work, weekends, wah, etc
first of all, this saturday (tomorrow, just) i will be merchanting at "King's and Queen's Fencing Championship" an SCA event in New jersey.
why, yes, i have acquired more dark green coat weight wool.
So i have this new(old) job, working in the fabric department of JoMar... (its old because i did this about 15-20 years ago for a short time)
(Note: today started off badly at home, and ended up with me driving in to work on very slippery roads, without packing a lunch. so i had no lunch today, this doesnt make for a happy Kirsten)
Most of the time has been fine. the usual work stuff.. dead, dead, nothing to do, tired of cleaning, i could be at home doing stuff, re-roll fabric, why do they even have a person back here? clean.. then Blammo! 15 people with 5 bolts of fabric each... help! more people needed in fabric!
Most of the customers have been lovely, or at worst neutral. ok, i dont speak any foreign languages well enough to talk fabric.... but we write down prices and wave yardsticks and its all good....
until today.
today i had two customer_sucks worthy events.
1. early in the day (11-12 ish) a couple come in, speaking ??? i dont know what language...something African? (it was suggested it was Haitian, but i honestly don't know what that would sound like)
anyway they wave at the (new, very drool worthy) fabric with the big sign that says "$7.99 a yard" and ask me how much? i tell them and point at sign, they say "no, no.. a foot? how much"
oh, says i.... i explain a yard is three feet, they look puzzled, i try to explain. they shake their heads a lot.. finally we get straight how much a foot of fabric would be.....(since they both had head scarves on , i assume they want this for head scarves..... a foot would be plenty for some styles)
how much for four? she asks
four feet? yes
i am by now very confused as to why they cant do the calculations themselves, but i gamely try.. and TRY to explain i really should go get my calculator if they want it exact....
they dont get it and get very angry whenever i try to leave to get the calculator.
so we haul two bolts of this fabric to the cutting table, and they say "four" a lot, so i unroll four feet and show them (before i cut) they get VERY angry and start waving "more"
eventually i find out they want 4 yards...wtf? ok, i roll out four yards. i tell them again (since by now i dont know what they think is going on with prices) its 7.99 a yard, and show them the yard stick.
how much for this? she waves at the whole 4 yards unrolled..
i get the calculator out and tell her....
she yells "no, no" and names a much lower price. i shake my head and EVENTUALLY she seems to get the idea that i cant haggle.
by now i am REALLY sick and tired of them hauling fabric out of my hands, yelling and etc.
cut several minutes of more of the same. when the other lady gets the EXACT same yardage of a different bolt of the same price.
then they try to tell me the TWO piles of fabric are less than the cost of 8 yards, i show them the calculator. she grabs it out of my hand and does something and shows me a (much too low) different number. i show them, step by step..
8 yards of this fabric costs THIS much
they glare at me and take their slip and their fabric and leave..
i go back to rolling up messed up bolts of fabric..
and they come back... and YANK on the bolt i am rolling (nearly pulling me over) and start talking to each other in whatever ... while hanging on the bolt, so i cant even put it away....
eventually they say they want 4 yards of that one....
its a different color way of the same fabric.
and we go through it AGAIN...
grrrrrrrrrr
i hoped i was done with them...
nope
then they start pulling up bolts of chiffon, gorgette and satin (all normally $4.00 a yard). chiffon and gorgette are both 50% off ($2.00 a yard right now) but the satin is only 20% off.
i do my best to get them prices on the 8 or 9 bolts they put in front of me. and they still keep trying to get me to lower the prices, and they still keep alternately using the words foot and yard... aaand not getting "20% off" and "50% off"
so i write up the slip for 8 yards of satin.. by now pretty frazzled.
and get a call from up front "did you say this satin was 50% off?" no.. satin is 20% off.....
i try to explain that either they got confused (or i did) by the variety of fabrics they pulled out. maybe i wrote something down wrong?
well they storm back to the table and in *suddenly much improved* english start yelling at me that i said this was 2.00 a yard...while waving a fist full of satin in my face.
sigh
if i feel up to it i will post the second customer pair from heck later
.
look! dragons!
why, yes, i have acquired more dark green coat weight wool.
