Replace My Light

It started this morning, when my manager asked what our return policy on our tanks was because a customer wanted to know if they were still within the timeframe of being able to return part of the set up as their light had stopped working.

My manager had thought it was 90 days, but I had to correct them and say that it was 60 days. Just like every single other product (with the exception of live animals) in the store. 

So if the customer was over the 60 days they wouldn't be able to make a return, but I did tell my other manager that depending on the tank sometimes the brand company (the ones who make the tank and put their name on it) have longer guarantees that they customer could check out online and see.

I didn't hear anything more on it...until a couple of hours later.

When one of my stockers came up to me with the phone in hand saying that a customer needed help with a fish tank question.

I pick up the phone and it's the same customer my manager had talked to earlier.

Where they had purchased a tank from us 'recently' and they wanted to know if they would be able to return/exchange out a light that had come with the tank kit that they'd bought as it wasn't working properly.

And I was like "That depends...when did you purchase the tank?" as we only have a 60 day return policy. So if the item is over 60 days we can't do a return. 

The customer said that they'd bought it "In March." 

And I had to stop them there because the way they'd said 'in March' made it sound like March of 2020 aka LAST YEAR which is a year too late to do anything. And with how they'd been talking earlier it didn't seem like they meant that the tank had been purchased within the last 30 days either. So I had to clarify as I honestly think they didn't realize that it was still March. It may be the last day...but yah still March. 

And they were like "Oh this March." 

So I was like "You bought it within the last three weeks?"

To which they responded "No, it's been like 6ish weeks?"

"So mid february?"

"Maybe the end of February?"

*exhales*

Which this would have gone so much quicker if the customer had kept their receipt, but they hadn't and half the reason why they were calling was to see if we could look up the receipt for them. 

So I tried. I pulled up their account on the computer to see what I could find....

And I didn't find any tank purchase. Found a ton of Skinny Pig purchases (they'd bought like SEVEN skinny pigs in the last month and a half) and a couple fish purchases but nothing indicating that the customer had bought a tank within the last 60 days. 

The customer was like "But isn't there anything you can do?! Can I try and look it up on the website or something?"

There wasn't anything I could do as our store only holds records for 60 days in our system.

And I highly doubted that the website was that sophisticated as to keep track of all the purchases, so I suggested that the customer go through their bank statements and such to see if they could pinpoint which purchase from our store was their tank purchase and depending on the date on said statement I might be able to do something.

It was a few hours later that my petcare person took yet another phone call and I just knew it was this same fish tank customer.

And the associate ended up handing the phone over to me, and yep, same customer.

They'd discovered that their SO had been the one to buy the tank and that their statements showed they'd purchased it at the end of JANUARY (that's hardly March you silly customer) and they wanted to know if they'd still be able to return the tank light if it was a couple of days over the 60 days.

Which again. I would need a receipt to prove that that was the timeframe the tank was bought in.

They ended up giving me their email address to see if that would pull up more receipts.

Which it did. And luckily for them the last one it pulled up (aka the earliest receipt on record) was the receipt for their tank. 

Honestly though, with how persistent the customer was being about trying to get this light replaced (which is funny because my coworker said that they had said it had been broken for a month but for the entire month they hadn't thought about trying to replace it??? people are weird) that I was about ready to say "Yah sure whatever, bring in the light and stop bugging me."

But thankfully we found the receipt. So it makes it easier to do the whole return and such to get the new light.

Thankfully I didn't have to deal with the return itself as the customer is supposed to have come in after I left for the day.

But hopefully we don't hear from them again.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Why This Cat?

 So recently we've been getting some complaints from customers about how 'quickly' (aka not at all) our adoption group has been responding to applications sent in by people to adopt out the cats that are in our adoption center.

In particular is an Orange Tabby called Bob Hope who seems to be the star of the show...and yet is still here in the store. 

So I reached out to the adoption group to see how long it takes for responses to occur to people.

And I was told that they should be receiving a response from them within two days on whether or not their application was accepted.

And that part of the reason why Bob Hope hasn't been adopted yet is because applicants keep indicating that they want him to be an outdoor cat...and the adoption group doesn't adopt out 'outdoor' cats. They only do 'indoor cats'

In any case.

We've had this really persistant customer, who's called us multiple times absolutely frantic about the fact that they've been 'trying to reach' the adoption group and 'haven't received a response' about their application to adopt out Bob. 

One of my fellow managers managed to get this customer's name and info so I could send it along to the adoption group to see what was going on there.

And it turns out that the customer has been rejected by the adoption group as a good fit for Bob.

