Holy Cow

Where have I been? Every time I say I'll post more, I disappear. There's a lot to catch up on.

My internship at another pharmacy went well. They didn't really have me do much more than I do at my other pharmacy. I did get to use the computer a little bit though, so that helped. But what was interesting is that someone tried to pass a fake prescription off on us and we got to call the cops! It was quite obvious that the script was fake.

My pharmacy hasn't been too eventful lately, or at least nothing I can remember at the moment.

Target has been sketchy as usual. After 4 months at that store, they FINALLY tell me to talk to the Target pharmacy manager to see about working over there. Thaaaaaaanks...
And returns are in full effect. People get bitchier and bitchier the further we move away from Christmas. And as usual, people are complete assholes if something doesn't go their way. Sometimes I can't help but just smile when people are going into their tirades about returns. Good gravy there are a lot of immature people in this world.

On Sunday, it was just crazy at Guest Service. Of course I was the only one scheduled up there even though it was the first fucking weekend after Christmas, it's going to be busy! They had another cashier up there helping me, but as soon as there weren't any guests in line, they pulled her even though I had to catch up by filling carts with all the shit up at Guest Service. There was a good 2 hour block where we couldn't do anything but help people at GS. Therefore it was a fucking mess.

Then the closing person came in early and she was a bit overbearing. She was bossing me and the other girl around like her shit didn't stink. Thankfully she stopped as I was about to bitch her out. I know what I'm fucking doing thank you very much. We had a few minor arguments over little things, but we dealt. I just hate when people treat me like I don't know anything without knowing anything about me.

Well, I suppose that's enough bitching for now. Happy New Year!

Not Much New Here

I haven't been working all that often recently because it's finals week, but I am done with my first semester of pharmacy college! Now I'll just have to wait for the grades to roll in... I should be fine. A's and B's like always. ;) Haha!

I did work at the pharmacy on Saturday but it was SO COLD that we didn't do much. I pretty much cleaned the whole time. The pharmacist let me go at 3:15. From 9am to 3:15pm, the pharmacy did 34 prescriptions. Eek!

I am interning in my hometown over break for school. I'm kinda nervous for that too. We have to do 28 hours total, and we could either choose to do it as a block (3.5 days) over winter break, or 4 hours a week for 7 weeks during next semester. The less I have to worry about during school the better!

Here's hoping my grades are good! (The only one I'm "concerned" about is BioChem)

Rx: An Introduction

So you all know I work at Target, and I've mentioned I work at a different pharmacy, but never really went into it. Well, here goes:

I'm in my first year of the pharmacy program at my university, and to help with school, they recommend working at a pharmacy. It helps you learn things. So I have my internship license, and I applied for a job as an "intern" at a local pharmacy. Needless to say, I got the job.

I had never worked in a pharmacy before so everything was brand new to me. At the moment, all I do is count pills, answer phones, assist customers (or patients, at least they aren't "guests"), and do whatever else needs to be done. But on the ladder of things, the intern is below the pharm tech, as they really should be.

Everyone there seems to like me, but I don't know where I stand. I know, and so do they, that I am there to learn, but some days I can't help feeling that I'm just in the way. They haven't shown me how to do everything that they expect me to know, and so when I do it for the first few times and make a mistake, I always feel like I'm going to get fired. I'm usually a quick learner, but I guess things just take a few times to actually know. And because I don't work all that often or do the specific task all that often, it just isn't in the forefront of my brain.

And only there is when I feel like I'm going deaf. On the phone, when patients call in for refills, they give their name and prescription number or drug name. I don't know if it's the phone, the person, or me, but sometimes I have to ask for their name again, and for some people that is like the end of the world. I'm sure I'll get used to it as I go, but it's just frustrating.

Then you throw in the actual patients/customers. Some are not a fan of me by the way some of them treat me. Again, I don't know if they are just cranky or whatever. I've already been yelled at by some.
One ladies' meds were supposed to be mailed out, but were put in the wrong group (for delivery) and because she spoke to me originally, she yelled at me for not getting it in time. Granted, not my fault, but still made me feel like shit.
Or the guy who brought in a script and I gave it to the pharmacist to enter (they haven't shown me how to do anything with the computer) and because there was nothing else to do (it was dead and we already did everything that could be done) I just stood there. The guy said to the pharmacist, "Does he do anything at all?" The pharmacist explained, and I'm sure the guy was just crabby, but still, it made me feel like shit.

And I'm not one to have thin skin. 5 years in retail behind the returns counter toughens you up. I think things just get to me more because I'm not fully confident in what I do at the pharmacy. At Target, I know pretty much everything that has to do with Guest Service. At the pharmacy, I don't know a lot of things.

It also goes back to the whole idea that people have that employees of whatever place of business are ok to treat like crap. It's sad to see how someone could be so vicious to a total stranger.

But there are nice people too. People do like to talk with everyone and are truly interested in what you have to say. Also, when I was taking a phone call, they needed a pharmacist and asked if I was one, I told them, no that I was just an intern, and she said I shouldn't say "just" because I was "getting there." So that was nice.
I guess all I want is an understanding that I am a human too, and I'm still learning. I will make mistakes and continue to do so, but empathy always helps. It's a two-way street.

Something New

I changed my web address as I'm planning on getting away from just Target posts. Since I've changed it, the links some may have here won't work anymore. If you come across this (which I don't see how anyone could find me now that I've changed it) the new address is http://retailrobot.blogspot.com.

So, I'm expanding my base. I'm sure one could get tired of my endless bitching about Target, so now you'll get my endless bitching on all my jobs. I'm pretty sure I'll always be in retail, so retail robot works.

Well, that's my update. Comment if you were able to find this place ok.

Sick of Battling

I'm tired of constantly trying to get into the pharmacy. There is always a hurdle. Either that or my dumbass (not just saying that because I'm angry) has to be told 15 million times to check on something for me.

And now what really pisses me off is:
My manager was at my old store to help, and she thanked that Store Team Lead for all the great transfers, specifically mentioning my friend, but not me. And because I know people in that store still, it got back to me. So now I feel like I'm (still) underappreciated. Some days, I hold that store together. I am pretty confident that I am the only person in the store that can do cashier, guest service, photo lab, cart attend, Food Ave, and salesfloor. And do I get recognized for it? Nope!

I don't know how long I can stay there if I'm doing the same thing day in and day out. I'll keep asking, but we'll see what other excuses they can come up with for the time being.

I'm going to start thinking up some smartass comments for my exit survey and what to put on the 'Reason for Leaving' line...
Time will only tell if I need to use it.

I could always change this into my pharmacy blog. Hmm...

Shitastic Weekend

This past weekend was a bit much for me.

Friday, I was about to fucking explode. So I was scheduled 6:30-10 as a cashier. Well, I get to work and was informed that the Food Ave person called in sick, so the cart attendant was over there, and guess who got to be the cart attendant? Me of course! Because I was expecting to only cashier, I didn't bring anything with me so I could cart attend comfortably. Now, it's pretty cold here, with highs in the 40s. I just had a spring jacket, no gloves, no hat, and no winter coat. I was cold. Really cold. But I went out to the lot and got carts.

For one, there should be a sign up that states, "Any garbage left in a cart will be thrown into your vehicle as carts are not garbage cans." The garbage I found in carts, mostly half empty Icees, were thrown on the ground because I was not going to spill all over myself bringing it to the garbage. I'm not a janitor.

One would assume that since I've never been officially trained as a CA that they would tell me what needs to be done, other than getting carts. Well needless to say, they were bitching at me for not doing something that I didn't know that needed to get done. I'll be the first to admit that I am not a mind reader. So I had to empty garbages. Am I a custodian? (Target DOES have an overnight CLEANING crew, by the way) Then I had to take back garbages, and fill pop coolers, which is something that Coke or Pepsi does. I was pretty behind as I didn't know what needed to get done, and instead of telling me, they yelled at me for not doing them. Great business practice. After the CA got done with Food Ave, he resumed his position. Thank god. Although he wasn't too happy with me because I was so behind. Whatever.

