About ten years ago or so I worked part time on the weekends at a quilt shop in a nearby town. It was a beach side town and the shop was in the old district frequented mostly by tourists out for a seaside holiday.
One Sunday two men came in the shop, obviously husbands, and friends. They were talking about how if they had let their wives come in it would have taken forever for them to find a simple thing like a needle. Women just have to look and touch everything one man said, and the other nodded in agreement with this wise observation. They came up to the counter and asked for some needles. I showed them the notions wall and asked what kind of needles they wanted...The men seemed stumped at all the variety and one went to the door by the parking lot and yelled out, I am assuming, to his wife. "What kind of needles?" A voice floated out...quilting. The man came in again, "Quilting needles!" he said firmly. I asked did he mean betweens? Another blank look and a trip to the door with the question about did they want betweens....With a shrug he came back and said, silly name but yeah. Well I asked what size? Now he seemed on solid ground, "sewing size. I pointed out that the size was based on the size of the needle's eye and recommended one....out the door....."is that the size you want...again the afirmative....so back to me, OK I ask, gold eye, titanium, small medium or large pacage...with each question one of the men would go back to the door for direction from the unseen wives.OK we now had the required needles. In the mean time one of the fellas had been browsing around and had come across the fat quarters, What is this, I explain. The other comes up with a fat quarter pack, and what is this, again I explain how it is fat quarters from one pattern line so they all coordinate....How does that work? I show them a sample quilt...why not just buy some fabric....again I explain. Now one of the wives sticks her head in the door and asks if they have the needles as they want to go to lunch. Oh yeah they said, paid for the fat quarter bundles, needles, and a book on sampler quilts. As they left shop I heard one say, "Good thing we didn't let our wives come in or this would have taken all day, women just don't know how to shop quickly like men do." I did my best to stifle my laughter until they were gone, but I think I heard their wives laughing as the men went out the door.