Shifted Hours

 We have this old guy that regularly comes into the store to get his little dog groomed. 

He's notable because the dude always causes trouble when he comes in.

Mostly it's in the 'dude is set in his ways and refuses to change' sort of trouble.

As he always shows up like half an hour early for his appointment.

Which tends to be at like 830 in the morning. Though if grooming opens at 8am then he'd show up at 730. Dude is crazy like that. Has to be half an hour early.

And he never understands it when the grooming salon isn't open when he shows up. 

Like today. 

Due to short staff grooming hours have shifted so they don't open until 9am. 

But the dude showed up at 830 and was confused why no one was in the salon. 

Why? Because the hours on the door said that they're open at 8am.

*exhales*

Like yes. Technically they are open at 8. But again due to short staff we don't have enough groomers/bathers to staff the full hours. So they're only open from like 9-5. 

And the dude...just didn't get it.

"I always come in at this time!"

Like dude. Why can't you understand that things change? That our hours shift because of staffing issues?

Honestly...if he gets scheduled the groomers should schedule him half an hour later than planned at like 930 so he can come in half an hour early at like 9 and be 'on time' 

*shakes head*

I don't get it. 

And I'll probably have to deal with him in another month or so when he inevitably comes in for his next appointment. *shakes head* It's gonna be fun to deal with. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

That's Not A Parking Spot

It's gotten pretty common at this point for me and my coworkers to look at each other and roll our eyes when it comes to dealing with customers.

Because the way they think just isn't....logical in a 'normal' way most of the time.

Like the customers who get upset that we won't give them 'deals' on products and discount the price for them.

Or the customer who came in needing crickets for their spider that they haven't fed in two weeks only to get upset that we had none available to sell.

Like...sorry that our shipment didn't come in. But there's nothing I can do about your negligence in taking care of your pet. *shakes head*

But today....

The main 'odd customer' that took the cake was the lady who came to drop off her dog for grooming.

As when the Pandemic started...we set up a table outside so that customers could do 'curbside grooming' check in for those people who couldn't wear a mask or weren't comfortable coming into the store for various reasons.

But for the past few weeks...we've neglected to put the table outside. Like I feel like it's been a month or so really. And it hasn't been an issue for us because like...no one has been using the curbside recently as everyone has gotten to the point where they don't need to wear a mask anymore or are fine coming into the store to drop off their dogs there.

And the front of our store...it has this nice wide concrete ramp for people to walk up to our doors.

It's probably at least twoish parking spots wide this ramp.

But isn't used for anything besides a 'grand entrance' into the store.

But today.

Today an old lady decided that this concrete area -which is in no way whatsoever marked for parking at all- decided that it would be alright if she pulled her van up onto this concrete rampish area and park her car there while she had a groomer come out and do the curbside pickup for her. 

And I could see why she would pull up on the ramp...because I think the empty parking spots next to the concrete were both full? But like.....it's not that hard to park your car in an actual stall and just...wait outside the store...or wait in your car until the groomer comes out and then get out of your car....

But like...parking on the ramp where you're not supposed to be parking like....where was the logic in that?

"Oh, I can't park next to it therefore I'll park on it!" *shakes head*

I don't get customers. I don't get their logic.

Like I know their logic mostly involves a 'how can I get this cheaper or make it easier for me" mentality. 

But I do wish that they would show a bit of self awareness of other people and think outside of themselves on occasion. *exhales*

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Let Me In!

So there's this old guy who is a regular grooming customer at our salon.

He probably only comes in like once a month. But it sometimes feels like more often.

And he's notable and memorable mostly because he comes in first thing in the morning right when Grooming opens up.

And since the pandemic...has also been notable in the fact that he never seems to be wearing a mask when he walks in the store.

Like this dude is definitely in the 'at high risk' age range...and he's just wandering around willy nilly without a mask on.

He's quite willing to put one on if you offer it to him....but like he hardly remembers to bring his own. And today forgot to wear it twice. Once when dropping off the dog, and again when picking it up.

Who knows...maybe he got the vaccine and thinks he's safe now? Who knows. 

In any case.

He showed up right at 8am wanting to drop off his dog at the grooming salon.

Only....our salon was still dark. No one had arrived yet.

Which is unusual...and so I went to go investigate why no one had come in yet especially when we apparently had a customer waiting.