Then on Saturday was my 2 hour pharmacy shift. That flew by, although it was fun to "shadow" over there.

Sunday was 9-4:30 at Guest Service. My manager was working and she asked me what I thought about the pharmacy, and I told her I liked it and would be interested in working more over there. At that moment, it being about 3 months since I've started, that I would need that state's intern licensure. Thanks for not telling me sooner! I knew that if I wanted to intern over there I would need that, but I didn't know if there was another position that I could do over there. Apparently not. So I will see how much it costs to get an intern licensure in that state, and if I decide to go through with it, I better get a majority of my shifts over there because I don't want to pay extra so that I can work over there, and not be able to. That would be my quitting point. And then I wouldn't even be able to use it.

But there's more drama! Since they overlapped me on Black Friday and the following Saturday, I asked her what time I should be coming in. She told me that she put 6 on Fri and 5 on Sat, the exact time I get done at my other job. So I tell her that wouldn't work, and before I can finish what I was going to say, she freaks out on me and just tells me she just put a time and that I could come as soon as I could. Don't bitch at me because you had my pharmacy schedule for this weekend back in October. Plus, she said she updated it in the system, but she didn't tell my supervisors because they still had me down for the incorrect times, and the last thing I need that day is to get a call saying I'm late. So I told them I'd be there ~45 minutes after I go done at my other job.

And up at Guest Service, my eyes aren't really out watching the lanes. 1) It's not my job. 2) I could care less.
So when the store got really busy, but GS was dead. My evil bitch manager yells at me from a lane to come grab some people and ring them up at GS. I didn't even respond, I just went and grabbed someone. I hate her. Not because she made me work, but because she was being a snotty little brat.

So between my 2 jobs (because Target overlapped me after they said they wouldn't) I work a total of 32.5 hours in 3 days. Fun, huh? Needless to say, I'm sure I will be a complete asshole this weekend. But I am going to bring my winter gear because I will probably cart attend.

I would really hate to leave the company over their bullshit, but that's all that's coming out of it right now. Plus, I doubt Target would care if I left now if I ever did want to come back as a pharmacist. People are dying for pharmacists right now, so I'm sure they would still love to have me...

I don't think I can take much more as a cashier/service desk/cart attendant/photo lab/salesfloor slave for much longer.

Stay tuned!

***UPDATE!***
It costs $20 to register in the other state. Not bad, but it has to be after my second year, which makes me wonder how the other person in my class is able to pull it off. I have plenty of questions now, and even closer to just dropping Target like a bad habit.

The Cycle Continues

So as much bitching as I have been doing to get into the pharmacy, they finally give me a shift over there. ONE shift so far, and guess how long it is... 2 fucking hours. Two hours? That's really not even worth it. So I work 10-12 in the pharmacy tomorrow, but I haven't had another pharmacy shift scheduled yet, but they sure love to load me up on the cashier ones. Fuck.

And I don't know if I have already written it here, but someone in my class transferred to the Target store I'm at, and guess where he gets all of his shifts. The pharmacy. Yep, thank you Target for stabbing me in the back. They continually told me that once there was an opening in the pharmacy, that I could have some shifts over there, yet when someone else transfers there, they apparently don't have to wait.

To make me even more pissed, they scheduled me outside of my availability for Black Friday and the following Saturday. I turned in my availability for the whole month of November in October. They knew I work every Friday 1-6 and every other Saturday 9-5 at the other pharmacy, yet they scheduled me 3-11 on Friday and 3:30-11 on Saturday. I wrote a note to the LOD, and I'm letting her fix it. I just don't want to be running from one place to the next. Especially when they said they won't overlap me on Saturdays that I work at the other pharmacy.

Guests haven't been too bad lately, although I am seeing more and more Canadians. I literally cannot stand how some of them act.

Well, I work tonight 6:30-10 cashiering after working 1-6 at the pharmacy, so I have no time to eat. AT ALL. Then tomorrow is my super long 2 hour pharmacy shift, and Sunday I work Guest Service from 9-4:30. This store is getting on my last nerve.

5 Years

Today, I "celebrate" my 5 year anniversary working for Target. Oh boy.

I never thought I would be there that long, and had no intentions of staying this long either. It was back in 2002 that I was hired for seasonal. I was in high school and needed a job. Now I am in college (still), but I can say for sure that if I do make it to 10 years (shudder), I will be done with school by then. If I am still at Target at that time, I'll be a Target pharmacist!

Looking back at my 5 years, I mainly see how great most of the people were that I worked with. I'm still friends with many of them, even though they may not work for Target any longer. I also remember back when I first started how much fun it was to work there. There are still fun days now, but back in the day, it seemed like everyday was a fun one.

I'm definitely a different person now than I was walking into this job, and I'd like to think I've changed for the better. I've seen how awful some people treat total strangers and I can take that with me to know how not to treat people in the "real" world. If people want to have a good grasp on the many different varieties of people in society, working retail will get you that.

Sure, there were bad times. Times where it seemed like it was 'too much' to deal with. Times where it felt like people were put on this Earth to test my sanity. Well, I'm still here, and I continue to be. The only thing that got me through everything that happened at my store were my friends/co-workers. We all seemed to be on the same page, and everyone would listen and understand. It's what brought us together, complaining about something. ;) Even on the worst days, you could count on your co-workers to brighten your day. I hope when I'm out in the "real world" that I can find friends that are even half as awesome as my Target friends. I know that I'll be friends for life with my current Target friends, although it does feel like I "left" them to pursue my own goals. But, that's another topic.

So, as much as I bitch and moan about working there, it isn't half bad. The job may suck at times, but it's the people that make it worth it.

I know it's a bit sappy, but whatever. ;)

Been A While

Well after a round of nothing but boring days, I finally had an interesting one yesterday.

So we had the Wii in the ad and so there was a bunch of traffic for the first part of the day. It was also pretty busy due to Guitar Hero 3 coming out as well. When someone wants to buy a high-ticket item such as the Wii, they either have to buy it at Electronics or the team member has to walk it up to Guest Service and we keep it behind the counter. We were even going as far as getting the guest's name in the off-chance that someone saw it at GS and would try to buy it.
I hear a guest say that they had a Wii at Guest Service. Because I wasn't doing anything, I took it and started to walk over to the cashier that was walking to me to come get it. All of a sudden, a crazy guy starts grabbing for it, saying, "Here, I'll take that." I knew he wasn't with the person who was going to purchase it so I told him no and the cashier took it to her lane. Well this crazy guy started yelling at me. First he asked if we had anymore, to which I told him to check with electronics. Nope, that was the last one. So he starts bitching that we won't give him a raincheck. I tried multiple times explaining that Target's "rainchecks" only guarantee the sale price, and since the Wii is not on sale, it wouldn't do any good. The rainchecks do not inform anyone when the item will be in stock next. He kept interrupting me each time I tried to tell him this, and one time he said, "That's fine. I'm going to call the Better Business Bureau." I stopped what I was saying and just walked away from him (we were still in front of Guest Service) The guy stood by the door and watched the woman who was checking out like a hawk. It was really creepy, so our supervisor walked out with that guest just in case he tried to pull anything.
The thing is this was at 1:30pm. Our store opened at 8am. If getting a Wii was SO important to you, why did you wait 5.5 hours to come in? For that first 5.5 hours, you could have gotten one, so don't bitch when you come in and there aren't any left. I'm surprised they lasted even that long.

I feel so sorry for the BBB who has to listen to such bullshit claims just because someone didn't get what they wanted. Grow the fuck up.

Just Shoot Me In The Face

More stupid fucking drama.

So I turned in my new availability with my new hours now that I'm also going to be working at another pharmacy. I specifically write on it to talk to me if what I wrote won't work. Well it didn't work, and did they talk to me? Of course not.

