free clothes stampede

I posted a bunch of free clothes on Craigslist. I just wanted to get rid of them. It's a full day later and I had to delete the post because of the overwhelming response. I had a very full mailbox when I went online. The clothes are getting picked up tomorrow by the first lady to email me. She has three girls under the age of 3. I'm thinking triplets but you never know. I hope she gets many happens uses out of them. I wonder if she needs any pots or pans...

Santa may have been too good to us...

Wow. I actually get a day off. The girls and I bundled up and went out on the swing for a bit. It was super windy and a bit of rain was falling but we needed out. We can't move in our house. We have two rooms out of commission while the house is being redone. I had to take every toy out of the girls bedrooms and put them in the living room. There is no room to walk. You are stepping on something no matter what you do. And yes, I did just give some toys to a friend of mine who is expecting soon. I also gave her clothes but we have tons of that as well. I feel like I am drowning in excess but what do I get rid of? I cannot just throw the girls things away. They are not mine and it is not worth upsetting them. I would love to throw away all of the stuff in the basement but they are worth too much money. I need to get a pile together to donate. Do you know anyone who needs pots and pans?

On another note, we have gotten very tight at work with the registers. We audit them a few times a day. Ten dollars was missing twice. I was the only constant between those two days. This scares me. Luckily, I had my register audited before leaving a couple days ago so when a check was missing, it wasn't my fault. I hope this blows over and never happens again. I know that I didn't take the money but I have no way of proving it. Because other people used the register as well, they can't prove it was me so I am being suspected but not in trouble yet. I have already told the boss that I will not share a register for a while. I just don't trust that I won't get blamed for someone else's mistake.

Wow, those girls can whine. When they cannot get even the simplest toy to work it is naptime. Good night.

Bad Evening

The til was $10 short today. There were four of us using it. I have no idea what happened. I honestly do not believe it was stolen. I believe that it was a case of too much change was handed out. Or it could have been misplaced. Either way, we are short.

work, the girls and mirrors.

Still love my job. I am learning a lot. Right now, everyone likes me. We'll see if that changes.
My girls leave tomorrow to spend a week with Nana and Grandpa. I am sad. They have been getting to be extremely good friends. Their giggling is so contagious. I feel sorry for people who choose not to have children. They are tons of work but I was so happy today just watching them. When I pretend to fall asleep they both tell me to wake up. Heidi says, "wake up Heidi!".
I met up with Tom at work today because I needed to work before his VMware group was over. That meant that the girls had to go to work with me until he could pick them up. Since he was a bit late getting there I clocked in 15 minutes late. No big deal. My boss knew that I wasn't blowing work off. The girls danced in front of the big changing room mirror. Then they started hitting it. I had to wash all of the mirrors and doors when they left. What is it with kids and touching everything?

oops

I was at work an extra half hour yesterday trying to correct a closing mistake that I made. It was still unresolved when I left because I needed the store manager to sign some paperwork. Otherwise I covered it okay. I added $0.20 instead of $20. I do not like the calc that we use. People keep resetting the number of decimals making it difficult for me to know how to type stuff in. I thought I figured it out but I was obviously wrong. Stupid mistake too. It could have been avoided by slowing down and rechecking my numbers. I feel really small right now.

tired

Big shock here. I have been working until 10:30 or later at night. It takes me a bit to unwind so I haven't been falling asleep until 1am-ish. My Youngest woke up at 6:30 this morning wanting to play. My husband is working nights this week so I need to let him sleep until I leave for work. Yep. I'm tired. Yawn. I just hope that this isn't one of those days where they are convinced that they don't need a nap. I want to take one.

She may not be a theif but I don't know that...

Royally pissed off my first customer today. She came into the store with a shopping cart from a neighboring store. We have a rule about no carts. When I tried to tell her about the new rule she became upset. I tried to explain that we where implementing a lot of rules to combat theft. She thought I was accusing her of being a thief. I was not. She left in a huff. Talking loudly about how she was going to buy something and how the store obviously didn't need her money. Etc Etc...
I think she doth protest too much.

working with kids

I like my job. I love my children. I don't want to miss watching my children grow up because mommy needed to pay the bills. Right now, I am fine. When they start school and I close most days, I will only get to see them on my days off. I hope that is not how it happens. I got really nervous about it yesterday. Don't worry about the future. I don't know yet what is happening. Argh. Wish I could just "not think about it".
Heidi is sick. Terrible head cold or allergy or something. She isn't sleeping at night because she coughs too much. Which means that I am not sleeping. I can't tell if I am this cranky from lack of sleep or the new medicine. I bet the medicine would work if it wasn't going against waking up every other hour to rock a sick baby. I need to wait another hour before I call the doctor and make her an appointment. I know what they'll say: it's a virus, just let it work itself out. Meanwhile, she is on edge from not sleeping at night.

Why is the register in the back of the store?

