Meeting the Owner

On my second day of work, I still had enough energy to get up early and work out in the even with my bandaged feet.  Today I met the owner.  He is the brains behind the store.  The store is really his baby, while the celebrity chef and his celebrity partner are just the names.  The owner hand selects all the wines for the store.  So, unlike other wine shops, we don’t reap the benefits from distributors for free samples.  Since the owner is the only person buying, distributors don’t bother with the peons.  No, no, we get wine at 20% discount and the store still makes a 45% profit from us still.  Whoop-dee-do.  I met the owner.  He looks like a turtle and is about 4 inches shorter than me.  When he shook my hand, he kept his elbow really high and gave me the dead fish hand.  There is nothing worse than someone who can’t shake your hand properly.  He seemed cordial enough.  I ran into him again in the elevator.

The elevator that leads up to the 6^th floor office fits 4 people comfortably.  Roberto was with us.  The owner asked me how my day was.  I replied “Great.”  The he proceeded to speak with Roberto in Italian.  This made the elevator ride the longest elevator ride ever. Talk about rude! 

Today I found out that my old boss from the advertising job I left was layed off.  Two of my old colleagues had resigned and my department was “reorganized”.  There is no turning back now.  If this job doesn’t work out, I’ll be on the unemployment line.  I did make my first sale so things are looking up.

My third owner encounter happened a few weeks later.  When the phones ring, everyone has access.  Even the owner’s private line rings in the store.  On this particular day I answered his line.  It was a distributor, actually one of the biggest and the owner, a Roger Chatterbox something or other.  I called the owner and told him that Roger Chatterbox was on the line for him.  He barked back at me on Speaker phone.  “ROBERT” click.    Robert is one of the biggest and well known distributors of wine.  Stupid!  His name graces half of my current wine collection.  Today, the company is no longer in business and the whole portfolio has been snatched up by other distributors.