Tower Records

Sale Signs

Tower Records
September
1991

"Can you get it down?" Jason, asked.
He'd been stood there for five minutes, hands on hips, looking up, as Lori teetered on the step ladder.

She was trying to pull down the sale sign.
It had been hanging there, at the front of the store, above one of the shelves for two weeks.

The sale was over.

None of the stock on the shelves now, could be sold at less than five dollars.

It was lunch time, and the store was quiet.

There were a few customers, spending their afternoon browsing, walking their fingers along the stacks of CD's that had been jammed into white shelves.

Jason, was slim and tall.
A dark haired Armenian, who frowned almost chronically.

At only thirty years old, he'd managed to make permanent creases on his forehead, from all of his thoughtful scowling and thinking.

His hair thick with gel, was slicked back on his head like a greaser.

He looked up now, unhelpfully, watching his colleague stretch and wave at the yellow sign hanging from the ceiling by two invisible threads.

"I don't know how I got up here," Lori huffed to herself, "I stuck it up just fine.." She panted, jumping up only slightly as the ladder dug into the faded blue carpet with muffled thumps.

She had one hand on the metal rail of the ladder, and the other arm flailing wildly at the sign.

It seemed to dodge her hand, knocking itself back and forth as she waved even more.

Jason scoffed, "Lori, get down before Gordon sees you. We don't have insurance.." He mumbled through his teeth, holding onto the legs of the ladder tightly.

Lori giggled, edging up on her tip toes, as she grasped the sign between a perfectly manicured hand.

Long, neon pink acrylic nails clattered against the cardboard sign, as she tugged it free from its suspenders.

"Got it, bitch!" She gested, which made Jason groan.

He was a do-gooder.

A jobsworth.

Nice enough to work with, if you're in a good enough mood.

Although, like Lori, he was only a sales assistant, he'd often appoint himself shift manager.

He didn't like cursing in the store.
He didn't like laziness either, despite his own reluctance to complete most tasks.

He wasn't a favourite amongst the others, but Lori found his nature endearing.

And, since Lori was so good at getting by on her personality and good looks, even Jason allowed her to get away with undesirable behaviour on the shop floor.

When Lori showed up to work with her nails done, nobody said anything.

It wasn't uniform protocol, but they allowed it.

When Lori switched out her black work trousers for a black tennis skirt, nobody said anything.

It wasn't protocol by a mile, but they made exceptions for the youngest member of the team.

The staff at Tower Records, were required to wear red polo shirts, with their name tag pinned to their chest at all times.

Lori, had left her name tag in her locker most days.
Customers didn't need to know her name anyway.