Wacky Weekend

So usually I don't write about all the details of working, just the off the wall parts. So i thought I would just give you a slice of a typical day. Today was a very average day of ups and downs in the world of retail. I started a nice quiet Sunday morning picking up pots that were a strewn about the garden center, very typical. Then I was asked to mover some bird baths. This in itself is not terrible, the problem developed when I went to pick one up. Yep they were concrete with a total weight as assembled of 180 lbs. Naturally being a smart cookie I took them apart and created a 40lb piece and an 140 lb piece. Right off the bat I dropped one of the 40lb pieces, and in the juggling and rolling and tipping of the heavier part I managed to break two bases in half. They were so much easier to pick up and put in the garbage that way!

I spent most of the rest of the day assembling generators. Pretty fun stuff actually. Except when both of the other team members on the clock go on lunch at the same time, which happens to be at 12:30 when we are getting a rush. It makes me so happy to rush around the store like a crazy person trying to answer the phone, help people in person and make sure the front end gets the right numbers to check out people.

During the craziness, there was a really nice customer. She drove to our store from another store that was about a half hour away looking for a product that the other store told her we had. We didn't have it, and I looked everywhere, which I really rarely do for someone. She was so nice and polite and such a change from our stores typical clientle.

Sadly, immediately after I had a lady ask for help with mouse traps that are on rebate. She was the opposite of the nice lady. She grabbed this weeks ad from my hands, folded it to what she wanted and then threw it on the desk in front of me. At that point I was ready to make a break for the door, but I took her to the product, reassuring her that I was going to help her get the mouse traps. I took her right to the item, and put it in her cart, and she continued to be evil. As she complained about my coworkers intelligence I was expecting her head to begin spinning and pea soup to come out. As I left her I told her that I hope the full case of mouse traps that she was purchasing would be enough to handle her infestation, and that if needed we have rat traps.

The rest of my day was full of unremarkable people who were looking for bedbug spray, flag holders, car jacks and weed whackers. Yesterday I did have a woman call from a suburban store looking for a weed whacker that we have and another store was lacking. As I gave her directions to the hood, she asked if it was a safe neighborhood. After talking to this lady for way too longer with all her annoying questions, I didn't sugar coat it. I told her that someone was killed behind the store earlier this summer, but that was OK because he was shot by the police. I could just hear her face drop over the phone. Then she asked me " Why do you work there"? I answered that I need a job and that the checks don't bounce, but it made me think. Really why do I work there?