Land or Water?

I had a customer approach me today asking if we had any turtles.
Which...honestly...I can see why they would head over to the fish wall if they're looking for aquatic turtles...because there's water all over there....but really...why they never look in the reptile section...I don't quite know. 

In any case.
I asked them in return if they meant Land Turtles or Aquatic Turtles.
Because people usually refer to either one as Turtles...even if the land ones are Tortoises so I have to double check to make sure I'm showing them the right turtle they're looking for....even though they're in the same spot. The Tortoises's cage being right above the Turtle's cage. 

And the customer was like "Land." 
So I was like "Alright." 
And I lead them to the turtles and pointed to the top cage -which had bark and such in it designating it as the Tortoise cage and said "those are the land turtles." and in case the customer actually wanted the aquatic turtles pointed to the cage below it -which had water and rocks in it. and said "these are the aquatic turtles." 

And the customer leaned in and was like. "Which one is which?" 

To which....I had a moment of confusion. 
Like...isn't it obvious which one is which?
The top cage doesn't have water, the bottom cage does have water. 
So it should be obvious that the top cage is for Land Turtles and the Bottom cage would be for Aquatic Turtles....unless you know the person didn't realize that the bottom cage held water?
*shakes head*

In any case.
I had to repoint to the cage and go "This is the land, this is the water." 

All in all....
Very weird exchange as the customer was more concerned about the size than anything else...and kinda just left afterwards... *shakes head*

Just a weird exchange for sure. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Squeak Squeaken

So while I was in the middle of putting up sale stickers for my department, I heard this odd high squeaky noise.
Which....I immediately realized wasn't a good thing.
There's a certain series of sounds that you grow used to in my department...or at least I grow used to, and so it's always jarring to hear a sound that 'doesn't belong.'

But I wasn't sure why I would suddenly be hearing this sound when I hadn't just moments before.
The only big difference was that my coworker had been gravel vacuuming some of our fish tanks, and now had put it all back. 

I could hear the sound originating from behind our fish wall.
So as soon as I finished the page of sales that needed to go up.
I went to investigate.

And quickly found the source of the sound.
The squeaky noise was coming from our Goldfish sump.
Which is basically a large holding tank that holds water for our feeder goldfish tanks.
And that sump...was basically empty of water.

What had happened?
My coworker had been gravel vacuuming the feeder goldfish tanks...and had done too much of a thorough job.  
Because the goldfish sump....it has a limited water supply that does not refill as quickly as the main water system's sump refills. 
So if you take too long gravel vacuuming...the water levels within that sump drops quickly...and doesn't refill. 

Which means that the motor running the water through the pipes...is basically running dry.
And therefore causing the squeaking noise. 

The solution was simple.
Fill the sump back up with water.
And the squeaking immediately stopped.

What I find interesting though....is that my coworker too heard the squeaking noise...wondered what it was...but didn't go investigate to find the source....
I wonder why that is...
Why did they not think to figure out where the source of the noise was coming from?
*shakes head*
No idea....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Fresh Coat

I drove into work today and was met with the oddest sight.

That of my work building...half painted. 

Instead of it's white and blue striped exterior....
The bottom half the building was now a light sandy brown color. 
Which wasn't bad lol. As that color reminded me of redrock country.
So I liked it....and once it's entirely painted I may like it even more once the color scheme is all sorted and such.

But still....I was randomly confused as to why our building was suddenly getting a makeover.

And when I asked to manager in charge why the sudden color change....

He told me that apparently we had an open work order....from 2012...to have the building repainted.

O.o 
2012.

Like that was 5 years ago guys....why now did they decide to actually paint the building?

Well apparently the work order was put on a hold....
Until there were like...funds? to actually paint the building?

I dunno.
For whatever reason.
The order was delayed.
Until now.
When corporate finally gave the go ahead to paint our building.