One reason was because the customer wanted to keep him outside.

But the main reason for rejecting this customer was because the customer had owned cats before...and abandoned them in other states. Namely California and New York.

I don't know how the adoption group found that out, if the customer had admitted to it or if there's like a record of adoptions made in the country that various groups can access...

But because the customer had abandoned the cats....they were deemed not a good fit for Bob Hope and therefore unable to adopt him.

And like...I can understand circumstances happening where you might have to rehome one cat for some reason.

But...it's been multiple cats. in at least TWO different states that have found a home with this customer only to be left behind by them. 

Which shows that the customer isn't able to hold a long term commitment of owning a cat and could possibly abandon Bob Hope as soon as they happen to move again. 

And it makes me wonder...because the adoption group contacts all applicants on their status....why this particular customer is so frantic to get the cat.

Like why this cat? Why do you NEED him so much? Why are you trying to go through every single route available to get this particular cat?

It's kinda...suspicious. Weird. *shakes head* 

I can only hope he gets adopted by a good owner soon so if this customer calls again they can be told he's found a home with someone else.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Let Me Hold Him

 Gotta love the customers who just...like straight to your face.

Or at least...confuse their facts.

Had a customer today who asked if their daughter could hold one of the cats in the store.

And they were so confused when I told them that with the pandemic we don't handle the cats and only the adoption group is allowed to open the cages and the only way to get the cages open is to put in an application online at the adoption group's website.

The customer was like "Since when has this been a thing?"

Uhmm...like the whole entire past year?

We didn't have cats come back into the adoption center until like...Septemberish of last year? From March until September the cages were empty.

And it's been a policy that only the adoption groups can open the cages for customers that entire time.

-It's a social distancing thing. we can't really social distance if we're handing the cat to the customer and it's an enclosed space so less ability to social distance again- 

And the customer was like "But last october my daughter was able to hold the cats!! I remember because it was for her birthday!"

Like....are you sure you did that at our store? Because that policy has been in effect and all my associates know to only let the adoption group have people handle the cats.

So unless one of the volunteers or the adoptees were present to open the cages for the cats...the customer couldn't have held a cat at our location.

Like Idk what other stores are doing. But that's been our policy the entire time.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Covering Register

I ended up getting stuck on register for like...an hour today pretty soon after I came into work because our cashier needed to take their lunch and I was the individual who was the 'most free.' at the moment.

And like...I don't mind covering the register for a lunch break. It's only 30 minutes of having to interact with people. Nothing too crazy and I can handle having nothing to do for that long if it ends up being a dead period.

But like. I tend to plan on how much energy I'm going to be spending doing certain tasks.

So if I'm planning to only be on the register for half an hour...and it takes longer...than my irritation ends up getting triggered as I'm forced to be someplace that I wasn't expecting to be for longer than I wanted to be.

This ended up being the case because our cashier -who is usually a stocker- went to our head manager and asked if they could be off register for a little bit longer and help out elsewhere in the store before they went crazy.

Which I hear you.

If you have any experience elsewhere in the store besides on register...then cashiering shifts are the worst shifts ever. Just having to stand there and wait for people to come to you to buy things. 

And the head manager granted my coworker's request and had them work on a 'single pallet' in the back to get all the product out on the shelf.

And like....H.M. made it sound like it would only be another 15 minutes or so. That this would be a 'quick task' my coworker could do before returning to register.

Nope.

Took them like 45 minutes to get back to me. XP 

*exhales*

I can't fault them.

But I really didn't appreciate being stuck in a place I wasn't planning to be stuck at for over an hour. 

Not. Fun.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Flying off the Shelves

 We had a customer ask us today what we do with the hamsters that don't sell in our store.

Which obviously that probably means that the customer has a snake or some other creature that eats rodents and they're looking for a cheap means to get their creature more of their food source....

But like....dude. Our hamsters ALWAYS sell.

I think he honestly forgot that there's this pandemic going on.

Or else didn't realize, like most people haven't quite realized, that buying pets has become quite the popular pasttime with people.

I mean if you're staying home all the time and not going anywhere...you'd want some sort of companionship as well to keep you company.

And many many people have turned to pets as their answer.

Even now. A year later we're still struggling to keep animals in stock.

After all, it takes time to breed animals and get them old enough to be able to be shipped out to stores to be sold.

So it's been a struggle to keep anything in our store for like...longer than a week. 

It's been a struggle to get any animals in our store at all.

And hamsters?

They're selling like hotcakes.

Like I literally only had like two hamsters available for sell when the customer asked us this question. 

The rest of the cages were either empty or had mice in them.

