Retail...and Black Friday...the true story

I wrote this a few years ago when I still worked at a book store in LA. I thought it appropriate to place here as a reminder to play nice with the employees of whatever store you visit.

After working retail for as long as I can possibly remember I have come to despise three times a year more than any other.

One is tax season...and its the least worst

Second is the week after Christmas...mainly because of all the returns and the people who go for the after Christmas sales.

Third ..and the most hated..is black Friday.

People are freaking nuts. I remember two years ago there were knock out drag down fights at the Wal Mart in Monroe for the xbox or something. It was horrible. Then there was the incident last year when a person was trampled to death BY CUSTOMERS at a Wal Mart who had hired tons of extra security and it still wasn't enough to control the INSANE crowd.

People are so rude on that day too. They get aggravated if they aren't waited on the exact minute they ask for help. Never mind that the entire staff of whatever store they are in is not only fully loaded with staff for this insane occasion but each staff member is loaded down with at the least 2-3 customers that they are already helping prior to you walking in and demanding help immediately.

And God forbid if that person doesn't know the sales as well as they should or does not read the fine print.

Then there are the lines.....yes its aggravating to stand in line for 10 minutes waiting to check out. But its just as aggravating if not more so for the 3 cashiers that you have at the registers ringing up people as fast as they can. Trying there damnest not to be rude to the sweet little old lady that wants to tell a story about every item she is buying and who its going to and so forth. Its not our fault that we can't get her to shut up. And if someone see's us being 'rude' to her well shame on us because shes just a little old lady but at the same time if we aren't 'rude' shame on us for not making her finish her story faster.

Then there are the people who want to write their check out in full even though you tell them they don't have too and that all the information they are writing on the front is going to be printed on the back. Or the person who has to count out 70 in cash all in ones and quarters. Yes we have to take it like that, no we don't like it. And when you are done with your 10 minute check out experience we are still stuck there for our full 8-10 hour shift dealing with more and more rude obnoxious people.

Oh and then you have the people who can't believe your sold out whatever item you have. We don't control the quantity of stock in store believe it or not. If we know something is a hot item we can store request some but God (or more precisely the warehouse people who like to make a store employees life hell) only knows if we will get the amount prior to the day that we need. All stocking is done by our warehouse people and inventory people that aren't even in the same state as the store most of the time. They decided what we should have and how much we should have, so take it up with them don't yell at the poor high school or college kid, or single mom that works two jobs to pay bills that whatever item you have is out of stock because you got there to late in the day.



So no......I wont be shopping that day...I'll be dealing with the shoppers. And yes not all are like that but 85-90% of people are that way on Black Friday. I've done this to long....and yeah yeah i know i sound bitter but who can blame me. =)



Now you girls have fun and please please be nice to the people out there who are working hard to make sure you get the sales you want. =)

10 Things I Learned This Week

Guess what, I'm hooking up with Musings of a Housewife's What I've Learned This Week Carnival. No surprise right? I can't help it I really love her blog and think this is fun to boot. So .........


The 10 things I learned this week (I spent two nights at my grandfathers house this last week and learned some fun things)

1. That while gran-dad worked at the paper mill he accidentally cut off a man's big toe then proceeded to help the man store the toe in formaldehyde so the man could late pull pranks with it.
2. My grandmother dated a gentlemen that went into the Air force when she was 16.
3. She also attended 'band' camp every summer for a few years and let quite a few young men with pattering fluttering hearts. The evidence is in the letters they wrote her, that she kept for over 60 years!
4. That she was quite a spirited young lady, so unlike the quite demur woman I knew growing up.
5. That gran-dad took her out on their first date as a bet. The young man she was dating at the time bet gran-dad a $1 that she wouldn't go out with him. Not only did she go out with him she married him two years later. Gran-dad says he never did get his dollar.
6. I always knew/though my grandmother was pretty , what child doesn't think this of their loved ones. But I saw a picture today that made me realize she was absolutely stunning. She was a breath taking beauty and it is no wonder she had all these young men pining away for her in her teenage years. I will try and get some photos scanned soon to show her off.
7. That for a short period of time my gran-dad was a mason.
8. My great grand father would steal scraps of paper from the paper mill he worked at to write to grandma while she was at 'band' camp.
9. That around the age of 16 grandma got into a fight with a young lady named Mary Lou over a boy named Luther/Lester (the name was heard to read)...she undoubtedly was a very jealous 16 year old lady. But what 16 year old girl isn't. This was still shocking to me, I can remember twice in my 24 years of life ever seeing my grandmother mad and never saw her mad at anyone in general.
10. Above all else I learned to not take for granted the living relatives you have left. Let the old folk's ramble on about their past life's, dig into those boxes and drawers of memorabilia and ask those questions because one day you may find yourself staring at an old memory album with a million questions and the only person who truly knows the answers is gone.
    

Waiting on a Woman

My grandmother was notorious for running late. Grandpa would actually tell her activities started 30 minutes before they really did in hopes that they might possibly make it on time. And even then it was doomed to fail. I swear the woman couldn't get into the car and out the drive way without going back into the house at least 5 times. Grandpa called it the rule of 5. Sadly she passed down the trait to my mother who in turn passed it down to me.

The other day after running back into the house what seemed like 10 times just to be able to go the post office to mail a book I heard this song. It reminded me so much of Grandma and Grandpa.

By the time I got to the post office I was bawling. Sadly the one time Grandma was early was in death. She finally beat Grandpa at something. But I can almost bet that she will be late meeting him at those pearly gates when he finally catches up to her. Her excuse, her hose was running, the pins fail out of her hair, the slip was just wrong.

Be warned....you are gonna need tissues.

Silent Sunday