Took them long enough lol.
I wonder if that means that they're going to do the other changes in the store that I've been hearing about since I started working there....

Guess we'll see. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fear Factor

I often (it feels like at least twice a month) have customers come into the store to buy bugs for a 'fear factor' sort of event that they're doing. You know where they either have to 'eat a bug' or stick their hands in a dark box (filled with bugs) that sort of thing.

I had one of those customers today.
Doing the 'stick the hand in the box' side of fear factor.
Where he wanted to get some mealworms...but they ended up being too tiny.
And so he went for Superworms -which are like ...well...super big versions of the tiny mealworms lol. 

The notable thing about this particular thing.
Was that I opened each container of superworms he was going to get, to make sure that there were superworms in there. (as once in a blue moon there's one that comes to us missing the worms.) 

And he was like. "It's funny, I'm using this as a fear factor, but you're handling them easily without any qualms. I guess that means you can get used to anything after a while." 

lol.
Which is very true.
What scares one person may not scare another....
And definitely experience and long term exposure with working with the bugs at work has definitely desensitized me to them. lol.
Not that I was sensitive at all to them in the first place....I grew up with a brother who enjoyed catching bugs and I would often join in growing up....so I never really had problems with handling the bugs. lol 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Decisions Decisions

I had a woman come into the store with her two kids.
They were there because her oldest child -a boy- had earned $8 and wanted to buy a fish.
Which I had to gently direct them away from our fish wall and to our betta fish when they said that they only had a bowl. 

But it was rather...interesting to interact with this woman.
Because she always sounded so surprised/amazed at everything.
Her breath would get all high and breathy, her eye brows would raise and her eyes would widen. 

Really...I couldn't help but think this particular customer has been around little kids for too long. Because it was the sort of reaction that you'd give to young kids. 

In any case.
It was quite the experience to help her.
Because she was rather indecisive on what she actually wanted to get for her son. 
A big fish tank for the angelfish he wanted.
A small bowl?
A small fish tank?

Her decision would also change with each new bit of info I'd provide.
Because what she'd want to put in the bowl/tank/etc would prompt me to give more info.
Like putting live plants in a bowl isn't a good idea because they don't handle the constant water changes well. 

She must have changed her mind a half dozen times.

Thankfully she finally settled on a BettaFalls tri tank. That could hold a betta in each mini tank, provide flowing water to prevent water changes, and that would allow her to have her live plants. Because she super wanted those. 

Hopefully it all works out for her. :) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wrong One

I came into work today to see my coworker working on doing the bedding changes.
As they were in first and I was in second for a weird switch up.
(it's always weird to come in second in the mornings. I'm almost always first.) 
In any case.
I noted right away...
That my coworker was working on the wrong bedding change.
Today was supposed to be Reptiles.
But my coworker was pulling out all the stuff from the bird bedding.

So as I walked by to clock in, I paused long enough to point at the Reptiles and mouth "Reptiles today." before I went to clock in.

Yah....my coworker wasn't happy about that....
lol though they took it rather well.
Mostly they were confused as to why they thought it was bird bedding day in the first place.

*shrugs*
Maybe they got the day mixed up.
I do that on occasion. 
Especially when I've been away from work for a couple of days. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Language Quiz

I was scrubbing tanks when a young boy (like 7yrs old?) came up to me and asked me. "Do you know Spanish?" 

I was like "No. I only know a little." 
-Because I took Spanish in Jr. High but that was like...forever ago. 

He then was like "What do you know?" 

I shrugged. "Colors, Numbers." 

lol. 
And the kid started quizzing me.
"What is Rojo?" 
Red. 
"What is blue?"
Azul.
"What is green?" 
Verde.
"What is Pink." 
...uh...somethingRojo?
"Rosita." 
Oh. And yellow is amarillo right? (sorry if I spelt that wrong.) 
"Mhmmm" 


lol It was the most random thing.
And so weird to be quizzed by a child.
But it is good to know that I probably remember more Spanish than I think I do.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Tossed About

The nightmare section of my department is definitely the fish decorations aisle.