Our hamsters basically sell within two or three days of becoming available.

And that's when I actually get them in.

Like half the time my expected shipments end up being short at least half of the animals that we were supposed to get in.

And honestly...we're just as surprised as customers are at how quickly everything is still selling.

like you'd think after a year everyone would have already gotten their pets and be content with it.

But nope.

It's still an ongoing problem.

One that probably won't be fixed until things 'get back to normal'

-Sarnic Dirchi

Greetings

 Gotta love the customers who are just random.

We had an older gentleman walk into the store and say to our cashier: "Welcome to Starsmet!" 

Which...it's us the workers in the store who are supposed to greet the customers with that. We're the ones who are supposed to say "Welcome to Starsmet!" to them. 

*shakes head* lol

It definitely threw my cashier off a bit before they responded back in kind. "Welcome to Starsmet." 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Only ONE?!

I had a customer come into the store like five minutes before close wanting some dewormer medication for their kitten.

The problem?

We only carry ONE type of dewormer for cats and it's a tapeworm dewormer.

And the customer was positively flabbergasted that we only carried the ONE dewormer.

"But you're a PET STORE!" they kept saying. Like it meant that we were a big warehouse and would carry a thousand and four products of the same thing but in different brands. *exhales*

Like...we have LIMITED space lady. There's only so much product we can fit on our shelves.

And I honestly don't know why we only carry the one dewormer.

We have at least twelve different types for dogs it feels like.

but only the one for cats.

Not sure why that is.

But that's how it is.

And it's 2 minutes before close and me and my coworkers are exhausted from having to deal with a ton of needy customers like this customer the ENTIRE day and we're just ready for everyone to leave and be done for the night.

And this customer is just expecting me to wave my hand and suddenly pull out the product they showed me on their phone like a fancy magic trick.

No can do.

They ended up buying the tapeworm dewormer in the end.

But it was very hard to not snap at the customer and be like "Either buy it or leave but I want to go home." at them.

*exhales*

Why do people have to be difficult?

-Sarnic Dirchi 

A Difference in 'Color'

There was a customer who came into the store today who wanted to get twenty ghost shrimp.

Which...that's a lot of shrimp to catch when the tricky litter buggers tend to be quick and like to swim/jump out of the net.

But twenty isn't too crazy of a number.

Unless the customer decides to be difficult.

And the customer decided to be difficult.

Like it's not a big deal if people want their shrimp to be bigger or smaller. That's an easy enough distinction to make.

But this customer?

They wanted the "Colored" Ghost Shrimp.

Like...

Ghost Shrimp are called Ghost shrimp because they're see-through. Aka. They don't have color. They're clear.

There isn't really anything to distinguish them from each other beyond their size and if the females have eggs visible within them.

But the customer insisted that 'some' of them had color.

*shakes head* 

The color? 

From what I could tell the customer was seeing 'color' in the organs and food and eggs and such. Basically they wanted any shrimp that 'didn't look like the other' 

Which again. They all practically look the same.

So it ended up being a bit of a game between us.

Where I would try and catch as many ghost shrimp as I could.

While the customer would look in the tank and pick out specific ones that they wanted that had the 'color' to them.

I think in the end they managed to hand pick like...6 of them? While I managed to fish out 14 others without interference.

Because there was no way I was going to stand there for twenty minutes fishing out one stupid ghost shrimp at a time because the customer thought that they had a different color when they're literally all the same freaking color.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Waiting

 It's amazing how many Saturday's have passed by in a person's lifetime...and yet customers seem to forget the fact that Saturday is a 'shopping' day for most people who work 9-5 M-F jobs. 

So of course the store is going to be more crowded, more busy, you'll actually have to wait in lines in order to buy the things you decided that you needed to get today. 

 It's also amazing how many people think that they're so much more important than all the other folks waiting in line and want to skip said line and be served first. *exhales* Like yes. I get you don't want to wait. But too bad. Everyone else is waiting too.

I had a customer come into the store today to return a hamster that had...well died. 

And instead of wanting to get their money back they decided they wanted to go look at the hamsters first and see if they wanted to get a new one.

And unfortunately for them, in the time they were looking....the line got really long. Like really really long. 

Because people have this amazing herd mentality of deciding to all check out at the same time.

And unfortunately it was just me, my cashier, and the petcare person in the store at that point.

And I was busy trying to catch a bird while my pet care person was catching fish and my cashier was trying to ring out people as fast as possible -which is near impossible when people decide to be complicated with returns and purchases and asking a ton of stupid questions.

And the customer who decided to wait to get a new hamster didn't want to wait in line to get their money back.

