| abstract | - Jay Rodgers was the manager of the trendy up-market furniture store Elevation where Steve and Karen McDonald went shopping in July 2002. Karen was desperate to escape her humble council-house upbringing and decided on only the best for her and Steve's flat. Jay told them that a sofa they were interested in was the latest in "Urban Lounge Living". The trendy desirability of the furniture though was reflected in its exorbitant price and Steve refused to buy the item. Karen though was taken, both with the sofa and the lifestyle aspirations that the store reflected and, without forewarning Steve, managed to get a job at the store also obtaining staff discount on the sofa of 10% in the process. Her dreams came crashing down though when she realised what a next of vipers Elevation actually was. Fellow worker Chloe Bebbington managed the almost unique act of bullying Karen during her brief employment there, setting her up by pointing out that a customer was eating a hamburger in the store, something that Jay detested. Karen duly confronted the customer only to be smartly reprimanded by Jay who had witnessed the altercation and informed her that the scruffy-looking man was Giles Alexander, one of the most important record producers in the country. Karen quickly realised what Chloe had done to her. Nevertheless, she swallowed her pride and boasted to her "friends" in the Rovers about the rich and important people she was serving. A day or so later, Jay reprimanded Karen for texting during shop hours, only to see Chloe happily using her own mobile phone. Desperate for acceptance at the store, Karen overheard talk of a staff night out at The Attic, a trendy club frequented by the players of Manchester United and assumed she would be one of the party. Prompted by Chloe, Jay told her otherwise. Soon afterwards, after Janice Battersby and Fiz Brown, tired of Karen's boasting, paid a visit to the store where they thoroughly embarrassed her with their (somewhat put-on) uncouth antics. Jay ordered Karen to escort them off the premises and made disparaging comments about them afterwards. To Karen's credit, she stood up for her friends and when Jay told her that she didn't belong in the store, she told him she'd be happier working back in Underworld as she wasn't ignored or looked down on there. She duly walked out, her dreams of being up-market temporarily shattered.
|