It's a bunch of holdable items, within reach of children.

A nightmare scenario in any retail store really.

And as it happens, the fish decorations get moved around a lot.
People pick them up, and then put them back down in a separate location.
Bored customers (probably kids and maybe some adults) create little diorama's
And there's those people who like to randomly pull all the decorations on one shelf and then shove them onto another shelf already filled with decorations. *shakes head*

One particular set of ornaments though, tend to get the worst of it.
We have these sea anemones.
That are like rubber hairy balls.
And that rubbery portion of the ornament can come off really easily.
Leaving you with a nice little toy to play around with.
-Like those sticky hands or soft spikey yo you balls.

So we often find those decorations in pieces (the hard half and the soft half)
And then have to hunt around for the other missing part. As you either find the little stand the rubbery part is supposed to be on, or the rubbery part in a wad on the ground.

This day however,
I happened to walk past the fish decoration aisle.
In time to see two little kids using those sea anemones in their own version of a snowball fight.
Throwing them back and forth at each other.  
Which :S since that section of the store is filled with breakable items.
I had to put a stop to immediately.

lol though I did admire their creativity in find the one 'soft' thing in that section to use as ammo. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

If Memory Serves

So...I tend to have a knack for randomly remembering numbers and such. 
Like if I count something, I tend to remember that number even though I don't usually need to remember it longer than about five seconds or so.
Still. if I count something Monday, I could still tell you on Thursday what it was.
"Oh yah, this cage had 11 blue parakeets in it. That hamster cage had three Russians in it, oh no we had only like 12 ghost shrimp Monday." 

It was slightly different today. 

So in the morning my department comes in and faces our section of the store before we go do anything else. Which usually ends up being me because I'm almost always the first one in my department.
It also happened to be a day where the stockers were working on moving product around, and stocking shelves because our truck had come in.

So I was in the middle of doing a task, when the stocking manager was like. "Hey Sarnic, which fish tanks are we missing?" 

Which, he was referring to our Tank/Stand combos that are on the first aisle of my department. 
Because they're big and heavy, I don't usually have to 'face' them because...well they don't move. 
I mean, I do glance at that section, just to make sure other product hasn't ended up there. But it's not like I'm focused entirely on which tanks we do and don't have in stock there currently.

I wasn't even by the tank/stand combos when the manager asked me the question. Still I mentally conjured up a picture of what I recalled seeing this morning and told him. "We're missing the 60 gallon and the 65 gallon combos."

He blinked at me surprised. "Okay." And went to go check to see if any came in on the truck, while I wandered off to make sure I had remembered correctly.
I had.
Yay me. :D 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Never Have I Ever

Normally I don't let kids feed the fish.

It's just one of those things you don't really let kids do...
You know, unless we're holding some sort of event where one of the 'activities' is feeding the fish.  *shakes head* 

But there was a little boy, along with his baby sister and mother in the store.
And the mother was trying to keep track of a rather energetic toddler of a sister the boy had, while she was trying to decide this and that with fish. Like what one to get and what decorations and such.
While the boy, had made his decision a bit ago, and was just trying to keep himself entertained while his mom dithered on this and that. 

It just so happened to be feeding time for our fish.
And the little boy was watching me avidly before he sweetly spoke up. 
"I've never fed the fish before." He said quietly. "I've always wanted to you know. I think it would be fun. Because I've never ever fed the fish before."

Which I gathered meant that his mother was the one who usually fed their fish.
Which makes sense considering oh...over enthusiastic children can get with feeding things. lol. 

And normally I don't let kids feed the fish.
But the kid was being polite and nice.
The mother probably could use a hand in keeping one of her children occupied as she finished her decision making.
And I was on the last of the task, which was namely, feeding Algae Wafers to our plecos and goldfish in the tanks. 