Which they had to wait in line to get their money back because I had already marked the receipt and taken the body of the hamster and therefore the customer needed to get their money back today because we can only honor things within a certain time frame and since I'd already marked the receipt...they wouldn't be able to get that return if they left.

Which yes. The line was long.

But it didn't seem like they had to wait that long because as soon as I was done catching the bird I jumped onto the register to help back up cashier and they were at my register soon enough.

Still. Kinda frustrating how impatient people get. Especially on Saturdays.

Like it's not my fault you all decided to come in on the same day at the same time and spend your stimulus check here. That's on you people. I just work here.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Six Feet Back

 So there I was bagging crickets for a customer when they suddenly say "Hey, I'm going to step back, six feet and all."

And I look up to see them stepping back. And they're like "Okay, I'm social distancing. Could you...pull down your mask?" 

Which....okay?

So I quickly pull down my mask so they can see my face and they're like "Where are you from?"

I tell them as I pull my mask back up.

They're like "Not Connecticut?"

Ummm...no. Born and raised here lol. 

But apparently I have a doppelganger who lives out there and this customer thought I might have been her, hence why they asked me to pull down the mask.

They wanted to check and make sure before they were like "Hey! I know you!"

And while the customer did look familiar....they could just have one of those faces....

Or else I've bagged crickets for them before. 

Still...it's interesting that the customer thought another person looks like me.

I mean, I get it every now and then here. I apparently had a doppelganger wandering around campus while I was in college. 

And I've had friends/roommates/coworkers who look similar enough to me that people ask if we're sisters or occasionally twins.

But like...with how much silver is showing in my hair now....it's kinda weird to think that someone thinks I look like someone else that they know....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fix My Cat

 There was a customer who came into the store today wanting to know if we had any solutions for their cat who was experiencing hairloss.

Which...there's multiple reasons why a cat could be experiencing hairloss.

And the best way to figure out why that's happening?

By going to a vet.

People working in a pet store? They only know so much.

And yet...people think that we know 'everything.' Fielding constant calls from customers who want to know 'what is wrong' with their pet....when they don't want to have to go to a vet and pay money to figure out what's wrong.

We told the cashier to tell the customer to go to the vet desk and ask.

But I had a free moment so I went to check in on the customer before they reached it.

As it might be a solution I could help with.

Hairloss can be caused by multiple things. 

Overgrooming. Ringworm. Mites. Got caught in a tight spot...there's many many many reasons why a cat could be loosing fur.

The customer showed me a brief picture of the cat's bald spot. Saying that there were red spots to it as well.

Red patches if they're scabs could mean ringworm. Or it could be bug bites. 

Though the hairloss itself looked more like the sort of hairloss from overgrooming. 

And the customer said that the red patches...seemed to be welling under the skin. 

So blood....possibly? Bruising?

*exhales* who knows.

Like.....there are non vet related solutions. Switching the diet of the cat, bathing them in a particular shampoo, adding more fish oil or something....

Yet...I still suggested to the customer that they should talk to the vet.

Especially when they mentioned that their cat was eating a ton of food...and yet losing weight. 

Loosing weight? But eating a lot?

Not a good sign.

That could be a parasite. A tumor. Some sort of cancer.

All of which should be checked out by a vet because they would know what kind of issue was causing all the problems the cat was having.

Yet the customer was more than reluctant to take that option.

Because their cat is a senior cat. Old. Though the customer isn't sure how old the kitty was. But old.

And the customer had this...fear...that if they took their kitty to the vet...the vet would recommend euthanizing it. And they didn't want to have to go through that.

Which...if the cat is eating a ton of food and being as active as a senior cat can be...

Usually euthanizing the pet is the last thing the vet wants to recommend. If the pet parent is willing to take other options. Medicines. Surgeries. Etc. Then the vet will recommend whatever solution they can to help the animal recover. 

But the customer wanted a different solution. One where they could just feed them a different food. Give them a bath. And it would all be better. 

They did say that they would go talk to the vet...but I don't know if the customer ever did....hopefully they figured out a solution. 

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Compliments

 You ever have those moments with customers that kinda just stick with you after the fact? 

Course there's those memorable interactions where you just kinda go ???? at the customer. 

But there's those moments when customers just say something to you that just...make your day. Put a little spring in your step. A little boost to your morning. 

Today while catching fish, I was writing on the bag when the person I was helping was like "I really like your handwriting." 

And it's was just....

I don't try to think of my handwriting that much.

I know it's more of a scrawl.

I've had multiple coworkers complain that they can't always read my writing.

So like...I lowkey have thought that I just have bad hand writing. 

