The answer is...doesn't really want the job.

The girl I wrote about on Thursday called Friday morning to say that she was bringing in the new hire paperwork. Since she lives a 2-minute WALK away, we assumed she was coming in soon. We waited, and waited, and waited. Round about 4 PM she finally came in, but without the paperwork. She'd found a better paying job, but she'd brought her nephew with her since he needs a job.

Hmm..........after the way you just acted, you think your nephew has a chance with us?? First you commit to the job and promise you'll bring the paperwork back the next day. Then you drop off the face of the earth. Then you call and say you're bringing in the paperwork. Then you say you don't want the job after all.

I gave her nephew an application and went back to what I was doing, which was within sight of where he was filling it out. He needed help to fill out the application--lots of help. Nope, don't want you here. If you can't fill out a job application on your own, then you can't understand our subject area and use our expensive equipment correctly so as not to cause damage.

Interviewed a teenager too. Not good, not bad, just someone if we can't find anyone else, then would be an option.

Staffing Updates

One of our junior managers applied to work somewhere else, in a vastly different field, because "it's too far to drive" to our store and she doesn't get respect from the employees. Oh please! The respect issue is a two-way street: if she treats her employees like slaves, then why should they respect her? She still hasn't quite gotten over the power trip. (This isn't the new manager, but one who's had her position for a bit.)

We have an employee transferring in from another store. Finally, a new employee that I don't have to train………he already knows what he's doing! He's a REALLY hard worker, good with customers, OK as cashier, friendly with co-workers. Since he's coming from a store in a different region, our stores do things slightly differently, but nothing that he can't adjust to.

The store manager interviewed a new girl (normally my job, but it was my day off). The next day the girl came in for the new hire paperwork and I didn't get a real positive vibe from her. But that point, it was too late--she was already hired. Well, she was supposed to bring back the paperwork the next day, but she didn't show. What does that mean? That she's busy, or that she doesn't really want the job?

Choose for Yourself!

I've only recently understood that some people want to be told what to buy. They have absolutely no brain cells to be able to decide for themselves. I can explain the differences between several items and the benefits of each until I'm blue in the face, but they still want me to tell them what to buy. Fine. Buy this one. It might not be what's best for your particular situation, but since I don't know everything about your situation, given what I do know, buy this one.

People ask which is better, the $9.99 or the $14.99 one. OK, let's think about this for a minute…….besides being a bigger paycheck for me, the higher priced item means higher sales, means more employee hours, means same amount of items handled with more employee hours, means less work for me………..oh, the $14.99 one is MUCH better. There's a reason some items are more expensive than others. They're better products, or the company is more reputable, or SOME reason. We don't just randomly pick prices.

Other people ask for my recommendation and then it's like they're purposely choosing the other one. It usually happens like that when I have a STRONG preference for one product over another, and it has nothing to do with price. Some companies have bad reputations or some products don't work well. Yeah, we're here to make money, but in general I recommend products that I know are good, regardless of price.

QUAL Returns

The regional manager came for a visit, and our score keeps getting better. If we were in elementary school it would be A++++. The store looks great. Sales are up. The only thing that needs improvement is some of our junior managers still need to work on customer service. Of course, it's not easy when we have customers like we have.

The Queen of the Universe and All Time came in again…….to return the $5 item she bought. The only item, to my knowledge, that she has EVER bought from us. Surprise, she had the receipt, so I had to give her the cash back. She took up another 20 minutes of my time asking stupid questions, then left without buying anything. It's customers like her that make costs higher for everyone else, besides putting us in bad moods.

An Arrest

The excitement never ends.

I was in the front doing a return, and before I knew it a man was being placed in handcuffs by plainclothes policemen, IN MY STORE.

?!?!?!

It was done very quietly, such that there wasn't a big scene or anything, but still! The policemen took the man outside and another policeman asked us where the man had been in the store. I don't know! I was helping other customers! What's going on?

The policeman went on to explain that there had been a shooting at a nearby hotel and the man matched the description of one of the suspects. He may have hidden the gun in my store.

!!!

Hey, we have lots of weird customers and kids running around unattended and you're telling me that there may be a gun around here somewhere?!

The employees looked everywhere that we'd seen the man go. I tried to think like a criminal.........where would I hide a gun if I didn't have much time?

I had to ask the store manager about something else anyway, so I called her and filled her in on the situation. We discussed how weird it is that so many things are happening lately.

The policeman came back in and told us that there was another suspect in the shooting so the suspect they arrested in my store might not have been the one with the gun, but that we should give them a call if we find the gun. Oh, and don't touch it. Yeah, no problem. Fine with me.

For the rest of the evening we were talking back and forth with neighboring stores, comparing what different people had heard and seen, trying to get more details.

The "victim" in the shooting ran away from the police, too, so it was presumably drug related.

What is up with this neighborhood lately?!