Phone Calls

{These are examples, I don't want to reveal the specialty area of my store.}

First phone caller: "Do you carry {computer viruses}?"

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Just because we're a {computer} store we're going to carry {computer viruses}?!

Second caller: "Do you have {computers}?

......... Yes.

Directionally impaired caller: "Where are you located?" (They think phrasing it like that makes them sound so intelligent.)

Our address is {123 Any Street}, which is just east of the intersection of {Major Highway A} and {Major Highway B}.

"Where's {Major Highway A}?

Where are you coming from?

{City 20+ miles away.}

Oh. (Why are you coming all the way to my store? I know we have a good reputation, but that's a long way to drive!) Well, how do you usually get to {my city}, because I have no idea where {your city} is. Any map of the area has {Highway A} on it.

Get a life!

Without revealing the exact location of my store, shall I just say that we had some inclement weather recently. It was bad enough to have to temporarily close the store. Although only minor damage was done to the store, major damage occurred at several of our distribution centers. As a result we got virtually no deliveries this week, so our shelves are emptying. This, of course, is my fault. It's "bad business" to not have the products that my customers who spend "thousands of dollars" at my store, want to get.

Regionally: the roads are blocked. The power is off. A couple of our stores were destroyed. There is very limited gas to get any available merchandise to the stores. Curfews are still in effect in many places. Some employees haven't even been paid yet. But, it's my fault that we're out of certain popular items. Get a life, people. Major damage was done, and you're pissed because you can't get the brand that you usually get?!

Being Creative

Not much for me to do today, so I tackled a section of the store that's been driving me crazy for months. It looked cluttered and disorganized and some items we don't carry anymore so there were empty sections and new items were crammed in at weird points. In short, it looked BAD. I re-merchandised the entire section, made new price labels, and spot cleaned as needed. It took all day, but now it looks GREAT!

Do you have..........

Some people need to be a little more specific.

Today a woman came up to me and asked, "Do you have {LONG pause as she thought of what she wanted} applications?"

I came pretty close to responding, "What kind of applications?" After all, there are applications for skin, hair, eyes, teeth, computers....how many kinds of "applications" are there? Because of her long pause, I thought she was asking about a product. It then hit me that she was asking for a JOB application. No, actually, I don't have one. The company has some, though. They're in the front. Ask the cashier.

NO WAY!

Interviewing isn't my favorite thing to do, but it can be interesting. A guy called in to check on the status of his application. Well, I couldn't find it. A few days before I had purged the old applications and the ones with NO CHANCE of being hired: criminal history for shoplifting, wanting $10/hour, availability 9-5 M-F (it's called "RETAIL," that means WEEKENDS!), etc. So anyway, this guy sounded OK on the phone so I told him I couldn't find his application but he could come in and fill out another one and we'd do an interview.

The minute he walked in the door I knew why I'd put his application in the "NO CHANCE" file. You could smell him from TEN FEET away and he had a very rough appearance that was unsuitable for our shop. Not a rough like "he's had a rough life and looks it" but a "he doesn't care what he looks like and will have trouble conforming to our dress code standards." It's a job interview! Comb your hair! Take a shower! Wear clean clothes!

I did a brief interview with him anyway: no retail experience, no {our specialty area} experience or knowledge WHATSOEVER, no verifiable references (since the garage he used to service cars in had closed), but he "really needed a job". Besides all that, I am 99% sure he was on some type of drug. He rarely made eye contact--his eyes were shifting around the entire interview; his hands were also very restless.

Bottom line, and most important in my opinion, is considering the safety of my employees and the security of our store. I would not feel comfortable being alone with him. Say, at closing or even in our break area. He wasn't huge but he was certainly stronger than me. Our cute little 16-year-old cashiers, the young junior manager and her tight pants............What if he didn't work out? He seemed like the type who wouldn't just walk away. Do we really want someone who might be on drugs to have access to tons of cash and know our security procedures? NO WAY.