holiday retail
we've been warned, in retail, that this holiday shopping season will be bad. bad as in no one buying anything. our hours have been cut, but at least most of us still have jobs. as of now.
the bookstore continues to be busy. even if people aren't buying stuff, they still come in and listen to the red dot machines and look at stuff.
this week has been a little stressful because our red dot system crashed. when it crashed, we missed a download and some memory so only half the cds are playing. this coincided with our holiday changeover where we got all of our holiday crap in.
so, people are coming in to listen to that new enya and that new sarah brightman but they can't. they also have coupons for these items, but for some reason we didn't get enough in our shipment, so we are out. this makes customers rageful against us. i try to explain there is nothing i can do for them but order it. i tell them i cannot fix the red dot machines, someone was supposed to be in to fix them 2 days ago. they want to listen to christmas cds but they can't. whoopdee doo, i want to say, i bought so many crappy cassettes in the 80's when you couldn't sample any of the tracks, and i'm survived. i don't buy the fact that the world is ending when you can't hear a 30 second sample of the new sarah brightman cd which is most likely as horrible as all her other trilling backlist cd's.
last night i had a customer in his fifties in conservative dress with glasses tell me he didn't like me. this was after i ordered him his enya cd and showed him where mussorgky's pictures of an exhibition was. i ring him up, he tells me he doesn't like me, and proceeds to point his finger at me and say "You better be careful, MISSY, because business isn't good, and you are going to lose your job!" his beady eyes were full of pure hatred! now, you think, what did i do to make him treat me this way? i agree i was a little abrupt dealing with him because i had a lot of people to help, but being in retail for almost 10 years, i know how to grin and bear it, and my acting degree helps in these situation. so no, i don't think it was deserved.
five minutes later a group of teens come in. one of them asks me for lotion at the counter while the others peel off to the back corner, where they try to steal Hellboy II. i busted up their group. they were mean to me. i almost lose it. i call a manager. i go on a break, cry a little bit, and come back.
so that's my little self pity story. everyday isn't like that, and everyone who works any kind of service job has stories like it. hopefully next week i'll have some more funny crazy people stories.
the bookstore continues to be busy. even if people aren't buying stuff, they still come in and listen to the red dot machines and look at stuff.
this week has been a little stressful because our red dot system crashed. when it crashed, we missed a download and some memory so only half the cds are playing. this coincided with our holiday changeover where we got all of our holiday crap in.
so, people are coming in to listen to that new enya and that new sarah brightman but they can't. they also have coupons for these items, but for some reason we didn't get enough in our shipment, so we are out. this makes customers rageful against us. i try to explain there is nothing i can do for them but order it. i tell them i cannot fix the red dot machines, someone was supposed to be in to fix them 2 days ago. they want to listen to christmas cds but they can't. whoopdee doo, i want to say, i bought so many crappy cassettes in the 80's when you couldn't sample any of the tracks, and i'm survived. i don't buy the fact that the world is ending when you can't hear a 30 second sample of the new sarah brightman cd which is most likely as horrible as all her other trilling backlist cd's.
last night i had a customer in his fifties in conservative dress with glasses tell me he didn't like me. this was after i ordered him his enya cd and showed him where mussorgky's pictures of an exhibition was. i ring him up, he tells me he doesn't like me, and proceeds to point his finger at me and say "You better be careful, MISSY, because business isn't good, and you are going to lose your job!" his beady eyes were full of pure hatred! now, you think, what did i do to make him treat me this way? i agree i was a little abrupt dealing with him because i had a lot of people to help, but being in retail for almost 10 years, i know how to grin and bear it, and my acting degree helps in these situation. so no, i don't think it was deserved.
five minutes later a group of teens come in. one of them asks me for lotion at the counter while the others peel off to the back corner, where they try to steal Hellboy II. i busted up their group. they were mean to me. i almost lose it. i call a manager. i go on a break, cry a little bit, and come back.
so that's my little self pity story. everyday isn't like that, and everyone who works any kind of service job has stories like it. hopefully next week i'll have some more funny crazy people stories.