So i have this new(old) job, working in the fabric department of JoMar... (its old because i did this about 15-20 years ago for a short time)
(Note: today started off badly at home, and ended up with me driving in to work on very slippery roads, without packing a lunch. so i had no lunch today, this doesnt make for a happy Kirsten)
Most of the time has been fine. the usual work stuff.. dead, dead, nothing to do, tired of cleaning, i could be at home doing stuff, re-roll fabric, why do they even have a person back here? clean.. then Blammo! 15 people with 5 bolts of fabric each... help! more people needed in fabric!
Most of the customers have been lovely, or at worst neutral. ok, i dont speak any foreign languages well enough to talk fabric.... but we write down prices and wave yardsticks and its all good....
until today.
today i had two customer_sucks worthy events.
1. early in the day (11-12 ish) a couple come in, speaking ??? i dont know what language...something African? (it was suggested it was Haitian, but i honestly don't know what that would sound like)
anyway they wave at the (new, very drool worthy) fabric with the big sign that says "$7.99 a yard" and ask me how much? i tell them and point at sign, they say "no, no.. a foot? how much"
oh, says i.... i explain a yard is three feet, they look puzzled, i try to explain. they shake their heads a lot.. finally we get straight how much a foot of fabric would be.....(since they both had head scarves on , i assume they want this for head scarves..... a foot would be plenty for some styles)
how much for four? she asks
four feet? yes
i am by now very confused as to why they cant do the calculations themselves, but i gamely try.. and TRY to explain i really should go get my calculator if they want it exact....
they dont get it and get very angry whenever i try to leave to get the calculator.
so we haul two bolts of this fabric to the cutting table, and they say "four" a lot, so i unroll four feet and show them (before i cut) they get VERY angry and start waving "more"
eventually i find out they want 4 yards...wtf? ok, i roll out four yards. i tell them again (since by now i dont know what they think is going on with prices) its 7.99 a yard, and show them the yard stick.
how much for this? she waves at the whole 4 yards unrolled..
i get the calculator out and tell her....
she yells "no, no" and names a much lower price. i shake my head and EVENTUALLY she seems to get the idea that i cant haggle.
by now i am REALLY sick and tired of them hauling fabric out of my hands, yelling and etc.
cut several minutes of more of the same. when the other lady gets the EXACT same yardage of a different bolt of the same price.
then they try to tell me the TWO piles of fabric are less than the cost of 8 yards, i show them the calculator. she grabs it out of my hand and does something and shows me a (much too low) different number. i show them, step by step..
8 yards of this fabric costs THIS much
they glare at me and take their slip and their fabric and leave..
i go back to rolling up messed up bolts of fabric..
and they come back... and YANK on the bolt i am rolling (nearly pulling me over) and start talking to each other in whatever ... while hanging on the bolt, so i cant even put it away....
eventually they say they want 4 yards of that one....
its a different color way of the same fabric.
and we go through it AGAIN...
grrrrrrrrrr
i hoped i was done with them...
nope
then they start pulling up bolts of chiffon, gorgette and satin (all normally $4.00 a yard). chiffon and gorgette are both 50% off ($2.00 a yard right now) but the satin is only 20% off.
i do my best to get them prices on the 8 or 9 bolts they put in front of me. and they still keep trying to get me to lower the prices, and they still keep alternately using the words foot and yard... aaand not getting "20% off" and "50% off"
so i write up the slip for 8 yards of satin.. by now pretty frazzled.
and get a call from up front "did you say this satin was 50% off?" no.. satin is 20% off.....
i try to explain that either they got confused (or i did) by the variety of fabrics they pulled out. maybe i wrote something down wrong?
well they storm back to the table and in *suddenly much improved* english start yelling at me that i said this was 2.00 a yard...while waving a fist full of satin in my face.
sigh
if i feel up to it i will post the second customer pair from heck later
.
look! dragons!