TITLE The Bastich By Hart: Summer "Vacation" Part 8
PANEL 1 (BASTICH pushes a shopping cart full of boxed tech gadgets down an aisle at FRY'S ELECTRONICS.) BASTICH: Ah, it is Fry's…. "Give me your WIRED, your hard-core, your hooked-up masses yearning to code C..."
PANEL 2 (BASTICH tries to get the attention of a HUSTLING FRY'S WORKER who rushes off without looking back.) BASTICH: My list is almost done... I just need to find out where the batteries for my talking Data Doll are. Hey, can you help me out..? Hmmm... must not've heard me...
PANEL 3 (Another FRY'S WORKER zooms past BASTICH, bumping into him.) BASTICH: Uh, excuse me me. OOF--! That was pretty darned rude... ZOOMING FRY'S WORKER: Sorry -- coffee break...
PANEL 4 (Close up on BASTICH.) BASTICH: Can't say I'm surprised, really. Only a card-carrying geek would ever consider working at a place like this, and we're not known for our fluency in the social graces. Still...
PANEL 5 (BASTICH corners yet another FRY's WORKER who responds to him directly.) BASTICH: Hi, I'm looking for some -- CORNERED FRY'S WORKER: Outta my way, consumer scum! BASTICH: That does it! I am left with only one option... This is clearly a job for...
PANEL 6 (BASTICH-MAN appears at the customer service desk, assertively putting his finger down as still another FRY'S EMPLOYEE folds his arms and turns away.) BASTICH-MAN: "BASTICH-MAN!" Excuse me, kind sales-person. I require some assistance. FRY'S WORKER BEHIND DESK: Not without a fight, spandex-boy! BASTICH-MAN: So be it. CAPTION: To be continued...
CREDITS Bastich (c) 1997 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
We return yet again to Fry's Electronics for a multi-part mini-epic.
Bastich starts off by awkwardly paraphrases The New Colossus mixing in a reference to WIRED Magazine and the C Programming Language. Yet, I don't think he exaggerates the warm-and-fuzzy feeling I had every time I walked through those doors.
This strip also doesn't exaggerate the famously poor customer service of Fry's employees on the floor. They were surly and often actively avoided interacting with the customers. Just as Bastich says, I chalked this up to these folks being cut from the same nerd cloth as I was and therefore not great in social situations. It was nerd-on-nerd indifference.
I'm not sure how much this contributed to the demise of Fry's Electronics. I usually preferred it over places like Circuit City, where a salesperson would swarm me the second I walked into their section trying to upsell me. Fry's let me take my time perusing every option before deciding what to buy, if anything - and nobody bothered me, ever. But if I actually needed help, like getting something out of a locked display case, help was often nowhere to be found.
Next week, Bastich-Man will try his hand at solving this problem once and for all.