Typical Day
Otto Trayder springs out of bed at 8:00AM, ready to take on the day and sell a whole bunch of cars—at least six today, he thinks. Maybe even eight. He's only one and a half cars short of getting his bonus—$1,000—and today is the last day of the month. If anyone can do it, Otto can, and he better because there's a "Pay Rent or Quit" notice hanging on his apartment front door, and that bonus is the only way he's not going to have to pack up and find a new place to live...again.
Otto showers, shaves, gels back his hair, and puts on his lucky suit and tie.
"You look mah-velous," he says to his reflection in the mirror with a smooch. Then, he gets a look at his shoes—he's worn a hole straight through one of the soles again.
Otto grabs some black duct tape and slaps it over the hole in his sole—good as new. "No one will even notice," he thinks. They'll be too busy staring at his dazzling smile.
Otto strides into the dealership at 10:00AM just as his manager, Manny, is unlocking the front doors for business. As Otto takes his desk, he acknowledges the five other salesmen who are preparing themselves for the day ahead. Otto isn't the only one who needs a deal and a half to make bonus. Half the guys here need to make sales if they want their bonuses, too. Besides, the person who sells the most cars that month will get an extra bonus of $250. That's Otto's utility bill. He really needs to cut down on those showers.
Otto eyes the others and says out loud, "Bring it on, boys."
Ten minutes later, a guy walks on the lot. Otto makes a move toward him but is knocked out of the way by Dave, another associate who claims he has dibs since they're in his corner of the lot. "But it's my turn," says Al, the old timer of the bunch, in his sixties and selling cars most of his life.
Dave's already out there talking to the guy on the lot before he can do anything.
"You can have the next one," says Otto. Al gives him a dirty look and sneaks a cup of cappuccino from the machine while Manny's not looking.
"I'm hypoglycemic," Al explains, sipping the sugary coffee as he walks out on the lot.
The day goes on and for the next hour, there are no other customers at all. Manny the manager is getting anxious. He instructs Otto and Al to go clean off the windows of the cars on the lot to keep them busy. They do so. While they're off cleaning the windows on one end of the lot, a father and college-aged son walk up on the other end of the lot. Before Al or Otto can get there, Sam, another salesman, has them and is already helping them.
Otto walks the lot for the next hour, mentally wishing customers to come in. Finally, one does. It's a sixty-something lady with a short crop of white hair stuffed into a tight-knit beige pantsuit. Otto introduces himself to the customer, who reluctantly tells him her name is Alice Monroe, as she glares at him.
He tries to be charming and strike up a conversation with Alice, who sneers and warns him that she's no dummy. He's heard it all before. She wants a certain kind of car that she heard is practical and gets good gas mileage. She's only going to spend X amount of dollars and not a penny more. Otto assures her he wants to get her the best deal possible. The woman glares at Otto. "Seven-thousand and nothing more," she says. "I'm no dummy. I know all about the likes of you slippery car salesmen." To which Otto just smiles. After all, what can he say?
After showing Alice Monroe five different cars and taking her on two different test drives, she agrees to consider one of the cars.
Meanwhile, it's been two hours. Otto calls in the approval for a car loan and it turns out the woman has terrible credit and can't qualify for any sort of loan. Otto delivers the bad news and Alice acts indignant, as if it's all Otto's fault. She leaves in a huff, past the manager who wonders what Otto did to screw up the sale. Otto explains the reality of the situation, but that doesn't help Manny any. He warns Otto not to take so much time on losers and get with the program like Dave, who has sold two already today. "Oh well, there goes Salesman of the Month," thinks Otto.
At 1:00PM, Otto grabs a hot dog from the lunch truck just as a young woman comes onto the lot and parks herself in front of a hot, expensive sports car. Otto ditches the dog in the trash and runs out to greet the woman. Dave is headed toward her at the same time and the two salesmen practically collide. In the end, Manny lets Otto have the customer. He proceeds to expound on why this is the greatest car in the whole world—anything he has to say to get her to take a test drive.
On the test drive, the woman hits the gas and within seconds, it becomes apparent to Otto that this woman is a really bad driver. Not just a slightly bad driver, or a somewhat bad driver, but a really bad driver. She practically mows down a woman pushing a baby carriage across the street in the crosswalk.
Otto tries to keep his cool. He talks about the car's features while holding onto the handlebar for dear life. The woman makes it clear that she has no idea how to merge as she enters the freeway at ninety miles per hour.
"Look at that pick up. Nice, huh?" says Otto, thinking to himself that at least this car's got the highest safety ratings available...for a sports car. He makes a mention of this to the woman who is too busy making "Vroom, vroom, vroom" noises like an engine to notice.
After a harrowing twenty-minute test drive that ends up back at the lot, Otto is covered in sweat. Back inside the dealership, the woman says she'll take it. He may have just about had a heart attack from the experience, but at least he'll have sold the car.
The rest of the day goes by uneventfully. A few customers come in, but mostly, it's dead. Dave made two sales. Otto had that one to the crazy woman, but he's still half a deal away from making his bonus.
He paces the lot back and forth while trying to bend people with his will to come in from the street and onto the lot so he can sell them a car. It doesn't work.
After ten hours on his feet, the duct tape wears off and the hole at the bottom of Otto's shoe returns. That blister does not feel good.
At the very last minute, just as the store is about to close, a man walks in and Otto thinks this could be it, the half a deal he needs.
However, Dave literally knocks Otto to the ground on his way to snag the last remaining customer.
Not going down without a fight, Otto tries to talk to the customer and knock Dave out of the way.
The two men are literally fighting over who gets this last customer of the night.
The guy ends up so freaked out by the salesmen's desperation that he bolts in the opposite direction. He was freakishly quick.
Oh well.
As the salesmen pack in their things for the night and Manny locks the front doors behind them, Otto shakes his head and sighs, "Oh well, tomorrow is another day."
He gets home at 11:00PM that night and rips the fresh "Pay rent or quit" notice off the door. Otto fixes himself a microwave dinner and looks over the apartment listings in the local paper as he watches Breaking Bad reruns on the TV. Suddenly, the set turns off (oops, guess he should've paid his cable bill...and the power bill, for that matter).
He flops into his bed, rubs his aching feet, and within minutes is fast asleep. He dreams of a better tomorrow, one where he can sell that much-needed half a deal, get his bonus, and live happily ever after.