Thursday, Sep. 10, 2009
skene on the scene: killing with kindness
Michael Skene had mixed feelings about leaving Atlanta for the Grand Strand nine months ago because he was bidding farewell to a tight knit group of family and friends, including his parents and grandmother. He was born and raised in the Atlanta, and attended some community college there. "I didn't finish," he says. "They put me in a room with a window and it was real pretty outside - and I said 'what the hell am I doing here?'" But his girlfriend Jolene Green already had family on the beach, and the prospect of making a change was enticing. "There wasn't really anything going on for me in Atlanta, and I had been here before," he says. His parents kept a small lot at Pirateland Family Campground in Myrtle Beach. "I used to come up here with them, but never actually lived on the beach. We decided to go for it."
After living for a while in the River Oaks section of Carolina Forest, Skene made the move to Murrells Inlet, and says he likes it better there because it's quiet. But life conspired to necessitate almost daily commutes to Broadway at the Beach, where Skene and Green hold down jobs at Auntie Anne's Pretzels.
"I got into this because Jolene was already working at Auntie Anne's. When she first started, I'd go to work with her and learned how to do everything by watching her." Auntie Anne's is known for its hand-rolled pretzels, pretzel pockets, Dutch Ice and homemade lemonade. While Skene has tried his hand at rolling pretzels, his forte is sampling and selling the products on one of the two outside carts placed strategically around Broadway at the Beach. When he is out there, it is clear that he is in his element. Skene becomes a carnival barker of sorts - an ambassador drawing customers in and making friends with his disarming smile and gift of gab.
"I sell the products and sample pretzels and lemonade out there, but my main thing is to talk to the customers and get to know them," he says. He asserts that he was considered the king of tips because people enjoy talking to him. Kids become happy campers after a visit to his cart, and Skene was recently given a plaque by a customer.
"A 19-year-old girl was bawling her eyes out," he says. She was with her mom and was upset because she was going off to college. She was having so much fun on vacation that she didn't want to get back into aspects of reality when she got home, like going to school and being away from her family." Skene brought her an Icee, started talking to her and trying to make her laugh. He did not stop until she was composed and smiling from ear to ear. "A while later she came back with a plaque that says, "Angels are everywhere" and gave it to me. I had never been touched by something like that. That shows that I got to the heart of a customer and they repaid me with something nice, too." Because of his customer service skills, Skene was also given a patch by a fireman who helped quell April's wildfires.
On the other side of the coin, Skene's reaction to unreasonable or grumpy customers is to kill them with kindness. "You have to keep your composure because the customer is always right."
An interesting camaraderie comes into play for those working carts at Broadway at the Beach - a culturally diverse community of vendors in the trenches as it were. "When you're out there you are actually family. If I walk away to sample product, the other guys around me watch out for customers I might not see, and I'll do the same for them."
Busmen's holidays to Broadway are quite frequent, with visits to Ripley's Aquarium, Imax 3D or the Morphis simulators. "We can usually get free admission or half off on these attractions because we work here. Sometimes we'll catch local bands around town. I went to the Anvil Tavern with a biker lady who lives next door to us and had a beer. That place is pretty cool. We went to the Beach Monkey the other night."
Skene, obviously a social creature, is a lot more comfortable on the Grand Strand now because he has nurtured several friendships. "Right now we're happy with Myrtle Beach. I don't think we're going to leave for a while - as long as we can make it through the winter."