So the weekend that I said I was working at the pharmacy, they schedule me. Well y'know what Target, they are more important than you now because it's an actual pharmacy. You're dragging your feet with moving me into your pharmacy, so I found someone that wants/needs me.

So instead they put my rejected availability into my folder (which I assume I got just so they could put that in there, I hadn't had one for almost a month now) and I see I'm scheduled. I find my supervisor and bitch because how am I supposed to know when I only work weekends and I still have no idea when they do the schedule for each week. And I sure as fuck am not ditching any part of my new job because they scheduled me before Target did. I wonder if I should just ask my new job to schedule me one week in advance of Target so I could turn their schedule for me into them and they could work around it.

But here's how I was/am scheduled for next weekend. Friday, I work 1-6 at the pharmacy and Target scheduled me 5-10. So I'm working now at 6:30. Saturday, I work 9-5 at the pharmacy and Target scheduled me 2:30-10. So now I work at 5:30. So this is the next weekend for me:
Friday- class until 12, pharmacy 1-6, Target 6:30-10
Saturday- pharmacy 9-5, Target 5:30-10
And I don't even have my schedule for Sunday, but thank god the pharmacy is closed. So just those 2 days I'm pretty much working 24 hours of 48. It shall be fun! I don't even know if I can make it to my apartment to change in between jobs, but I'll try my best. I hope they don't have me working too long on Sunday. I have too much shit to do.

Oh but get this, on my rejected availability, my manager writes that she talked to the pharmacy-instore and they said I could work over there if I was still interested. Uh, YES! Had you told me this, um, about 3 weeks ago and actually put me over there, I wouldn't have needed to get another pharmacy job!

So on my new availability, I wrote that the other pharmacy wanted me to work every other Saturday, so they have SOME record of it. (I know they would deny it back and forth if I didn't constantly write it on shit) I also told them I would be interested in working in their pharmacy on the days I was available.

This whole thing is turning out to be one giant fucking mess. I don't think I can take one more week of adjusting my whole work-life around them. One week was stressful enough. I wonder if Target will actually LET me work at this new pharmacy, or if they'll continue to make it tough for me. If they choose the latter, I hope they know that they will be the first I say goodbye to, not the pharmacy. I'm sick of being the college-aged kid cashiering at a Target with high school aged cashiers. I just feel really old at that store. I don't mind Guest Service, but it's not as fun as my old store. My new store literally does not want you to go above and beyond, and that's all I'm about. I want a challenge. I'm just not getting one anymore.

We'll see how Target pharmacy goes, and if I ever get to work over there. I'm going to get my schedule for the week after next weekend on Friday. I actually don't even want to think about it.

I May Be Pissed Off

But I don't know for sure yet.

At my store, I asked if I could work in the pharmacy. Makes sense because I'm in school to be a pharmacist. So the LOD tells me that I could start shadowing over there "to see if I like it." It's not a matter of me liking it, it's going to be my career. Like everything with Target, the LOD gave me no start date. All of our professors say that working in a pharmacy helps immensely with school work, and so I'm kinda wanting to get into one soon. When I transferred, they had told me there were no openings in the pharmacy and that's why I think they first went to the "shadowing" thing. I was under the assumption, because they told me, that as soon as there was an opening, I could work over there.

Thus bringing me to my problem. I'm sitting in class and I hear some classmates talking about starting to work at Target. I listen in and notice they are filling out an internship application for the state it's in (We're on the border of 2 states). I'm thinking, 'Oh fucking really? They tell me there's no openings, I have no idea when I can start shadowing, and they're taking applications!?' What the fuck!? Granted, my hours aren't the greatest, because I have awkward class hours that don't mesh well with a daytime pharmacy, but at least they could have told me that, instead of keeping my hopes dragging along.

I have finally reached that point at work where I've realized that I'm too old to work at Target doing basic things. I'm damn good at them, but I'm the only college-aged person at the front end. Every other cashier is still in high school or elderly. I literally have no one to relate to. I'm starting to feel ridiculous cashiering because I feel I'm wasting my potential. My old store was different because there weren't as many places to work so the Target in town was 'the' place to work. A vast majority of the whole store was college-aged people. They're weren't as many minors, I would say at most 20% of the cashiers. Even then, I still hated cashiering because, and I'm not trying to come off as cocky, but I'm above that.

So I went and applied at a different pharmacy as an assistant aka tech, and I got the job. Someone obviously thinks I'm good enough to work for them and I'm excited to start. So I changed my availability at Target to make sure the pharmacy has priority. Yes, I'm still gonna work there for now. I still love Target as a whole, but there are areas for improvement.

Another thing is that if my classmates get the job in the pharmacy at the store I work at, they'll get to see me doing a piddly job. I don't much care what they think of me, it's just that I have a problem with someone coming into a business fresh and is already higher up on the chain. Especially when I have almost 5 YEARS of experience with the company. I should have preference when it comes to moving into the pharmacy. After all, it would take less to train me because I already know how the store operates, how the computer system works, how to work with the type of guests that we get, etc. It's gonna take a lot more to train a new person in than it is to move a current employee.

I was willing to continue my employment with Target because I wanted to work in this pharmacy. It was the only reason I stayed at my old store. I was ready to quit back in June. I still want to work for Target, but I don't know if I can without working in the pharmacy now, or maybe way down the line as a pharmacist.

I applied at the different pharmacy because I was sick of waiting. They told me that I could shadow without a mention of when. It has been 3+ weeks since I had originally asked. No one has said a word to me about it since, and they waited too long. So now I will be an asset to another pharmacy and I'm sorry to say that they won't get the chance to see how great I could be.

We'll see how it goes from here, but I don't know how long I can hold out.

So Boring

I apologize for not being around much, but it's because there isn't much happening in the store. It's literally dead for most of the day, nowhere NEAR what it was like at my old store.

Even at Guest Service people aren't that bitchy. The only things are returns from wedding/baby showers which are a complete disaster.

But, my first guest yesterday was a Canadian, and it made me glad that I don't see them often. She (along with her fanny pack, like usual) asked what the exchange rate was. I tell her it was 1.18 and she asks what that means. Ok, you fucking retard, you are exchanging money, YOU should know. Well of course she goes for her Canadian cash and so I tell her that we don't exchange money, but we take it at the registers. Apparently they're still too fucking retarded to exchange their money before they come down. She then asks how much she would get for $1 Canadian. I tell her, using simple math, it's 88 cents. Insert bitchy Canadian tirade yet again here. She yells at me because their money is "worth more" than ours now. My favorite part is being civil yet mean back when I get rude people. I say, "That's the rate our bank set." She asks if we take Visa or Interac(sp?) (their debit system) and I tell her we do take Visa and that some Interac cards work and some don't, and we don't know unless we try them. She starts blabbing about how she's just going to use her Visa because ... actually I stopped listening. Oh, and I forgot she was not even close to the counter when any of this conversation took place, which is normal for Canadians. Stand at least 5 feet away and just yell. Must be another thing they teach in Canada in the 'How to be completely oblivious to the world around you' program.

I still don't understand how so many canadians can come down during the week to shop so much. Does everyone have jobs? Or school? I bet the days they are down here is when they teach them how to be polite.

That is all.

My Favorites!

So it's been kinda quiet at the store, and I don't really work all that much, so there isn't much to report now. This past weekend I worked at Guest Service and other than the register, they do things SO differently at the store. I kinda feel alienated because it's either high school kids or way older people working up front. I hope it gets better. I need some damn friends here. ;)

So anyways, I'm bored out of my mind and so I decided to do a Favorite Retail Comic thing. As always, they can be found at seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/retail.asp if you want to see the daily ones.

I've been in this situation FAR too many times!

I love when people want money back for gas and whatnot. I had to pay for gas to come in and work that I pay for, so why should you get your gas paid for?

Ask ANYONE in retail, this has happened to them.

We do have nicknames for all of our "fun" customers.

