"Regulars"

Some of my regular customers are really cool. We joke, give advice, recommend new restaurants, discuss local problems and possible solutions, etc. It's all as time permits, too. If it's really busy, my regulars understand and do their best to stay out of my hair.

Then there are the annoying regulars who are demanding no matter what and threaten to call my boss/corporate EVERY TIME THEY SHOP because it makes them feel special and powerful. Well, you're not special and you're not powerful. You're idiots.

We also have quite a few special needs customers. Some are awesome. They know they need extra help but do what they can to HELP THEMSELVES before requesting assistance. We learn to recognize them and remember what help they need and what they can do themselves.

Other people with special needs are TERRIBLE. They come in barking orders and don't lift a finger. I've had some people fling a list at me and expect me to do their shopping for them, plus know which of the 500 shampoos is the one on their list. Some people throw a fit because we don't have chairs for them to sit in while they wait for a spouse to shop. I barely have room for merchandise! You want a waiting area, too?!

The people who need extra assistance because of their weight REALLY annoy me. You don't get to be 300+ pounds overnight. Don't expect everyone to cater to you because you can't walk or lift stuff. You're a drain on society. Medical costs…..on disability in many cases….take some responsibility and do something about your problem.

For our nice regulars (even the semi-nice ones) we really go above and beyond. One regular was recovering from surgery and his wife doesn't drive at all so I delivered to their home several times (completely off the clock and non-company sanctioned and totally out of my way). We often hold merchandise, sometimes for far longer than we should, because we know that the regular will be in to make the purchase. I've stayed open late or let a regular sneak in a little before we open to shop, especially if I know they won't be a bother.

My store is big enough to have what you need yet small enough to know you. Now if a stranger asked me to bring something to their home or hold a large quantity of an item for a length of time or stay open late, I'd say NO WAY. Absolutely not. But for my regulars (especially the nice ones) I'll attempt any reasonable request.

2,996

2,996......the official count of dead/missing from the 9/11 attacks.

There will be a tribute 9/11/06 with 2,996 bloggers each remembering one of the victims. Sign up here: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11.

I will most likely NOT be participating.

Certainly 9/11 was a national tragedy. I will always remember where I was when I first heard the news. It was an emotional event because it made us realize we were at risk and how much some people/countries hate us. It made us fear for our own family's safety.

However, there have been other national tragedies and other bombings and other disasters. We make a big deal out of this one day while some countries have attacks DAILY (Israel is one example) and other countries have people starving to death (many African countries, North Korea), and natural disasters kill far more than 2,996 people.

Waving the flag is great, but know what it stands for and don't sacrifice freedoms just so you can feel more secure (because you're not really that much more secure). I wholeheartedly agree with the quote sometimes attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."

I say this after having lived in a country where censorship was alive and well and you'd better have your ID card with you when you went out. The government believed it was protecting its people. What are we, children? I think I can decide what I can view on the internet, read, or watch on TV/video. I don't need a government doing it for me. And if we're not allowed to criticize the government and its actions, then how can things improve?

American officials are heading in a dangerous direction and in some cases disregarding the Bill of Rights to try to make us just a little safer from future terrorist attacks. There will always be a risk of attacks, and I'd much rather there be a slightly greater risk and have freedom than for it to be safer but less free. And where does it stop? Today wiretaps, tomorrow tracking your movements? Controlling what job you have?

As long as the USA is rich, powerful, and arrogant, there will be those who hate us. Yes, us. I am an American. I do feel patriotism and am grateful to those who serve(d) in the military. But I feel that the everyday American blindly accepts what they're told as fact. They wave the flag and say we live in such a great country and then they go and treat each other like dirt.

Most of the 2,996 were not heroes. They were victims. Like victims of a murder or a car crash or a disease. Should they be memorialized by the whole country? You decide. All nationalities welcome: A Tribute to the Victims of 9/11.

This is how you run a company?

I continue to feel like my company is either having financial problems or is EXTREMELY POORLY RUN at the corporate level.

