The Perils Of Running A Business

by Eugene on 28 July, 2008

Last Friday, my sister and I went to The Gardens at MidValley. My sister will be getting married this Nov and was looking for dresses for her bridesmaid and flowergirl. I thought it’ll be easy to find white dresses. Alas, it wasn’t so. Nice afforadable white dresses are extremely rare. RM2,000+ for a dress that you wear once is a bit insane, don’t you think?

Anyway, after visiting dozens of shops, and hours of walking later, the clock struck 9.45pm and shops were starting to close. Before we headed home, we thought “why not treat ourselves to some ice cream?”

So we visited this shop that supposedly sells ice-cream made fresh, in-store, daily. I can’t remember the name. Gelatissimo I think… And so while we were there, we asked for free tastes served in baby-spoons. After tasting almost every flavour (except chilli chocolate, which they disallowed free samples), we settled for a medium cup – 2 scoops – Piña colada, and Rum & Raisins (both apparently contain trace amounts of alcohol which added to their appeal).

Here’s where things got exciting. One of the workers behind the counter motioned us to “come hither”, and whispered something in Cantonese. I gave him my trademark “blur” look.

Me: Eh?

CounterDude: Oh you don’t understand Cantonese is it?

Me: Nope.

CounterDude: If you like, you can order a large cup for the price of a medium cup.

My sister smelled something fishy almost immediately, but I in my utter blurness said…

Me: Oh? How does that work? (I thought this was one of those unannounced end-of-the-day discounts… You know, before they throw everything away (since they are supposed to make them fresh daily, right?). Like the ones certain bread-shops give.)

EvilCounterDude: It’s under the table. Just fold a RM10 note really small and pass it to me.

That was when I “got it”… I know. I’m darn slow right?

Me: Oh! Noooo…

Sis: I think we’ll buy the “normal” way.

EvilCounterDude: Sigh… Okay.

The moral of the story is, when running a business, make sure you hire stand-up employees. Poor business owner… wonder how much he has lost to the EvilCounterDude.

Oh, by the way… the ice-cream was good…

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

JK 30 July, 2008 at 11:42 pm

well … ;) good lesson for u too ya.. now dat u gonna have/already have a company of ur own..

anyway pizza riders near wilayah complex use to give away pizzas at discounted prices -> large pizza for 15 bucks ;)

Eugene 31 July, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Hmm… Wilayah Complex sounds far away. I think I will burn my discount just traveling there. Haiyah… Kai Fun enough ler…

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