatever language they speak.”
“So, wait.” The language thing had clearly tweaked her, but I really didn’t understand why. “You’re saying that the signs are in the languages of the people who might need them? Ma’am.” I didn’t want to get kicked out before we’d had a chance to ask Mr. Ting for an air conditioner. I really, really didn’t want to go home without one.
“Yes, exactly. How else would you do it?”
“Uh…” Jordan frowned. “Generally, stores that we go into around here - that is, in this city - have signs in the language of the neighborhood, or just in English, or both. And the price is the same for everyone.” That part was added sharply. None of this “pricing for the customer.” I think it stunk of prejudice for Jordan; I know it smelled a little bit like that for me.
“What a strange way to do business,” Mrs. Gent complained. “But then, if you don’t read English, or whatever this language of the neighborhood is, then how do you shop?”
“With practice?” I spent a lot of time shopping in Asian food markets; I knew how this worked. “Or buy pointing and gesturing.”
“It seems very inefficient. And the prices?”
“The same for everyone,” Jordan repeated.
“So for you two and, for example, a … what is the word… fat-cat businessman, the same price for a radio?”
“The same.”
“That doesn’t seem right,” she frowned. “When Mr. Ting returns, perhaps I shall go looking at these stores. But in the meantime,” she said firmly, “you are in our store, and our store does not work that way.”
“I see.” Jordan looked with a frown at the lemonade. “We are.” We exchanged a short glance: we were, more or less, stuck with this. We needed that air conditioner.
Next is The "A" Shelves!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 12:42 am (UTC)Mr. Ting, where aaaare you~
no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 12:52 am (UTC)Thoughts on gender Jordan/narrator?
no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 07:31 pm (UTC)I'd read the narrator as female and probably because of that, for some reason, Jordan as male. Which makes me think I need to look at the biases I hold despite my efforts to tackle them.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 11:33 pm (UTC)**edit: I have a suspicion that most people are more inclined to read the narrator as female because there are no clear gender cues and we know you the author are female.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 01:02 am (UTC)I read her as female and the narrator as male, but neither strongly.
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Date: 2012-02-13 04:16 pm (UTC)The end result is that, my being as out of touch with modern culture in general as I am, they pretty much all read to me as male. >.>
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 04:06 pm (UTC)—theladyisugly
no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-25 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-11 09:35 pm (UTC)I also thought that the narrator (JJ?) was female and Jordan male.
Typo: "buy pointing and"
no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-12 04:18 pm (UTC)I was trying not to keep a read on the characters, so I'm pleased that my read was reversed.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-29 02:53 am (UTC)The link for the next story is oddly at the top of the fourth paragraph, rather then at the end.
Kuro_Neko
no subject
Date: 2014-04-03 02:56 pm (UTC)