Fun day. I worked my first full shift. The regional manager and someone she was training were in today as well. They made the store manager nervous by just talking amongst themselves and pointing all day. They did help during a ten minute period when we were extremely backed up but the rest of the time they just whispered and pointed. I understood that The RM wanted to show the guy what to look for and point out. Since she was in the store yesterday and already told the SM what she needed, she didn't need to repeat it today. I just wish that they hadn't stayed for so long. I stay up front to great the guests and make sure that the merchandise stays inside the store until it is paid for. The SM worked the back of the store including the registers.
Now, why are the registers in the back of the store? Doesn't that invite theft? When my grandfather moved the registers from the back to the front of the store, he lowered shrink in his store by over 50%. That is very significant. I wonder if it is just an aesthetic thing. If it is, they need to change. It could be to force customers to go through the store and admire the clothes before they do a return but honestly, the amount of theft vs convincing a customer to buy one item is just not enough in my opinion. Of course, I don't have any hard numbers with which to compare the theft vs returns gained. Oh well. I'm just an assistant manager anyways. What do I know.

I wish that I could convince the world to leave me alone some days. I woke up in a bad mood. Granted, it was at 5:30 this morning to a 3 yr old yelling that she needed dry clothes, sheets, blankets and stuffed animals. I was calm until everything was changed. All I needed was for her to put on her shirt and get back into bed. She wasn't putting on her shirt so I put it over her head. She started screeching at the top of their lungs. I may have lost my cool at that point. Tom took over. I still say that I had every right to yell back. I tried to nap this afternoon but everyone needed to talk to me the second I started to dose off. Yep. This is a great day off work.

Boring Sunday

Work was dead yesterday. We had maybe 15 customers all day. This could be due to the fairly heavy rain or the fact that most people did their shopping on black friday and saturday. We actually would have lost money if the returns were not mostly exchanges.
I learned how to open the store and close it. I learned how to do a lot of the management type jobs. I learned how much it sucks to tell a customer that we cannot accept her return because the coat doesn't have the tags on it. It is not her fault that she received it without tags. She bought it over the internet and should have been able to return it to us but we did not have a code for it to put it in our computers. Now she will have to pay shipping just to return a coat. That sucks. There should be a way that we could have accepted it. I can't think of one though.

Spoiled children rant

I just read an article on yahoo news about how parents are writing letters to toy manufacturers to stop advertising to their children. It said that parents are giving up everything in order to give their children the toys that they ask for. One woman is even going to prostitute herself to give her children what they want. Since when is the gift giving of Christmas mandatory? Since when do children automatically get everything that they want? At the very bottom of the article it mentions that this is the perfect time to teach your child that they can't always get what they want and how to negotiate in a world full of advertising. I bet most readers have stopped reading by that point in the article.
How selfish for current parents. Instead of teaching their children restraint, they are teaching them to get everything they want. That is why my generation is so bogged down with credit card debt. That is why the mortgage industry has tanked. That is why parents are calling their grown children's teachers and bosses to hash things out. Let the child learn! Teach them to say no to purchasing the new shoes. Teach them to live in the smaller house. Teach them that they will never have everything the Joneses have so just deal with it.

Happy Black Friday! I don't know if most stores are now officially in the black but my new store was a bit busy today. We sold sweaters like crazy. Of course, we had a coupon out there that gave you $10 off a choice of three types of sweaters. I learned the register today and received the most wonderful compliment. I was told that ...

Sorry. Gwen needed a booboo kissed...

As I was saying, I was told that I have a lot of brains and common sense. To me that is the nicest thing someone could say about a new hire. This group seems like a lot of hard working and considerate women. I like it there.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch. My husband had to be at work by 3. He decided to go in early because we were just sitting around digesting (not even talking. Too much triptafan) so he wanted to allow everyone else to leave early. He got a message from work saying that the boss's boss bought everyone lunch/dinner who had to work today. That was so sweet.
The girls ate normally. Gwen picked and complained that she wanted more turkey when there was tons on her plate. Roomie finally figured out that she wanted a leg to knaw on. Normally I'm okay with that but this bird was tough and I didn't want her choking on those bone-like tendons. She'll live. Heidi would still be eating if she didn't run out of food over an hour ago. I have to limit what she gets or she will eat until she throws up. Then her tummy is empty and she will eat again. It's a vicious cycle.
What a boring set of games. Could they hook up more different teams? If a team wins by over 30 points, there should be a rule that whoever picked those teams for a major game watching day apologizes.

First real day on the job. Feet hurt. Feet hurt. Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.Feet hurt.
I bought new shoes after work today.

Yeah! Mom and Dad to the rescue. I found an great babysitter but she can't start working until Wed. My parents are coming down to babysit for my first day of work.
My nephew is in the hospital (he'll be fine but he will be there for a while). Gwen and I spent the day making him cookies. I wonder how broken they will be by the time the Post Office gets them to him?

You are now reading from a post by the new assistant manager at a fashionable plus sized women's store. Yeah!! I meet the new babysitter tonight. Everything is falling into place. It's amazing what happens when you put your worries into God's hands.
I got a call from the craft store telling me that they didn't need me to work tomorrow. It was so awesome to be able to tell them that it was okay because I needed to put in my two week notice. I'm sorta sad that it is during such a bad time of year but they had a few management positions open since I started working there two years ago and at no time did they even give me a chance for them. I also warned them that I was looking for a new job so I actually feel no real guilt.

