Goldberg Street by David Mamet Read Free Book Online Page B

didn't want to press her. ( Pause. )
    Morris: Uh-huh.
    James: . . . cause she was growing frightened. ( Pause. )
    Morris: She'd seen something.
    James: Mm.
    Morris: You know what it was?
    James: No, I don't. ( Pause. ) No.
    Morris: Mm.
    James: I know there's places in the woods where I don't like to go . . .
    Morris: Mm. ( Pause. ) There's places I don't like to go either. ( Pause. )
    James : You don't . . .
    Morris: ( Pause .) No. ( Pause .)
    James: Mm.

     

    PINT'S A POUND THE WORLD AROUND
    A: . . . don't have the twelve-inch. We have the ten-inch and the fourteen-inch.
    B: Isn't that always the way?
    A: Seems it is. A number two do?
    B: No.
    A: Alright. The guy should have been in Tuesday, I spect him Friday, if he don't come then . . . I'll tell you, I've been thinking of switching. ‘Merican United, I can get twenty percent over a year, you sign on to their Ownership Subscriber Plan, you get a basis of twenty percent, you want something it's there. The next day. Six days.
    B: Where they out of?
    A: Down in Manchester. Basis of twenty percent, they've got a newspaper, what do you call it, a flyer, the specials, they can go, sometimes they beat the Marketway sixty percent.
    B: No.
    A: Absolutely.
    B: How's the quality?
    A: Same, better. Most things better, much of . . . what they do. You know, they've got their brand . . .
    B: Uh huh . . .
    A: Good stuff. Heavy gauge stuff. Some of . . . you know their stuff . . .
    B: . . . sure . . .
    A: . . . same patterns eighteen ninety-eight . . .
    B: When's that, when they got started?
    A: When they got started. Yes. Fellow name of . . . I had the guy in here, I was looking at their stuff since I came in. Youhave to sign up, what you do, you buy stock in the company, the minimum buy-in thirty-two hundred dollars, you own stock, at the end of the year they go and pro rate you the amount of your sales, and you're discounted based on that.
    B: And what do you do with the discount?
    A: What do you do?
    B: What, do you apply it to your . . .
    A: Well, I guess you do. I never thought of it. I suppose that you . . . or you could take it in cash. I had the guy here just the other day.
    B: They want you to sign up.
    A: The closest, Jims, in Brandenburgs American . . .
    B: He is . . . ?
    A: Oh yeah. You see his prices in there? Beat the Marketway fifteen percent easily. On everything. He has to . . .
    B: They spend their money on advertising.
    A: That's what I'm saying. It ain't going in the stock, in stock improvement . . . dealer relations . . . it's going in the television ads. Schiff, started eighteen ninety-eight. American United, the whole operation's built on one thing: the relation with the dealer.
    B: Mm.
    A: Stockholders are the dealer, customers the dealer. Everything. Geared toward one man. I pick up the phone, I say, “Where are the . . . whatever, he said that they'd be here on Thursday. Marketway, what do they care . . . ? No displays, very few incentives.. .like I'm buying retail from them. You complain to someone, their attitude, basically, I think, I don't think they do it on purpose, but what you get is: if you don't want the franchise, you can turn back. They don't care. What they think, they're doing you a favor, all the money they've spent on the TV ads. Some stores, maybe, though I doubt it. Not in here. A fella comes in here he wants three of those, four of those, something he broke on a job, he wants it this afternoon: I'm built on service. Hegoes down the road, he can go to the Star supply in Worth, he's in the habit to come here, I want to keep him here. Two things they told me: Never change your hours, never cut your stock.
    B: Uh-huh.
    A: A fellow comes by some hour you're spose to be open and you're closed, next time he thinks heavily fore he drives out of his way. “Maybe he's closed . . . ”
    B: That's very true.
    A: . . . it makes no difference it only happened one time. It's like adultery. I'm not foolin you. He thinks, “It happened once, it could happen