Just Drink Your Coffee
Turn Off Your Ears
The other day, I was sitting in a certain sandwich and bread shop sipping my black coffee when a group of certain sandwich and bread shop managers (?) sat down a couple tables over with their regional manager (?) to talk staffing and sandwiches/bread and other boring stuff that I actively ignored.
Until… one of them said, “One person. Find me one person that I would sacrifice for? That person doesn’t exist.”
What? At first, I thought maybe she was talking about staff, like not wanting to fill in or she was irritated at a fellow manager. But nope, looks like she was talking about her actual family in the context of taking days off. The conversation continued.
“I told them to not worry, all my family is already dead, I won’t be taking any more personal days off.” Then after a pause, she added. “Except one of my step-mothers is still around. That’s it though.”
I stopped listening.
I’m not sure how to approach this and I’m guessing, maybe, that there’s more context to it or heck, maybe she was even making it up because her own boss was there. Don’t know.
But it did make me hearken back to the days when I was managing a mall B. Dalton in Philly, and how generally awful the upper management was in that job. My regional manager was a guy named Pat who would come around unannounced with his dog in a shoulder bag and come up with great ideas like renting a “book” costume so we could sign people up for our rewards programs. They even gave us a quota of those cards we had to fulfill. They were $20 bucks or something and wildly unpopular. Imagine stopping by a bookstore only to have some staff pressure you about a rewards card.
Once, he told me to monitor celebrity news so we could plan ahead which celebrity was going to die so we could have copies of their autobiography or biography on hand the day after. (Come to think of it, this was most likely a decent idea, but still, ick.)
Anyway, no moral to the story today, everybody is doing what they need to do to survive. It’s probably best if I just shut off my ears and drink my coffee!
Does anyone have a retail work story they’d like to share?
YES. "The customer is always right" - until she isn't & the sales clerk can actually BE helpful. Back in around 1971 I was a sales clerk in a popular chain Women's clothing store. A sweet, white-haired, older woman came to the register with her selected items in hand & trustingly said "My granddaughter is about your age & it's her b8rthday. Don't you think she'd love these?" Madras was in style at the time & she hadva pair of perfectly lovely madras bermuda shorts that had white background with lime green & magenta plaid. YES, I'd love them! To go WITH the shorts, as can outfit, she'd selected a blouse with exactly matching magenta & lime green - iin a print with HUGE flowers! Ugh! Cringe! I politely suggested that both items were beautiful but that I would suggest a solid colored item as the complimentary clothing item AND offered to help her select itens if she would like my assistance. She ultimately settled on white shorts to go with the blouse AND a magenta blouse to go with the madras shorts & was delighted with her purchases. I got chewed out mercilessly by the store manager despite the fact that I'd doubled the initial sale AND saved the poor old woman the trouble - and embarassment! - of having to exchange unwanted itens.
Oh my. Sad. But I do remember the B Dalton book stores in the South Jersey-Philly areas as I grew up there. I had to look it up. Barnes and Noble operates a Dalton in Florida. Interesting.