Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Is it the Friggin' End of the World?

It was a quarter to midnight on a Tuesday and the store was dead silent. Other than the music playing over the speaker system the only other sound that could be heard was the floor cleaner roaring up and down the empty aisles. Looking at the clock, Krissy, just knew she was going to be standing near her register twiddling her fingers in boredom just as she does every night around that time. Taking her phone out her pocket, she thought she would give her Facebook Feed a last look before trying to figure out something to do to speed up time. Before she could successfully connect to the internet a customer approached her with a few grocery items. She quickly hid the phone out of the customers view in her smock and greeted the man as if he was gold. After he paid and left she took her phone out of her pocket again to catch up with the Facebook news. She only got as far as reading one page before getting bored with the site and disconnected. No soon after she disconnected from the internet she seen a middle age lady walk past her register with a cart full of groceries heading towards the adjacent aisle. "Ok." She thought to herself "I'm gonna need baggage help on that order." and proceeded to help the customer in front of her. Little did she know how much baggage help she would really need.

I'm done with that third person crap. The lady I was ringing up in front of me, I was referring to, decided to take advantage of the never ending 10 for $10 deal and brought 40 cans of Campbell's soup. Come on! Who really needs that much soup? She didn't make it easy for me either. She wanted to have me ring up her order 10 cans at a time so that she could take advantage of the $3 off coupon that prints out after the transaction along with her coupons. Mind you, there's seven people in line behind her with big orders as well. What would usually take me three minutes took ten minutes with her. I wasn't mad or frustrated with her. She was actually really nice and I liked her. I just couldn't wrap my head around her shopping methods. If  someone wants soup that bad I would think they would haul their asses out the house sooner than a quarter to midnight and well before the last day of the sale to end at that. She ended up paying $2.40 for each order. Times that by four. She paid $9.60 for 40 cans of soup. Good for her. Then she had the audacity to ask me for a Rain Check of 10 more cans of soup. Uh...you just brought up the entire aisle and you want more?! Damn!

Immediately after her was a lady that brought $240.00 worth of groceries (the one that made me think to myself earlier). She was another coupon lady. Paying with a check I might add. She saved about $115.00 on her order. She was nice and I enjoyed ringing up her order. After her was another gigantic order upon another. Just to make it clear, I wasn't mad or frustrated at anyone. I just didn't understand where those people were coming from. Just a half hour to ten minutes prior, the store was so dead that I thought I seen a tumbleweed blow through. My line was about seven people deep and I honestly didn't see an end. Originally my manager was helping me bag until she caved and ran to the office to grab a till. She began to ring on the register behind me. But even with her help, the line wasn't letting up.

Finally, five minutes after midnight and my line has completely cease to exist. I was finally able to clock out. I never experienced anything like that other than Black Friday. And Black Friday was brutal! Everybody and they mama was up at my job last night. You would've thought the sky was falling.

Tomorrow is the start of a sale. Oh joy! <---That's pure sarcasm if you didn't pick up on that.

I need to get back to studying for my X-ray Certification. I don't wanna be stuck working at the grocery store any longer than what I have to.

7 comments:

  1. Good luck with the certification! And wow why would all those people go shopping that late and for such a huge amount of things. And are your shops open till midnight? That makes for some sucky working hours! Our grocery stores usually close at 19.00 or 20.00, and very few on a friday would be open till 21.00, but definately not later than that.

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  2. You've got to be kidding. You've never heard of Walmart? They're open 24 hours a day 7 days a week (Excluding Christmas). There's plenty of busineses open late here. Even some fast food restaurants are open until 2 AM. My store opens at 6 AM and closes at Midnight. It makes for sucky hours but it keeps us employed.

    Thanks for the luck! I've been slacking off lately. The sooner I finish studying, the sooner I take my State exam, the sooner I'll be working in the dental feild. So easy yet so hard

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  3. ...y'all stores close too early. I wouldn't be able to survive in those conditions

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  4. 2maro is a sale you say???? I shall be there with a cart FULL of difficult things to ring-up and a glob full of crumpled up coupons, some of which may be expired! And I'll pay for some of it with a card, some with cash, and some with a check! And I'll have at least 3 items that won't scan and you'll have to get a price check!!! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!! just kidding:)

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  5. Haa! You're an idiot. I swear if I see you in my line I'll refuse to scan you out. I'll tell management we're related and I wouldn't be obligated to help you. Then you'd have to go and stand in line again amounst all the others and you'd never leave! Muhaha! Deal with that :)

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  6. I heard of Walmart before, but I didn't know it was ALWAYS open, that's crazy. Why do Americans need to do groceries in the middle of the night, don't you have night shops :p I guess it's good for employment, but still, for European me, it's a bit mad :D Also, everything is closed here on a sunday, except the bakery and the supermarket until noon, but that's it mostly, unless it's sales season.

    Oh you're going to be working in the dental area? I fear all dentists :p

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  7. Oh my goodnees, Athena. You're killing me. Everything is closed there on Sundays? That's bananas. Everything is open here 7 days a week. The only time everything shuts down is on Christmas Day. And that's it. But even then a few coroporate owned businesses are open like Walgreens and McDonalds.

    The reason most reltailers and fast food chains choose to stay open 24/7 is because 1) Other people are working late and they want to accomidate them. 2) Other people need to make a "midnight run". And 3) The companies are all about making profit because the companies are corporate owned.

    No reason to fear. I'm a good employee. I'll behave. But I most certainly will still be bitchting on my bad days. We all have them. Why not share? :)

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