A Blog of Great Importance

- People still believe that they are being reasonable when they think that the dishes they have should and will be available forever.  Recently, a line of dinnerware we carried for DECADES became unavailable.  People are devastated.  I was getting sucked up into the tragedy when I began to peruse this book on our clearance shelf.  It was a great reminder that there is no promise and never was that the things we use and love will be available forever.  And this is part of what makes them special.  You will find other dishes and you will fall in love!

- I had a customer say to me "I'm a Spanish from Spain and this is the sort of furniture we have."  Now, I did not know the woman, so I cannot know anything about her for sure, but, first, she did not have any sort of Spanish accent.  Second, she didn't have that air of tourist or even visitor.  I am going to be harsh and propose that she was a crazy faking that she was a Spanish tourist.  This is not an uncommon occurrence, people shopping in character.  What made her stick out is that, in addition to her weird fake English language sentences, she was extremely, unnecessarily rude.

- The "I don't shop" shoppers drive me a little bit crazy.  I ask if they get our mailings, have their discount card, whatever, and they lay into me.  "I don't shop.  When I need something, I just come and get it.  I don't give my information out to anyone.  The best way to save money is to not shop.  In fact, don't even go into the store.  I don't go into stores.  I was just walking past here on my way to Zumba and I knew I needed a butter dish so I came in and got one."  And on and on.  I go back and forth between annoyance that they pride themselves on depriving me of income and amusement that they seem to be talking themselves out of buying more.

A Boring Excuse Post

I haven't blogged lately because I couldn't work up energy to feel passionate about any work related issues.  I had hope that something would surface to turn into a poignant blog post, a post that could take this blog in a new and interesting direction.

I realize now that this "hope" was actually me being tired and lazy.  Work is work is work.  The only thing that changes is my attitude.

We recently did inventory.  We closed early one afternoon and stayed into the night counting the store.  Though it is never fun or easy to close early, I have observed that most people understand the necessity of inventory and how much it sucks.  I have taken advantage of this to be jokey with customers.  "Yea, we are closing early today.  It's a very SPECIAL day.  We are doing INVENTORY.  Thrilling."  They chuckle.  Together we roll our eyes.  They are nice to me!  They understand my pain!

Thievery

On Christmas Eve Eve, someone (a customer) attempted to steal an expensive kitchen appliance.  They had separated the pieces and hidden the valuable parts.  We found the hidden parts and were relieved that they didn't get away with it.

Then, on New Year's Eve Eve, someone stole a more expensive version of the same appliance, even though we took precautions and tried to make it difficult by stapling them down.  This time, we have not found the missing unit, which makes us suspect that it was the same person, this time determined to get it.

Thievery really pisses me off.  We are not a big corporation.  We are doing well enough to stay in business and try another year.  It feels like a personal attack.  But catching shoplifters is hard!  They are sneaky motherfuckers.

Thieves, I hate you.  You make my work life unnecessarily difficult.  If I had three wishes*, one wish would be to know your identity.  Then I could find out about you and make YOUR life difficult because you fucking deserve it.

*ok, maybe I wouldn't REALLY want to waste one of these precious hypothetical wishes on you because you are a fucking jackass and I have so many better things to think about.  But I am terribly curious.  TERRIBLY.