MLAARE -Scavenger Hunt

It's rather typical.
While I'm at work.
For there to randomly be a 'lunch time rush'
Rather odd, in the fact that we're a pet store...for people to come during 'lunch time'
But come they do.
At some point between 11-3pm there is a rush of people.
Most of them wanting fish.

Which was the case of today.
An hour before I was to get off my shift.
I got hit with a rush.

It wasn't the worst rush I experienced.
Mostly it was people getting fish, and they were taking forever to decide on what to get, or kept adding on fish they also wanted, or kept asking questions.
Which made it more time consuming, so people had to wait.
But they knew I was helping them as quickly as possible.
It's also difficult because during these rushes...I'm usually scheduled alone.
So there isn't somebody else to help me out.
*sighs*
Thankfully most of the time people are patient.

But today.
Was different.

Because it was a day where there was apparently a Scavenger Hunt. A Team Related Scavenger Hunt. Where each team (there had to be like 5 of them.) Were given a set of tasks and asked to complete them the fastest.

One of those tasks, apparently was to come to our PetStore.

The first I knew of them, was while I was in the middle of my fish rush.
And this crazy group of people came in.
Giving off the frenzied air.
Talking about fish.
I assumed they needed a fish.
But they asked me like three questions about the mollies and then rushed off with the words "Hurry, before the other team arrives!"
Which gave me the heads up...I'd be seeing another team of people soon.
And I assumed that they would be asking me similar questions.
Which are easy to answer while I'm catching and bagging fish.

So I was still in the middle of helping my fish customers.
When I got an overhead call to go to reptiles.
Busy with fish, I tried to get a manager to help these customers, as I was going to be a while longer, at least 10 minutes or so.
But everyone else was busy with customers as well. So these reptile customers had to wait.
As I was in the middle of helping one, and had two more to go after them before I'd be able to go help the customers with the reptiles.

I was in the middle of helping the second customer (with another after them.)
When a woman in pink comes up to me.
"Hi, is there anyone in the store that can help us?"
"You're with the reptiles?" I asked, figuring that was who was getting impatient.
"Yes."
I was right. "I'm sorry, I'm the only one here right now, I have two more customers to help with, and then I'll be right over."

"We're kinda in a hurry." She said, as if she's expecting me to drop everything and come right over. "We're on a scavenger hunt, we need to hold a snake, or a rat real quick and take a picture so we can get ahead of the other teams."
"I'm sorry, its going to be a while before I can get to you."
"Is there anything else we can do?"
"I know another group just asked me about fish."
"That's not what we have..."
"I'll be right over, I just have to help one more customer and I'll be with you."

So I rushed to help the last customer as quickly as I could.
Before going over to this group of scavengers.
To find that my manager had managed to get to them first.
But I still needed to help them quickly hold a snake (as they didn't get a picture of the girl holding a rat because the rat tried to jump away.)
Which I managed.

And there were TWO other scavenger groups along the animals as well.
I pictured a nightmare scene.
But thankfully, my manager told the other two groups: "No more holding the animals." So I didn't have to help them, which allowed me to go back over to the fish wall which had more customers waiting for me.

Ugh. Rushes.

In any case...
I find myself slightly irritated at the people who thought up this Scavenger hunt on a FRIDAY.
Seriously.
Fridays and Saturdays are the worst days to do such things.
Because we are busier on those days.
We don't always have time to humor people in their 'quests to hold animals.'
Unless they intend to buy, people who just want to 'look/hold/touch' are low on our priority list. If we're busy, we're less likely to allow people to just randomly hold the animals.
Especially when I'm by myself and in the middle of the rush.

I don't know why they decided to have one of the stops be a pet store.
I mean, its happened before.
And its quite easy. Answer a couple quick questions, let them hold an animal for thirty seconds. Walla, off they go and I'm free of them.

But the way the woman today, basically expected me to drop everything to go help her in her group's task....Bugged me a lot.
Yes. It's a game.
Yes its a competition.
But No. I'm not going to skip out on helping actual paying customers, in order to help people who may not ever come into the store again, for a possible chance to win a game that won't matter in the long run.... yah. Not high on my priority list.

I'm busy.
I'm by myself.
You can't expect me to not help customers.
You can't expect quick service when I have customers IN the store.
If they'd come earlier in the day.
I would have been fine with helping them.
I wouldn't have been busy with customers.
So I could have taken the time to cater to them.

But lunch time.
Bad time.

At least they were helped, and they seemed content to go onto their next task.