So I was like "Here." placing a single algae wafer in his hand. "Put it in this tank here." I said pointing to the tank I wanted him to put the algae wafer in. 
Which he did.
Again I repeated the process.
Giving him between 1-4 algae wafers (depending on how many plecos and goldfish in the tanks there were) and showing him which tanks to put them into. Letting him help me feed the fish. lol. 

Which he thoroughly enjoyed.
And the mother was so grateful for. 

When we were done, the boy was like "Thank you for letting me feed the fish!" 
And I was like "You're welcome." 

I put away the fish food.

And then went onto my next task.
Which was fishing out some mollies that had been put in the wrong tank.
And the little boy was like. 
"I've never caught a fish before."

lol.
Oooh. I see how it is kiddo. lol. 
But no dice for him.

I don't let customers catch their own fish. 
So there was going to be no luck in this little boy trying his hand at it this day. lol. 

Maybe when he's older...and actually works for the store. He'll be able to do so. ;) lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Which One?

I never understand why parents let their kids pick out fish if they don't want their kids to pick out fish.

I had a customer come into the store today. 
To pick out a betta fish for their son. 
Only the parent didn't like the betta their child had picked out.
They thought the betta wasn't 'pretty' enough.
So the parent proceeded to try and convince the son that he should pick out a different betta fish. A betta fish that the parent thought was prettier. 

Not surprisingly.
It wasn't working.
The son liked the betta that he'd chosen. 

"But that Betta is ugly!" the parent would tell the son. "Why not pick out this pretty one instead?"
"No! I don't like it!" 
"Why not?!"
"Because it's ugly!" 

lol seriously, *shakes head* You shouldn't use that sort of logic on a 4 year old. They will turn it right back against you. 

Honestly though, the parent had this same circular argument with their kid for at least twenty minutes it felt like.
Seriously, I doubt the kid would have noticed if the parent had chosen a different betta fish and just not mentioned it. 

Or else...they could have not given the kid the choice in the first place.
Or else had them at least choose between three fish the parent did like so it feels like the child still got to pick their fish and the parent got a fish that they liked too. 

*shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Surprise Visit

There was a T-Rex in the store today.

Which is a sight I didn't think I'd ever see.
But there it was. 
A T-Rex wandering around the store.
Looking intently at the betta fish.
At the turtles.
At the birds. 

lol. It was rather cute to see really.
The child dressed up in a blowup T-Rex costume. 
It was something random.
And totally cheered me up. 
^^

-Sarnic Dirchi

Donation?

Since the Holidays are fast approaching, it's that time of year where we start doing a donation drive.
Where we have these yearly stuffed animals that come out.
Where people can buy them for their dogs (or it's often for their kids) 
But they can also donate the stuffed animal and we'll give it to a specific place at the end of the donation period. 
This time around we're going to give the stuffed animals that are donated to the local police departments so that they can give them to children as a source of comfort.

Honestly...I feel that October is a bit early to be beginning this donation drive.
It would make more sense to start it mid November or even December when people are more in a giving mood. 

In any case.
Whenever we're on register we're supposed to ask if the customer wants to donate the $5 stuffed animal to the police department. (A portion of the money also goes to our adoption groups) 

Which was the case today.
When I asked a customer that question.
Only they weren't comprehending what I was saying. 
Why? Because they couldn't comprehend why the police department would want toys donated to them. 
It finally cleared up for them when I said it was for their 'Toys for Tots' drive so that officers would have toys to give kids to help them stay calm and such. 

That customer still said no though. 
*exhales* 

However. 
The customer behind that one had heard my spiel, and had decided that she would donate a toy. 
Woot!!

