Is he in the right job?

I had another bizarre experience on my way home from work tonight.

Last Christmas, my mum very kindly gave me a gift card for a well known chain store (it's got an "M" in its title) which I deliberately refrained from using until deciding what it was I really needed.

And after 10 weeks of intensive consideration, today I finally plumped for a new bag for work - you might call it a "man bag" - given that my current off the shoulder number has seen better days in the decade it's been hanging off me.

So I called into this particular shop (there's also an "S" in there), chose a suitable bag - i.e. as close as possible to the one I have - before making my way to the pay point.

But en route, I noticed some reasonably-priced lightweight jackets which I thought might do me nicely in my quest not to die of hypothermia at Headingley during the upcoming cricket season. I tried three on, chose one and then went to settle up. All was going well.

I gave my intended purchases to the assistant and announced how satisfied I felt with what I'd found and how glad I was that I'd waited to use my gift card (sometimes I really am the dullest man on the planet).

But then things got complicated, and even a little weird.

"I shouldn't be telling you this," whispered the assistant, "but I've heard rumours that we are having a sale starting next Tuesday. I don't know whether or not these items are in the sale, but it would be terrible if you paid the full price now and then found they were cheaper next week."

He was obviously right - not to mention incredibly kind - but there were two problems:

1. Clearly my items might not be in the sale, and


2. It had already taken me 10 weeks to get round to walking into the shop. Would I really be bothered to go back next week on the off-chance of saving £3?

I hummed and hawed for a bit before suggesting I would just go ahead and buy my new bag and jacket while I could.

But my sales friend would hear none of it.

The eventual outcome was that my desired items have now been reserved for me until next Wednesday so that I can go back the day before and see if they did end up in the sale.

How odd and, again, fair play to my new pal.

But for his sake, I do hope he's not working on commission.