On the border of both registers’ computer screens, we have the list of our daily promotions. On Mondays, it’s 3 for $3.49 on all grill items and pizza slices (though it seems not to be all, because the Cheeseburger Big Bites turned out not to work late in the shift, despite Employee A telling me that they should. I’ll have to check with my boss.)
When the person in question doesn’t come anywhere near the grill or the pizzas, I try to push something else, in this case the $1 handheld pies that we keep right in front of the register. I pushed the hell out of those today.
About two hours into my shift, I pushed the $1 pie for a lovely young woman with caramel-brown skin, and she said, “I’m good on the pie… but I’ll get one for you.” I can’t remember any customer ever buying me food at Blockbuster in the 12 years I worked there.
Good bet she’ll be back. People are creatures of habit & visit the same stores repeatedly. Remember that for next time. And thank her for the pie, or the offer of pie. She’ll be charmed that you remembered.
I wish I’d realized she was flirting with me before she left the store. I would have paid closer attention to what she looks like. As it is, you practically need to hit me over the head with a brick with your phone number written on it in order to get my attention. I’m remarkably dense like that.
Don’t beat yourself up for it. I was born a flirt, so I flirted more heavily when I didn’t mean it and people took it seriously. Sometimes I don’t flirt at all and people think I’m flirting. It’s always frustrating. She’ll likely be back in the store at some point and you can pick it up from there.
Two gentlemen split payment on a 3 for $3.49 deal that they were planning to consume together. One guy paid a dollar with a couple of quarters, some dimes, and nickels, and then went out to his car to grab as many pennies as he could find, ultimately coming up with 22 of them.
As I counted them out, he apologized.
I said, “My man… when I came in today, I had 20 pennies in the entire register, and no rolls at all. I ran out about an hour and a half ago, and my drawer’s probably seven cents off as a result of it. Now I’ve got 22 pennies, so I am not. tripping.”
Where I live, people who buy those Fireball mini-bottles STILL appear to simply drink them right away, and discard them in the parking lot. I started a Pit thread about this a while back.
Well, I’m going to have an extremely active weekend. I work the 3-10 shift on Friday, my first 8-5 shift on Saturday, a 1-5 on Sunday, and a 3-8 on Thursday. I’ll have to go home and go right to bed on Friday night, so I need to remind myself not to drink any caffeine on Friday. I’ll also have to go straight to work from church on Sunday, and miss a choir practice on Thursday.
Ooof, you’re gonna miss band practice for work? You’re a dedicated worker, even I would try to work my schedule around band practice, and my employer seems to love me.
I told her when I filled out my application that I would like whenever possible to have Sunday mornings and Thursday nights off. In fact, Day 2 was supposed to be a Thursday night, and she had to bend over backwards to fix it after the schedule was posted. I’m a bit annoyed that it happened again.
You may also find that the good employees get the short end of the scheduling stick. The person who the manager knows will no-show if given a Thu night shift ends up with Thu night planned off while you work then because she knows you will show up.
Life for the rest of us is made far worse by the advantage-takers amongst us.
I texted her and asked if it’s okay to leave at 7 (choir practice is at 7:30). She said, “I’m sure you can. It’s been so slow since the Royal Farms opened.” In fact, my previous shift was cut by an hour at my manager’s request for the same reason.
Give her a small schedule that shows your availability so she doesn’t forget. You can also ask her if there is an online schedule she uses to mark unavailable times for making schedules. Such apps exist and they make scheduling easier for managers. They also make it easier for managers to track who asked for the time off first and second. Generally, the people who ask for it off first, are the lucky ones who get their request honored. Others may use worker seniority to grant days off. When I was in school, it was really important to let the manager know my schedule right away because there were a lot of other college students working there too.
Day 5: A Friday afternoon/evening shift, 3-10 p.m.
The first thing I was told to do was help with the cooler. I managed to mess up a bit by opening up 4-packs of Monster and adding them as individuals, not realizing that we had individuals wrapped in big plastic wraps of 24 or so for that purpose.
Other than that, everything went pretty swimmingly.
I work this morning/afternoon, 8-5. A nine-hour day. I think I actually may have managed to get enough sleep.
Yep, I think everyone who has ever stocked shelves has made that mistake, busting up a multi-pack for individual sale when you shouldn’t. Not the end of the world, you’re in good company.
Today was Day 6: An 8-5 shift after a 3-10 shift the previous night.
Today’s funny story:
There was this guy who came in and got two big cans of Cordelo beer and a 20 oz. bottle of Coke. He paid for them and I started bagging them, and the bag started falling on the floor behind my register.
I tried to catch it with my hip, and did, between the counter and my hip.
No points for guessing what happened next. BEER FOR EVERYONE!
Got it all over the floor, and my pants smelled of eau de Cordelo. I had to have my mother run by with some replacement clothes.
Nice try though! Cans are made so thin that they easily spring leaks. This won’t be the only time something springs a leak on you. I got bleach on a uniform once. Thank you for nearby family saving the day.
Congratulations on making it through an 8-hour shift.
But I don’t flirt here, sorry. 