"We Gotta Go Get on the Bus."

[scene: interior of store, 8:30 p.m. Saturday night]

mother: We gotta go get on the bus.

young son: Why?

mother: Just to take a ride.

Note to Men Everywhere:

Thinning Hair + Mullet = Badness.

And the Awesome Mom Award Goes to.....

My mom!

No wait, that's not what my story is about. (Although she is pretty awesome.) My story is about a mom that was in the store today.

I overheard a mom saying to her young son, "Honey, you need to put that back where you found it. No, it needs to go with the other things like it. If you don't, then someone else has to fix it."

Here's why she was awesome:

1) She was putting back the stuff she had picked up.

2) She was careful to put the item back in the right place.

3) She was teaching her child to do #1 and #2!!!

She totally made my day, and I told her so. :)

Now Would Be a Good Time for You To Put Your Phone Down.

A woman walked up to the counter, talking on her cell phone. Without setting down her phone or even making eye contact with me, she put an item on the counter with a receipt sitting on top of it. She paused in her conversation briefly to say to me, "I want to return this," and then went right back to her phone.

Ummm...... Is there something wrong with it and you want a replacement? Did you change your mind and you want to exchange it for something else? Get store credit? Get a refund? (That last one's not going to happen, by the way.)

I need more information -- hang up the phone!

Sold? Lost? Stolen?

Several of the displays I'm in charge of hold many small items. When I tidy them, I can see which items are gone. Those items were probably sold.

Probably.

Sometimes they're just gone. Were they stolen? Have they been misplaced? Were they rung up wrong?

I'll never know.....

Where, Oh Where, To Sign?

I've seen a lot of people sign their credits cards on the magnetic strip. I have several thoughts on the subject:

1) Can they really not tell the difference between the magnetic strip and the signature space?

2) The magnetic strip is bigger than the signature space.

3) It doesn't seem to wear off as fast as signatures in the appropriate box. Maybe we should all sign our cards there!

4) Why doesn't the signature interfere with the machine reading the magnetic strip?

Ha Ha! Only Not.

Yesterday I spent quite some time cleaning up a shelving unit. We display a lot of small items on it, so it took a while to put everything back in its proper place. I started at the top and worked my way down. I knelt on the floor to work on the lower shelves.

I had just finished this time-consuming, detail-oriented project and was starting to stand up when an older gentleman walked by. He joked, "Sleeping on the job?"

Since I wasn't arrested for murder, you can assume that I managed to keep my temper.....

Logic

[Before I tell my story, I just want to apologize for not posting recently. Between my cold and my computer problems, I've been a little distracted. Anyway.....]


A mom and her five-year-old daughter picked out some items. As I was ringing up their purchases, the mom said she wanted them gift-wrapped. I asked her which paper she wanted, and she asked her daughter to choose.

I showed the little girl her choices: red frogs, green dots, blue "birthday" paper, etc. She pointed to one that had birds, balloons, and suns on it and said (quite authoritatively): "I want that one, because it's sunny out."

Ah, the impeccable logic of a five-year-old.

Green Button

A man used his debit card to pay for his purchases. After I swiped it, I handed him the keypad and gave my usual speech: "Go ahead and enter your number, then press the green button."

He entered his number, then pointed to the green button and said, "I'm color blind. Is this the green one?"

"Thanks!"

As a group of people were leaving, one of them said to me, "Thanks for letting us looking around!"

Well, it's not like we "let" you. It's not as if you came in and asked, "Hey, is it OK if the seven of us wander around your store for an hour, make a mess, and then leave without buying anything?" and I said "Sure, that would be great!!"