Never A Dull Moment

So I finally went and bought my new TV that I'd been saving my tax return for. Of course I purchased it from my store, mainly because that was the best deal I could find, and also, associate discount. Anyway. I found my TV and Jack, the electronics associate, rang me up. Now, the Assistant Manager in the department, who had just finished her overnight rotation in February, was hovering about and the following conversation occurred.


Manager: Did you tell her about this TV?
Jack: Why do I need to do that? She works here.
Manager: Well she hasn't worked electronics in some time...
Me and Jack: *WTF face*


Because all knowledge I ever had about the department and our products just flew out the window when the job code did. Yes. That makes sense. Why then, does everyone on my shift holler for ME when there's a customer needing assistance?! According to this logic, I have completely forgotten how to stock now that I'm a cashier.


Also, Virginia state law disallows the sale of alcohol by retail establishments between midnight and 6 a.m. The system literally will not allow us to ring up an alcohol purchase. There is nothing I can do about this. There isn't an "Unless It's Your Birthday" clause. It has nothing to do with me, this store, or the company. It's STATE LAW.


And please remember these things the next time you feel like antagonizing the poor cashier who works for slightly more than minimum wage:

Tales From 4476

Story time! :D

OK so, last night I was working in the cereal and snacks section. Around 4:30 a.m., this family comes down the cereal aisle and is presumably debating on which cereal to buy. They have a small child with them, who is probably like, 3 or something. So family is debating, and their kid is just...staring at me. I'm sitting on a milk crate stocking the bottom shelf with Great Value Corn Flakes, and she's standing like 2 feet away from me, staring at me like I have 3 heads, which is a surprisingly common occurrence when I encounter children. She keeps asking her mom "Who is that?" until her mother finally says "I don't know honey we don't talk to strangers." And they leave. I couldn't help but stop what I was doing, look at the ceiling, and say "FFS I work at Walmart, not out of a white, windowless van with 'Free Candy' written on it!" Not that I was offended but come on! By the way, if you sit and stare at me, I won't speak to you regardless because you're creeping me out and it makes me very uncomfortable.


And now I'd like to make a public service announcement: When we are on break, we are customers too. During this past week, our manager told us of this one lady who called up the store to complain about us. She claimed we were rude and unhelpful to her (which manager didn't believe at all), and had the nerve to complain that we didn't let her cut in front of us at the register. Excuse me. We are on our break. We get 15 minutes. When I am standing in this check out line with my bottle of Gatorade and perhaps a 3 Musketeers, I am a customer just as you are. My navy T-shirt does NOT give you the right to cut the line, treat me like dirt, or act like I am your servant. My badge says "Jenny" NOT "peon." Now get your snotty, entitled ass in the BACK OF THE LINE and wait like everybody else.

Introducing...Retail Robin

You Are Not A Special Snowflake!

My shifts are usually fairly uneventful. Despite working overnight, I don't get a whole lot of "crazies" or anything like that. Even drunk people are few and far between (but we have some, it's the talk of the store). I chalk it up to the area my store is in.

At most, I get awkward conversations with customers. Like last night. A customer came in and inquired as to the price of a desk and file cabinet that was on display. First off let me just say that I do NOT work in the furniture department, but as it's right across from electronics it never fails that a customer (or an associate) will ask me questions about furniture. Naturally, I assist the customer as best I can, but to associates I just shrug and tell them "IDK I don't work furniture." They're smart, they can figure it out! ANYWAY. Dude comes in, who's fairly regular, and always nice to me, and asks about prices.

Customer: How much is this desk? Does it come as one piece?
Me: The desk is $149 and the file cabinet it $69, sir. They're separate.
Customer: *pulls box with desk in it off shelf, inspects box* Is it (the desk) damaged?
Me: No sir. (Box is in fact intact, no signs of damage whatsoever.)
Customer: Can you give me discount?
Me: No sir, I can't.
Customer: *looks around as if searching for a damaged box* ......Can you give me discount?
Me: No sir, I don't have that authority.
Customer: Hmm.

Customer decides he wants the desk, and I help him load it into his cart, and he's off on his merry way. I would like to know why he thought I had X-ray vision and could tell if the desk was damaged or not without opening the box. I could have opened the box, but most likely that would have led him to pull out each individual piece and inspect it for damage. Frankly I don't have time for that. Also, this is not Haynes. We do not haggle on the price of furniture, or anything for that matter. Lastly, you cannot get random discounts on whatever because YOU feel you're entitled to one. My manager would have to approve it anyways, so it's not even up to me!

Can I Breathe?

My apologies for not posting as frequently. I'm on a new schedule, which although great, has me working 5 nights in a row, which I am not accustomed to. Add to that my management running me ragged every night doing what seems like 15 things, it's difficult to get myself up out of bed.

Seriously there was only 2 of us on the GM side. They assigned me 5 departments again, and the other guy only had 2. And I always get stuck doing the crafts department and I hate it 'cause it's a pain in the ass to stock, 'cause there's like 1,372,874 little tiny things to put up, and I just wanna throw the box in the air and go "Fuck it. Store Manager isn't gonna care anyways."

Coming Soon: Retail Robin

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