Chapter 5 - Greetings
Chapter 5
Geetings
Bon Bon wearily eyed the pile of junk that had been dumped unceremoniously onto the floor of Lyra's home-turned-shop. It was difficult for her eyes to remain focused, for she had spent the better part of the previous night neck-deep in trash in a vain attempt to find the final missing sock in the set they had been trying to complete. While the elusive fourth sock had never been found, she and Lyra had come across a large assortment of items that could almost be seen as having been useful at one time or another. She gently nudged a wooden cart wheel that was missing more spokes than were left intact with a hoof.
"What are we even going to do with all of this?" she asked dully.
Lyra pranced over and settled her golden eyes lovingly on the wheel. "We're going to sell it," she announced cheerfully. "One pony's trash is another pony's treasure. We just need to find the treasure hunters so we can give them this trash." Lyra giggled and grinned at Bon Bon.
Bon Bon could only stare at her friend. She was afraid that the lack of sleep was getting to her, because something about what Lyra had just said actually made sense. Instead of thinking about it further, she decided to spare herself the headache and got to work displaying the 'merchandise' on the makeshift stands. It didn't take very long, as there weren't many things to display, and when she had finished and turned back to face Lyra, she saw her friend's eyes sparkling with excitement.
Lyra moved slowly through the room, taking it all in. What had once been her living room had been completely cleared out to give customers plenty of room to move around. Instead of a couch and chairs, there were now two large dressers that had been converted into display stands; one by one of the front windows and one along the far left wall. A few small end tables had been converted and were set up towards the middle of the store along with her former coffee table. At the back of the store was Bon Bon's makeshift checkout counter, made complete with the rusty cash register. She had already placed her remaining fourteen bits into it in case she needed to make change for anypony.
When she had finished her final inspection, Lyra allowed her horn to alight with magic and slowly lifted the grand opening banner once again. Instead of bolting for the front door, however, she cantered up next to Bon Bon and sat down. She then stared at the earth pony expectantly.
"Not yet," Bon Bon decreed with a small shake of her head. "You're not quite ready yet."
Lyra's ears drooped slightly but she recovered quickly. "Okay," she said. Her face was a mixture of disappointment, impatience and determination. "What's left to do?"
"What are you going to do when your first customer walks through that door?" Bon Bon asked, indicating the front door.
"Sell them things!" Lyra replied cheerfully.
"No!" Bon Bon retorted.
"Why not?" Lyra whined.
Bon Bon paced in a circle around the unicorn before stopping suddenly and moving her face to within a few inches of Lyra's. "Because you're going to greet them first!"
"Um..." Lyra blinked and tapped her chin with a hoof.
"No!" Bon Bon snapped. "No ums!" She turned and walked quickly to the front door, then spun back around and addressed her friend again. "The very first thing you need to do is greet your customers! This may come as a surprise to you, but not every pony who walks through that door is going to want to buy something."
Lyra's eyes widened as she considered Bon Bon's words. Why would somepony go into a shop if they didn't want to buy anything? It made no sense to her. Selling things was supposed to be easy! Somepony walks into the shop, you give them want they want, then they pay you and leave. How hard could that be? But no, it just couldn't be that simple, could it? Now she had to deal with ponies walking into her shop who didn't even want to buy anything! Why did they all want to make things harder for her? She had enough problems as it was!
Bon Bon took a few steps back when she noticed Lyra gritting her teeth and glaring at the floor. She watched with mild fascination as the unicorn snorted angrily.
"Are you okay?" she asked meekly.
Lyra immediately set her icy stare upon Bon Bon, who took another step back. Upon seeing her friend distressed, however, she blinked and seemed to come back to her senses.
"Yes, I am okay," she declared finally. "I will greet the ponies who walk through that door whether they intend to buy anything or not." She gave a quick nod of her head, as if reassuring herself.
"Good!" Bon Bon exclaimed. She moved closer to Lyra. "Because the odds of somepony buying something are greatly increased if he or she feels comfortable while they are in the shop. A simple greeting not only makes them feel more comfortable, thereby increasing your chances of a sale, but it can also help determine whether they are looking for something specific or if they're just stepping inside to have a browse."
Lyra walked over to the front window and looked outside. Her lesson in customer psychology was beginning to get interesting. "So you trick them into buying something by greeting them all..."
"Er, well..." Bon Bon began. Obviously, the point of greeting the customer wasn't quite so blatantly selfish as that, but upon further thought she merely shrugged. "I suppose you can look at it that way. The overall goal is to make the sale, after all. But it really just boils down to making the customer feel confident that this is a good place to spend their hard-earned bits. That way even if you don't get the sale today, you should have that much better of a chance to get the sale the next time they stop in."
"Repeat customers..." Lyra purred in awe. She was staring off into space again with that odd look in her eyes. Bon Bon walked over and nudged her gently, snapping her out of it.
