The Customer Is Always

When the Sparrow began his search for the perfect bath towel he made a list of all the things he wanted.

1. Soft

2. Fluffy

3. Big

4. Navy blue

5. Absorbent

Yes, this list is presented in order. The last thing the Sparrow thought about on his wish list for a bat towel was how absorbent it was. The Sparrow was convinced that bath towel technology had gotten so advanced that even the worst bath towel was probably still very absorbent.

Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. Who knows for sure?

The Sparrow made his way to the bath towel store with his list in hand. He looked at the clerk, a Snake, and gave all the requirements he was looking for in a bath towel.

“Do you have something like that?” The Sparrow concluded.

“Oh yeah, we got something like that for you…” the Snake replied, “Now I must warn you something with that ranking of features might not be as, functional as you would be hoping.”

“I don’t care about functional, I don’t even know what that means, and it’s not a feature on my list anyway, the Sparrow said, cocky.

“Okay, look, I’ll sell you what you want but I’m just trying to tell you, like, your feature list should maybe be inverted if you’re trying to get the best bath towel you can,” the Snake explained.

The Sparrow was starting to be a little annoyed by the pushy salesman. The Sparrow actually thought he was making the Snake’s jobs pretty easy by telling them exactly what he wanted.

“Hey, look, I can’t believe I have to say this but,” the Sparrow started…

“I know, I know,” the Snake interrupted,” The customer is always right. Here’s what you’re looking for.”

The snake went to the back and brought out a soft fluffy, big, navy blue, absorbent bath towel just like the Sparrow had requested.

The Sparrow’s eyes lit up. He was so happy to get exactly what he wanted. The Sparrow paid, left, and began his new life with his new bath towel.

The Snake looked at the Sparrow. He felt a tinge of guilt knowing that he had just sold him a towel that couldn’t even dry a cracker. He had tried though, he really tried to let the Sparrow know that what he wanted wasn’t what he wanted.

“Oh well,” thought the Snake, “I did what I could. He’ll be back soon enough to get a better towel. Because the customer, is always...”

Weeks later, the Sparrow noted that he always felt damp after he would towel off with his new towel.

“This towel stinks as a towel,” he’d think to himself, “That Snake sold me a crappy towel because no one cares about the customer anymore.”

“What a terrible world we live in,” thought the Customer and he shook his head in defeat.