Impatient Customers

LAG screwed up. She closed the store by herself for the first time, but she obviously wasn't ready. Not only did she not close her cash register correctly, but she also did not close the credit card machines.....AT ALL. She's semi-management and can't handle a single cash register?! And the credits--managers get in trouble if it's not done EVERY day, WITHOUT FAIL. Semi-managers don't get in trouble, not really. Does she care that she screwed up? No. Does she apologize for making the managers look bad and costing us money? No.

And customers......it's been so busy lately and they're so impatient. If all the sales employees are busy, they'll come to the cashiers to ask where something is or for help getting a heavy item. The cashiers can't do anything! They have to stay at their posts to take care of you AFTER you collect the stuff you're going to buy. If you want to be shown to a specific item, you'll have to WAIT until someone is available to help you! Don't complain about the cashier "refusing to help" you! They'll be glad to help you....AFTER you get your stuff. Further, by taking me away from what I was doing so that you could complain, you in essence made the wait longer for everyone.

Only 24 shopping days left....can I survive?

Repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating....

So back to work.

Busy, busy, busy.

I'm so tired of repeating myself! Why are people so stupid?!

My cashiers got backed up so I had to open a register. The idiots flocked to my line. A woman asked me the same question TEN TIMES and then got mad at me when I got short with her. I'm serious......TEN TIMES.....the same question, the same answer. A line of people. Who wouldn't have lost patience? She gave me a lecture on how I'm there to help her and answer her questions. Of course I am. But not the SAME QUESTION AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN when there are other people waiting to check out!

Another woman asked a cashier if we were accepting donations for a local cause. The NEW cashier (been with us perhaps two weeks) wasn't familiar with the program so she asked me. I said yes only to get an earful from the lady that I should let my employees know because that's a very important cause and customers shouldn't have to ask about donating to it. I agree, that's why there's a sign at EVERY SINGLE REGISTER promoting the program.

A newish employee didn't show up for work and didn't call either. Usually that would mean an automatic termination, but he's friends with the SM's nephew so he got off without even a lecture. No way. That is not going to work for me. If it happens again I will protest. Strongly. Because if we let him get away with it then we have to let everyone do it and we can't run a store like that.

Today I am thankful.....

....that I don't have to work tomorrow!

....that my store is still closed on Thanksgiving, one of the few holidays that we do close.

....that my store doesn't have any crazy sales like the one at Best Buy. I passed by there on the way home and 10~15 people were waiting in line for the 5 AM opening. This was at 5 PM!!

What do you want?

I called Friendly to ask about a product that we're currently out of. In the course of our conversation the possible employee transfer came up. Again. She said that the regional manager was going to talk with my SM about it. I told her that she might want to talk with the SM herself. She really didn't want to, not knowing the SM or anything, but she called back later and they discussed it. The SM repeated what I said….it's OK if Friendly takes the employee, but not right away. After their conversation the SM asked me if I had told Friendly to talk to her. Well……….yeah, so? The SM was even MORE upset. Mostly with Friendly, but I think a little with me, too. Sometimes I just can't figure her out.

Being "Childish"

I mentioned Friendly's Request to the store manager. The SM agreed that we needed a little time before we could let the employee transfer stores, but she wasn't happy about how Friendly is doing things. The SM had already heard about the employee being fired (a story in and of itself) from another SM but had heard that the regional manager told Friendly to look OUTSIDE the company for a replacement. Interesting. {Yes, there's a lot of talking in my company. Since the office doesn't tell us much, we have to hear stuff from other stores. Knowing stuff before the office tells us is absolutely necessary, since they don't tell us stuff until too late to do much about it.}

Further, the SM thinks Friendly is being "childish" by calling to talk to me about it instead of the SM. I don't understand why the SM is upset. Besides the SM being off yesterday when Friendly called, Friendly knows and has worked with ME, not the store manager. She wasn't calling to officially ask for the employee; she was calling to inquire about the possibility of a transfer in the future. I didn't see it as childish. I could understand the SM being upset if Friendly was asking me in an official way or if we were trying to keep it a secret from the SM. But it was just an inquiry! Then again, we are quite a bit younger than the SM. Perhaps she's seeing something that we aren't. Anyone out there in internet land understand SM's perspective and care to explain it to me?