No one ever compliments it.

So it must be true right?

And yet...for that one shining moment someone who saw my handwriting. Liked it.

...Yah...I'm gonna be thinking about that for a bit. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Jerk

 The thing about working retail during a pandemic...is that you have to choose which battles to actually fight and which ones to just...let slide by.

Which is unfortunate when you have to consider your own safety when it comes to dealing with people.

Especially dealing with the antimaskers. 

Today a guy came into the store, wearing all black, no mask in sight. 

And like. Our policy has been since July that all people within the store have to wear a mask as that's our policy. 

Add on top of that that there's a mask mandate that's been in place since November requiring that people wear masks inside buildings....

It's kinda ridiculous that people still are coming into the store without masks on. 

And while many of them just forget to put theirs on, or are willing to go grab one of our free ones...

We still get the antimaskers who don't care at all about anyone but themselves and refuse to wear a mask.

Most of the time we inform the customer that without a mask they cannot be in the store. Aka. LEAVE.

But this dude?

Yah he ignored me telling him that he needed to wear a mask.

And being the only manager on duty at the time...it would have been my duty to follow up with him and be like "Sir you either wear the mask or you leave."

But then I saw what was hanging from his hip.

A gun.

Dude was openly carrying a gun in the store.

Not wearing a mask.

Like. Who knows how volatile this dick was gonna be.

He'd already refused to wear a mask.

Had a gun on his hip.

I could all too easily picture the dude being a complete idiot and drawing said gun and at minimum threatening me with it and at worse shooting me with it. 

So yah. I wasn't gonna touch that. 

Which is frustrating because it would be nice if we could just rely on people to be considerate and kind and helpful to one another. Where you can approach everyone without fear of getting hurt because of it and kindly remind them of our policies without the risk of violence possibly occuring.

*exhales*

It's so frustrating. How after a year people still are refusing to wear masks.

How after a year the fact that a person has a gun on their hip and is showing it off along with their maskless state makes it so that half of my coworkers vanish away from the guy just to ensure that they're safe.

I mean. The fact that the dude was maskless with a gun had one of my cashiers so shaken up that they needed to go take a fifteen minute break and like...the cashier never interacted with them directly.

Can people seriously not understand or realize how traumatized many retail workers have become over this past year because they've seen first hand just how many people don't care at all about the safety and protection of others?

That they have to deal with the fact that people don't care if they hurt others while we are trying our best to make sure everyone who shops in our stores is safe?

It's so frustrating.

So frustrating that this jerk had the gall to come into the store with a weapon visible and act like a dick because he can't follow simple directions and put on a mask that policy states needs to be worn. 

*exhales* 

It's frustrating.

Honestly I should have continued to talk to him and be like "Sir, we need you to wear a mask in the store if you don't want to wear a mask we have curbside pick up available for you but to be in the store you need to be wearing a mask."

At the same time though.

I really didn't want to get shot. 

*exhales*

I hate these moments. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Needs More Socialization

 I know that a year of isolation has messed with people's ability to be social. There are customers where you can tell that they don't 'get out much' because of how they latch onto you and just want to tell you their whole life story while you're helping them find their specific brand of cat food. 

Of course there's others that seemed to have forgotten their manners during the pandemic. Who are less patient. More quick to anger. And overall difficult. Etc.

Today...I had a customer was that was probably part of the former category. 

My coworker and I were first made aware of this old man's approach by my other manager speaking into our radios.

She was singing the jaws theme. "Dun. dun. Dun. dun. Dun. dun." 

Which of course you automatically look over your shoulder to see just why someone would be singing the jaws theme at you.

And there was this old guy coming at us. Grandpa age. Seemed friendly enough in the face.

But definitely needs a lesson on well...how to socialize with people and what is appropriate to say to workers in a store.

As the first words out of his mouth were "Do you have any pretty girls here?"

Like dude? You're looking right at me and my coworker. We're both girls. Are you trying to get us to admit that we're pretty? Are you trying to be funny? What's with you?

I was like "Well, we're both pretty but I suppose it depends on your aesthetic." 

*shakes head*

Honestly. Men. 

In any case. The dude wanted to know if we had any cats for sell.

Which we had one cat up for adoption but because of the pandemic only the adoption groups can interact with the cats and customers wanting them. So I could show this guy where the kitty was. But I wouldn't be able to open the cage or anything for him to see it closer. Nor would I be able to adopt it to him.

I don't know how clueless this guy is about cats. But considering he didn't know what "Orange Tabby" meant....he's pretty darn clueless.

