Obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption which leads you to acquire more new things. As a result, we end up buying things that our previous selves never needed to feel happy or fulfilled.
The manager of a superstore came to know that one of his salesmen sold stuff worth Rs 1 crore to a customer on a single day. He got curious and called the salesman in his office.
“How on earth did you manage to sell so much to a single customer?” asked the manager.
“Well, sir, the guy wanted to buy a smartphone so I showed a mobile that could function as a TV remote also. He liked the idea but he didn’t have a TV at home so I sold him a wide screen TV also. Then I suggested to him that a TV without home theatre would be useless so he bought that also. Of course, a wide screen TV and home theatre wouldn’t be of much use without an HD cable connection so he took that too. Then I explained to him how cool it would be to connect his TV to his home security system. He agreed and bought our latest state of the art home security system. The security system came with free gift vouchers. To use those vouchers I took him to our furniture store and he picked up a premium TV cabinet. Since his living room wasn’t big enough for the TV cabinet, we went down to our real estate department and he ended up booking a new house.”
“Wait a minute! So, you’re telling me that you sold a house to a guy who just came in to buy a smartphone?” the manager asked.
“No sir, he just came in asking directions to the nearest bus stop. I told him that if he had a good smartphone, he would never have to ask directions again,” explained the salesman. “And he’s going to come back next week when he moves into his new house since a living room with just a TV cabinet will look quite awkward. Isn’t it?”
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