Stocking

It's always weird to be working on a Sunday.
As I rarely need to do so.
But today I was brought in to work a morning shift to help my stocking manager reset a bunch of our endcaps in the store.
Because every month we have to switch which product is placed on the shelves at the end of each aisle.
To you know...catch people's attention and promote differing products. 

It wasn't as hard as doing stocking tasks the day before.
But resetting product can be tiring in it's own right.

But rewarding too.
To walk pass a endcap and know that you did all the work to make it look pretty and such. 

Still.
Tiring. 
Very tiring.

At least i didn't have to deal with too many customers in the meantime.
Which is gratifying.
I don't like trying to complete tasks when I keep getting interrupted by people needing things.

*exhales* It's gonna be a long week...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wrong Store

We had a customer come into the store today looking to do an exchange for a product they had bought a couple of days ago because when they opened the box a piece was missing.

Which is an easy enough fix (so long as we have the product in stock).

But something that the customer said gave me pause.

As they mentioned that they had gone to the store to the south of us.
But they stumbled over the name of the city down there.
And funnily enough...we have two cities in the valley that have similar names...and it could be understandable if they mixed them up.

So to double check I asked if they had gone to our store to the north of us.
To which they denied. Again repeating that they had bought the product from a store south of us.

Which.
The next store south of us is like a 4 hour drive away?
And the city which the customer named was only like twenty minutes away.

Which meant.
It wasn't one of our sister stores that the customer had bought the product from.

It was one of the competitor's.
As I know that they have a store down in that other city.

So I had to inform the customer that unfortunately I couldn't take their return because they didn't buy it from one of our sister stores. They bought it from the competition. And therefore they would have to return the product to one of their locations.

*shakes head* 
The customer gave me such a look of confusion.
You could practically see the gears turning in their head as they tried to remember which store was to the south of us, and probably which store they were in. As for whichever reason people confuse our two brands all the time. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Eating

Had a customer come into the store today to return a Painted Turtle they had bought from us basically two weeks ago. 
Why? Because apparently the entire time they had the turtle...he didn't eat at all. 

Which it's not unusual for turtles to forgo eating.
But at the same time...not eating any of the food they've tried.
And apparently they were doing everything correctly. Having the right heat and such.

And the customers wanted to know what they should have done to have things turn out better.

As this experience had them returning the turtle and the kit and everything. Apparently done with the whole experience of keeping a pet.

And honestly.
I had no idea what they could have done.
Everything I suggested they said they'd tried or done.

But like...I don't know this turtle very well.
The customers literally came and bought it the same day that it came into the store.
So I had no idea how it was eating or how it was reacting or anything.

And it's hard to judge how a turtle (or any other creature is) based on what the customer tells you they did to take care of it. Because they could be misunderstanding my questions. Or lying. Or doing things to stress out the turtle....*exhales*

He seems alert and active enough.
But he didn't appear to eat today when I gave him food. 

So we'll have to play the wait and see game.....
If another customer doesn't buy him up first....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Catching Fish

So there I was...at the fish wall trying to help multiple people at once.
There was a family looking to get some fish for their tank.
So I pointed out ones that could possibly help.
But they were still in the dithering state of trying to decide which ones they actually wanted.

And there happened to be another customer standing nearby.
Where he started out closer to the cricket podium so I figured he was just needing some crickets.
A pretty quick simple task that I could do real quick and then return to helping the customers who wanted to get fish for their little tank.

*exhales*

Unfortunately for me.
It wasn't a simple case of bagging crickets.
It never seems to be when I'm trying to help multiple people at once. 
No. One person just has to be needy and difficult when I'm just trying to use my time efficiently so I'm not just standing there waiting for the customer to decide what they actually want when I could be helping some other customers in the meantime. 

In any case.
This customer didn't need crickets or bugs at all.

No they were wanting to get fish for their pond.

Which is rather hard...because our feeder goldfish went through a die off. 
And we aren't expecting a replenishment shipment this week. 

And the remaining goldfish we did have...weren't all healthy. Like we had some healthy ones, but I was doing what I could to discourage people from buying them.