In any case I led him over to the cats and he proceeded to grill me with dozens of non work related questions. "Are you going to school? Where did you graduate from? Are you single?"

Like dude.  You're two or three times my age. You don't ask a girl like me if I'm single. That's creepy. So creepy. I'm no gold digger and I have no interest in someone like that.

-Honestly I'm glad I was the one to take over this customer as I don't think my other coworker would have liked this sort of attention.

Like. It was general Q&A sort of things questions you could get in normal conversations...if the dude was closer to my age. *shakes head*

but yah. It was the "are you single?" and then a soon follow up statement of "I live alone." that had alarm bells ringing in my head.

Like dude. I can believe that you're probably just lonely and don't talk to a lot of people if you live by yourself and therefore you don't realize that talking to girls at work this way is rather creepy.

but at the same time....yah....it was an awkward conversation. I ended up lying to the dude saying I had a boyfriend just to get him to back off because he seemed rather...intense. 

Again it could just be the "need to talk to someone" vibe that a lot of customers have had over the past year.

At the same time......it's just...weird. Creepy weird. 

I hope he doesn't come back anytime soon.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Cleaning Up

So it's a common occurrence to have 'accidents' in our store. 

I mean...if you let people let their dogs come in...of course there are going to be messes to clean up.

And it's interesting to see how various customers handle their dogs when such calls of nature happen.

Like you have the responsible ones who either a) go find an employee and tell them about the spill or b) find the cleaning stations we have around the store and clean up their mess themselves.

or you have the customers who halfway clean up a spill, realize it's too big and just...leave it. Or ignore it completely. Some because the customer is completely unobservant and not paying attention to what their dog is doing. Others because they don't want to have to pick up after their dogs.

But yah...you see all sorts of responses from customers when they are confronted with the mess.

What is different though...is how some of my coworkers handle unpleasant situations.

Like today, I had a coworker who got a bit too close to an overly excited puppy and said puppy ended up peeing on their shoe.

And my coworker was like "Uh...what do I do? I don't have a change of shoes or socks and I have to go somewhere else after this...." 

And I was just left kinda.....confused? Like "What do you do?" What do you do if a dog pees on your shoe?

Well...for one I would hope the shoe had a thicker covering to prevent the urine from seeping into said shoe.

But like....there's cleaning sprays and papertowels at the register?

You could wipe it off?

Or like we have a bathroom in the store...you could go rinse your shoe and maybe sock off in the sink?

Or like....you could take it home (after cleaning off said urine) and then go throw it in the wash/dryer or something.

It just..."What do I do?" Surely you can think of a few solutions? Like...it's not like us managers can do much for your shoe problem beyond quickly switch you off the register so that you can clean off said shoe...but we don't really have anything else we can do to help.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Focus

 It's often a good thing when you have coworkers who are eager to help out. Eager to learn.

As it makes it easier to get things done, to finish tasks, to have an extra pair of hands.

But at the same time...we sometimes have coworkers who are....well too energetic?

Like they're an eager puppy ready to jump to the aid of whoever needs help...but like they have a two minute attention span and if they're easily distracted by the next 'shiny' new thing they see.

Which is what happened tonight.

I had a coworker who had a couple of hours to help us out and I directed them to help us with a particular pallet in petcare.

As we have inventory later this week and we have to work a truck and get it all out onto the floor before said inventory happens.

And the pallet was huge. Like taller than I was. 

And I set my coworker to go get as much of it done as they could before they had to be elsewhere in the store.

Only....it seemed like every two minutes...I would catch the coworker elsewhere.

Namely, in the petcare department.

Which yes, it's easy to get distracted there as we're constantly doing things, talking to customers, catching animals, etc.

And this coworker is so very eager to help out in petcare. Wanting to catch fish and bag crickets and do water tests and such and basically stick next to my petcare associate like a shadow and follow them wherever they went to see what they were doing to learn from them.

*exhales*

It got frustrating. To constantly have to be like "Hey, we really need you working on this pallet. Can you go back to the pallet, we need help with stocking." Like FOCUS person FOCUS. 

In the end I think they only managed to get like...a third of it done? Maybe half? I'm not sure how tall the pallet was to begin with.

But it was still pretty huge when said coworker had to go do their other responsiblities in the store.

Leaving me with a half worked pallet...that needed to be finished before we left for the day. *exhales*

I ended up putting away almost everything else on it by myself. 

Not surprisingly I was much quicker at it than my coworker even with the constant calls up to the register and around the store to go help other customers.

And by the end of the day I just had the 'overstock' stuff. Product that wouldn't fit on the shelves, that needed to be placed in our midsteel.