The best is when they are standing right next to where it goes, and yet put it somewhere else.

Story of my old store. Yee-ikes.

Do they want us to cut out the pictures of stuff we don't have at the moment?

Sadly, I've done this before...

Especially with "Is there anything wrong with it?" I could write biographies!

Sad thing is, I've actually helped someone who finally left 40 minutes after the store closed.

Say it with me now: Canadians!

How many times have I heard this only to see the same person back in the store again? It's really funny if I'm the one helping them AGAIN.

I've had someone yell, "HEY YOU!" as I was walking by. I'll have you know, I kept on walking. Sorry, but that is not a way to get someone's attention.

250th Post!

And it's just a short post. I just had to post the Retail comic for the day. How appropriate. ;)

Enjoy!

My First 3 Days

It was fine. The lanes are completely different from my old store and I really have no idea how they cashier effectively because it seemed like I was stumbling all over the place.

They just had me cashier my first 3 shifts although I did give a few breaks in the photo lab. On Friday, I'll ask to work in Guest Service because next week I have my shifts up there and I don't want to royally screw up. They do things so differently at the store.

I'm glad I have 2 other people that transferred down that worked at my old store. Every time we see each other we comment on how weird the store is. I only see a little bit of them though because they are salesfloor and I'm stuck up at the front. Oh well, I love Guest Service, so I hope I can be as awesome as I was at my old store.

Some people think I'm "new" new, so I have to keep telling them I'm a transfer. I swear, some people think I'm really dumb. There is not that much to do cashiering.

But here's the funny/scary story of the weekend: Let me just say to begin with that my old store is ~75 miles away from my new store, and it's not exactly on a direct path to each other. So here I am cashiering away and I recognize this one guest from my old store. Well she says, "Are you stalking me?" I just laugh and say no. She says, "Don't you work in (my old town)?" And I explain that I transferred here to finish my schooling. She goes on, "Weren't you the behind the desk person?" and points to Guest Service. I say yep and we all had a good laugh. But honestly, how weird is that? To be recognized miles away from where you normally work. I hope I stood out as a nice person and not an asshole, but either one is possible. ;)

I really don't have any guest stories yet because it's just cashiering and most of the fun stories involve me at the service desk, so don't bail on me! I'm sure there will be plenty of fun and adventure once I get back to my beloved department.

Stay tuned!

Starting Today!

As you all can assume from the title and previous posts, I start at my new store today. This is going to be really weird because it's different, but not, if that makes any sense. Two other people from my old store are transferring to my new one, so I will at least see two familiar faces. I don't know if anyone can relate, but being in the same environment makes me feel like I should know everyone because I did know everyone at my old store. The job is still the same (I hope they don't have me cashier today...) but the people are different. Just plain weird.

And again, I have no idea what they are going to do with me today. I don't have an actual department because I think they just want to see how I work at first. They'll have to have someone with me at Guest Service so I know how to handle the different ways they interpret the various policies. The basic guideline is the same, but each store interprets them differently.

My new store is SO much smaller too, which will be nice. I was used to having 6 different registers at Guest Service, and the new store only has 3. Old store had carts to throw returns in, new one has bins. I hate bins. I'm also wondering how they handle defectives because we had the backroom (more like logistics or chargeback people or I actually have no idea) package them up. Some stores do EVERYTHING up at Guest Service, so I guess I'll see.

But I actually have to wear red and khaki again. It was nice having a month off, but I need some dinero. I would love a paycheck again.

I'll be back to tell y'all all about it.

New Store!

I stopped by my new store today and I'm afraid to say this, but I'm actually excited to start! The LODs were so nice and you could tell that everyone there has lots of fun. It reminds me of how my old store used to be WAY back in the day. My new store was staffed adequately and not overworked. The LOD showed me around the TM area and he told me that they were never there late. I've heard they are barely there past 10:15pm! That would be SUCH a refreshing change from my old store where it was 11pm at the earliest. Especially now that school is going to start again.

I HOPE I get to be in Guest Service mostly because, as you all know, that's what I love to do. They didn't really put me in an area for my first few shifts, so I think they are just going to see where I'm at. You better believe I'm gonna fight for GS.

Well, in just over a week I will start there, so I hope things go well. I'll keep you posted!

More...

Well today is the day that (supposedly) the new (no receipt return) exception went into place. Where if you don't have your receipt (and we can't look it up by check, credit/debit/giftcard) and the item is over $20, you are pretty much SOL. It should be fun to see when I get to my new store. The only plus side for both us and the guests is that there are no more same department exchanges for things under $20, they just get a giftcard.

I forgot to mention how on my last day, no one really cared that I was leaving, or more like, no one showed it really. My peers did, but you would think that my supervisors and managers would do something after working there for almost 5 years. I guess I don't know what I was expecting, a little party would have been cool or at least a card, but no. My supervisors just told me that they would miss me and the LOD on my last night wished me luck with everything. Am I just a little conceded here to think I should have got a going away card? It's been done with other people. I just don't know.

I've been hearing nothing but bad things about my old store. It's getting even busier with lower hours. They even broke the 11pm policy that they hyped up saying the store would get in trouble if any TM left later than 11pm.

I can't wait to start at my new store, but I don't want to be 'that' person. I'm sure you all know of an instance where a person comes from somewhere else and everything they say begins with, "Well, at MY store, we do things this way." I've gotten so used to how my store runs, that I might (but hope I don't) step on anyone's toes.

And for further proof that it's just not us (me and other co-workers) that dislike (is this the first time I used this term? haha) Canadians. I was at the liquor store and there was a Canadian in front of me and behind me in line and they were talking to each other over me. Well another lane opened up so the canuck behind me went to a different lane. When the guy was done checking out the first canuck, he was trying to make small talk and asked me, "Are you with them?" I couldn't help but answer with a stern "No." It was like 'Don't insult me' tone. Then he says, "Oh, are you Canadian?" By then I just said, "Noooooo." (Apparently this guy doesn't work too often because I can tell if they are Canadian by just looking at them. Their mannerisms are so obvious.) After I told him I wasn't Canadian he says, "Good." I just laugh at tell him that we get a lot of them where I work and they are very rude and annoying. He had that look where I could tell he was thinking 'Thank god I'm not the only one!' and I was thinking the same thing.

Well for now, I'm moving to a new city and it shall be interesting to say the least. I'll be back...

Last Day

Well, my last day at my old store wasn't anything impressive, I didn't get to yell or scream at anyone. It was just really busy. I was a little short with some people who just weren't getting it.

This one woman comes up and wants a temporary Target card. All my faithful readers know we can't do this. She starts getting testy with me, and off I go. I say, "No ma'am, we aren't able to access your account from our computers. It is for your security." She kinda backs off but finds her account number and asks if she can use that to pay for things. I say, "I'm sorry, but we need the actual card in-store in order to charge it." She ended up just walking away. I love it though when some people take it farther by saying so-and-so business does it and that's when I can say 'We are not (that store), this is Target. Do you want every single employee in the nation to have access to your account?"

And then I get a call from some asshole who was just grilling me and taking it out on me when he wasn't getting his way. So he wants to buy a grill for his relatives, but they live in another city. He was wondering if he bought it at our store, if they could keep it at his relatives local store. No. Then he was wondering if he could call the other store, pay for it over the phone, and keep it at that store. No. So as he's arguing with me, he says, "Then why should I shop there? Wal-mart will do what I want. Do you want me to go there?" I hate when people say this because they think I actually care. I just say, "That's your decision." Well then he says, "Well, I guess I'll come in and see if there is anything I like there, and we'll work something out." Ok, bye! And of course I'm looking forward to dealing with him when he comes into the store. But like most people, he's actually completely nice when he's in the store and we find a solution that works.

It still doesn't feel like I'm done at that store, and I think it's just because I'm not in my new city and store yet. That's when it will sink in. But I still get pissed off at my old store. Things are getting even worse and it will be a nightmare this holiday season. The good employees that have been there a long time are quitting or getting close.

