Years ago when I worked at a Chevrolet dealership it was interesting to see the different mindset of the Corvette owners. Many of them acted like their sh*t didn't stink because they had a 'Vette. Some of the local club members, a club that we sponsored, would be nice when they came up to the parts counter, yet stick their nose in the air to us when we came out, at the dealership, to see the cars that we had gotten parts for, for months or years. Many of the members were friendly to us all the time. Those were the ones that got their parts quickly and with no problems. Those that were too good to talk to us at the show, had problems of all sorts getting their parts - even though they may be sitting back there on the shelf with their name on it.
The truly wealthy people that drove a Corvette just viewed it as another car, it was just a Chevy. Their 'Vettes would come in dirty, maybe had toys in the back end - it was their daily driver - not a status symbol. Never did any of them look down their noses at anyone in the dealership - they were just another customer in for an oil change or to pick up a part.
I never ran across that stuck up mentality working at the Ford dealership, from a group of certain car model owners. We had a couple of customers who thought their sh*t didn't stink, but those kind of people you'll run across anywhere. Most of the Ford owners were down to earth people. One in particular was quite the character - him and his wife traded cars faster than most people changed clothes - they were retired living out in the country. One of their trades they ended up with a new IROC Camaro - thought they wouldn't like that one at all - they loved it! You never know what people will do. Think I counted something like 18 new vehicles traded around in a year's time.
Running the garage at Montgomery Ward at night, I had a couple of the guys working there wanting to be friends - until they showed up at my house unexpectedly wanting to use my tools. They'd bring them back, of course.... Uh-huh. Funny thing was, they thought by being friends, that entitled them to my tools - which really was the only thing they wanted to be friends with.... sorry boys, I've heard all of this before - you want to work on your car - get your own tools....
At NAPA, it was really funny when the garage owner across town who bought a few parts every once in awhile would come in wanting to talk. He'd sit down and tell us what a great job we were doing and was wanting to make us his number one supplier - he, of course, thought that this line of BS would result in the instant opening of a credit account so he could get thousands of dollars in debt to us, just like he was with everyone else in town. Oh, you check credit references? Well, I thought I was a good customer - you are and will be on a cash basis. Who cut you off until you started paying your bill? Nice try. Again, heard this line many times before - nothing original here...
Many people think that all of those signs posted in your store describing return policies do not apply to them - never found out what makes them so special...
Many people think that it's perfectly fine that you make a profit on the items you're selling as long as you're not making it on the ones you sell to them - again, that one was a mystery - someone walks in you've never seen before, but they deserve some sort of 'special' treatment and you should sell them whatever they want at cost.....
It takes all kinds of people to make up this world - some you will like, respect, become friends with, come to know and trust, even rely on their advice or experience. Then there are those that leave you scratching your head and wondering how they make it though life without someone else keeping an eye on them. There will be the ones you know to watch or stay away from - the scumbags that will screw you over given the chance and not think anything about it. Employees that will steal from you. The ones I've learned to watch are the most obvious - those that want to treat you as if you've been best friends for years at the first meeting with them - then they act so surprised that you're already on them before they even have a chance to get into your pocket or worse.
There all sorts of people out there - you have to pick and choose which ones to allow into your life and which ones to avoid - but it all boils down to you. I think one of the best lines about that was in the movie 'Lonesome Dove' - 'You ride with outlaws, you die with outlaws'....