And like...I was proud that I managed to get it basically all done before we left.

But it still left me irritated that I ended up having to finish the pallet in the first place as my coworker should have been able to have done a lot more than they did if they hadn't been so focused on getting distracted by what was happening in petcare. 

*exhales*

At least the stuff got done.

But yah...gonna have to figure out a better way to get this coworker to focus on the job at hand...

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Goldest

 It's always frustrating when a customer ends up being indecisive when it comes to making a decision. Like the choice shouldn't be that hard of one. Just pick and go. And yet customers end up paralyzed with indecision.

 Which gets rather frustrating when a customer is struggling to make a choice, and yet they're unwilling to let you leave their presence so you can go help other customers while they make up their mind.

Today I had such a customer.

An older woman came into the store wanting to buy a couple of goldfish for her bowl.

-Yes I tried to talk her out of it. She was persistent and I barely managed to convince her to just choose one goldfish and see how that one survived before trying to do more than one in a bowl.

As in the bowl she'd need to do water changes like...every day to keep the goldfish alive.

It didn't dissuade her much.

As she was very focused on her vision.

Said vision? Was to have the 'goldest goldfish' in a fish bowl so that she could tell visitors that she had a 'pot of gold' at home. 

Which I give credit for the fun concept. A "pot of gold" is a fun idea. 

But honestly if I could reliably have 'gold' betta fish I would have directed her towards them instead because bettas do much better in a bowl than any other fish even if the environment still isn't the best for them.

In any case.

The customer was fixated on finding the 'goldest' goldfish from a particular tank.

Which the customer's definition of "gold" is that the goldfish had to be a nice deep shade of orange.

*shakes head* Hardly gold at all. But *shrugs* what can you do?

The problem was...we had like a dozen goldfish in the tank she was looking at. And at least nine of them were all the exact same shade of orange.

Which happened to be the shade of 'gold' that she was looking for. 

Only she couldn't decide which of these goldfish was the 'goldest'

I tried multiple times to step away so I could help the other customers I could see hanging out waiting for help while she tried to settle on a decision.

But the woman was persistent in that she was 'ready'

And just left me standing there awkwardly waiting for her to pick one.

And when she finally picked one and I fished it out...

She wasn't satisfied that it was the 'goldest' and so had me fish out two other goldfish -with long staring periods of watching the tank before indicating which fish she wanted me to fish out- before she decided to look between the three goldfish and pick the 'goldest' of those ones.

*exhales*

It was a long process. A frustrating one too considering I had no one to back me up and I could feel the other customers getting antsy waiting for me to finish up with this customer.

But at least I got the fish bagged up and handed to the customer without further difficulties so yay.

Hopefully the fish does alright....but honestly I won't be surprised if it doesn't do well....

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Care Right?

 I had a customer come into the store today with their three children, one of which was carrying a large glass bowl. 

Which yah, it's not hard to imagine why the customer would be in the store if they had a fishbowl.

They're looking for a fish to keep as a pet in the bowl.

So I automatically directed them towards the betta fish as those are the 'best' fish to keep in a bowl as they tend to be the hardiest and need less maintenance than the goldfish people try to keep instead.

Only...the customer was like: "So if I get this betta fish I never need to clean the bowl right?"

I was like: "Wrong, you need to change the water once a week."

The customer didn't like that. "But I had a fish once and we kept it in a bowl and never had to change the water. What fish is like that?"

None of them dude. None of them. 

I don't know when this customer last had fish...but obviously they weren't the one to take care of it because if the fish is in the bowl then you need to change the water on it. *shakes head*

I was like "Only the betta fish can be in the bowl."

"And I don't have to change the water, right?"

....and like I get....that there was a bit of a language barrier happening here as I could tell English wasn't their first language.

But I also didn't want to continuously play ring around the rosie with the topic when I'd already done the rounds like thrice. 

So I said: "You'll need to add in more water when the water in the bowl gets low."

Because at least there would be some fresh water added in...

In any case. I left the customer and their family to pick out their fish.

Only to have them come up to me a bit later and the customer be like "And I don't need any food right?"

Like...dude...did you have a pet rock as a kid? 

ALL animals NEED to EAT. *shakes head* Geez. 

I'm pretty certain that whatever fish in a bowl the customer had growing up...either they never were the ones to take care of it and therefore never saw all the work put into keeping the fish alive. Or else they might have had one of those 'plant in a bowl' sort of set ups where the plant 'feeds' the betta and 'keeps' the water cleaner and hence why 'it never needed anything done' with it. 

But no. I was like "No you need to feed the fish."