One cashier who was always a breaker because she knew all the Front End departments so she could give them breaks put in her two weeks because it finally all added up. The final straw was that she was sick with strep throat and called in sick 2 shifts in a row. The GSTL just hung up on her because they were so short-staffed but that wasn't her fault. So the next time she worked, after she put in her 2 weeks, another GSTL went up to her and said, "How dare you make a rash decision like this!" And she just explained that it was a bunch of things and that she was starting to hate coming into work. But honestly, how dare the GSTL treat her that way. But that's my store for you. Completely horrible.

The comic at the top is how I feel about my old store, and hope to god that it's different at my new one. The comic is called Retail and daily comics can be found at seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/retail.asp.

I'm Back!

And actually I've been back since Sunday, but you all know how well my track record is with posting...

Which brings me to: TODAY IS MY LAST DAY AT THE HELLHOLE! But don't worry, I'm transferring to a different hellhole in a different city. My first shift there is in less than a month, and I'm sure it will be quite the experience. Now it will be my turn to be the 'but my old store did it this way' know-it-all.

So because it is my last day, I hope I get a rude ass guest (won't be too difficult) so I can be totally rude to them. But knowing my luck, every guest will walk in with flowers and chocolate.

It's going to be tough. I was already getting a little emotional last night, and it's weird because of all the bitching I do. It's not the job (and guests) that I'm going to miss, it's the people, well most of them anyway. It's funny (sad? pathetic?) that almost all of my friends do or have worked at Target, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

So my last 2 shifts have been kinda lackluster. Just more of the same. People who don't have their receipt and somehow it's my fault. People who do have their receipt, but it's hidden within millions of others, and take 5 years to find it.

There was this one guy who was trying to return a defective saw. All he does is hand me a piece of paper with the Refund Authorization number on it and tells me I need to call it to do his return. He says he was in on Saturday and they gave him the Target Guest Relations number because he didn't have the box and no longer carried it in our store. I keep trying to ask him what they told him in store on Saturday and what I was supposed to do by calling Refund Authorization. He wouldn't budge. I didn't even know if he wanted to return it, he just kept saying to call them. So I do and give them the case number and did a no-receipt return. I still don't know what the fucking situation was.

Well, I will probably be back to tell you about my last day, so until later...

Going on Vacation!

I'll be back after the 15th! I'm glad to say, I'll be far away from the Canadian border, so it's already going to be great!

Plus, I only have 3 more shifts at my store! See ya when I get back!

Am I missing something?

I mean, really? How hard is it to anticipate a busy week when you have last year to go from? Canada Day + 4th of July = Busy fucking WEEK! Not hour, not day, WEEK. It's been so bad that people are calling in 'sick'. Sick of being overworked is more like it. This leads to even more stress on the people that are actually working, which in turn leads to more people calling in 'sick'. Hey morons! Schedule more people and you won't have this problem! I don't care about 'not having enough hours', it's bullshit. You and I both know that it is going to be crazy busy every single Canadian holiday because of the exchange rate. (Sidenote: I pray for the day for the exchange to go back to ~65 cents.) It's only going to get worse.

What do they teach at this Target Business College? How to lie, cheat, and steal so that you get your bonus? Because they sure as fuck don't teach how to manage a store effectively. We've had tons of complaints about being understaffed, and they have the nerve to yell at us when we get ONE complaint about not bagging something correctly. Give me a fucking break.

And if Target HQ sees this, which who knows they could, what the hell are you thinking? Announcing visits? Are you that dumb? Guess what we hear? That we have a visit, so the store needs to be perfect. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a visit? And about the unannounced visits... When you visit one store in the area, they call every other store near them to tell them to expect a visit. I would LOVE for you to come to our store when the whole salesfloor team is on the registers because they scheduled 7 cashiers on a Saturday at a SuperTarget. Get over yourselves, and give us more hours. You want more money? You have to spend it to make it.

And we're the ones who have to deal with the guests. We get the bitching and the blame for everything. So don't be surprised when you get 5 cashier call-ins which leaves 3 closing cashiers, and expect people to come in. It's not going to happen. I'm not going into work to be overworked and stressed out on my day off because you can't make a schedule. I'm not paying for your mistake. You want to dig yourself in a hole, fine, but don't expect me to pick up a shovel.

So Ready To Be Done

I can't take it anymore. We are continually short-staffed and it's getting pathetic. Today was as busy as a Saturday, but we were only staffed for a regular Monday. They knew it would be busy. Like every other fucking first Monday of the month, the dumbass Canadians have it off, and so they come down here. But this time, it is a double holiday with us having the 4th this week. Braindead monkeys do the scheduling apparently.

People weren't generally that bad today, there was just a bunch of them. I could've easily used another person, and I pressed that back-up button like it was my job.

But in better news, I'll be done at my store on the 20th! Then I'm going to be moving and starting anew at a different store in the new city. From what I hear, the store I'm moving to is always dead, which will be quite the contrast from the one I'm currently at.

Hydrophobic/Idiotiphilic

How stupid are some people? Well, I could venture a guess, but nothing ceases to amaze me anymore.

Case in point, when cashiering, being a SuperTarget with groceries, the belt gets wet. All it ever is on the belt is just water, unless we clean it. Yesterday is when I've had the most people bitch about having water on the belt. It's like it's sulfuric acid or something. When cold things warm up, condensation forms on the product which is transferred to everything around it, and it's what makes my belt wet. But there people are, putting all their shit around the wetness, or waiting until the belt rolls around. Now when it's busy, I don't have time to wait. It's just water. It won't ruin anything. I hate when I hear, "I don't want to put this on the belt, it's too dirty." Um no, there isn't a fucking mud pit on the belt. And yesterday some bitch asked, "Is this bleach on the belt?" Yep, I love cleaning with bleach with my bare hands.

I've had enough of the short-staffing at my store. My store is ran by fucking morons. For a majority of the day, we only had 6 cashiers. Plus we barely had enough people on the salesfloor to come up and help us. All the guests were freaking out on us, but if we freaked out on our supervisors, they brush us off. I was watching during the head cashier lunch and we had the biggest back-up that I've ever seen, so here I am screaming into the walkie for people to come up and directing guests to shorter lines. This one couple told me, "You need to open more lanes." Instead of using one of my smartass comments, I just walked away from them.

I'm not gonna stop being an asshole until there's decent coverage. My store has resorted to letting everyone go at 11 because the morale is so low. We've had so many people quit and I'm about to join them. It's sad that we haven't been out before 11 in a long time. If we did stay to finish each night, we'd be there long past midnight. All they say is 'we have no hours' and yet, they can schedule pointless meetings and hire even more people. The newbies aren't even making it to 6 months. They cut hours so the execs can get their bonuses. I hope they choke on it.

Day 3 of 7 here I come!

On My Mind

Right now I'm just gonna go over a few Target things on my mind, and let you know my feelings about them.

First off, the much debated No Receipt Exchange policy. Like I've previously stated, it's at $40. Anything under $40 without a receipt (and not being able to look one up) has to be exchanged for one item in the same department for equal or greater value. Anything above $40, you are shit outta luck.
Then in August, that $40 gets chopped down to $20 AND you can't return off the gift registries. But everything under the $20 would just be put on a giftcard, so no more same department exchanges. We are going to get totally bitched out. No one gives gift receipts because that would be too easy.
And now I hear a rumor that in October, we'll actually follow the posted policy. That is "A receipt dated within 90 days is REQUIRED for all returns and exchanges." No receipt = no return. Can you imagine how people are going to react to this!? If we thought people were rude assholes before, I don't want to see how they act after this.
But I can understand where Target is coming from. I'm assuming they are tired of all the bitching too. Allow 2 exceptions, people bitch. Some bitch that it should be written, some bitch about the same department exchanges, and some bitch about receipts. I can see them getting a 'Fuck It!' mentality and finally deciding to go by the actual posted policy. That way, people are only bitching about one thing. Part of me wants to stick it out, just to see people's reactions. But in the end, it's about personal responsibility. You HAVE to be responsible for yourself. This would also stop return fraud in it's tracks. Don't bitch at me for this, you can blame the people that have worked over the system and made Target do this.