That didn't stop people from buying them. *exhales* 
"I need to get fish for my pond!! I need them TODAY! I can't WAIT!" *rolls eyes* 

This customer was one of those who wanted to get some goldfish for his pond.
Which I was low on stock. Probably down to under 100 throughout all the tanks. 
And the dude wanted me to fish out 30-40 goldfish. 

Which since we're low on stock.
That basically meant I needed to fish them out one at a time.
Not only that but he wanted to get 4 plecos.
And our last remaining single koi fish (as we didn't get replenished last friday with any koi)
Plus he wanted to try and add in other fish into his pond as well.
Like platys and such.

So what I thought was gonna be a two minute interaction.
Turned into like a ten minute interaction.
As I had to catch all the goldfish.
And then answer all his questions about what food the fish needed to eat.
And convince him that he couldn't put platys in a pond because they wouldn't do well, though I'm certain he's gonna try to put them in anyways once he gets a heater in his pond because he said he was gonna put a heater in his pond.

So I ended up having to call backup to the fish wall because the original family still needed to get their fish.
But it was frustrating. 
Because the coworker who came to help them....didn't really help them. Just told them that the fish they wanted wouldn't work in their little 5 gallon tank and to try these fish instead.
And walked away...I guess to let them decide again?
So a different coworker came by to help them a little bit later....I don't know what fish they ended up getting.
But that was frustrating that I wasn't able to help them.

And that it took forever to help the customer who wanted all the fish.
He ended up getting impatient with how long it was taking me to catch the goldfish. 
So forwent the koi fish and I convinced him to not get the platys and he went down to 2 plecos instead of 4. 

But yah.

It was frustration built on a days worth of frustrations because customers in general were just being difficult today. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Foot Away

So we have a button on our cricket podium that people can press if no one is standing nearby that will notify us over the radios that a customer needs help over by the fish/crickets. 

It hasn't really been used that much because it's still pretty new.

I have noticed though that people tend to choose  to press it....when I'm standing nearby...but usually I'm helping another person.

Like it's interesting.
I can see why they would press the button.
Because the only worker they see is busy.
And they're probably hoping to get help sooner by calling over a second person.

Unfortunately for them. We're on a skeleton crew.
So oftentimes only one person is available to help...and if I'm busy helping another customer...they just have to wait their turn. 

Today though was different.

Because I wasn't helping anyone.

No I was literally standing like a foot away from the cricket podium. 
As I was on the ladder scrubbing the fish tanks closest to the podium. 

My back was to it though.
As I was focused on scrubbing the tanks.

but then I hear the call over the radio. Where a customer needed help at the fish wall. 

So I look up.
And there's this girl standing right there.

Like...I'm literally only a foot away from the cricket podium.

*shakes head*
She could have just been like "umm, excuse me, could you get me some crickets?" 

No need to press the button.
I was standing right there.

But the customer was like "Oh I didn't want to disturb you." 

Well....considering I was the only person in my department. She was gonna disturb me even if I wasn't standing at right there two feet away from her. *shakes head*

Like...I'm glad she didn't want to interrupt my task. But at the same time...you could have just asked me outright for help. 

We don't have people just standing around waiting to help customers. We're all busy with some task. So no matter what, you're interrupting us. 

In any case.
I helped the customer answer her questions about bugs and habitats for lizards as her family had caught a wild lizard and wanted to care for it. 

But yah...literally standing a foot away.
*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Home

So we've been doing curbside pick ups for a bit.
Where customers can order stuff online and then once they get notified that their order is ready they can come to the store and wait in their car and we can bring their purchase out to them.

However, it's not a perfect system.
Like you can't order prescription food for the curbside pick up.
And you can't purchase animals online (with the exception of feeder goldfish and crickets) either. 

Plus you have those customers who have no idea how the internet works...or don't trust it...and want to try and get around it.

Which results in them trying to pay over the phone --which we don't do.
Or else they want to come to the store and wait in their cars and have us take their credit cards from them to go pay with it in the store and then come out with their card and purchases.
Which is another thing we can't do.
There's too much of a safety risk doing that. 

In today's case.
The customer called the store wanting to buy ghost shrimp.
Which luckily for them, we had them in stock still.
Unluckily for them. Ghost shrimp are an 'in store purchase only' sort of situation. Though the customer was trying to talk us into letting him pay from his car. *exhales*

Nope. The customer can only get the shrimp by coming inside.