"Once a week?"

Dude no. "Every Day." 

It's an animal. Animals need to eat constantly (unless you're a snake) so feed the fish every day. *shakes head*

Honestly...who knows how that fish is gonna do with the family...hopefully okay, but time will tell.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Register Drama

So today...was a day of 'difficult' customers at the register.

It may be because it's a new month. It may be because it's a monday. It could be spring fever. Who knows.

The customers were just...more difficult today. 

And it might have been me feeling a bit sleep deprived. It could be me fighting my own irritations of the morning. It could be the constant talking over the radio for the first hour or so of the shift.

But AHHHHHHH

It was frustrating to constantly having to be heading up to the front to rescue the cashier from whatever BS the customers decided to throw their way.

Like there was a dude who needed help fitting his dog with a harness.

And he walked to the harness aisle. Waited like maybe ten seconds. Thought "Oh hey no one is coming!" and went right back up to the front to ask the cashier if 'anyone else' was avaiable to help...when I had arrived five seconds after him to the aisle and was confused why no one was there. *shakes head* 

Or the dude who asked "WHERE IS EVERYONE?!" when he saw me because he needed help at the fishwall because beyond the cashier I was the first person he'd seen...because he'd had the excellent timing to come right when the other four people in the store all happened to be in the back of the store for various reasons.

Or the two or three customers who decided that they needed to buy their $20 item with a a $50 or $100 bill first thing in the morning and totally wiped us out of our $20s and $10s in the tills right off the back so we had to go exchange out bills in the safe so that we could actually have the proper bills to give people the right amount of change.

Or it could be the customer who was just 'quick' enough in the store that they noticed a sale was still up that had expired yesterday and insisted that they get their 'buy one get one half off." deal.

Or that that same customer tried to take advantage of a different buy 3 get the 4th free deal but the sale apparently hadn't yet activated or something because it didn't ring up at the register so once again a manager had to be called up to take care of the situation.

It was never ending it felt like.

Every two minutes it was like there was some issue at the register (and yes my sleep deprived self is exaggerating this a little bit but the register related calls just kept coming one after the other) and a manager was needed to come help out.

*exhales*

It was frustrating.

Lol though the most memorable customer of the day was a gentleman who came into the store to try and return some wood shavings he'd bought a couple of days ago. 

Which I vaguely remembered helping this customer. As I'm pretty sure he was looking for cedar wood shavings for his dog house and we only had pine or aspen and he'd tried pine and his dog hadn't liked it so I suggested he try aspen instead and told him if it didn't work that he could bring it back and get his money back so long as half of it was unused.

Considering the bag wasn't even opened....I wonder if he ended up finding his wood shavings elsewhere.

In any case.

He wanted to return the wood shavings and get his money back.

Only...he'd forgotten his receipt.

No biggie. We can just look it up under his phone number.

Only...when the cashier tried to look it up....nothing showed up. The phone number that the dude swore up and down that he uses every single time he comes into the store...showed no purchase history.

Again. No biggie. Sometimes the computers are dumb. So I took down some information about his purchase, the dates, what he bought, and what card he used....and tried to look up the card in our computer system to see if we could pull up the receipt there.

Except...despite him swearing up and down that that was the card he'd used....

No history showed up.

*exhales*

Because the wood shavings weren't that expensive, my head manager gave me permission to just to a no receipt return. 

But the dude was like "Seriously. I use this phone number and this card all the time and you can't find anything?! Anywhere?!" before I could start his return.

So I pulled out our ipad that we mostly use for online orders because we have an app on that too where you can look up customers receipts there.

And nope.

Still nothing pulled up.

And who knows why I did it...but I ended up putting the customer's phone number into our register again, just to see what pulled up.

And the number worked.

Only...instead of the phone number the dude gave me showing up underneath his name...a different number entirely showed up in the system. O.o 
I was like "hey that's weird."

And he was like "...so are my receipts under that number instead?"

A check of that number -which apparently had been an old home number that they hadn't used in years. Showed that all his purchases aka his receipts were listed under that old number. 

Including the one from a couple of days ago. 

Lol and the kicker?

The card the dude swore he used when he bought the wood shavings....wasn't the card he used. 

He used a different one lol. *shakes head*

So he had the wrong phone number and the wrong card. 

It was no wonder that we couldn't find anything. lol.

He was like "It's obviously Monday....my brain isn't working...and I need coke."

Like dude. Me too. A caffeine fix would help immensely.

Lol and he took his mistake rather gracefully, even going so far as to go apologize to our cashier for his mistake.

So yah. Fun times.

-Sarnic Dirchi