And now to something different...

So I trained some cashiers on how to do Guest Service, and they had 2 hours to actually work up there. That's not enough, but of course they scheduled them for shifts at Guest Service next week. They only know how to do stuff, but not the maintenance of Guest Service because we simply didn't have time. So next Saturday, a "new" person opens, a "new" person is mid, and I close. Guest Service is going to be a fucking mess. Saturday is one of our busiest days and we have the "new" people up there. God I hate my store. They just need more training! Like actually working a shift WITH someone who works up there, not just throwing them over there. If there is a big problem on that Saturday, I will go and complain. And they'll try to push it on me saying it was a problem with my training (like they always do) but it's because THEY DIDN'T GET ENOUGH TIME UP THERE! There is going to be NO ONE up there for them to ask! Then can ask the head cashier, but it's a Saturday and they will be busy too. It will be a stressful day to say the least.

And that's all I have for now. Until next time...

"Don't Get Snotty With Me!"

So of course this weekend was not fun. More short-staffing, more overworking, and more of being never good enough. And then there's the guests!

Saturday I cashiered and like always, I hated it. People are so rude and stupid. For example, some woman gave me a coupon and when I was done scanning her stuff I used her coupon and set it to the side. She wasn't paying attention during the whole thing, until I tell her the total. She asks if I got the coupon. Yep. "Are you sure?" Unless the piece of paper with a fucking barcode on it isn't a coupon, then yes. So she gets her receipt, and still thinking I'm lying, checks to see that the coupon was on the receipt. Too bad the coupon stealing conspiracy starts NEXT week...

Sunday I was up at Guest Service and boy it was fun... Not really. More rude people as always. One woman comes and throws her bag on the counter and says she wants to do a return, then stares at us. So my co-worker asks if she has the receipt. The woman yells, "Don't get snotty with me!" My co-worker said she wasn't being snotty, and she wasn't, but the woman thought she was attacking her about a receipt. Because we have nothing better to do...

Then this Canadian (and you thought there wouldn't be a story about them this weekend) comes up and wants to know how much credit is available on her Target card. We can't tell, and I tell her this. She gets overly dramatic and asks me, "So you're telling me that I can't check the balance of my Target credit card at a Target store." I again tell her that we don't have access to her account information due to the privacy and security of card members. (Do you really want EVERY Target employee in the nation to have access to your account info? Didn't think so) I also tell her that she can call the number on the back of the card to find out and she can use our phone to call them, and to press 9 before the number. Every question thereafter told me she wasn't listening to a word I said. She asks, "Do you have a phone I could use?" Duh. "What number do I call?" You're an idiot. "Do I have to press anything before I dial?" Why do you even bother getting out of bed in the morning? Of course after she found out she was really nice to supposedly make up for her bitchiness. That's when I give her my 'fuck you' smile and add her to the 'Punch in the Face' list.

Then we're getting a transfer... A Guest Service transfer. Now because I'm very picky about this area, I hate getting transfers because they think they know everything when they just don't. Well, apparently, she told them that in her old store she ONLY works Guest Service, but no way in hell is that going to happen here. First off, she would suck up all the hours. Secondly, I've been barking up that tree my entire time there. It's not going to happen, and it better not, or I'm going on the warpath. We shall see...

Now I have 2 days off, and then I start my string of 7 days in a fucking row. I might as well go on the warpath now.

And the Bitching Continues

I'm so ready to leave my store. I swear they don't know how to run a business. They are short-staffing us so badly, so our store gets under hours so the execs can get their bonuses. How nice. If I weren't transferring, I would quit. It's not acceptable anymore. I can't go into work without being overly stressed out because I can't handle the amount of work piled on to us. It's stopped being fun. The only thing most people talk about now is how much it sucks. At the beginning, I had great days at work with the occasional bad day. Now it's the other way around. It's almost always a bad day with the occasional good day.

And then you add the asshole guests. I swear, almost everyone yesterday was rude. And it wasn't just me that noticed it, it was all parts of the store.

So after my lunch there was this gallon of milk on the counter at Guest Service and they told me it was going to be exchanged. Ok, whatever. Well, this older couple come up and she's already telling me that she's up there to exchange the milk for a different brand because that was the second one that spoiled before the expiration date. Ok, whatever. I ask for the receipt and she acts like I'm asking for her first born. She doesn't have it. So I ask how she paid for it, and try her credit card and check. No go. She then goes into this tirade about how the person she talked to said we didn't need the receipt, but to just bring in the item. We can do that, but we would have to process it as a no receipt and you're only allowed 2 of those per year, but if you're going to get pissy for me trying to help you, then we can waste one. Then her husband goes into a rant about how we should all know the same things and shouldn't have to do this. He then looks at my nametag, says, "(My name), huh?" and walks over and grabs a comment card. Ok fuck you. I didn't do anything wrong here. So I do the exchange and off they go.

But that's not all folks! Shortly after that this woman comes up with a basketful of groceries and she wants to pay her Target card bill with one check. We can't. Each one has to be separate. Well she starts bitching about how she only has one check left. Oh, since you said that, the button magically appeared! No. She asks if she can write the check for over. No. "Even if it's just $5?" That still classifies as OVER, so no. "Well if I get a late charge, I will be pissed!" Not my problem. It's not Target's or my fault that you only had one check and you decided to but groceries. You made that call, not me. If she was actually thinking (which would've required a miracle), she could have put her groceries on her card, and paid the whole thing, but I wasn't about to help her out. And she was one of those people who want you to argue with them, and usually I just ignore them, but I finally just told her that I don't set the policies or how the system operates. She was quick to leave after that.

Now I have 2 days off, although I could use about 2 weeks off.

Burnt Out

Yep, that's me. After a shitty weekend full of rude selfish Canadians, I'm just sick of even *thinking* about being at the store. And it certainly doesn't help that I'm at the end of my 6 day stretch. Today will be day 6 and then I have a whopping 2 days off.

Yesterday was dead, compared to this weekend, and I wasn't about to complain. Plus, I was at Guest Service so I could just stand there. There wasn't really any "bad" guests, but being burnt out, I'd rather not help anyone.

But someone did on of my pet peeves yesterday. I absolutely HATE when someone comes up to do a return and while I do it, they turn around and face the other way. So here I am, talking to your fucking back while I do your return. Show some fucking respect! I should honestly just stop with their return and move to the next person, and if they have anything to say, I'll just say, "Oh, I thought you weren't ready to return yet." But then my ass would get chewed by the 'guest' but I think it would be worth it.

I also hate when people are on their fucking cell phones when I'm trying to talk to them. I've either moved to the next person, or I just stand there and stare at them until they hang up. That's so disrespectful. It also happened when this one guest was talking to someone that was actually in the store and I was trying to talk to her, but to no avail. I was getting sick of trying to get her attention, so I cashed her out and left her cash right there on the counter and moved on to the next person.

I hope tonight is just as dead.

Don't Talk To Me

I feel like shit. There's only so much you can take of being overworked and being treated like shit from people. What don't people understand? I'm a human too and yet I'm treated like garbage. I will never understand how someone can be so rude and hurtful towards someone they don't even know. And I know you're gonna turn my question back on me, but I don't act even 1/4 as rude to me as they do to me. It's just so unfair because customers know we can't defend ourselves. The remainder of my days at my store will be to change that. I don't care anymore. My self worth is more important than a stupid job.

More rude ass Canadians of fucking course. They are a bunch of fucking lazy pigs. I hate them. For example, one said to one of my co-workers who was working with me at Guest Service, "Can we get someone up here with a brain?" If they would have said that to me I honestly would have told them to fuck off and leave the store. How could you say that to someone? Heartless bastards. Castrate Canada.

