4: 4
4
I put down my phone, got in the car, and drove to the dealership.
The manager came into my office.
"Ms. Henson, sales have been a little slow lately. But don't worry, I've already been working on some ideas."
I looked at him calmly.
"Technology keeps advancing. Electric cars have taken half the market, and gas car sales are sliding across the board. What ideas could you possibly have?"
The manager lowered his head.
I shook my head.
"Right now, I need you to do four things."
"Which four?" he asked.
I said,
"First, at the end of the month, close our other locations for a day. Every salesperson and staff member reports to this store."
"Second, call in the loan officers from the major national banks."
"Third, by the end of the month, have no fewer than ten security guards on hand. No, at least a hundred."
"Fourth, call the manufacturer and have some cars sent over to this store. Five hundred of them, and every one a model over two hundred thousand dollars."
The manager stared at me.
"Huh?"
"Huh, what?" I said, displeased. "Why aren't you on it already?"
He looked at me, stunned.
"You really want that many cars? Right now everyone's scrambling just to unload inventory, and you want to bring in that many at once, all high-end models? We'll never sell them!"
I didn't feel like explaining. "Don't ask. Just go do it."
Seeing I wasn't joking, the manager had no choice but to agree and go make the arrangements.
The last day of the month.
Sure enough, Tracey and Jesse showed up leading a whole crowd of relatives, along with relatives of relatives, and relatives of relatives of relatives.
Hundreds of them, pouring in like a tide.
The sight was so overwhelming it left every salesperson in the store wide-eyed.
"Excuse me, are you all here to buy cars?"
Tracey pushed to the front.
"Obviously. What, you think we came to gawk at you, you little tramp?"
Jesse chimed in.
"See all these people behind me?"
"One car each, and they'd better be good ones. Don't try to fob us off with your cheap models!"
When the store manager saw all this, he seemed to understand something.
He set the sales staff to attending them and came up to my office.
I was sitting in the upstairs office, watching the security feed.
The manager came in and said,
"Ms. Henson, there are a few hundred people out there. They say each of them wants to buy a car."
I smiled calmly.
"If they want to buy cars, of course we'll sell to them."
"But no discounts. Everyone goes through the normal process."
The manager seemed to get it.
"Now I understand those four things you had me set up. I'll go take care of it right away!"
Downstairs was in an uproar.
Hundreds of people, like a crowd at a county fair.
"This one's not bad."
"Yeah, I'll take this one."
"I want an SUV."
"I want something bigger, good for hauling."
"I need two cars, one for me and one for my wife."
"Don't be stingy. I'll just take five. My parents, my son, everyone in the family gets one."
They picked out cars, all smiles.
The salespeople kept busy handling them.
It went on until evening, and when everyone had finished the paperwork and reached the last step of paying,
every door of the dealership suddenly closed, and over a hundred security guards appeared on all sides.
The manager stepped forward, raised a megaphone, and called out,
"Thank you all for your business. Together you've bought four hundred and five cars, for a total of one hundred twenty-eight million, two hundred sixty-three thousand dollars."
"Please line up and come pay by card right here."
"If you didn't bring enough, step over to the counter beside me and set up an installment plan."
"The bank loan officers are standing by for you as well."