"What do you do when the first customer walks through that door?" she asked again.
"Greet them and see if they're after anything in particular," Lyra answered quickly. "Instead of bucking the displays over if they don't want to buy anything today, I should just smile and wish them a pleasant day. I can always trick them into buying something tomorrow!"
Bon Bon gave a small chuckle. "Close enough." She then stepped back and, making sure she had Lyra's attention, indicated the banner with a small flourish.
Lyra's eyes lit up like stars and her mouth curled upwards into a big grin. She set her horn aglow with magic and levitated the banner before her, then turned to Bon Bon one more time just to be sure. The earth pony nodded and winked.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're finally ready," Bon Bon admitted. She nodded towards the front door. "Go ahead and hang the banner up. It's time for the grand opening of Lyra's Ultimate Item Emporium."
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Hilarious
Awww.
It looks like Lyra accidentally sold someone's soul and made them down-vote. Oh well,
i57.photobucket.com/albums/g208/nekoshirosoup/1284049017351.png
2405053
I bet it was that annoying little girl who always expects you to just give stuff away.
Interesting. So, Tear is both BonBon and Iron Will. The contrast between ruthless loan shark and helpful co-owner is one of the things that made Tear such a wonderful character to me, and I must admit that the fact that you separated the two into two different characters doesn't quite sit right with me, but it's early days yet and this IS entertaining. Plus, it's "inspired by", not "clone of" so of course there will be differences. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this.
2405173 Good. Goooood.
Sitting back and watching how Iron Will and Bon Bon 'evolve' with the story before passing judgement is a very wise move.
2405158
"What do you MEAN 90% base price is too high??!? GAAAAH"
I loathe those children.
2405053
The chapter consisted pretty much of Bon Bon explaining stuff before Lyra had a chance to hilariously fail at it, which made it feel lackluster to me, too. Not enough to downvote, though.
Who knows what you find in Twilight Sparkle's trash? Failed experiments. Successful experiments. Accidentally-discarded element of harmony...
2405158
Oooh the worst repeating NPC in gaming history.
*Grins* This looks like it should be fun. now if the real game would just make item synthesis a little more feasible *Grumbles and keeps hunting for nut mix.*
2405158
I wonder if she'll get an expy in this story? Cheerilee has a full selection of stupid, irritating or spoiled brats for you to choose from.
2408111 Lyra/Bon Bon shipping is referred to as LyraBon within the fiction community. The joke is that Lyra is naively innocent in her suggestion to use LyraBon for the store, whereas Bon Bon mildly breaks the fourth wall here to suggest that this is not a romance story and that the name might lead 'customers' to think the wrong thing about the two of them.
2408111
I guess it could be mispronounced as Liarboon or something like that.
Your story gave me that last little kick to buy this game.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
2409894 You're welcome, and thank you for reading.
This fic convinced me to start up Progress Quest again. The fact that it has a "talking pony" race makes it even better.
It will be interesting to see what Lyra will do to eventually get her hooves on more serious merchandise (because I doubt that a story focusing solely on her selling dumpster finds would get anywhere). Will keep reading this, yeah.
Any time the term 'What could possibly go wrong?' is used, you're officially screwed.
2407361
OOH! go for the Trifecta! AKA Diamond Tiara.
Random fav from EQD ftw!!!
And quite enjoying myself so far.
Keep it up.
flash1:wave1:B Sale!!!!!
Make your shop dark and spooky to get rid of little girls! Sell things to them at 108% base price to get a near pin and still make a profit!
I have over 200 hours logged on Reccettear and am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS STORY! YAYIFICATIONS!
In other news I'm hoping they start hiring adventurers to go into the everfree forest with them for better loot!
I Don't Even Know What The Game Is But I Still Enjoy This Story!
Maybe it's because I've never played Recettear, but Lyra seems like a complete idiot here. While digging through the trash to find salvageable items to sell is pretty smart (if she can find a buyer), she can't honestly expect every customer to be a guaranteed sale, can she?
2471431
You'd be amazed at how incompetent some people can be, Sergeant. You'd. Be. Amazed. Sometimes I could never believe that anyone had never put any forethought into the job they were applying for, and that they expected things to be as simple as 'customer walks in, gets what they want, customer walks out'.
But that's why you learn!
Okay that made me chortle.
I'm really liking this so far. Lyra's a hoot. Hope you have a better time in retail than I did.
All I could think of while reading this
“I’m Lyra Heartstrings and this is my pawn shop.”
Lyra really needs BonBon to stay grounded in reality. I bet Pinkie had her sisters to help her with that.
I know the real reason for all this setup is that this story is based on a game, but it does kinda make sense that a pony who participates in what seems to be a pretty socialist economy doesn’t know how entrepreneurship works.