Yesterday, I clocked in and started dealing with the twenty different things I need to deal with because of that lovely, lovely time of the year called "inventory" that I'm sure others in the retail industry are familiar with. For those of you who aren't, I'll explain thus: a major, major pain in my balls.
An overhead page calls my attention, and my cashier asks if we have any razors in the back. I like this particular cashier, but here's the problem with his question; we're doing inventory, and that means that everything that has room on the floor would be on the floor. Anyway, we keep the expensive things like electric razors under the counter to prevent theft, and he was wondering if we had any overstock that didn't make it out to the counter. I find one that might be what he's looking for, and I tell him I'll bring it up momentarily. Having to juggle and multitask from the moment I get in, I take longer in the back than I thought.
Another overhead page. This time, my cashier sounds irate,
"Are you bringing it up?--because we have customers waiting!"
Information that would have been really darn handy before I decided to try and take care of what I was already in the middle of.
I dashed to the front, and presented the electric razor. My cashier seemed satisfied, but the elderly couple pair of customers looked confused.
"We wanted the replacement heads!"
That's when I noticed the customer had brought up the framed picture of the product they wanted that we keep on the shelf to prevent theft. My cashier somehow decided that the picture of the replacement heads was the actual razor. Even after getting all annoyed with me for not reading his mind, and having time to stew over this, rather than talk to the customer and actually figure out precisely what they want.
The customers, obviously irritated at having to wait three whole minutes (HOLY CRAP!) decided to give me some guff as I explained that I had to re-check for the item they actually wanted.
"The picture said to see an associate! That implies it's in stock!"
Because, you see, saying that can make things magically appear.
I had to go to the actual spot where the item is located on the store shelf to get the UPC (whoever made the picture decided not to put that on it), and as I'm swiftly walking away, I hear the customer's voice in a real smart tone.
"It's on isle 2D."
Yeah. 'Cause with my neatly groomed beard, surely, I need help in my own store finding the razors.
Upon obtaining the item's upc, I check my portable terminal to see if we have any in stock. We don't. Great.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't currently have any in stock. I'll place a manual order for this item to avoid any future confusion."
Of course, I can't explain to every customer that, despite putting in a manual order, it's really up to the buyers and distribution center to get it to us. Anyway.
"That's okay, we'll just find it somewhere else!" (In the most sarcastic tone possible.)
And remember that framed picture? They fudged with it; the glass slid onto the floor, and shattered into a million pieces. I got to clean that, too.
And there you have it! The first five minutes after clocking in.
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