Interacting with the store owners was my favorite part of the business. Convenience store owners are a strange breed. They know a salesman by sight as soon as he walks into the store, and they all pretend not to be (or really aren't) excited by your pitch and product. The Arab store owners, so prevalent in the major cities of Ohio, are my favorite. They have a unique negotiating style that, if you're not attuned to it, can really cut into your bottom line. The majority of them run shit-hole little stores, we call them habibi-marts, probably much like the bodegas of other areas. The lighting is poor, the merchandise is rag-tag, outdated, and different from what you would find at say, an Indian (dot, not feather) owned store, and there is a pervasive smell of rotting...SOMETHING...everywhere in the store. It usually smells as if some kind of produce is rotting, even though you know the store never carried anything fresh.I caught on early that habibi-marts were my best bet for unloading product. The next step was how to spot them. I generally looked for any combination of the words 'Save', 'Mart', 'Stop', 'Stor', 'Mini', 'Kwik', and 'Buy' on a dingy sign with minimal parking available. Here's an example:Now that particular store you're looking at is owned by a Palestinian named 'Gus'. We can all agree that his name wasn't really Gus, right? It was something very ethnic like Mohammed, Nasser, Shouket, or Abdallah, but after 9/11 and the prevalent feelings towards Arab-Americans here in America, I'm pretty sure all the habibi-mart owners got together and decided they would all assume names more apt to be found on the set of 'Cheers' than in the Holy Land.I wandered a little bit there. Back to my favorite group of store owners. One day I walk into Stop Save there and I'm promptly greeted by a jovial 'Hello my friend! You can call me Gus. What are you to be selling me today?' Just as promptly he clasps my hand in his. Except this didn't feel like any handshake I'd ever felt before. Gus has only 3 fingers on his right hand! No, no, he's not Yakuza, he was born with a physical defect, but this kind of thing is startling when your eyes don't get a chance to warn your hand that they won't be feeling another full hand. I'm a stoic type though, I don't like to overreact or show emotion of any type in most situations, especially in a sales situation, so I looked him dead in the eyes, smiled, and said 'I'm here to make you a lot of money, Gus'This guy didn't look like he cared much for law enforcement or ethical quandaries, so I told it to him straight, 'this here is legal weed, you can sell it all you want behind the counter and no cop can bust you for it'. He didn't quite believe me and since the store was totally devoid of customers, I opened up a package, rolled it up, took Gus out back, and we smoked it. He was all sorts of high when we finished and decided immediately that POSH would be the newest product he carried.Now came the negotiation:'I will take all you have, $35''Can't do that, Gus, I've got over $300 worth of POSH here!' (around 60 grams, at $5/g, is $300 worth)'Ok, my friend, you give me all of it and don't sell anywhere around here' (He hands me a stack of cash)(I count the cash, it's $150 in fives and singles) 'This isn't enough Gus, I need $150 more''No, no, my friend, you take this, be very happy''Gus, I can't sell you all the POSH then, you can have 35 grams for this, ok?' (I already started cutting deals, no idea why, but I liked this guy and his ballsy style)'Ok, my friend, (gruesome handshake), tell you what, I take those 35 grams for that and you have 25 grams left, no? I take those for this' (he hands me another stack of cash, this time $100 in fives and singles)(I'm getting exasperated and impatient and now I just want to leave. Plus I was still very, very stoned from that POSH joint we smoked earlier) 'Ok Gus, that's a deal, but this is a one time thing, no deals next time!''Ok, my friend, no deals, I pay same price, just don't take this anywhere else around here!' (gruesome handshake)This is how it went nearly every time with Gus. He was a master negotiator for nickel and dime merchandise sales. But he sold A LOT of POSH and he was always good for cash when I needed it. He also set me up with his cousins, who owned 'Mini-Mart' a few miles away. They were better customers and much tougher in negotiations. I needed a new approach to this sales effort.