And the person scheduled in was the only one scheduled in. And so they had been told to come half an hour later when the second grooming person was scheduled. 

As it's policy that you can't groom any dogs unless there are two people present in the salon. And so the first groomer didn't want to waste time sitting around doing nothing. 

Especially since the first customer wasn't scheduled to come in until 9. 

That's right.

The old guy came in an HOUR early to drop off his dog.

*exhales* 

And when I informed him that our grooming salon wouldn't be opening until 8:30 today due to a scheduling issue. He was like "But your sign says you open at Eight!" 

Well...yah....but like I said. There was a grooming issue.

And he was like "But I have to get to work!"

(At his age he should be retired.) 

"Can't you just take my dog into the back for me and put it in the cage?"

Ha. No.

Because the groomers have to 'check in' your dog and they have to 'evaluate' your dog to make sure it's healthy, happy, and able to be groomed. We don't just go "Oh yes, you're here let me put the dog in back and call it good."

No. We don't do that.

And I have no training whatsoever in grooming. That's not my expertise or responsibility in the store. 

-And by this point I'd been made aware that he was an hour early. So like....dude. You're early. Not my fault. If you wanted to drop off your dog early you need to call first and make sure it's okay because often they don't want you to bring your dog until the appointed time. We're not a doggy day care. It's a grooming salon. 

*exhales*

In any case. Our groomer happened to come in a few minutes later and so was able to check the dude's dog in so he could go off to 'work'

Though again. I do wonder what his 'job' is.

Because he was back in the store at 11:15 to pick up his dog from its groom.

And last I checked....there aren't many places that schedule two hour shifts.

Of course he could be on like "crossing guard" duty or could have taken a 'lunch break' to pick up his dog.

But I kinda just feel like he pulled the "I got to go to work!" excuse to try and force our hand and let him drop off his dog earlier.

*rolls eyes* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Grooming Appointment

Gotta love the stress of a Saturday morning.

I had a customer call the store wanting to know if they could get their dog into the salon for grooming.

Today.

And well..the groomers were quite busy and even though I informed them they had a call on hold like twice...they couldn't get to the phone. 

But I already figured that they wouldn't be able to get someone in for a groom today.

Because this is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and from what I was told by the Groomers is like the busiest Saturday of the year. -i would think around Christmas would be busier...but who knows.

So I ended up getting on the phone with the customer and telling them that there were no openings.

But instead of being uncomplicated and going "Okay." and hanging up they were like "What about tomorrow? What about next week?"

*exhales*

I ended up telling them that the groomers were booked out through at least Mid December.

Though the Groomers themselves were like "til the end of the year!" 

So who knows.

But basically it's kinda amusing that people think they can get their animals in for a groom on the same day right now.

As due to the pandemic we can't have as many groomers in our grooming salon to ensure that social distancing is being done.

Which means we can't schedule as many appointments....

Sooo many people have to schedule their dogs to be groomed months in advance. 

Yah....I don't envy the people who want to try and get their dogs groomed last minute. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Rescheduling?

I do wonder...how contacting all our customers is going.

As with the canceling of our Dog Training Classes and Our Grooming Services for the foreseeable future of at least two weeks if not longer....

I do wonder how long it will take our Dog Trainer and our Groomers to contact all the customers who wanted to do classes or groom their dogs and tell them that they have to cancel their appointments and reschedule for another time.

It's probably going to be a lengthy process....or else they're just hoping that the customers will read the emails stating those services are cancelled....

(which customers don't know how to read so idk how well that's working out)

But it does feel like a lot of my calls today at work involved customers asking about our Training and Grooming services.

*exhales*

Some of them were rather understanding of the situation.
Others seemed completely clueless. 

I had one customer who wanted to know when she could get her dog rescheduled for a groom.

And like.
*shrugs*
We don't know.

We don't know how long the salon is going to be closed. 

It all really just depends on how well people can listen to directions. Stay Home. And let the Virus run it's course with as little deaths as possible.

But until it's deemed safe to have strangers in close contact with each other again...
Who knows when we'll start up those services again.

I mean, our public school have postponed having students come back to class until the first of May. And that's like..six weeks away.

So we'll see.
There's still so much information coming in.
So many changes still occurring.

It's hard to know.
Just how all of it will play out in the end.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Brush The Dog

Had a customer call the store today asking if we would have any recommendations on shampoo for their dog. 
As apparently their puppy dog has been having issues with Dandruff but also issues with Shedding and apparently him smelling really bad too. 