Only.
He couldn't come inside.

Why?
Because the customer told us that he'd contracted COVID. 

*exhales*
So this guy. Has the virus that's been causing havoc all over the world.
And he wants to get in his car. Drive to our store. Have us come out to his car. And get him Ghost Shrimp.

Like...at least he didn't try to come into the store proper. At least he was trying to keep people safe by not leaving his car and calling first before deciding to drive over.

But like Dude.
NO.
If you have COVID...STAY HOME.
There is no reason whatsoever that you need to get a handful of 39 cent ghost shrimp for your tank at this time.
No reason. Whatsoever. Your tank will survive a few more weeks without the shrimp.
And if you're soooo desperate you can have a friend or family member who isn't SICK come to the store to get them.

But Do. Not. Leave. The. House.

The customer wasn't having it though.
He was trying to convince the manager over the phone to let him pay for the ghost shrimp and bring them out to him.

The manager told him no.
Also told him to stay home too.

Because dude.
Ghost shrimp isn't worth our health and safety. 

*shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Open?

There was a customer waiting outside the store this morning in their car.
Which isn't unusual because the vet opens an hour earlier than the main store currently. 
So customers come to drop off their pets to them.
And we used to have customers come in that early for grooming...but it's been like two or three months now since then. Now grooming opens when the main store opens. 
Though we still have customers come to the doors like 10-15 minutes early for grooming still. 

But it was like an hour before the store opened.
And there was a customer waiting in their car outside our doors.

Maybe they were just waiting for a customer at the Vet?
Maybe they were trying to do an online pick up?? Even though we don't do those for customers before the store opens. 

Who knows.
I didn't go check.
But like 40 minutes before we opened, the customer finally got out of their car and came to the doors.
Maybe they thought we opened at 8?
Which is funny. Because like the only time we have opened at 8 in the past is during December for the Christmas season.
The rest of the year and even during the pandemic it's been 9am.

But I guess even during these times...people don't check to see what time stores open. 

Cus the customer tried to come into the store...only to find that the doors wouldn't open for them. 
Which prompted them to do the 'look about' where they actually go look at the hours on the doors...and realize...that we don't open until 9.

So the customer ended up going back to their car and driving off....which makes sense since I don't think they wanted to sit there for another 40 minutes before we opened.
I do wonder if they ever came back....

-Sarnic Dirchi

What is Needed

Customers are a whole nother breed of human, I swear. 

They come up with the oddest requests and needs that they think are necessary for their pet(s). Especially if they don't know anything about the pet they are getting. Then they ask the oddest questions.

In this case. The customer was a guy.

Came in with I'm guessing his wife and step-daughter? As there was mention of the 'girl's father' at one point. 

And the daughter was wanting to set up a fishtank. 

Though it was unclear if the size of the tank was like a 40 gallon size or a 60 gallon tank size.

And the daughter was trying to get everything she would need to have the fish tank be a success.

But the step-dad? Was being...well...a man. One of those self aggrandizing guys who thinks they know everything but for whatever reason want to show a 'good example' to their child and so want to have the 'adult' aka me. Teach them what they need to know about things...only for the guy to completely ignore every word I said. 

*exhales*

The customer was like "Okay we need all the physical stuff for the fish tank. The air bubbles, the heater, etc." 

Which the air bubbles aren't necessarily needed at the very beginning of set up.

But a filter is. 

However, trying to talk to the customer was....difficult. 

Because I could tell that he wasn't listening to a word I was saying.

Well...he was listening...but only enough to then go off on his own tangent with claims of 'I know what I'm doing."

Juxtaposed by him saying "So it's been a while, but what else do we need." 

So he was parts all knowing and completely clueless. 

And like with him not knowing how big his tank was. He was trying to go cheaper. Get the stuff for the 40 gallon size rather than the 60 gallon size despite the little girl wanting to get the stuff for the bigger tank.

-He changed his tune rather quickly on how much money they were spending when he found out it was the girl's father paying for things rather than him.

But the dude was...weird.

Like I would tell him things and he wouldn't listen.

But while he wasn't listening, he tried to get the girl to listen to me.

"Listen to what she's saying it's important!"

Only when I tried to explain why things were important he would then interrupt me. *exhales* It was frustrating. 

