Robert Boş

My love is working in a big carpet shop as a salesman, and how interesting it is to get an insight into how it works there. Well, for the customer it’s not always so funny, but then again, he’s not always aware of what’s going on. Take for example a customer called Robert Boş. It’s an imaginary name for a customer with no money – boş in Turkish means ‘empty’. The shop where he works attracts (very) rich customers, due to, for example, good contacts with expensive hotels. And in the area nearby the shop, rich-looking foreigners are invited into the shop, where my love and his colleagues take care of them. But sometimes the wrong guys are brought to the shop, ‘wrong’ meaning ‘not rich’. The salesmen have their way of finding out how thick somebody’s wallet is, and when it seems flat, it’s important to get rid of them so that richer customers can be attended to. So with a friendly smile the poor customer is taken to the shop host, the salesman says in Turkish: ‘Can you take care of this customer? His name is Robert Boş’. Next thing Robert Boş knows, he’s directed to the exit. Friendly? No. Harmlessly funny? Yes.