Tag Archives: retailiations

But What If I Don’t Wanna?

04 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by in Non-Fiction, Retail, Retailiations, Truth

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I have to work tomorrow (technically today since it’s one in the morning). That’s not news, I work every day of the week but Monday and Wednesday. But I don’t want too.

Tuesday, the last day I worked, was a big pile of stinking festering garbage. I was short handed and the people who were supposed to be the closing team called in and left us hanging. I had to ask two of my people to stay late—they graciously agreed and I’m forever in their debt—and I told my managers I would stay late.

I’m not gonna complain once my pay check rolls in and I have overtime on it—OT WHUD UP—practically buy me a new car with that.

Anyway, after six I had three people on the front end, three breaks to cover (including my own) and a million things to get done. Honestly it’s not that hard it’s just complicated and you have to not mess something up.

Messing with the money of a major corporation is a daunting task. That makes me sound more important that what I really am. But that’s what I do. Essentially.

But as always we made it work and we are a good team. A teeny tiny little team but a good one. Those are reliable people and my faith in them has grown even brighter than it was before that night.

Because two people called in (more in the place called in, but two in one area is like a tornado going through a trailer park: devastation). And honestly it was two people I was looking forward to working with. Two people I enjoyed working with and it made me feel like they were abandoning me, and not just our front end and store.

I know that’s not the case. At least I’m pretty sure because they did not communicate with me. I wish they had. One of if them called in I was disappointed. But then I learned they both called in…

Let’s just say the stress of the last several months, and basically year, have really weighed down on me and I might have gotten emotional. I hid it well, at least the angry crying part, and managed to put my sore and damaged feet down (gently) and say, mostly to myself “screw this figurative ‘schtuff’, I deserve more.”

Management had been scheduling me full time and boarder line full time hours for ages, and more so during the Pandemic (crapdangit more like), and I worked it all—except for my two week leave—without fail. I might not have been as good at it as others in certain people’s eyes, but I did it.

So I resolved to ask my manager, first personnel then store manger, for full time.

In the eleven years I’ve been working at (REDACTED) I’ve always been part-time. I’ve worked full time hours on many occasions. More so since getting my current position and let me tell you this has been a rocky road. I’d rather have the ice cream. But I’d been asked about it before and I said that I didn’t want more hours away from my child and family and on my feet.

But since I’m getting that any way and I have been there, doing the job as best as I could, I thought I deserved it. Not the hours, I already have those. I’m talking PERKS!

I had the conversation with my manager and I came out of it, with a “I can’t make any promises” but also with confidence that he actually felt I deserved for the possibility to be looked into.

I’m not getting my hopes up, even if I think I’ve been seen as a worthy person, by at least one other human. Whether no one else does.

But I will also be keeping my options open.

And I’ve learned a lot lately.

1. Open your mouth for what you want or risk never getting it. 2. Faith and hope in another human being is about as valuable as a water logged wooden nickel (IT TOOK ME WAY TOO LONG TO SPELL NICKEL RIGHT). 3. I can make anything work. No matter how putrid the flaming dumpster fire I’m given.

Thanks for reading

-c

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Retailiations: Customers

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in Retailiations

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it seems that I run around more on 4.5 hour shifts than I do in 8 hour shifts. Last night was one of my very rare short shifts, of which I am not a fan. It’s not the running, that keeps me busy. It’s the fact that, despite keeping busy, not much in the way of work gets done. And today, the running, and the customers contributed. 

First off, I’ll start by saying, there are bad customers, and then there are awesome ones! Those are the ones that make retail worth it! 

I won’t go into much detail, but there’s one customer who has given me a run for my sanity recently. In the few months since I’ve been back at work, I’ve encountered her three times. Each time in person, she’s made me feel like I didn’t know anything about Hardware (not my department), even though I do in fact have a decent amount if knowledge of the department. And she’s made me feel that way because she acts like a woman SHOULDN’T know. Now, I will be the first to admit that, no, I don’t know everything. But I do know some things. 

My encounter with her today was by phone. Please note: if you are calling a store to enquire about an item, give as much detail to help us help you as you can… THE FIRST TIME AROUND. Also, it’s not necessary to give life stories. I was once told of a customer’s incontenece and the fact that certain despots able undergarments give said customer frequent UTIs, and that’s why the needed the other ones. Giving me your backstory and hopes and dreams means less time I have to help others. 

Then there are the awesome customers. The ones that make it seem like your simple act. If pointing out an item is the best thing anyone could have done for them. Or the ones who think you’ve gone out of your way to help them, saying, “Well, you didn’t have to do all that,” or making it seem like you’ve performed a miracle. I’m usually thinking, “Well, gosh, you’ve made my day, thanking me like that,” when outside I say, “Just doing my job!”

I can usually spot the really great ones right away. For example, if I’m standing on a step ladder, and I drop something, and they stoop to pick it up and hand it to me, the I know they’ll be respectful and appreciate. I never ask a customer for help. It’s my job to ask if they need it. 

The ones who will reach over you without warning, or who watch you drop something, right next to them and don’t budge, those are the ones who usually think your their servant. Those are the ones who’d knock vinegar off a shelf, and not tell anyone it leaked. 