Especially when he tried to go all new age hippie on me.

Where once I finally got them the things they needed to physically take care of the fish.

The dude wanted to help make the fish 'emotionally' happy.

Where he was wanting to know about the nitrates, phosphates and other minerals that would help the fish be...happy.

The dude was basically pulling random terms out of his brain that had nothing to do with each other (and aren't always helpful to the fish) 

But wouldn't listen to me when I was trying to tell them that the fish didn't need any special nutrients or minerals or stuff like that. (we don't even sell it) 

They get basically all they need from the water (that's been treated) and the food they eat. You don't really need to add more to it. Like trying to over care for your fish makes it more likely they'll die from the stress. *exhales*

Honestly to help them be happy you just need to give them room to swim around and to hide. Give them plants, decorations, clean water and feed them and they're good.

So yah.

And then the customer was like "We'll come in tomorrow evening to get fish."

to which I tried to explain that they will want to call first because we close our department early some days due to staff shortages.

But the dude was like "what time do you close" 

"At seven."

"great we'll come in at six!" 

No. NO. I am trying to tell you that sometimes we can't sell animals after a certain timeframe. Sometimes it's 4pm others its 5 or 6 or even as early as one. 

But I don't think I ever got the guy to comprehend that. 

He was just giving me that stupid smile of "I know you're talking but I'm not listening to a word you're saying."

Hopefully I don't have to deal with him on the morrow. *exhales* But we'll see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Better Housing

Had a customer come in looking for help for the betta fish that they had inherited from their roommate.
As apparently the roommate moved out and left the fish for the rest of the apartment to take care of.
*shakes head*
I'll never understand people who can just abandon their pets like that. *exhales*

In any case.
The new owner of the betta fish hadn't taken care of fish in a long long time.
So were looking for potential solutions to help the fish out.
As it was apparently just staying near the top of the tank.

After establishing that it didn't have a swim bladder issue.
I suggested that perhaps the betta would do better if it had a filter, as they were just in tank of water.
And probably would do better with a heater as the apartment was currently being kept to around 65 degrees which is far too cold for a betta.

So hopefully....with their new purchases the customer was able to make their betta happier and hopefully more active.
Guess we'll see....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Still Miffed

So last week? I think it was last week. Idk time goes weird. maybe it was the week before last week.

We had a shortage in crickets.

To the point where we spent a week with a sign posted over the cricket containers saying that customers couldn't buy more than 51 crickets. 

Which...when we occasionally have customers come in who want 100-200 crickets at a time....can make them rather unhappy.

Which was the case with one of my regular customers who routinely gets 150 large crickets like every week. Every other week? 

Again who knows what's going on with time.

Often enough that I see this customer constantly.

And they were not happy when they came in to get their usual 150 crickets and could only buy 51 of them that week.

It wasn't like we were purposely being difficult.

It was just what corporate wanted us to do because we knew there was a shortage coming and we weren't quite sure for how long it would last. 

Thankfully it was only like...a week and a half maybe? Before we went back to having our normal cricket shipments.

But I think this customer is still miffed at us for the last time they came into the store and only let them buy 51. 

As I heard the call over the radio that a customer needed help over by the fish/crickets.

And when I rounded the corner I saw this regular customer with their friend pressing the button for maybe the third time.

And I was like "Can I get you your 150?" because I saw that they had grabbed like three bags of the prebagged crickets and figured they wanted their 150 again. 

Which I didn't have any issues with this week because again, the shortage is over and customers can buy however many crickets they want.

But the customer was like "I have 110 here, will that ring up for the discount even if they're bagged separately?" 

"Yes?" Was my response. 

And they quickly left.

So yah....

Since the customer didn't stick around to chitchat like usual...I'm guessing they're still miffed at us for limiting the amount of crickets they could get last week.

*exhales*

Yah....maybe they'll be more chill next week.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Press the Button

It had been rather crazy at work today. Like barely room to breathe sort of crazy where it was basically going from customer to customer to customer helping them. 
But I found a moment to step behind the fishwall for a breather. Like maybe for two minutes tops. 
And when I came out with my manager who had also paused behind the fishwall for a breather, we discovered a man and his son trying to bag their own crickets.

My manager was quick to point out "That's not a self service station, sir."