Normally dandruff or like dry/itchy skin can be caused from bathing the dog too much.
So I asked how often the customer was giving their dog a bath.
To which they replied that they were doing it twice a month.

Which I thought was too much, but the customer was like "but the dog smells!" 

To which I had to agree that twice a month wasn't bad.

I ended up putting the customer on hold so I could go check in with the groomers.

To which they recommended getting like a medicated shampoo with tea tree oil to help with the dandruff or else oatmeal based shampoos.

But then the customer after being told this was like "But what about the shedding?" 
As apparently they've been dealing with baseball sized amounts of fur coming off their dog. 

....Which is a lot of fur....
But at the same time...with the switching of the seasons it's common for dogs to shed more because they're switching out their coats to better adapt to the weather. 

So I asked the customer how often they're brushing their dog.
As brushing can help reduce shedding since the bristles will catch any loose fur and such. 

To which the customer was like "You have to brush dogs?"

*exhales*

Yes. 
Yes. Combing your dog, especially if it's shedding will help decrease the amount of fur on the dog.

It can also prevent mats and tangling.
Because like...if you're bathing the dog and letting it air dry....I do wonder if that might be part of the odor problem because the dog isn't being properly brushed out and/or dried after a bath....
There could be issues there. 

In any case, the customer decided that they would come in to look at the shampoos and the brushes as they're tired of the fur everywhere...

Hopefully they found what they needed.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Window Clings

So our grooming salon has windows right?
To both the outside of the store and the inside of the store.

Basically we call their area the 'fish bowl' because people can just look in through the windows and watch the groomers do their job. 

Though a couple of years ago they put thicker coverings on the outdoor windows so people outside couldn't look in.
But the windows inside the store? Yah you could still see the groomers clear as day in there. 

Though this past couple of weeks I've noticed that we had a row of bins filled with dog beds sitting in front of those grooming windows. 

Which I figured we were just trying to sell the beds.
And didn't think much more on it, beyond the fact that some of the beds were piled high enough it was hard to see into the grooming salon and it definitely made it difficult for customers to stand there.

But today.

Those bins filled with beds vanished.

Why?

We had a couple of workers come into the store to install some new window clings on those windows.

Which the clings were basically the look of a bubble bath.

With the white shade thick enough at the bottom to block the sight of the groomers...but still thin enough that you can see the shadows of the groomers inside. 

Plus the handy dandy spaced bubbles means that customers can still look through those bubbles inside the grooming salon, but the puppy dogs can't see out. 

Which makes sense as the manager stated that it's safer for the groomers and the dogs if the dogs can't see their owners lurking nearby.

But one of the groomers was also excited for the window clings because apparently they would often have kids come up to the windows and tap on the glass to get the dog to look at them. 

And that could pose risks to both dog and groomer if the dog moves at the wrong time. 

So the window clings are to discourage tapping on the glass, but as well as to keep the dogs from seeing their owners and such.

It's going to be an interesting thing to get used to for sure.

But the groomers are rather happy about them I think. One less stress for them to worry about. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Smell

Had a customer call on the phone today to complain about a groom that they had done on their dog yesterday.

Which was interesting, because the customer claimed that they didn't notice anything when they picked up the dog and paid for the grooming that they had done.

They took the dog home.

And later in the evening, one of their kids was like "Hey this dog still smells really bad."

Which is when the customer took a closer look and noticed that the dog was still dirty and that it did still have a bad smell to the coat.

Which is...odd.

Hours later?
HOURS later?

Like. 
Do you know what the dog could have gotten into between coming back from the groomers and to when the child pointed out the dog still smelt?

Like I highly doubt the groomers within the store would let a dog leave dirty if there was a bathe and groom that happened. 

In all honesty, I expect that something happened between the dog coming home and the child speaking up.
It was HOURS.
The customer didn't call until the next day!

The dog could have gotten into so much in the meantime.

Like I know customers can be unobservant. 
but at the same time.
There's only so much I can believe.
Especially since the groomers would have no reason to not do a proper groom.

*exhales*

In any case. The customer wanted us to 'fix' it either by redoing the groom or giving the customer their money back. 

It was at that point that I transferred the customer to the grooming salon,
As I have no power to fix any issues in the grooming department since I don't work in that portion of the store.