So she sat the toy on the counter like. "Here I want to donate this!" As she also placed a bag of dog food on the counter too. Then she was like. "Also, do you have any suggestions for toys to give my big dog?" 
To which I was like. "Yah...the $5 stuffed animals are also great dog toys too." 
So she was like. "Great! Then I'll take two, but one of those is going to the police department right?" 
"Yep!" 

lol. :) She made my day really. She was so happy and fun to talk to and really patient when it took forever to help her out...as she was buying prescription dog food so we had to go over to the vet part of the store to get an official prescription card made and that ended up taking like twenty minutes too long, but she didn't seem to mind the wait at all. 
Really. I enjoyed the time I spent conversing with her. :) 

I wish more customers were that easy going. lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Do. Not. Enter.

So there I was, in the back behind the fish tanks trying to hurry and finish cleaning the dishes I'd been washing in order to put them (food bowls, water bottles, hides, wheels) back into the small pet (Hamsters, Mice, Chinchillas, Guinea Pigs) cages. 

It's not the quietest back there. 
With the whirr of the fish system a constant buzz in the background as well as the sound of running water from both the sink and the fish tanks themselves...it's not always easy to hear things going on beyond about like two feet. 

And I was focused. I was off the floor. I was out of sight of any customers. Washing, cleaning, rinsing, putting away, organizing etc etc. 

I was rinising of the wheels at the sink when for whatever reason, I happened to look up. Towards the doorway leading into the main part of the store.
I don't know if I heard something, or sensed something, or just caught movement from the corner of my eye.

But when I looked up.
There was an old gentleman standing there, gesturing at me, saying something...though due to the fish system, I couldn't make it out. 

But what I was mentally trying to do as I turned off the sink and dried my hands off to approach this guy....was...why was he back there? Was it some sort of maintenance man? Was it a customer? It definitely wasn't a coworker. 

But I was confused why anyone but a coworker would be back here.
Because clearly on the door is a sign that says "Employees Only." Meaning NO CUSTOMERS SHOULD BE ENTERING IT!

Yet, here he was. A customer.
And what did he need?
Mealworms. 

Which I only had the 35 count in stock currently -He wanted the 100 which I've been out of for like two months.- 

So I open the fridge we keep the mealworms in -he was standing right next to it- pulled out the 35 count and handed it to him.

And he politely went on his way.

But still, I'm left a bit confused.
Like....why in the world had he come back there anyways?
A coworker would have told me -since we have walkie-talkies now- that there was a customer needing help. So obviously he hadn't gone to a coworker.

So I can only guess, that he heard me back there making noise. And so ventured back there (instead of you know, finding my coworker who was already out on the floor....) to find help for his needs.

And while I admire his gumption for finding me.
I am rather irritated that they ignored the "Employees Only" sign and interrupted me. *exhales* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Locked Out?

On occasion when I arrive to work in the morning, before the store opens, I find that they're locked.

Which for the first three years or so I worked here, was a common occurrence. We had those doors locked so you almost always had to ring the doorbell we have to be let in.
But with a policy change to keep the doors open so Grooming customers could enter the store to drop of their dogs/cats before the main store opens easier.
The doors ended up staying unlocked, which made it much easier for me to enter the store.
On occasion though, now and then, the doors will be locked when I approach. 
Why? Not sure.
May depend on the people involved with stocking duties that morning. *shrugs*

In any case.
Today would have been one of those days.
Where I would have had to ring the doorbell to be let in. 

Except I arrived at the same time as a manager. So they had keys to unlock the doors and let me in.

Which shocked one of my coworkers when they saw me walking up the aisle to go clock in. 
"What are you doing here? How did you get in?! I locked the door!" 

Obviously, it was my master lockpick skills. lol *shakes head*
I shrugged and said "SoandSo let me in." 
The coworker was like. O.o "I didn't know they were here." 
To which I said. "We arrived at the same time."

But really...it would be cool if I had lock picking skills. lol. That would probably be a handy random talent to have. ;) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The BabySitter Purchase

A customer called the store today, why?
Because apparently over the weekend, his son had come home with a lizard.