To which the guy flippantly stated "Well, there was no one standing here."

Like...yah...there wasn't anyone standing there. It's not like we hire someone just to stand at the cricket podium their entire shift waiting for people to come get crickets. 
It wasn't even a thing before the whole pandemic hit. 
And it's even less of a thing now when we're on a skeleton crew and there's only three people in the store and it's a busy saturday afternoon where everyone has come in needing help and we're trying to ensure people don't wait too long to get assistance even though it's nearly impossible when there's just me in the department because we only have three people and the third person is currently backing up the cashier. 

*exhales* 
But like. We literally had been away from the podium for two minutes and the dude didn't even try to find anyone or ask for help.

We were like "There's a button to call for service."

"I don't see it." Was his response. He said it in such a way that I could tell he thought we were making it up. 
We gestured to the button on the podium that said "Need an associate press here" on it. 

In any case.
I ended up helping him finish get his small crickets that he'd been attempting to bag.
And sent him on his way while I went to go help other customers in the department.

It may have been like ten minutes later that our radios rang with the 'there's a customer waiting in aquatics' voice indicating that someone had pressed the button and needed help.

Finishing up as quickly as I could with the customer I was helping, I made my way over to the cricket podium and rounded the corner in time to see the boy that the man had been with running away from the podium to the doors where the man waited where they quickly left the store.

...
...
... 
I'm guessing they were testing the button?? *shakes head* I'm not sure. Or was it just a vindictive thing? Who knows. 

Still.
Gotta love dealing with the self-entitled customers who think they're in the right when they're not.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Just Two

I forsee us having a ton of unhappy customers today. 

At least customers wanting to buy animals today will be unhappy.

First because we had to close down my department (aka stop selling animals) at 1pm today because after 1 there would only be two people in the store. :S :S :S Like 

It's crazy.

I don't understand why we would be scheduled that way when Friday and Saturday evenings are like...the busiest evenings of the week for us.

It would be the one day where we would want to make sure that we have enough coverage in the evening to make sure that there's a cashier, a manager, and a petcare person in my department on these busy nights.

But nope.

After 1pm. My department closed down for the day. 

I feel bad for my coworkers who have to deal with that particular fallout.

But the other downside was that I told a ton of customers that we get fish in on Friday.

As normally our truck that has the fish in it shows up in the mornings or at least around lunch time. 

So most people were expecting to probably come in around 2 or 3 pm and have fish available for them to look at and purchase.

Especially the betta fish as people have been asking me multiple times a day all week if we had any. 

*exhales*

Today though?

Apparently our truck wasn't due to show up until FIVE pm. 

And with only TWO people working in the store.

It's gonna be a miracle to get the truck unloaded in the first place.

Let alone put all the new fish out into the tanks. 

So we may have to wait --if there were actually fish on this truck-- until tomorrow morning to put all the fish out and just leave them in their boxes overnight. Which :S :S :S I'm not sure how great of a plan that is either....I forsee a lot of fish deaths potentially.

But like.

What else can we do when the truck shows up super late and there's only two people to run the entire store.

I'm glad I'm not there. :S 

That would be soo stressful and there would probably be a lot of negative energy I wouldn't want to deal with either. 

-Sarnic Dirchia

Algae Eaters?

There's been a bit of a trend this week.
Where everyone is looking to get a snail or an otocinclus or plecostomus to help clean the algae in their tanks.
Which halfway makes sense...if people bought a bunch of tanks a month ago...I do usually tell customers to wait a month before buying any algae eating creatures since there's no algae in brand new tanks.

So I suppose the sudden trend now makes sense now that I'm thinking about it.
But still it's rather crazy how many snails and such that I've sold in the past week.

Like it feels like nearly every customer I talked to who needed help in the fish department was looking for an algae eater of some sort.

*shakes head*

It's kinda crazy.
Like I've had trends where three or four people in a row will need help grabbing the same animal.
But to have it last multiple days?

So crazy.

Hopefully the snails and other algae eaters enjoy their new homes though. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Vet Visit

So at work we have this guarantee with our animals.
Where within two weeks if an animal you purchase gets sick, you can bring it back to us and we will take it to the vet for you, treat it until it's better, and then if the animal recovers...call you so you can come get your now healthy pet back.
As part of this policy when the customer returns the animal we issue them a refund -give them their money back- just in case the animal doesn't make it so they don't have to come later to get a refund. And then when the animal is better the pet parent repurchases their pet. 