The Grooming Manager ended up taking over...so hopefully they got the situation sorted.
Guess we'll see.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Scritch Scritch

Had a customer come into the store today looking for an anti-itch cream to put on her dog.
Only....we didn't sell creams. We sold sprays and like...shampoos. But no creams.
Which wasn't what the customer wanted because the dog won't hold still to have the spray applied. 
They were hoping instead, that because the dog doesn't mind baths, that they would be able to apply a cream to the dog's skin and make them think that they were taking a bath at the same time. 

But at that point since I only carried sprays and like shampoos...I recommended the shampoo/conditioner thing. 

Only it came out that the dog had more than itchy skin problems.
No, apparently since it was a puppy the dog wouldn't tolerate anyone touching it. To the point now, years later that they can't even get a leash on their dog.

-The customer wasn't sure it even was a dog at this point. 

In any case.
They haven't combed the dog at all because it won't tolerate the brush and will bite people who try to brush him. Not even the vet, apparently, is willing to take on the task of grooming this puppy because the dog gets aggressive and the owners apparently can't sedate him before taking the dog to the vet? 

No idea.

But the dog is extremely matted, to the point where it's scratching at the matted fur.

And here I am....just wondering why the owner would let their dog get that bad.
Just because the dog has 'always' been like this is no reason to let it continue to be like that.

They were thinking a bath might help --but people later told me that that would make the matts worse... *exhales* 

But yah....I wish there was a good solution because that dog sounds like it's in a horrible situation. :( Poor thing. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

How to Groom?

It's a week for weird calls apparently.

As this morning a customer called the store wanting to know if we did Grooming Classes.

Like a class where you come to learn how to groom your pet.


I mean. It's a cool idea.
But sadly we don't do that.

The only way we 'teach grooming' is if you get hired at our store.
Because we do send our groomers to 'school' to be trained on how to care for dogs and if you want to do more training, with cats.

But that's like...at least a year process because you have to come on as a Bather first and Bathe dogs for a certain time frame before you can go to the grooming school to train and like...you have to do so many dogs....

But the general. "Come in to learn how to brush your dog?"
Nope.
Don't do it.

I mean, it's a cool idea for sure.
And I could see the perks for customers, in learning how to care for their puppies.

But at the same time.
We'd probably lose a bit of revenue doing that.
Soo...I don't see my work offering that particular concept anytime soon. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

Early?

A customer showed up at the door with his dog at eight am this morning.
Which overall isn't unusal.
As most of the time the grooming department is open by that point. So I often see people coming into the store at that time to drop off their dogs to be groomed.

Except....I did think it was kinda odd today.
Because it's New Years Day.
Therefore, most people have the day off.
And like even our store hours have shifted to account for that so we opened an hour later than normal as well. 
So like....why have an early morning grooming appointment?

Plus.
Our groomers hadn't yet shown up. 
Though I expected them to at any moment because if there's a grooming customer here then obviously a groomer should be showing up.
--unless they partied too hard or overslept or something. 

In any case.
Since the 8am hour was here...and no groomers were in sight.
I double checked with the manager in charge to see when the groomers were coming in.
She didn't know. Didn't know which ones were coming or when they were coming off the top of her head.
So she went to investigate.

And discovered....
That the guy's appointment wasn't until Nine.
The first appointment of the day wasn't until Nine.
The groomers wouldn't be showing up until Nine.

Because groomers aren't usually there much earlier than the customers.

Nope.
Apparently the guy had just wanted to drop off his dog An Hour Early. 

Which.
On any other day, probably could have worked out.
But not today. When our hours are weird.

So he ended up leave the store with his dog to go do something for an hour until his appointment time and the groomers came.

It was a nice try for him though.
I applaud his attempt.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Plastic Groom

So I saw a little girl in the store earlier this morning, while I was working on cleaning the bird cages.
Who had a little plastic dog toy on a leash that she would drag everywhere.

Which I thought was cute.
But I didn't think more on it after she left my sight as I was busy trying to get the cages all cleaned and put back together before it got busy with customers in the store.

But it turns out, the little girl loves dogs and loves watching the dogs in our Grooming Salon get groomed, and she's always wanted her little plastic dog to get groomed. 

So today one of our groomers did just that.
They grabbed some doggie wipes and wiped all the scuff marks off the toy, put some rubberband bows on the dog's ears, and brushed the doggies teeth for her. 

