Remember how I said I'm working with a skeleton crew? Well, that's still true. So when someone calls in sick…….we're up the creek without a paddle, shit out of luck, SCREWED. Thank God for employees willing to work a double. That's right, work open to close, with plenty of breaks, but nevertheless a LONG, difficult, exhausting day. THANK YOU.
I'm going to have to think of a new nickname for "Duh Boy." He's gotten so much better that you wouldn't believe it's the same person! Nothing really has happened to change his behavior, but it seems like it's happened really quickly. He knows what to do and does it, he stays busy without me having to be on his back all the time, and he actually produces a quality product.
The other day I noticed the time and was on my way to check the schedule—I was sure he should have been at work already. Before I got to the schedule I passed him, where he was already immersed in a project. He had clocked in, checked my to do list, and gotten started, all without being told! A couple of months ago he would have just been standing around doing nothing, waiting for someone to say, "HEY YOU! This needs to be done."
So he got off to a rough start and had a lot to learn about how to be a good employee. But now he is GREAT! WOW.
This is a true story.
My new cashier called me to the front to tell me about a very interesting phone call we received. At first I thought she was making it up. But she wasn't.
The first thing out of the customer's mouth was, "What are you wearing?"
Now I don't know how I would have answered that question, but my rather innocent cashier responded, "My work uniform." (I swear this really happened!)
The person then went on to ask if we carried a certain item. Yes, we do. Now this particular item has a normal use but it can also be used in a sexually deviant way. The next question was how much they were. Then the customer asked what colors we had. The cashier, by that time busy with customers in the store, told the person that she would check and asked if she could call back in a few minutes.
"OK! I'll call back in TWO MINUTES."
EXACTLY two minutes later she called back and the cashier told her the colors we sold.
"OK. Thank you."
The cashier had just finished telling me and another cashier the story when the phone rang again. We all looked at each other, and the other cashier (even younger than the first) answered.
Yes, it was the same lady. She was confirming that we sold the product, and again wanted to know what colors and SIZES that we had. The second cashier took the phone with her to the product, and told the lady everything about every variety of the product. Then the lady wanted to know how many of the item we had in stock. The cashier estimated, "About a hundred." "OK. Thank you."
The second cashier told us about that phone conversation, and we started feeling really weird.
Then the phone rang again, and both cashiers refused to answer. I was still a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but I answered. It was the lady. Again.
"You sell _________, right?"
Yes.
"How much is it for ALL of the _________?"
The tone of voice and what the other cashiers had already told me about her and the fact that this was the 4th phone call within a half hour led me to be extremely blunt: "Listen, you need to stop calling here." {as I hung up} She had the price and how many of the item that we have. Could she not do the multiplication to find out how much ALL of them would be?!
After I hung up I waited for the phone to ring, but she didn't call back. So was it a prank call, or was she just seriously screwed up? The whole night we were on edge, worried that the lady might come to the store and want to buy all of the items. Or worse, use some of the items in the store. I told the young cashiers, "If that lady comes in here or you feel weird about someone or anyone does anything at all that they're not supposed to do, GET ME AT ONCE and/or CALL THE POLICE if needed.
I scrutinized each woman who entered the store: is that her? Or maybe THAT'S her. How will I know if it's her? Will she walk up to me and ask me what I'm wearing (under my "work uniform")? What if she does something perverted in the store? What would I do???
All that worry for nothing. She didn't show up. I don't think we sold any of that product all night. And as far as I know, she's never called back, either. Relief, yet a little disappointment: had she shown up and/or bought a ton of the product, it would have made an even better story!
Holidays are INSANE. Today we had the rudest and most demanding customers EVER. Kids were running wild and the adults weren't any better. The phone was ringing off the hook all day:
"Are you open?"
Uh, no, I just like to hang out at work and answer the phones.
"Wow! You're open!"
Yeah, like most other retail stores who care about making money.
"What time do you close?"
Please, please, please, please don't wait until 10 minutes before close to come! If you and the other thousand people who've called to ask that question all come that late, then we'll never get to leave!
Then I had to deal with all the normal stuff that customers always complain about:
Find out about Labor Day in the USA.
We have some deaf customers that shop with us frequently. The other employees tend to treat them like they're from another planet. I have a little experience with deaf people in my personal life, so I usually help them. They apparently feel comfortable with me; I feel pretty comfortable with miming, writing notes back and forth, and lip-reading to communicate. It takes a little longer than with other customers, but it works. They're nice and I help them to the best of my ability. I know some sign language, but I'm uncomfortable using it, so I've never tried.
The other day a customer saw us communicating in our somewhat un-normal manner and rushed in, "I know sign language! I'll help!"
"Sure, OK." It wasn't like it was necessary, but it might be a chance to fully understand each other.
It was soon evident that this person did NOT know sign language. I watched her attempts…….some strange gestures and mumbling and such………she didn't even speak clearly so that lip-reading was possible. She signed over-enthusiastically so that the signs were distorted; she also skipped every other word. She signed unimportant words like "the," yet skipped the big words like VERBS. The old lady was patient, but then signed that she couldn't understand any of the sign language, but could only understand a little from lip-reading.
The "helper" couldn't understand that, though, so I translated for her. Then I had to explain how I knew what I knew. They were surprised, so I expect in the future I'll have to try out the sign language more.