The key to all this is that if the pet parent wants their animal to go to the vet, they need to bring the animal back to us. They can't take the animal to the vet themselves and then expect us to pay the vet fees. Nope. The animal comes to us we take it to our vet and cover the fees for the visit and the treatments.

So.
Today I got a call and later a visit from a customer who purchased a guinea pig from us a week ago.
Where she stated that the guinea pig was sneezing and had goopy eyes and such.
After verifying when the customer bought the guinea pig --as it's common for them to be a bit sneezy the first day or two of coming home as a stress response-- I told the customer that they could bring the guinea pig in and we'd take it to the vet for them.

But the customer wanted more details on the process. 
Cue my explanation above.
They wanted to know a time frame on how long the guinea pig would be in our care.
And I told them that likely it would be 7-10 days. But it would depend on what the vet said and what medications needed to be given to help improve the guinea pig's health and once the guinea pig was healthy then the customer could come get him.

She then asked what would happen if she took the guinea pig to the vet herself. Like if the vet would keep the guinea pig as well.

No. What the vet would do would look at the guinea pig, prescribe meds and then give both meds and guinea pig back her to treat on her own. 
However. She would also be in charge of the vet bill. 
As we don't cover vet bills unless the guinea pig is brought back to us first and we take it to our vet. 

When the customer came into the store she asked if there was a halfway measure. Some sort of compromise where we could take the guinea pig to the vet but then she could do the treatments after that point.
Unfortunately for her. 
No.
It's against our policy to sell unhealthy animals. So if the customer returns the guinea pig to us it will remain in our care and we will do the treatments until the guinea pig is healthy.

Because like...if we allowed the customer to take the guinea pig back...and something happened (like it died) or the illness got worse and it needed another vet visit...there would be nothing we could do if the two week period had passed. Because after 14 days...we no longer guarantee our pets. So the customer would have to take the guinea pig to the vet herself if something went wrong and have to pay the second vet visit herself.

While if the guinea pig remained in our care and the guinea pig didn't recover in the expected time frame, we could do another vet visit...and it would still not cost the customer anything.

Honestly.
It seems like a rather clear cut solution.
Bring the guinea pig back to us. You save money. We take care of the treatment. And you get your guinea pig back nice and healthy. 

But the customer still was dithering over if she should bring the guinea pig back to us...or just take it to the vet herself.
Why?
Because her daughter has already bonded rather strongly to the guinea pig.
And basically the customer didn't want her kid to be without her guinea pig for a week or two. 

*exhales*
Like...I get it. You don't want to make the kid sad.
But at the same time...I'm pretty sure your little girl will survive a week or two without her pet. 
And the guinea pig will probably recover faster if it's in a quiet place where he's not constantly being handled and such. 

Still.
The customer hadn't returned the guinea pig to us before I left for the day.
As when I last saw her she said she needed to think it over. 
Though I did warn her that the longer she waited to come to a decision the harder it would be to get the guinea pig better and the sicker it could become. 
As it was. We wouldn't be able to get the guinea pig into a vet until tomorrow at the earliest because of how late it was when the customer came into the store to ask more questions.

Sooo guess we'll see. 
Hopefully whatever the customer decides, the guinea pig will get better so the little girl can have her pet. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hush

I know that kids have their moments of cuteness.
But they also have their moments of being super annoying.

And we had a family come into the store today.
Where they had a young daughter.
Probably around five or so? Who knows. Younger anyways.

Who kept up a near constant "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! MOM! MOM! MOM! momomomomomomomoommmmooommmmm!!!!" 

For like forty minutes straight.
While the family wandered around the store looking at the animals before eventually deciding to buy a zebra finch.

And it was so annoying.
Like.
Dear Child.
Shut up.

Like. I couldn't understand why she insisted on constantly yelling out "Mom" to every little thing. Like constantly trying to gain her attention? Because the parent was distracted.
but at the same time like....Hush dear one. Give your mom a chance to finish their task and pay attention to you?

Because your constant nagging was driving me crazy. 

