Sales Contest – The episode begins in Will’s (Steve Gerben) office, with Dave (Stavros Halkias) patting himself on the back for the new, cheap oil change initiative. Although he claims it will be a huge hit and open plenty of opportunities for upselling, Shane (Shane Gills) and Cal (Chris O’Connor) appear to like it even less than Will’s female-friendly initiative. They do become more enthused after learning about the $300 gift card incentive. Once the meeting ends, Shane approaches Dave in the parking lot to ask if the big discount has anything to do with their branch closing. Despite his refusal to divulge any information, Dave tells him that if there was ever a time to care, it is now.

Will is working the front counter when the first customer looking to take advantage of the cheap oil change enters. He’s not only an Elderly Asian Man (Haining Luan) but he’s using his daughter, Ali (Snow Feng), as an interpreter which immediately limits Will’s opportunity to upsell. Despite this, he retires to a private area and works on his sales pitch. Much to his surprise, when Shane sneaks up on him, he not only encourages him but tells him he’s doing a good job.

Shane makes an immediate connection with Barb (Brooke Edelstein) and is about to use it to his advantage when Darren (Ryan Shaner) and Jaeymee (Becca Jackson) come in arguing. Once Will steps in to help them, Darren wastes little time letting him know that he won’t be buying anything other than the oil change.

With all three prospects lined up, Shane, Will, and Kilah (Kilah Fox) discuss which is the best to upsell and how. It is Cal who ultimately decides for them when he shows up with a work order stating that Barb’s vehicle is out of alignment. Despite Shane’s earlier success, Will decides to make the approach. He does take Shane’s advice to do so in a flirty manner. Will not only embarrasses himself and fails to make the upsell, but he runs her off altogether. The worst part is, that she agreed to the alignment right off, but he apparently didn’t hear her.

After returning to the office in defeat, Shane spends several minutes teasing him over the failure before they discuss the next likely prospect. Although Will suggests approaching, Darren and Jaeymee, Shane says that he’d have much better luck with the Chinaman due to his ability to speak Mandarin. He goes on to claim that the only obstacle is that most Chinese people like to have Chinese mechanics. All they have is Cal.

Although Cal is completely surprised by Will’s request to upsell the Chinaman, he ultimately agrees under the condition that Will not speak Mandarin. When Will reluctantly agrees, the Chinaman and his daughter are brought to the bay area where Cal attempts to explain that his vehicle needs struts. When things don’t go so well, Will only manages to make matters worse by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in Mandarin.

Returning to the office this time, Will and Shane decide to call the Belmont location in an attempt to see if they’ve had any success. This only leads to an argument when one of the Belmont Mechanics (John McKeever) claims they’ve made several sells which is revealed to be a lie after he hangs up on Will.

With Darren and Jaeymee as the sole prospects, Shane decides to make the approach with Kilh. This turns out to be a horrible decision thanks to Kilah realizing that she stabbed Jaeymee’s brother in high school. Although Shane ends up closing the sale, the couple later skips out on the payment.

It is also Shane who later inadvertently comes up with the clever idea to sell all the extra tires Will ordered at a discounted price. After changing the cheap oil change initiative to the cheap tire initiative, the Valley Forge store wins the sales contest.

 

Tires Review

I really enjoyed the spirit of competition in the episode and the prospect of the store closing added to the overall suspense. I also appreciated the fact that Shane kept the news to himself. I enjoyed the whacky antics that ensued with the staff trying to upsell the three different classes of customers, although the white trash bashing might have been a bit much. I’d give the episode a 5 out of 10.

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