And then one woman bitched us out and told us that Target doesn't support the troops. Please. Join the current millennium and realize that it was never true. Same thing about Target being a French company. Sorry, but unless Minneapolis, MN has been taken over by France, I don't think so.

We were there until 12:15, a full 2 hours and 15 minutes after close picking up after these slobs. I can't remember a time when it was so bad. I wasn't even done with my Guest Service shit until 11:45 because the head cashier made me take down the signs for the front lanes, plus I still had to do defectives and the adboards. I hate my fucking store.

And to make things better, I cashier 12-5:30 later today. Great. I swear if one of those snotty fuckers cops a 'tude with me, I will tell them off. I'm so close to quitting.

Until next time...

"Long" Weekend

You know it's going to be bad when the radio DJs are complaining about Canadians. I heard them talking about how it's a "long weekend" for the Canadians because they have Monday off for Victoria Day. The radio host says, "Oh great." I burst out laughing because I was thinking the same thing. What's even funnier is when we were in Canada a few years back, we heard on the radio an explanation of a 'long weekend.' It went something like this: "...on the long weekend. What's a long weekend? It's a weekend with an extra day." Haha! Are you serious!? Like do people not know this so they have to put something on the radio to tell people?

So I am working a 6 day stretch and it just so happens to include this long weekend. Great. Friday was my first day in this string and it was horrible.

So I work 9:30-6 as a breaker and my first break was at Food Ave at 9:30. So I go over there and the person who was over there had cut themselves with the scissors so they had to go fill out an accident report. It took forever. She didn't get back until 10:30, and so breaks were LATE. But that didn't stop Karen from coming over and being a bitch. She comes over at about 10:15 and the first thing out of her mouth is, "Were you late today?" No. "Wasn't this your first break?" Yes, but she had to fill out a accident report. Honestly quit being a bitch. Was that the most appropriate thing to say to me first? The girl even told her she'd be filling it out. So that was just the beginning of my day. During this whole thing I had to make breakfast, something which I wasn't trained. The recipe book doesn't tell us how to microwave everything or for how long and so it was basically a guessing game. So I have this order of bacon, toast, sausage, and English muffin from 2 team members. I have no fucking clue and so I'm just guessing as I go. Well these 2 people with which I work with were being complete bitches. They were saying, "Where is she?" and, "Is there someone here who knows what they're doing?" Could you be a little more rude?

Then there was a Canadian explosion. Great. This weekend is going to suck. And of course most of them were rude. For example:
- One asks what the exchange rate is. I tell him that it's 1.18. He starts bitching that on the stock exchange it's 1.11. Before I could say anything, his wife yells at him saying, "I don't care what the exchange is, I'm here to shop." I laughed and figured I didn't need to go further.
- One Canadian is using their debit card and the person behind them has started writing a check. So he asks me if we still accept checks. "Yes" I tell him. "Well they wouldn't allow that in Canada!" and leaves. Ok jackass, good for you.
- My favorite one of the day didn't even happen to me. Chelsey was helping a Canadian sign up for a Target card and the canuck didn't want to give her social 'insurance' number. Fine, whatever. So Chelsey tells her that she would be unable to sign up for the card and wouldn't save the 10%. She starts bitching how she doesn't give out her social because she doesn't want her identity stolen. Chelsey tells her that we use it for almost everything we do, but the canuck still wanted to argue with her. She says, "I don't see why you can't just use my ID." And since Chelsey already told her she just shrugged and gave a 'I already told you look.' And the bitch yelled at her asking if she heard her, to which Chelsey just said yep. And this started a rant about how her social is precious to her and she doesn't give it out and this is why WE have a problem with identity theft in our country. My question is, wouldn't it be easier to steal your identity if they only needed your ID? Your social confirms who you are, but what the fuck ever.

Because my store is ran by total dumbfucks, they decide to cut hours THIS weekend. Nevermind that these next 3 weekends are going to be our busiest, they cut hours now. Who does this? We are so short-staffed with so much that needs to be done that it's similar to putting all your weight onto an egg and expecting it not to break. So this weekend we'll be overworked yet again. They were there until 11:45 last night because it was so bad. They are already expecting us to be there past midnight tonight because there are 8 closers. Eight closers when I'm sure we'll do close to $200,000 in sales!? Yeah fucking right. They've scheduled me 40 hours this week and so I'm coming in an hour late so I can stay until midnight. But I have to leave BEFORE midnight or else I'll hit overtime. And I was told I would be written up if I got overtime. Talk about bullshit.

So everyone is pissed at both the Canadians for making a mess of our store and being rude AND at the management. This should be an interesting weekend. I've already decided I'm going to be an asshole.

Whoa

This weekend was rough. It was busy. People were really rude, more so than normal.

So like my little updater says, there were these 2 total bitches. I'm so glad I didn't help them because I would have argued with them. So one of the women was registered for her baby shower at Target, and already people think they're entitled to everything. Well, she had a lot of stuff that she didn't register for and so we couldn't use the registry/purchase log to do the return, thus throwing us back to the no-receipt policy where she can only do 2 items per year and yadda yadda yadda. Both of the women flipped ass and were completely rude and disrespectful. They were the type of people where they told us to make an exception for them. No, you can't demand an exception, it can only be offered. Well one woman said she used to work at Target a while ago and said we could override the policy and told us we "were going to do it." That was true a while ago, but we've had system updates since then where no one but Refund Authorization can override it, and Refund Authorization follows the policy stricter than we do, so they almost never override. So these 2 bitches (and that doesn't do them justice) went up the management chain and got the same answer. The LOD was up there and they were just trash-talking everyone involved so he repeated what we had said and left. Then they started bitching that a manager should never walk away and more shit. It was painful to listen to. I wanted to punch them in the ovaries.

There was also a Canadian who wanted to pay on her card but she didn't have her number or knew her balance and wanted us to look it up. We can't. We can't look up account numbers or find out the balance due to privacy issues. Do you want every Target employee in America to have access to your information!? Didn't think so. Well, that wasn't the end of it. After we told her that we do not have any access to any of her information she asked us different questions about it. "What if I give you my name? Can I give you my address? Can you look it up with my social?" NO! "What if I wanted to make a purchase?" WE STILL CAN'T! Plus, we need the card to charge on it. I hate when people ask us basically the same question when it's the same answer! We don't have access to your info! We don't say that and then say, oh but we can look up your name. What the fuck people!?

There was another family who didn't get it. This older woman comes in with a digital camera and it's defective, but didn't have a receipt. I was on lunch at the time so another co-worker handled it. It was 74.98 as the lowest sale price. We can't do anything without a receipt, so my co-worker told her to track down the receipt. And whenever we say receipt we mean one that's dated within 90 days, as per our policy. So the woman leaves. She comes back when my co-worker is on lunch and I'm up there, this time she has her receipt BUT it was bought LAST May. So obviously way past 90 days. So I tell her there's nothing we can do but give her a number where she can contact the manufactururer, and she leaves. About an hour or so later she comes back in with her daughter and son-in-law. This time they are freaking out. They are saying we are cheating them out of money and all that bullshit accusation. Your receipt is a year old! We have a 90 day return policy! What don't you understand!? You'll have to go through the manufacturer! I don't get when people expect a store to stand behind what they sell indefinitely. That's not the way things work.

But I got my raise! Thank fucking god! I'm over $9 now!

Where Am I?

So I haven't updated recently. There's nothing too interesting going on in the world of Target and I'm in the middle of a whole week off from the hellhole! I didn't even ask for this weekend off, but they gave it to me. What I did ask off was next weekend, but of course I work.

I'm nearing the end of this semester and after next Thursday, I'll be done! I'm so excited for this summer because it will be boatloads of fun. A bunch of us Target folk are all about the outside activities because it is only decent weather for about 3 months. We've already gotten in kickball, rollerblading, tennis, and a few parties. It's so much fun because the co-workers at my store are great.

