Threw an internal tantrum and ruined my day over nothing.
TL;DR: Store employee gave old info, I knew he didn't lie to me, I got bent out of shape because maybe he lied to me.
I'm into Warhammer. Stores buy Warhammer from the company for 55% MSRP. Common trend for independent stores stocking Warhammer products is to offer a discount, up to 15% advertised. Turns out my local store doesn't. Not a problem for me for the most part.
But in the process of inquiring about a discount on some specialty items from my local hobby store, I was picking up on this kind of worried, "Buddy, you're gonna get us shut down" vibe from the guy I was talking to. He said discounts were completely impossible and the company making Warhammer would stop doing business with them if caught. This contradicted what I had heard previously but I didn't want to start an argument so I took his word for it.
The issue started the next day when I looked up the trade terms for selling Warhammer that stated in no uncertain terms that offering a discount was allowed. This left three possibilities:
- I was still wrong, and there was something extra I was missing, possibly a different business relationship from the norm.
- The employee was wrong about his own place of employment.
- I had been lied to.
I knew, in my heart of hearts, that 3 wasn't true, but the possibility was still bothering me massively. It dumpstered my mood and the majority of the day was either spent thinking about it, thinking about how to handle it, or feeling bad about not being able to let it go.
Eventually I messaged another employee of the store on Discord and explained the situation to him, but I had a pit in my stomach the entire time until he replied, as if I was escalating the situation beyond what it needed to be.
Thankfully, the second employee was able to clear the entire thing up. The first employee had worked with Warhammer products for the store some 20-something years ago and had given me old info. This lined up with what I've heard as apparently the company had been very draconian in all manners in the past. The second employee also explained to me that the store didn't offer discounts on items on the shelves because financially they didn't need to, but he was also very willing to work with me on seeing about a discount for my special order. All in all, things ended well.
It's just so frustrating that the entire thing was so draining to me and I couldn't let it go. I often feel like I'm throwing a tantrum and I have no outlet for it. Afterwards I talked about the experience with my (undiagnosed) mother and she has similar experiences. For better or worse, she's more willing to let those outbursts take hold of her and burn bridges or get herself banned from establishments. It seems to help her function at least, even though she's able to admit that the outburst isn't always justified.