Word: salesgirls
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...because shoppers like Arlene Cantlon of Riverdale, Ill., are starting to make a scene. Cantlon lost her temper recently in a Venture Stores discount outlet because the chain was making a habit, in her opinion, of failing to have advertised goods in stock. "I asked to speak to the salesgirl in the shoe department, but nobody knew where she was. I waited 35 minutes while they looked for her. Nobody could find her, so I asked to see the store manager. At this point, I had a crowd of customers cheering me on. One woman told...
...Barthelme gets the most explicitly hostile in "Shopgirls," which traces the exploits of a sort of Peeping Tom manque who, caught by one salesgirl after weeks of trailing two others, is dragged along by all three of them to a teasing and titillating group lunch. While he stares dumbly at his roast beef, the girls chatter about the school they attended to learn to look pretty: "We're professionals, like models. We make the women envious and we make the men feel cheated, and that's not as easy as it sound." Just before the least attractive of the three...
...verge of collapse, most Poles must turn to alternate sources for food and other scarce items. Those with friends or relatives abroad may get some of what they need via parcel post. Others resort to barter: a mechanic might trade two quarts of motor oil to a salesgirl for a pound of coffee; in Silesia, the miners are reportedly trading coal to farmers for meat. For exorbitant prices, or hard Western currency, almost anything can be gotten on the black market. Sample prices: blue jeans, $180; one pint of vodka...