Gerry’s Fair Deal

A Short Story…

Gerry of Gerry’s Fair Deal was owned and operated by retired Army First Sergeant Gerald McKesson, who’s motto was “Quality Laboratory Standards For Your Protection.”

Gerry retired from his service as soon as he served his thirty year hitch in the army.

Gerry’s son had needed a medical specialist, so Gerry returned to Fort Lewis time after time.

When he officially retired, his son was actually the owner operator of his dealership. Which was not bad for a twenty five year old owner/manager named Gerry Junior.

Gerry Senior prided himself on his high standard of excellently running cars at a really decent price. He didn’t mind going back and forth over prices for soldiers, but he held the line for regular customers. It wasn’t long before Gerry Senior and Gerry Junior butted heads. Gerry Senior saw a number of buyers return, asking for their money back. Gerry Senior watched and listened as Gerry Junior held his ground. Gerry Senior approved of the actions of his son until half a dozen purchasers came back wanting a refund due to problems with their vehicle. Gerry Junior blamed the mechanics, but held the price regardless.

Gerry Senior took no action until he had been working himself at the sales office and overheard half a dozen purchasers leave in a huff. Gerry called Gerry Junior into his office and asked for details straight from Junior about prices and problems. Senior also checked out the bank deposits and prices for repairs and sales fees. He let Gerry speak about making claims about costs, fees, and actual put it in your pocket robbery, but Gerry didn’t mention the robbery part. He simply asked, Gerry Junior what he thought needed to be done. Gerry thought everything was going well, but thought the company needed to do more advertising and pay his father a little bit less until his father actually got out and sold more to the customers.

Gerry Senior called a personal two person meeting to discus the returns and started off by saying, “Junior you are fired as of today.” Junior jumped up out of his chair and approached his father. Junior towered over his father and said “You can’t do that!” Gerry Senior looked at his son in the eye and simply asked, “Why can’t I do that?”

It turned out that Gerry Junior’s girl friend was a good six months pregnant with zero medical coverage and a really pissed off military major father.

Four months later at the wedding, twin girls were carried down the aisle. The major gave away his daughter, Gerry Junior was selling two cars a day and the Gerry Senior was proud of his work and made sure that each car was running perfectly and covered for the first six months.

Gerry Senior’s personal motto now also includes: “We do right by our Customers.”