Haven't gotten the other job quite yet.

It's amusing that all of the new hires assume that I am their manager. I am just a peon like them. I refer to mysef as the senior cashier because I have been there the longest but there is nothing in my title that is different than theirs. I was asked by one of them why I didn't ask to be moved into management by now. I told them that I applied and the store did not think I was management material. They are actually losing employees due to their refusal to promote from within. It's amusing that the latest front end manager quit yet I have yet to hear of a an opening for her position. Oh, and they just hired this lady from outside of the store and are in a real hurry to train her in everything. Yep. My resume is out there.

Gotta love retail. Just offered a job for $8.50/hr. The babysitter would cost me $7/hr. Yeah, I'm desperate enough for the experience to take it.

Great day at work today. I managed to help customers while answering the phones and working as a cashier. I feel powerful. Someone even told me that I have a pretty smile. Glee. I love compliments. If you ever get an unhappy cashier, compliment her and see how much better the transactions go. I was happy since I awoke but the nice word still made my day.

I'm waiting for my girls to wake up from their naps. I'm thinking a good tickling is in order for them. ^_^

Joy of coupons

The following is a conversation I had about two months ago. It is unfortunatley not as rare as you might think.

customer: I want to buy these three things but they are too expensive.

Me: I'm sorry?....

customer: Give me the coupon price or I won't buy these.

Me: I'm sorry about that but I don't have any extra coupons. I will be happy to put these back on the shelves for you.

customer: Just change it in your computer.

Me: I cannot do that. I can give you a discount on one item if you sign up for our mailer.

customer: No. I don't need to sign up for anything. Just give it to me.

Me: I'm sorry. I cannot do that. Would you like to talk to a manager?

customer: (huffs out of the store)

Okay, not a lot of people seem to understand the point of coupons. They think that it is to save them money. It is not! The reasons that coupons were created was to get you into the store. I will happily give a coupon to a customer if I have one. Do Not Ask! Smart stores realize that you are already in the store and have no reason to supply them to the cashiers. Sometimes we have them left over from stuffing bags but that is very rare. Telling me about how evil I am because I do not have another coupon is not going to go anywhere. I don't take it personally. Heck, I just see it as a very stupid customer. If the point of the coupon is to get you into the store and you are here, I have no reason whatsoever to even think of giving you the discount. Actually, that is not true. If you sign up for a mailer/credit card/store promotion/ect. I will convince the register that you have a coupon. But that occurs whether I have the piece of paper or not.
If you want to make your cashier give you a coupon there are some rules to follow
1. Be nice. Rude people get nothing.
2. Follow that rules. Sign up for the stupid mailer even if you have already signed up for it 4 times and never received it. Not my fault. Just spend two minutes filling out your address and get the $3 off your puchase.
3. Try to go to the same cashier. If I recognize you as a regular, I will be more willing to make you happy.
4. Don't be afriad to pretend that you forgot it at home. Sometimes we push it through anyways if you are very nice and buying a lot.
5. Do not demand one. Asking is okay but don't be ticked off when we tell you that we don't have one.
6. If something is damaged and you still want it, point out the damage. Where I work I have permission to give a 75% discount if I tell the manager first so don't be afraid of the chip or scratch. You will probably be turning it towards the wall or covering it up with a craft project anyways.

sick day

I have today off which is good because this stupid flu/cold that I got three weeks ago still has me in its grip. Gwen went to school today for the first time in over a week. Heidi is so zoned out that I just put her in front of the tv and she is almost not moving. Poor things.

I have the joy of being a mom. This is a very expensive occupation so I needed to get a job that allowed me to be home while my husband works and have some sleep on the side. Hmmmm. A job that allows me to change my hours every week to rotate around my husband's ever changing shifts and take off whenever one of my daughter's have the sniffles. Aha! Retail! I got a job at a craft store because my mother-in-law wanted my discount. I kept the job because who else is going to let me work only mornings one week, only evenings the next week and oh, I need certain weekends off so my husband can play soldier.
I actually enjoy my job. My coworkers are adults who managed to leave the back-biting of high school behind. The customers are usually kind people who are happy with you just getting them bagged and out of the store. The management is aware that their job is to let us know when we need to change what we are doing or keep up the good job. I like working with adults. It is nice. I am tired of working with 40 year old teenagers.
My entire world outside of work consists of two people: my daughters. My husband is in there too but let's face it, I am a mom first. Gwen is a 3 year old princess who loves books and her teddy bears. Heidi is a 1 and a half year old princess who loves anything that is loud enough to wake the dead. I don't mind the noise. I know where she is in the house if I can hear her.
We have a roommate too. He trades babysitting and odd jobs around the house in exchange for a warm room at night. He is a good guy that just never seems to catch a break. I mean it. If money started to fall from the sky, he would be stuck inside a broken elevator until every penny was claimed.
We also have two cats. Magic is a black kitty that has the weakest meow on the planet. Callie is a huntress who managed to catch a humming bird last summer. I would love a bird feeder outside to watch the pretty songbirds in the neighborhood but that would be like laying out corn all year long in your favorite hunting spot. It would just be wrong.