In the end.
I was just glad to get off work and away from the crazy.
Because the rush....was a rush, and they wear me out.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Communication Starving

It happens every now and then.
That we sell out of a particular animal.
And people still want to get that type.

Most of the time its the creatures that we usually only get one of.

And if they're willing to wait for us to get our next shipment of animals in,
We usually write down their name, number, and the animal they're interested in.
and then wait. Wait until it arrives.
And then call the customer to let them know that we now have the animal back in stock.

Last weekend, I had such a note.
A woman was looking to buy a Crested Gecko.
And we were out.
but we Got one in.
Knowing that she wanted it.
I called her, but got a voicemail.
So I left a message.
and then, decided to leave our "This cage is Empty" sign, in the cage the gecko was in.
To make sure no one else sold it before the woman could come in.
I told another coworker, expecting them to pass the word along about the sign.

Before I left for a three day weekend away from work.

But apparently....the word wasn't passed along.
And my other coworkers thought the cage was empty.
And when the person came into the store to get the animal...she was told the cage was empty. And left.
So when I came into work Monday morning, and checked the cage just to be sure...
I was unhappy to see that the gecko was still there.
And most likely hadn't been fed at all during that time. >.< *sighs*
so I called the woman back.
Got word on the situation, and she said she would be in later that day to grab the gecko.
So I left the sign in (and fed the Gecko), making sure to tell two of my coworkers with explicit instructions to tell the next coworker that there was actually a gecko in the cage and a woman was coming to get it.
So the next day, when I came in.
I checked the cage.
And thought it was empty. Yay!
Only...to discover the day after....that the gecko was actually still in the cage!! (who knew where it was hiding as I thought I checked it really well... >.<)
Which meant...it probably hadn't been fed the last couple of days.
And unfortunately, I tossed the number, thinking the woman was going to come in...
(maybe she did and for one reason or another decided to not get it.)

In any case....
I made sure to feed the crested Gecko really well today,
And removed the sign.
Because obviously....it was throwing people off. (since it IS used to indicate that the cage is empty, its not a surprise people would assume its empty.)

So, hopefully, with the sign out of the cage...
this Gecko can quickly find his way to a new home. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Noisy Chaotic

There are some customers, that come into the store like a whirlwind.
Not in a "Make a mess of the store" sort of whirlwind,
But just like a...very noisy/chaotic scenario.

I had that happen today.

I happened to look towards the entrance of the store, when they came in. Parents, three children.
Their presence immediately spoke "trouble"
Not the 'bad' trouble but the "difficult customer" trouble.
Seriously, it felt like a thunderstorm breaking upon me.

What did they want?
Fish.
But it was difficult to help.
Because the father was loudly proclaiming that he wanted "Pregnant Mollies."
And the daughters were exclaiming what fish/frogs they wanted.
while the mother was like "No, no. No!" to everything with the one minded focus of "We have to get plecos because the tank is disgusting!"

Basically...they're the sort of customers where you speak very little, and try and help them as quickly as possible to make a choice, while trying to ensure that they don't try to put fish together that don't go together.

Plus, they were more impulse buyers as well. Starting with a few fish, but adding in more and more fish as they saw others in the store.

*sighs*
At least I got them on their way with their fish.

But after dealing with them, I really felt the need to go take a break.
To decompress.
Because wow.
They were a handful to deal with.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Check the Clogs

Our gravel vacuum broke at work yesterday.
In such a way that the usual methods of trying to fix it.
Resulted in nothing whatsoever being changed.
You see...gravel vacuums are supposed to suck up the gunk from the tanks.
The system we have sends the dirty water straight into a sink.
Only...
For some reason, the water flow wasn't sucking...it was sending water back into the tanks.
Which we really didn't need.
And I had no idea what was wrong with it.

My manager though, he asked "Did you check the other side." Meaning the part connecting to the sink. "To see if its clogged?"
I'd glanced at it. Had thought it looked clear.
but after he pulled apart the pieces, we found a build up of stuff trapped,
Making the suction weaken and weaken until it was nonexistent.

So he cleared it out.
And today, when I used it.

IT WORKED!
Yay! :D
It was back to its old fast self again,
Instead of the slow time consuming self it has been for the past couple of weeks.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -While I'm Helping

Its part of the job.
To help people.
One of the definitions of retail service is that....you help customers get what they want and make them happy right?
 
Well.
That's what I was doing.
My job.
 
I had an older customer come up to me,
Asking where the cat collars were.
So I showed him.
He picked them out.
Then said he needed to engrave a couple of tags.
 
So I told him where and how to get the engraving done.
But he'd forgotten his glasses that let him see the smaller prints.
 