FYI: YOU DONT HAVE TO ADMIT YOU MADE THE MESS, JUST TELL SOMEONE ITS THERE! Safety is a priority, right up there with, help the customer and intercept theft. The last thing I want is someone hurt (or covered in vinegar, grody). I could care less about the no accident bonus. I just know what pain feels like, and would like to help others avoid it. 

-c

Retailiations: Sarcasm is My Friend

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Retailiations

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I don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but my customers love me. See how generous they are? 



Monday they ledt me a mystery blizzard!

I found this treasure hiding under some Loreal Makeup fixtures!

And today: 



Possible Chocolate Shake?

Hidingb for me in shampoo! Gosh guys! It’s too bad we’re not allowed to accept tips or gifts from customers! 

-C

Retailiations

23 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by in Retail, Retailiations, Uncategorized

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There are numerous things I dislike about working retail. But there are a lot of things I LOVE. 

Case in point: Today a customer came up too me, I’m assuming to ask about some makeup. She started with, “There’s this blush I got here once, I think it’s cover girl, that’s a mousse type…”

Now, before she can even finish the though, I KNOW we don’t have it. Like. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I start to tell her so, and she interrupts me. She says, “I know you have it, it’s kind of expensive…”

First I think, “Not if its CoverGirl.” And the only thing even similar that I can think of it being, that we have in stock is the E. L. F. brand. And it’s at most $3. But she insists its CoverGirl, and I show her the only CG blush we have is powder. 

So, instead of believing me, she walks away muttering to herself, or perhaps she was on the phone, “I know they have it, I just got it here the other day.”

The thing is, I know my department. Like, inside and out. I can find something better in my department than I can in my own house. 

Ask me if we carry a perm kit. Yes, we do. It doesn’t have the rollers with it, it’s located in the shampoo isle, second shelf from the bottom in the same section as the Aussie products. 

Dry Shampoo? Yep! Web have numerous brands in now! suave, tressemee, not your mothers, Got to Be, Pantene, Herbal essences, and Garier Frutisse (I usually forget about that one. It’s new). 

I KNOW my department. 

But I just love it when a customer tried to tell me we carry something when I KNOW we, in fact, do not. 

Now, I will admit that only just now, did I remember that once, more than three months ago, we carried Maybe kilns “Dreame Bouncy Blush”. 

image from Walmart.com

The Maybelline section has since been reset and that particular item is one we’ve not carried in almost three months. I know because it was there before my child was born, and gone after. 

and even longer ago, we carried (or randomly got in) 

image from buymebeauty.com



“Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush”. I only remember one or two of the item ever being in the store and we couldn’t get rid of them!

I just love knowing I’m right!

-c

Today I Learned

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Non-Fiction, Retail, Retailiations

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In case you didn’t know, the thing I do that pays the bills, or my day job, as I prefer to call it, is in retail. I’m not anything special, like a manager or something. In fact I used to be lowest of the low in retail. The now absent (from my place of employment anyway) People Greeter was, in fact, the lowest paying position.

My book Black Friday: A Zombie Story actually takes place in said environment and was started while I was still greeting.

No, I am a sales associate. I work in Health and Beauty Aides. I’ve been in this department for about two years now (almost five total in Retail), though the days do tend to run together.

I find it necessary to point out that working in retail is much more… Complicated than you might think. As a retail worker you have a lot to deal with, a lot of responsibility, and even more crap that falls on you if your not—.

Scratch that last thought. I promised myself once that I would NEVER EVER rant or vent my frustrations about my employment on this blog. I will, however, state that as a person with a college degree, I feel a little ashamed of myself for being in retail. Still. That said, I am happy to have a job, regardless, and need the money.

But, saying I wouldn’t vent, does not imply that I won’t discuss hilarious Retailiations (I made that up just now, forgive me) in which I regale you with tales of woe and of whoa and also of LOLz of my nearly five years in Retail. Buddy do I have some whoppers!

No one will be identified, no names will be used and there will be no dissing of my employer or co-workers or management team. Just crazy stuff.

So, here’s the “Today I Learned” part.
1. Apparently we stock “Girly Razors”. I’m not quite sure what these are. I assume they are meant to be stocked near the “Women’s Razors” not with the “Men’s Razors”. I know we have them, though, because a customer I overheard, from three isles away, stated that she “hasn’t bought girly razors in forever”. My reaction was a silent “LOL Whaat” and also “Do we carry those, cause, I work here… And… Never seen ’em.”

2. My store is apparently the perfect place to go to discuss vital information, air your dirty laundry, or argue with estranged family members, over the phone. Also, all you moms out there, you are required to speak to your daughters. “You don’t want to talk to me?! You have to talk to me because your my mom!” She wasn’t coming home, apparently. I don’t know, but I’m sure that should you need to have an important discussion, roaming around in a public place is the way to do it.

I have also encountered (eavesdropped, I’m sorry) on one man’s end of a phone conversation which included the line “if anyone asks, you haven’t seen me, spoken to me, and you don’t know where I am.” At this point writers brain kicks in. He’s on the run from the mob for leaking their plans to blackmail the mayor into throwing the election.

But my retail employee brain overrides: Dude, you are in the most popular public place in a very small town. You’ve signed your death warrant with a smiley face.

3. On a completely non-retail note: I have 30 followers. Thank you.

-c

Ps expect more RETAILiations soon!