(9) The Language of the Staff in Computer Stores

People who work in computer stores are a different breed. The level
of product knowledge that they require is so great that management
can't also require them to act like salespeople in other stores. So
when you go to Fry's, you have to adapt yourself to a different kind
of interaction. It's not rude, exactly, but rough, as if Wal-Mart
were staffed by cowboys. But okay. If you can find the right gear
then it's not so bad.

Except for one thing. It pisses me off when computer store workers
ask people questions they couldn't possibly answer. Say, for example,
a customer comes in looking for a scanner for a Macintosh. The store
workers are liable to say something like, "Do you have FireWire?".
I can't quite tell whether they are being clueless or lazy, or whether
they are actually being sadistic. The average human being has no idea
even what sort of question that is, or what sort of thing FireWire
is, or whether having FireWire is a good thing or a bad thing, or
how they would possibly know whether they have it. The customers
who get asked this question all go into a little dance. You've seen
it. It's a slight bow, a slight twist off to the side, and a sort of
recoil. Then they stammer. Not only can't they answer the question;
not only can't they come up with a suitable way to explain that they...