And so, I told him I could help him.
Which I did.
Making sure that I typed in the right information onto the screen. Placed the tag in the right slot. Waited with him to make sure that the engraving happened as they'd been shown on the screen.
 
Seriously, nothing out of the ordinary.
 
But, at the end.
The guy pulled out his wallet.
I thought to put the tags in there.
Yet instead.
He fished out a couple dollar bills. And gave them to me. As a tip.
 
O.O
I got a tip.
So weird.
I tried to give it back, because I'm not supposed to accept tips. (I think...been a while since I read the rule book.) But in any case, Tips aren't required at the place I work at.
Yet here I was. With money in hand.
The guy refusing to take it back.
 
Soo
I got a tip. ^^
Awww. Definitely a feel good moment of the day. :D
I like it when people feel like I've done a great job. Usually giving me a compliment is enough, but I did like the variety of this. ^^ I doubt it will happen again any time soon though.
Which is perfectly alright with me. :)
 
-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -The Escape

It was time, to clean out the Aquatic Turtle cage.
Which is quite the process when it involves taking all the water out of the cage.
But it had to be done.
Because the turtles had taken their food, and spread it all over the place.
Giving the water a rather disgusting look.

So I slowly scooped out the water.
Watching the turtles run about on dry land. (which was rather entertaining.)
And after a quick wipe down,
Left to go get fresh water to put back in the tank.
I wasn't gone long.
So I felt confident in leaving the glass doors to the cage open.
After all there was a ledge.
I doubted the turtles could climb out.

But when I returned
and put decorations back into the tank.
I realized....
That there was one turtle missing.
The smallest one. The African Sideneck.
It confused me.
Because I couldn't see how the Turtle could disappear.
So I looked more, as the turtle can blend in well in the tank.

But just as I was sitting back.
A stocker called out to me.
"One of your turtles escaped."
I looked up to him.
"Where?"
And he said  "It crawled under the isle over there."

So across the store I dashed to the isles there.
Wondering, how did he get over there so quickly!
Still, I fished the turtle out from his hiding place and returned him to his cage where he'd be much happier swimming in water than crawling around on a cold floor.

At least we found the turtle before it completely vanished.
Though it would have been more helpful.
If the stocker had picked up the turtle, and brought it to me, instead of standing there watching it attempt to make its escape.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Tarantula Cleaning

Spiders are creepy.
The way they move their legs as they wander about.
It's just....disturbing. Weird. Totally creepy.

And now we sell them in our store. Tarantulas.

Personally, I was hoping that we'd sell through the spiders quickly enough, that I would never need to change their cages out, and risk getting bitten, or worse having them escape into the store. :S

If not that, then at least, have me not be scheduled to clean their cages when it came time to clean it out.

Sadly, that's not how it went today. :(
Well....it could have gone that way.
As another coworker had taken the side that housed the tarantula. I technically could have avoided handling it at all.
Instead I had the side with the scorpion. Which also I would rather not have anything to do with, but I managed to clean that cage with no problems.
My other coworker was busy...
So I took on the challenge.

At first,
It was easy.
Using the end of a small hand broom I gently nudged the creature into a separate container, letting me quickly clean the cage.
I thought it would be just as easy to get the little creepy thing back into its smaller container.  
Not so.

It crawled right in, right out, onto the edge.
So fast.
So creepy.
Ahh!
I was afraid it was going to escape!
It was basically escaped!
Not contained, in the open air of the store. It was basically escaped!
And there was no way I was going to try and pick it up.
I did not want to end up bitten, did not want it to crawl anywhere on me.

So how was I to get the thing back into its cage when it was clinging to the outside.
I tried the small broom handle.
And managed to get it into the bigger container...
For it to climb right out of that.
For it to climb on the broom.
For it to climb all over.

Oh, it was terrifying how quickly it moved.
Literally it could in a totally different area in two seconds.
Gah!
Literally I wanted to scream and run away.
At any second it could be on me, could be biting me, could be *shudders*
But I persevered.
Getting more worried as well, for the store was just opening, people were coming in to shop. And I had a spider that could escape further than the outside edge of the container I was trying to get it into.

Finally though.
I got it inside its cage.
Back to where it could no longer escape.
Locked away.

Gah. Totally terrifying.
I never want to have to deal with that again.
Its only a matter of time before the spider escapes for real. :S

But, my coworker was surprised.
When I told them that I had changed the cage for them.
They were like "How'd you do that?"
And I was like "I moved the spider to another container, and then spent twice as long trying to get it back inside."
Maybe there is an easier way.....

-Sarnic Dirchi