Day Thirty Eight

I haven’t blogged the last few days because there’s been some cliquish, childish behavior at work the last few shifts and I haven’t wanted to either say something to make it worse or just rant. I know I could, of course, but I’m aiming for constructive ranting in all this and that wouldn’t have helped anything.

In short (and because I know the people in question have been reading this) I’m not hurt (because let’s face it the insult you’ve been flinging at me and this ‘acting out’ you’ve targeted me for got real old when I was in high school). I’m just disappointed at one coworker in particular who I still think is smarter and more mature than this.

But if I’ve learned anything in retail its that people are not, by nature, smart, compassionate or even civil. They say a society is judged by how it treats the most disadvantaged among them. We can’t spend a year living as another race or gender identity or temporarily struggling with a disability or disease. But work retail for a few months and you’ll get a hint at people’s true natures, which luckily can be a beautiful thing as well.

Despite “Only 6 Days Left!” signs the store got a “Are you hiring” in yesterday. It amazes me how few people read signs, even big, brightly-colored, dripping from everything signs in a bookstore you’re seeking a job at. I’ve found the best way to cut off questions is to put the answers in my name badge and make sure it’s hanging at about boob level. Amazingly I see a huge decrease in the asking of a question when I do that.

Today was a hot mess. the RM was in to wrap some things up, like taking out fixtures that we won’t be selling. (And what we are and aren’t keeps changing. I feel stupid asking if the counters, for example, are for sale, except they weren’t at first, then they were, now they’re not again.) A number of people showed up to get their fixtures and between people complaining because we either wouldn’t or no longer have the equipment to help or they decided they didn’t want their fixture after all it’s a mess. Add in the people pretty much tossing the product off the shelf into whatever nearby fixture that they didn’t buy, the noise of them taking things apart, them carelessly leaving the elevator and escalator unblocked and leaving the cafe doors unlocked so people could come and go without anyone there to keep an eye on things and the fixture people weren’t even taking anything out of the doors they just wanted it open for when they did, even if it meant the alarm was constantly going off…whew. You get the point. I think almost all of us got stuck on the reg alone at some point during the rush because there was so much other crap going on that we got caught up in.

Also there’s a convention in town and…well I’ll not say the people are mean or rude, but they’re demanding and not very polite, so in the end it feels like you, as a non-customer are being “put in your place” by the people who are only willing to buy from your store when it’s 70-80% off. Did I mention that part? We dropped to 70-80% today.

And to those stoll saying “We don;t know when our last day is” I hate to tell you this, but when you do know your last day, even when it’s taped up on the wall behind you as you’re checking people out, they’ll still ask. A lot. And want to know what your hours will be. Oh, and once that date is set you’ll start getting a lot of “But what are you going to do with all the left over stuff?”

I have images in my head of a line waiting to dumpster dive at close on the last day. We did get a person who asked if, as a booklover on a fixed income, they could just “pick a few out”. It was pretty sad actually, because it was clear the question was not borne of greed or laziness (but I do have a lazy story too) but of plain old not understanding.

On the lazy side a gentleman came in today, looked around just a bit, then came over and asked if there was any way to know where a book was. As often happens all three of us at the register tried to answer. But three different descriptions of where the section he was looking for was wasn’t enough because he insisted there was no sign there (so of course that section must not be there) and us not telling him where the section/book he wanted was was “just ridiculous”. And he walked out.

Really what do you expect when you walk in and a store that was once two levels with millions of dollars of product on the shelves is now crammed into half of the first level with maybe $300k on the shelf. Less if you take into account the discount.

You don’t really realize how deep it is until you ring pretty much the same rate as you did the day before and the day before you cashed out with triple the sales numbers. Yesterday I rang up at least 4 $150-300 orders. Today there were just as many books going across my scanner but I think an transaction only went over $100 once.

I’ve also had a few trailing thoughts about Borders as a company. Will the RMs and other upper management get sales bonuses when those sales are spurred by closeouts? (I don’t think so, because I’m pretty sure the closing stores don’t count as stores anymore.) How does Borders expect to see increased revenue if there are now huge swaths of people who don’t have a Borders nearby? I know it makes sense to cut down stores when you’re doing bad, but how will fewer sales affect the over all outlook of the company?

Overall today I was caught between thinking “Damn I’m really going to miss this place” and “Damn I can’t wait until I never have to see this place again”. And which side I was on was directly related to whether or not there was a power tool being used at the moment or a huffy customer in front of me at the time.

So how are you all holding up?