Paint, people, and problems

I'm in the middle of a 7 day stretch - that's right, I've already worked 3 days and, after today, will have to work 3 more before I get a day off, and then it's only one day off.  Just lovely, you know?  Anyway, the paint desk was steady yesterday, not as busy as they were hoping it would be since the weather is really rather shitty.  And I got to close the department last night.
Around 7'ish, a grandmother, her daughter, and her grandchild started looking at Glidden colors (we're getting rid of the Glidden Duo, replacing it with the Diamond, so the Duo is at a clearance price).  They spent over 2 hours looking at colors - a very long time since the child would cry, saying "I want to go home," and, of course, that wasn't going to happen.  Fifty minutes before the store closed they finally came to the desk to order paint, gallons and gallons and at least 8 quarts, and they wanted the clearance Duo.  So I explained to them that light colors go into a pure white base, medium shaded colors go into a medium base, and dark colors go into a dark base.  Eight of their gallons were for light, pastel colors and... of course, since most people like light colors on their walls, I had no white clearance bases left.  "I'm sorry," I said, "but I'm sold out of those bases."  Of course they didn't understand, so I had to explain to them how everything worked for a second time, going so far as to take the lid off of a can of deep base to prove my point.  And as I'm talking to them I hear the announcement going out loud and and clear that "the store will be closing in 30 minutes."

He was not part of the problem

Now, for those of you who don't know, there is a group of people out there who dally around until a store closes because, well, sometimes they can get a better deal, sometimes cashiers, eager to punch out and leave for the day, make mistakes.  And sometimes they're just dumb.  I think these women were angling for something, because around 8 they asked what time the store closed, and then proceeded to dawdle.  I roped in Tim, from Hardware, to help be track down bases in order to see what I could mix (only 2 gallons).  I showed them inexpensive, lower quality paints but that was a no go.  They needed to have paint and primer (more expensive paints).  What they really wanted was for me to mark down better paint to the clearance price in order to get them out of the store.  Of course, I didn't do that.

Nope.  I mixed 8 quarts and 2 gallons, and handed the rest of their chips back to them saying "we have a paint event starting on Thursday which is going to be a better deal than this clearance paint."  "Oh," they said, "a deal!"  I didn't tell them it's going to be a rebate.  People like these women don't like rebates, they want their discount now.  They don't want to wait for a gift card in the mail.  They see themselves as being shrewd, rather than a problem.  If being inconvenient will get them a cheaper price, they'll be as inconvenient as possible.