Which by the way the customer was speaking...meant that this wasn't a good thing.

So I was frantically trying to figure out how a minor had gotten a hold of one of our lizards...

When the customer clarified that the babysitter had bought it for him.

The problem? The parents weren't equipped to keep a lizard as a pet. They didn't have anything for it, but also didn't have the receipt. 
And the customer was positive that the son and his babysitter had gotten the lizard from our store because the son had said "that it was the store we got the hermit crabs from." which had apparently been our location.

However, I searched through a couple of days of paperwork to see if I could find a record of the lizard being sold....and could find nothing. Which lead me to wonder if they'd actually bought the lizard from our store. Maybe it had been one of our sister locations.
Honestly, I would have just called the babysitter and asked her which store they'd gotten the lizard from.
But it turns out that the customer is divorced....and that it was while the son was at the ex's place that they had got the lizard. So there was very little information to go off of....

Plus...just from the description of the lizard. "Green with spots." ....it didn't sound like any lizard we sold. 
And in the past couple of days the only record for a reptile that I could find was for a "Leopard Gecko" Which while spotted...isn't green. And the name on that sale was not the name of the baby sitter....

So I couldn't do anything to help the customer with their lizard problem because I can't accept pets that we didn't sell...and I couldn't prove that we had sold it in the first place.

So the customer plans to take it to a local pet store and give it to them. 

In any case.
I'm so confused why a babysitter would do that.
Like...if I wanted to keep my job I would NOT go buying live pets for a child without the parents permission. That's just asking for trouble, for the possibility to never work for the family again.
Definitely something I wouldn't do myself. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Make it Blue!

It was the end of my shift. Technically, I should have been off already but I wasn't yet because my coworkers hadn't yet shown up to replace me. And so as I was walking back to the department, I noticed a woman sitting on the ground by one of our display tanks with her little dog -maybe a Yorkie?- struggling to put a harness onto it.
So I asked her if she needed help.

To which she was like. "I was wanting this style of harness." She held up a different harness a pink one, where it only involved slipping the dogs legs through the loops and clipping the harness together on the back. "But this blue one is a different sort and I can't figure it out." 
The blue harness she'd grabbed? It's the older style where you have to slip the dog's head through a loop and then one leg through another section of the harness before clipping it together. 
Definitely not my favorite type of harness. I was with the woman in that the pink harness was much easier to put on.
Her problem? "I just don't like pink on her. My dog isn't a pink sort of girl." 
"Alright do you want me to try and find another one in blue of that sty--"
"No, no this one I bought will be fine if I can just get it to work!" 

Soo...I attempted to show her how it worked.
Only I'm pretty sure she grabbed a size too small as I couldn't get the harness around the dog without fiddling with it, but as I was trying to fiddle with it she lost her patience. 
"I can't deal with this! I just want it to fit! I don't want it to be pink!" 
And she broke down.
"I'm sorry, I'm just having a bad day, my family is being so mean to my sister, and it's horrible and it's just awful and I just can't deal right now!" 

Which :S 
Ah. 
I could sympathize a bit...I've had my own difficult days before (not with family but difficult days) where I couldn't deal with people, where minor inconveniences suddenly became intolerable.

And the poor woman had reached her breaking point.
So I tried to help....though I honestly figured the woman should just call it a day and go home to snuggle in some blankets and eat some ice cream.
Instead I tried to find her the easier harness in the blue color she wanted.
Only unfortunately....we didn't have any in that size.
I only had one in black that color.

And when I brought it back to the woman.
She was like "I don't like Pink, but Black is much worse."
Ohhkay...then.

So she ended up going with the pink one. -even though she didn't like it.

So I returned the blue harness, got her the pink one, and had her pay the difference -which nearly resulted in another breakdown when she had to press one too many buttons. *exhales*

But hey...at least in the end she got what she wanted if not what she liked....

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Come Fix It?

