I had an interesting interaction today. While driving home from a modern, state of the art Kia dealership, I arrived on my block to see an individual wearing a hoodie poking thru my neighbor’s garbage. In the back of his pick-up truck, {along with the usual water heater, and twisted pipes}, I saw 3 ancient metal folding chairs.{the kind with a real, wooden seat bottom}. These are the kind of chairs that were already very old when I was a kid in the early 70’s…
Being nostalgic, I wanted to buy the chairs. I stopped my car, and assumed I would speak Spanish with the scrapper. To my surprise it was a very old Asian gentleman who did not speak English. Via hand signs and his few words of English, he told me he was Vietnamese. Eventually, we settled on a price of $6 for the 3 chairs. He indicated via hand signs, that he wanted to know where I lived because he had access to more of the same chairs. Get this ! Two hours later he shows up to my house with a single matching chair :).
I gave him $3 {instead of the going rate of $2}. He kept saying “no,no,2 dolla”. I just insisted he take the $3, which he did.
I suppose my question{s} are as follows: We are in the 21st century, but the last time I can remember having a discussion like the one above {especially considering the prices involved} was in 1989. I realize that the Vietnamese fellow would get a lot less at the scrap yard for the chairs than the $6 I gave him. But what explains his willingness to show up two hours later at my house with a single chair and try to refuse the extra $1 I offered ?
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I am interested in hearing similar stories where 21st century prices are juxtaposed against an older, simpler mind set…
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