Fish do not understand choices. If you put six different kinds of bait in front of them, they will take the one that is closest to their nose, even if the farther one is of a higher quality. Humans are different in this respect. When they are given choices, they are able to deliberate and choose the option that they think is best for them. This is the difference between how a fisherman treats fish and how a Heaven of Tea salesperson treats her customers. Still, tea sales in the mall is much like fishing. Drop a line and hope for the best. The difference is to offer options to play with the customer instead of having the one piece of bait dance around for the fish.
With this in mind, I give my fish-customer another option. “The best way to brew tea, of course, is in the cast iron. It’s just like with cooking, it distributes heat throughout the pot, extracting the best flavor and the most health benefits. They’re easy to use with their built-in strainer, and they don’t break!” As I gesture to show her our three elaborate cast iron displays, my mind is torn. The salesperson-demon in me watches her every expression, trying to figure out if she is interested in purchasing the crowned jewel of all sales at this store. The angel-conscience in me wants to tell her the cons of cast iron brewing: the enamel chips of with the gentlest ding, they rust easily if they are not properly cared for (I am driven to show her the rust on our display pot), and they require a ridiculous amount of tea leaves to make a pot of tea, considering their size. I also want to tell her that they are touched by seventeen people when they are made. Seventeen?! Are you kidding me? That’s enough to make an assembly line out of what we are supposed to call a “work of art.” Talk about dehumanizing a process to make something beautiful. Before I can decide what to do, the salesperson in me realizes that this fish-customer is not interested in, nor can she afford, this jewel. I quickly move her on to another option.