A Customer called on the phone today, asking if we had technicians that we could send out to people's houses/work places to check out filter systems and figure out why they aren't working.

Which....would be really cool. 
But unfortunately we don't do that. 
We're not like an electronics store where there's a 'geek squad' a...'fish squad?' that comes out when things go wrong.
We don't install tanks into people's houses, don't set up the tanks, don't come fix them when things go wrong.

I mean it would be totally cool if we did. I would love to be on the team if we did that sort of thing.

But the woman on the phone was like. "Then who do I call to get this fixed!" 
And I was like..."Have you tried these solutions yet?" 
To which she was like. "Would I need to try those solutions if the filter is only a month old when it stopped working?"
And I was like. "Well...yah....might as well try them since it isn't working, but if you can't get it to work you are still within our guarantee return day. So you could bring the filter in to return it if it still doesn't work." 

Dunno if she'll take me up on that...but hopefully one of the solutions I suggested will work out.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish Where?

There was an older woman standing at the fish wall today. Grandma age. 
And when I approached her asking if she needed help,
She said that she wanted to get a fish.
"Alright which fish?"
But instead of just saying "A goldfish." 
She led me without a word towards the fish she wanted....

Or so I thought.
As she walked straight past the last of the fish in the fish wall.
Past the frozen food,
Past the empty tanks/stands we have for sell.
Past the doors to enter our store...
And paused nearby the registers/grooming area.

I'd followed along silently.
As she determinedly marched through the store.
Mostly because I was wondering if she was wanting a fish from our display tanks,
Or perhaps she'd already gotten a fish and she wanted me to help her check out?
Or she'd left a dead fish at the register and needed me to see it?

I had no idea.
And I was curious as to where she was going.
Like...was she even needing my help for a fish at all or had I misheard her?

She looked around, turned around and asked me. "The fish don't go this far do they?"
"No...they don't." I responded.
So she turned around and returned to the fish wall to the goldfish where I fished out a black moor for her. :) lol

Not sure why she thought the fish lasted further along the wall then they did....
But at least in the end we were able to get things figured out.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Pull

It's surprising how customers get so confused when confronted with automatic doors that don't open.
Especially when they're in the store...and they're trying to leave it. 
They usually stand there in confusion as to why the door didn't open, or else fiddle with the lock trying to get it to open....
Not realizing that the door is usually unlocked. you just have to pull them apart to get them to open. *shakes head*
It probably confuses them because people don't know how to shut doors apparently.
Our automatic doors aren't automatic before the store opens, but are unlocked for grooming customers. And often those customers will open the doors and leave them wide open.....
Like...we had them shut for a reason....why not shut them after you opened them? Do you think you're helping us out by leaving them open? Or are you thinking they'll automatically shut behind you? Because they don't. 

*shakes head* 
I don't get customers. I really don't.

-Sarnic Dirchi

To the Rescue

So I was walking to the back of the store with a cart full of things to set up cages for our animals that would be coming in later this week.
And as I turned the corner, there was a grandmother and her grandson there.
She lit up as she saw me. "Maybe you can help!" she glanced at the cart and was like "You even have a stick!"
-Because I had branches on my cart to set up bird cages. 

And I was like. O.o ....why would you care if I have a stick? 
She did have a dog...so I briefly wondered if she was looking for a stick for her dog to catch and chew on....

But no.
She wanted a stick because her grandson had rolled his little toy car underneath our shelves and it was too deep underneath for them to be able to reach it.

Which...I was skeptical that you'd need to have a stick to reach it....I figured you'd just have to go to the right side of the aisle and if you couldn't reach from one end....go around and reach from the other side. 

Still, I took one of the branches and gamely followed them to where the lost toy car was.
I knelt down, saw that it wasn't that far in.
And reached underneath, easily grabbing the toy car without the branch. :) 

Yay!
lol the little boy was ecstatic to have his toy back. :D

-Sarnic Dirchi