The mother ended up tipping her in the end. Which was gratifying.

But the little girl was just so happy that her toy doggie had gotten 'groomed.' 
And it was definitely a highlight to my coworker's day lol. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Loose Puppy

A dog without a collar wandered into the store today.
The cashier immediately grabbed a temporary leash and caught the puppy.

But after a couple of minutes of waiting for the owner to come in... and no one showing up....
The cashier called for help.

Because what random dog just runs into the store?

Turns out it wasn't so random. 

No, apparently one of the groomers had been grooming the dog,
But needed to take a break.
And so had locked the dog up in a kennel.

Only.
Apparently the lock to that cage in the back was broken.
So the dog somehow managed to get out of the cage.
and then somehow managed to pass by at least three other groomers, and maybe customers, and out the grooming door and into the store and then outside....and then back inside....

Without anyone noticing...until the point where the cashier saw the dog.*shake head*

It's crazy.

And our head manager was freaking out because what if the dog had run out into the street and been killed? What if it had been injured?! What IF?!

Thankfully though, the dog hadn't wandered far because it's cold and rainy outside today.

But still.
It's crazy.

How in the crazy of the store...
One dog managed to slip by so many people without being noticed. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bread?

So there I was, minding my own business. 

When I hear over the intercom. 

"Banana Bread is Ready in Grooming. Banana Bread is ready in grooming." 

My coworkers all shared a look of brief confusion. 

"You think that's the dog's name?" One finally asked.

"I would hope so..." answered another. 

"As how they got the banana bread in the first place would be rather concerning..." said another. 

*shakes head*

People name dogs the strangest things....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Grooming Applicant

So there I was, leaning in the doorway of the office, chatting with the manager on duty.
When a woman comes up wanting help.
What does she want?
I wasn't quite sure as when she spoke, the words she used didn't connotate anything in my brain so it just sounded like gibberish to me. 
Turns out she was looking for the "Store Director" 
Aka in my terms "The Head Manager" 
Aka in store terms "The Store Leader" 

And because I didn't hear her correctly the first time, I asked her what she had just said.
And she gave me this look of "are you stupid?" 
And...that's when I decided I didn't like her.

It also didn't help that she had quite the 'mightier than thou' attitude going on.

In any case.
She wanted to see the Head Manager in order to see if we were actually looking for another groomer. 
-As on our website apparently we have it listed that we're looking for a groomer.

But in those situations where people ask us if we're hiring our response is "We're always accepting applications."
Because you never know when people are going to up and quit on us, so it's possible that we're not actively hiring today but we'll need to hire someone in a week or so. You never know.

But she didn't like that response.
Because she didn't want to 'go through the effort' of applying if it wasn't going to come to anything.

Apparently she'd already applied to us before, but couldn't get hired because she'd failed to complete a portion of some test or something? O.o Who knows. 

In any case, we -the manager on duty and I- couldn't really answer her questions on if we were actively looking for groomers or not because we're not the hiring manager -who is incidentally different from the head manager- 

And so she decided that we weren't actually needing any groomers now.
Why?
Because when she'd apparently walked past the grooming salon, the two girls in there were sitting and chatting, not grooming dogs.
Which to her meant that they didn't have enough work to do. 
-Which we did explain that mid week Tues, Wed, and Thurs are slower days.
But she seemed to think our groomers should be actively calling customers to bring in dogs to groom, and that all the stations should be full of groomers grooming dogs, etc. 

She basically made it sound like the groomers currently in the store were the laziest people ever for not constantly working on dogs.

>.< 
To which I was getting rather...irritated by.
It's not like you're expected to work on a dog every single second. Nor can you blame the groomers for not having anything to do.
After all there are dogs that need to finish drying from their baths, there are little spaces between dogs where you take a quick breather, there are customers who fail to show up with their dogs leaving the groomer with nothing to do....

But honestly. 
I didn't like this customer's attitude.

Especially when I walked up to the front not even thirty seconds after this customer left us,
And saw not two girls chatting, but FOUR groomers ALL working on Dogs in the Salon. 
They were working. Not being idle. 
>.< 
So my irritation at this customer was roused even further because she was overexaggerating what our groomers were or were not doing. 

*exhales*
I hope that even if she does apply....we don't hire her. We don't need that sort of attitude in the store. 

-Sarnic Dirchi