To the point where when she and her family finally left the store.
I could still hear her "Mom!" echoing in my ears for like fifteen minutes after.

So.
Annoying.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Busy Tired Busy

I really am not fond of the shifts where I basically have to do customer service all. day. long.

I would just like to...well do my opening tasks. 
Have 2-3 hours of just...tasking. Cleaning. Feeding the animals, etc. 
Without having to help any customers.
Just me and my thoughts as I do things.

I really miss that.

But due to work cutting our hours.
We're not able to come in as early as we used to.
And today...I came in only half an hour before we opened for the day.

*exhales*
It was exhausting.
So exhausting.

Constantly having to help people.
constantly having to tell them to please stand behind the blue lines.

And to make it even more 'fun' 
we had register 1 break down on us constantly.

And due to social distancing we can't have registers opened next to each other.
So we only had 1 & 3 going of our 4 registers.

And with one down.

It meant only Register 3 was up and running...during a rush where we had people standing in line all the way back halfway through the store.

It was crazy.

I don't remember the line ever getting that long before.

But it did.
Because we only had one register available to us.

*exhales*

Gotta love that.
Gotta love helping people.
And the stress involved with helping people.

I'm not looking forward to this upcoming week at all.

Because my shifts are basically all customer service filled since they have me coming in only like half an hour early most of the time....

I wish things would get back to normal....Soon. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Almost Right

You gotta love it when customers know things...but they're only partially right in their knowledge.

I had a customer today who wanted to buy like three or four fish.
Like goldfish.
And put it in a 3.5 gallon tank. 

Why?
Because they thought the rule with fish was one fish per gallon of tank.

Which is close.
But not quite the rule.

The rule is one inch of fish equals one gallon of water.

Meaning that if a fish grows to be two inches it's gonna need to gallons of your tank.

So with a 3.5 gallon tank.
You have 3.5 inches of fish.

And if the customer was looking to get like guppies or neon tetras....then they could get three or four fish that way.

But goldfish?

The rule of goldfish is that they need two gallons of water for every inch they get.
Because goldfish are a messy fish in that they give off a lot more ammonia. 
So they need more water.
Plus like...they can get ten inches full grown.
so a single goldfish would really need like a 20 gallon tank by itself. 

And the customer wanted to put four of them into a 3.5 gallon tank.

*exhales*

Yah...that was a fun circular conversation to deal with.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Prank Fish

Had a group of three come into the store wanting a hundred small goldfish.

Which it's not unheard of.
People often grab that many to feed to their turtles or to stock their ponds with.

So I was quite onboard with catching that many fish. 

But then as I was just about to bag up the first fifty.

I heard one of the three mention a bath tub.

I was like. "A bathtub? You're putting them in there?" 

To which they agreed.

And normally people only put goldfish in a bathtub for one real reason.

A Prank.

And guess what?
It's against store policy to sell fish for pranks.

So after confirming to the customers that they were indeed buying this for a prank.
I refused the sale.

They weren't happy about that.
The mother (which dear mom why were you even on board with this??) wasn't too happy about.

"What if she was to put them in a bowl afterwards?"

Like lady.
100 goldfish need more than a 'bowl' to survive.
You'd need a hundred bowls.
They'd do much better in like a 100 gallon tank.

And I know this person they were pranking probably didn't have that big of a space if they were going to put the goldfish in a bathtub.

The mom was like "Well what if we told you it wasn't for a prank?" 

"I still can't sell them to you because your first statement was that it was for a prank so I have to assume that is the correct one."

Yah.
I got quite the dirty look because of that.
And the customers left without any fish.

I did direct them to a couple other pet stores they could try. 
But yah.

No prank fish for you customers. Nope nope.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Closing Early

We had to close the department early again today.
Three hours earlier than the rest of the store.
Because once again we only had two people scheduled to close the store.
And it's hard to be able to run the entire store with just two people.
Especially considering we have to answer the phones, watch register, run curbside pick ups out to the cars and of course help customers find things in the store.
adding in trying to catch animals and fill out paperwork to that...and yah...it makes sense to shut down the most time consuming part of helping customers earlier. 

Today was different from yesterday though in that I was the one to close down the department...when eight hours earlier I had opened the department.
So it was kinda surreal to do both opening and closing tasks.  *shakes head* 

What's funny though was that my manager wanted me to start closing down the department at like 3pm.

