ABSTRACT
When Norma answered the telephone and the person on the other end said he was calling from Filene’s Basement, her heart soared. Finally, someone from corporate headquarters was calling to apologize for the abominable treatment she had received yesterday in a Filene’s Basement retail store. Norma immediately began recounting the story of how the store manager, someone Norma had known for twenty years, had yelled at her and had made her cry in front of other customers after she asked him to extend a sale price so that she could buy some flatware at a discounted price. She conveyed the manager’s response: “He screamed ‘NO! When are you gonna realize you are nothing special to us?’”
