Do You Want Fries with That?

So Scoob was puttering away in the garage last weekend and when I went down to see how he was doing, I noticed another box of books at the bottom of a stack of boxes. He said he'd dig it out so I could go through it later.

Turns out there were three more boxes of books down there. Three! Plus the two I'd already pulled up from the garage. Plus all the books out on shelves. I had no idea I had been hanging on to so many books. So I spent a good chunk of time last weekend getting those books up for sale at Amazon.

With all the books I have listed, I've been selling one or more a day for the past few weeks and I've become something a regular at the post office—media mail with confirmation, please. I'm like that customer who came through the McDonald's drive-thru every weekday morning and ordered a sausage biscuit and small coffee, one cream, two sugars.

Oh, but that's not where the similarity ends, no sir. First let me say this, the folks that work at the local post office are friendly, courteous, efficient (as much as any government employee can be, anyhow), and I'm usually in and out in 10 minutes or so. Okay, that said, they're driving me batty!

I've been in there everyday for the last 2½ weeks for the same thing each time. And yet it never fails, if a package is light enough to ship first class, they always ask if I want to send it first class. Of course I want to send it first class… that would be exactly why I stood in line and asked to send it by media mail.

Makes perfect sense to me—yes, won't you please let me give you more money for something I don't need or want, and didn't ask for. And it totally reminds of trying to upsell at McDonald's—if the customer ordered a value meal, you always asked if they wanted to super size it.

Then, when we're about to finish the transaction, the teller always asks me if I want to buy some stamps. It doesn't matter which teller I get, it's always the same—do you want any stamps?

I guess I was learning some real-world life skills during all those years at McDonald's. Good enough for government work, anyhow.