Which I was like "Why?"
Mostly because I was literally still working on doing the opening tasks at 3pm.
And like it doesn't take as long to close down the department as it does to open it.
Because closing the department is making sure that the animals all have food and water, turning off the lights, and then pulling ornaments from the fish tanks to be cleaned overnight. 

In all honesty it doesn't take too long. Like maybe 30 minutes?? 
Especially right now when we're low on animals and half our cages are empty. It doesn't take that long to close.

But for some reason my manager thinks it takes like an hour?? *shakes head*
idk. Maybe it's taking them longer because they're doing opening style instead of closing style? 
No idea.

But yah.
My manager wanted me to close at 3 because they couldn't get the entire department closed yesterday in just half an hour and so wanted to give me more time to close.

I didn't need it. I told the manager my plan and started closing an hour later as I'd originally planned too...

And finished it easily. 
I even had time to spare to do some extra cleaning of some cages in the back that hadn't yet been cleaned.

So yah.
Not sure why my manager thought it would take forever to close....
But we got it closed in the end and I managed to avoid having to deal with any disappointed customers that come in to get animals and get told we can't sell them right now. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Cashiering

I got put on register today.

Which is.
Well
Crazy.

I haven't had a purposeful register shift in like...six years it feels like.

Since I'm the Lead in my department...it means I need to be in my department to make sure it's running well.
Which means I don't usually (rarely) work stocking shifts or cashiering shifts.
Stocking sure, I've worked a few?
Cashiering? Yah never.

But today.
I was scheduled to cashier. 

Because we're on a skeleton crew. And basically we're put wherever and whenever to try and ensure that the entire day is covered, but also to try and get us as many hours as possible.

Still.
I don't like cashiering shifts. XP Bleh. 

Standing in the same spot.
Waiting for customers to come check out. 

It's even more stressful with the pandemic going on.
Like just wondering if the next person I have to interact with on the register may be carrying the virus. 

Thankfully....I only was on register for like an hour.
Before I managed to switch out with my manager.

So I was able to run around the store and help however I could with various tasks instead of being stuck in one place.

Hopefully I can avoid further register shifts....we'll see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Not Selling

You gotta love how people listen to things....but don't actually hear things.

So, due to the pandemic and being on a skeleton staff, corporate has decided that my department -the one that sells the animals- will close earlier than the rest of the store.

Meaning that one to two hours before the main store closes, my department will stop selling pets. 

To let customers know that this is occurring, we finally posted signs telling people what time my department was closing. 

But we also do these overhead announcements that basically say "Hey this department is closing in fifteen minutes, if you need to buy a pet please see an associate." blah blah blah. 

We did that today. Like 30 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 5 minutes before, and that the department is now closed.

Well at that point I was on register. 
And a customer comes up with their purchases.
Looking rather frantic. 
"I'm so sorry I didn't know you were closing so early!"

To which I corrected them. "No, the main store doesn't close for 2 more hours, it's just the petcare department has closed meaning we won't be selling any more animals for the rest of the night." 

"You can't sell product?!" 

"No. We can't sell animals."

"Animals?"

'Yes. Fish. Birds etc. because of policy."

"OH!" 

Like....I said right off that we weren't selling animals. Not that the store was closing. Not that people couldn't buy product.

I just.....dunno. 
It felt like I was repeating myself multiple times to multiple different customers who for whatever reason...weren't comprehending the words coming from my mouth.

It was frustrating. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Touching

Until this pandemic happened, I never realized how much people love to touch things.

Like sure. I was aware that people tend to pick up and set back down things as they get a closer look and investigate it or see how it works.

But like...when it comes to having to clean things.
It is rather annoying how much people just...touch things.
Like there's a pandemic going on and we're doing our best to keep the store clean...and people just come in and act like it's a normal day.

They let their kids run loose.
They point out things. 
And above all.
They love to touch the glass.
I feel like half my job is currently telling people to stand behind the lines we placed to keep people away from the tanks.
And the other half is then wiping down the tanks because we caught kids and even adults touching the glass and we have to keep the place clean. 

*exhales*
It's annoying.
Like people.
Stop.
Touching.
Things.

-Sarnic Dirchi