We find out about important things at the last minute, have limited quantities of merchandise that's on sale, have shelves that are nearly empty of some items but overflowing with others, we leave messages that don't get returned (certain departments usually return calls, certain ones rarely do, certain ones NEVER do), we get memo's from different departments telling us OPPOSITE things to do, we get essentially the SAME memo from 4+ departments, shelves are empty and finally a month later I find out that we won't be carrying that item anymore, tons of new items come in yet we don't have fixtures (ordered three months ago) to display them, other new items aren't recognized by the computer so we don't even know how much to charge for the items, ETC.

Latest bungle: HR asked for paperwork from an employee who quit SIX MONTHS AGO! Their excuse: "We didn't receive the termination paperwork." Uh huh. Sure. I PERSONALLY sent it to you.....twice......once when the employee resigned and again a month later since you lost the first one. OK, let's make it three times. Like I don't have anything else to do.

Negligence

There are so many stories that I haven't shared because it would expose my specialty area. Other stories are barely understandable because important details had to be left out. I've decided that sharing occasional stories isn't that risky as long as I don't use search engine-friendly words. To avoid the search engines, the wording might be strange, but you should be able to get the point.

In my line of work I deal with non-human beings frequently. Today one of these non-human beings was injured and needed medical attention. We took him to the appropriate professional (starts with a "v") to be attended to. A few hours laters the professional (I use that term loosely) called to say that he had died "before he had a chance to look at him." The professional LEFT HIM TO DIE WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING AT HIM.

Gross negligence. A needless death. See if we recommend you to our customers, EVER again! It's your fault that he died. We expressed the urgency of his condition and yet you WAITED to even look at him?! You even charged a fee to dispose of his body!!

It's not worth it trying to get reimbursed for the money we lost because of the death, but we will be negotiating a contract with a new professional IMMEDIATELY.

Shrinking payroll dollars

Amazing what the office expects us to do with a smaller and smaller payroll budget.

One problem is that minimum wage has risen far higher than it should have. What's wrong with a high school student making $5.15 an hour? Or someone with limited skills, or someone we're training.....for a while there I was blowing my payroll on incompetent dolts. Now everyone knows what they're doing, more or less. Pay should be based on skills, not on the cost of living.

So what does corporate expect us to do? Let's see......the most important thing is to provide a level of service that you might expect at Tiffany's or other exclusive stores. Problem is, we're not all that exclusive. We are, yet we're not. We get people from all walks of life. Some spend a few dollars while some spend a thousand dollars. Some people want help while others want to be left alone. We're to provide one-on-one attention to all.

Some customers are lonely and pretend to need help so they can chat a while. The majority of our less-affluent customers have a limited intellect such that it takes two or three times longer to explain things to them than to a normal person. There are more returns from them, many due to using the product wrong or deciding that they spent too much. Shoplifting has gotten completely out of control.

People come in seeking advice and after we've spent considerable time with them they go somewhere like Wal-mart to buy. THEN they come back to us and expect us to trouble-shoot why their item isn't working as advertised. "Because you bought the cheapest model out there" doesn't satisfy them. They come to us for replacement parts and are angry because we can't tell them which part fits their generic item....different companies, different size parts....I'm not familiar with Wal-mart's inferior products. There is a reason that our products cost more--QUALITY. So my employees are also helping people who aren't even buying anything in our store, all out of my small payroll budget.

Then there are all the children using our store as a playground/zoo. The parents shop or talk with friends while the children RUN through the aisles, terrorize the staff, pull items off shelves, break things, SCREAM AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS, climb up shelves, and otherwise use staff time. There's the time we spend telling the children to WALK, use their "inside voices," "find your parents, NOW!" and cleaning up the mess they leave behind.

Other things corporate expects us to do are reasonable enough, I guess, but with so few employee hours we're usually rushing around like madmen to try to get everything done. Last week was a rare quiet moment. What with all the ordering, stocking, cleaning, merchandising, pest/rodent control, paperwork.....there's a lot to do but few people to do it. Many days I feel that we can take care of the customers well or we can take care of the physical store well, but we can't do both. So we end up doing a shitty job on both and getting flak from customers and corporate.

Are there any executives reading?? We're humans, not robots! There's a limit to what we can do! Give us the necessary resources and see how much we can accomplish. Let it stand as it is and spend more money recruiting and training new employees when the current employees find higher paying jobs or less stressful ones.