"Oregon Discount"

IT'S NOT A DISCOUNT!!!!

Discount = sale price or reduced price.

Not. A. Discount.

"It's Too Discouraging."

A woman came in and asked if we had a phone she could use. I said we didn't. She asked where the nearest one was. I directed her to the nearest pay phone.

A few minutes later she asked if we had a bathroom. We don't, and I told her were the nearest one was.

In both conversations, she seemed friendly.

After our second talk, she said to her kids, "We have to go; it's too discouraging." The kids were confused, so she explained: "No bathroom; no phone. We can't shop."

Ummm..... What was she planning on buying in the bathroom? And how does using our phone count as shopping??

Inventory Preparation

My boss posted a memo giving instructions for inventory preparation. Here's what the memo said:


1) Put more stuff out.

2) But not too much.

3) Take away stuff.


I'm paraphrasing, of course, but that was the gist of it.

I know that #1 and #3 aren't meant for the same displays, but it still looked funny to me.

One More Day...

One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day....One more day.......................


And then we start inventory.

Another Tale From The Other Side...

My dad passed on this story to me:

I had a pleasant shopping experience at Macy’s in Bellevue the other day.  I went to the women’s section and asked for something they did not have.  One of the clerks (the one who seemed more experienced) left her post and walked halfway across the store to show me to the correct section, while jokingly saying she doubted they had what I was looking for.  I thanked her, and found something close to what I wanted. It wasn't quite right, so I asked for help. Unfortunately, that woman told me I needed to speak with so and so, who was busy at the checkout stand.  When she was free, she took me almost directly to what I wanted.  Then I went to another area of the store (jewelry), and had two young women help me pick out something nice.  This time it was the one who said she was “temporary” that was most helpful.  This all occurred at about 7 PM during the Christmas rush. 

Oddly (in this predominantly white Pacific Northwest), none of these six pleasant and helpful women were white (I’d guess they were American black (walked with me), African black, Chinese, Filipino (Asian named Maria), Vietnamese (I saw her last name), and generic Asian (meaning I am not astute enough to pick her nationality, but she was perhaps Korean). 




 

Holiday Hours

Every December I get phone calls from people asking what our "holiday hours" are. We don't change our hours, but even if we did...

If you're calling during the holidays, can't you just ask what our hours are? If it's the holidays, then they would be our "holiday hours". Get it?

"I Don't Drive."

The other day I rang up a customer who reeked of alcohol. We were casually chatting during the transaction and at one point she said, "I don't drive."

I thought to myself, "Thank goodness!"

Lack of Apron

Someone actually noticed my lack of an apron!

I was on my break. I'd just been to the bathroom and I was passing through the store on my way back to the breakroom. A woman noticed me, got my attention, started to ask a question, noticed I wasn't wearing an apron, and said, "Never mind!"

Thank you, observant lady! You made my day.

Ood

I've always thought I had a decent ear for accents, but I had a woman stump me the other day. She came up to me and asked if we had anything "ood".

Ood? To rhyme with food? Huh?

I asked her if it was a name brand. She said it wasn't. I asked her if it was the name of a particular item. She said no. Frustrated, she asked me to follow her so she could show me what she was talking about.

I followed her and she pointed to an item on the shelf. She said "ood" again. The item she was pointing to was made of wood. I said, "Wood?"

"Ood," she agreed.

What was particularly weird was that her English seemed pretty good. I guess she just couldn't distinguish between wood and ood.

Bickering Couples

Is there anything more uncomfortable than listening to a bickering couple? Today I helped a couple pick out some Christmas presents. They were perfectly nice to me, but they were awful to each other. I desperately wanted to leave them to their fighting, but they kept turning to me and nicely asking for my help.

Stand Up!

We've got some high school students helping out for the season. Two new boys started yesterday. Late in the day I walked past the front counter and saw one of the boys sitting on a step stool. I was, shall we say, not happy. I walked up to him and asked, "Are you injured in some way?" He said he wasn't. I told him to stand up and put the stool away. I was a little curt with him, but, well, it's his first job. I'm just helping him learn how to act more professionally.

Or was I just cranky?

State Quarters

This summer, when I gave a woman a quarter back in change, she was excited because it was a "D" state quarter. She remarked to another woman, "The Denver ones are so hard to find!" She paused. "Except.... I guess... here on the west coast, the Denver ones are more common."

Ring, Ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring

Ring, ring



For the love of God, HANG UP!! We're not open yet, so we're not answering the phone. Letting the phone ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ring and ....

Hang up! We're not going to answer the phone.

Oh, the Insanity!

My boss has officially lost her mind.

Not that I'm surprised, of course. She loses her mind every December.

I've decided to take her insanity as an opportunity to practice patience, and to try out that "accept the things I cannot change" thing.

Three days ago I had a bit of an anxiety attack. Today I merely beat my head against a piece of cardboard. I'm going to call that improvement!

a.m./p.m.

Well, I finally did it! I was at work for more than twelve hours. This meant I had to write "a.m." and "p.m." on my time card (so my bosses know I was at work for twelve hours and fifteen minutes and not fifteen minutes!)

I've come close to it before, but never actually made it the full twelve hours.

Suffice to say, I was tired by the end of the day!

"How Can You Be Out of That?"

Today a customer asked me for a popular item. I said we usually had it and took her to the area where we keep it. I didn't see it on the shelf, so I checked in the back for her. We didn't have any there, either. I told her, "I'm sorry, we're out of that."

She said, "How can you be out of that? It's so popular!"

I said, "Yeah, it's popular. That's why we're sold out!"