Wonder why I'm such a good mood? Could it have something to do with me not working for a week? No, never. ;)

One Person Can Change Everything

So now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, it makes me want to run as fast as possible to get to it. I’m done with my store at the very latest July 31. Every single bitchy person that I encounter makes me think of that day. And I’m glad.

Well, my computer is done being a shitface for the time being so here I am again. Perfect timing too because Doris came in tonight. The ‘buy shitloads of clearance stuff only to return it weeks later’ and has some of her receipts but because she waits until she has bags and bags of shit to return, it would take longer to use the receipts. So we use handy-dandy receipt look-up. I don’t know where I would be without it. Anywho, she comes in at 9:45 with 4 bags of clothing packed full. Fifteen minutes before close and four bags of shit. Her comment, “I thought this would be a good time.” Wrong! The best time would be right away in the morning. So I start doing my receipt look-ups and she doesn’t know which is on what transaction so I end up doing a majority of items by themselves. (Thank fucking god we’re getting our POS update NEXT week! Of course it couldn’t have been this week when I actually needed it) And Doris is just chatting away the reasons why she’s returning them. We’ve all heard it before; they don’t fit your granddaughter. You would think after buying so much clothing for her that she would know the size by now, but no! I see one item doesn’t have the tags or any numbers so I save that until later. I’m doing pretty good, I finish all but that one item in ten minutes. There had to be at least 35 items on 15 different receipt look-ups. So I tell her to go find the same thing and bring it up so I could use the numbers from that to attempt to find it. She comes back and it’s a no go. So like always she flips out about how she paid for it with her credit card and why she even bothers using her credit card because “we told her she could use it to do look-ups.” I tell her, like we always do, that receipt look-up isn’t 100% (but it’s damn close) and it’s always better to have a receipt. We then go through her stack of receipts she has. Not in there. She bitches more about how it should be on the card, and because it’s now after close I tell her she has 2 options: no-receipt return, or find the receipt. So I try to do the no-receipt return. I must’ve forgotten who I was dealing with; she had already used her 2 that Target allows per year. I’m pretty sure she burned those 2 up with me on the same day back when I knew little about her habits. So she bitches more and then I tell her she now has one option: find the receipt! She bitches about how it’s probably with her daughter because she kept some stuff. I give my classic ‘And?’ shrug and just stare at her. She goes on about I ruined her night because she was out $9. I ruined YOUR night!? How about you were ruining mine? How about whenever you come in you are so difficult to help because it’s your own damn fault you don’t have all the receipts?

It’s no wonder the head cashiers have Doris on their ‘Want to Ban’ list. After she said I ruined her night, I was expecting to hear her say she would stop shopping there. Did I hear it? Nope, which only means this will play out again and again. At least I have my light at the end of the tunnel.

I also cashier-trained. One person. They waste my time training on one person. At least group them together so I have a bunch, but one person is pointless. Yet there I am every Wednesday night training and more often then not, it’s one person.

I better get a good fucking raise. I deserve it.

Stupid Computer

Well, my laptop is on the fritz for whatever reason, and so I haven't been able to do my posts as frequently as I'd like. For now, I'll just use my old PC to update this whenever I can.

But anyways, GOOD NEWS! I got into my pharmacy program! So I'll be moving there in August, which means the end of my reign at my current Target. :( I'm leaning towards transferring to a Target with a pharmacy down there, so I could get some pharmacy experience. And also keep my wonderous pay (I should be around $9/hour after my May raise!) and also to have something to fall back upon if need be. It'll definitely be sad leaving all the great (and some not so great) people at my store and I can already see myself tearing up on my last day. It'll be bittersweet for sure.

So my supervisors are already freaking out because two of the best Guest Service people are leaving, myself and Amanda. Amanda will be doing some internship this summer. Well anyways, no one really goes above and beyond at GS except for us, so they want me to be a mentor to someone, which is nice to hear. Everyone up there knows the policies and everything, but some just need to go further with it. I consider myself responsible for the department and I'm kinda a perfectionist so it's very clean and organized. I also know more than anyone in our store about Guest Service and have encountered nearly everything that could happen up there. I just think they need people with initiative to learn in order to be the best in Guest Service, or anywhere for that matter.

So my Canadian rants will definitely slow down as I'm sure I won't be seeing nearly as many as them. THANK GOD! But if I work in the pharmacy, I'm sure to encounter a whole brand new set of guests.

I can't think of any rude/dumb people lately simply because I'm so happy I can see the end of the tunnel that some don't even matter anymore. But I'll definitely still share stories!

I just remembered one! And you thought you would see a post without bitching...
So this guy walks in with a mud-encrusted bike. "I'm from Canada (oh great) and this bike broke the first time my son used it, I just want to do an exchange." Now I don't know if any of you are familiar with Target and their bikes, but it's not fun although it does make sense. So I tell him that we have to let the bike guy come in and try to fix it and if he can't then we can refund his money. He freaks out saying that he's from Canada and won't be back down here and all that good stuff. He asks for a manager. I call the head cashier up. She says the same thing I did, then the LOD came up and told him the same thing we had said. Turns out the bike guy was coming in the next day and that was ok with our lovely Canadian. So I have him fill out his information and he leaves. I notice his last name was O'Toole. Knowing me, I blurt out, "How fitting." My supervisor just laughs. I didn't have the pleasure of dealing with him the next day so I don't know how the situation was handled.

And like every Easter Saturday (yes, the day before Easter Sunday) we always run out of something. This year we ran out of hams and Easter grass. And of course people were bitchy. Why are you waiting until the day before Easter to get Easter shit!? It just doesn't make sense. And now it's all on clearance... oh boy.

Until next time...

Rough

It was a rough day yesterday. Well today should be even better, all the Canadians return the stuff they just bought for who knows what reason.

There were a lot of rude people, most of which I didn't have to encounter. But the best part is when I first got up to GS and I was talking to the other GSTMs and I said I'd be the one to get all the bitchy people, the phone rang, and I said "Exhibit A" before I even answered it. I pick it up and this woman tells me about how her daughter put her wedding gifts in a storage place in September and now wants to return them. Since that is way past the 90 days, I told her that the receipts would be expired and that she would have to do the whole no-receipt exchange. She freaks out saying the policy is stupid that we should be able to do it because it is stuff from Target. I tell her we have a 90 return policy and she continues to berate me. She tells me how she's old and didn't read the receipt and didn't know it expired. Nevermind that the return policy is on the back of every receipt. So I get sick of her yelling at me because all she is doing is arguing with me so I pull out the "I can get a supervisor for you to talk to" but no, she still keeps bitching and telling me she's going to come in and talk to a manager. Fine, go right ahead.

What don't people 'get' about 90 days? Who cares if it's from Target, that's not a factor in the return policy! It doesn't say 90 days with a valid receipt but we'll still take it back after that if we still sell it. If 90 isn't reasonable, then what is? 6 months? A year? 5 years? Why does that make sense? When you make a purchase from anywhere, you agree to all their terms, including the return policy. It is your responsibility as a consumer to know about these before you buy something.

My co-workers got much more rude people than I did. One guy asked for a manager and when he came up the guy TOLD him that we have 2 options, refund his money or he would leave his computer with us and we could install his computer game. The manager told him sternly that we wouldn't be doing either. (He had a open computer game, and could only be exchanged for the exact same thing)

I don't understand why anyone would be such an asshole to a complete stranger all over a return policy. What ever happened to acting like an adult?

More Fun

Of course it was busy, why the hell wouldn't it be?

I pull into the parking lot at noon on a FRIDAY and it looks like it's a busy Saturday, but this was NOON on a FRIDAY. Well yet again we were on a skeleton crew where even one person calling in sick affects the whole store. One of the cart attendants called in sick, so the LODs actually did some work and brought carts in. 3 salesfloor people called in so the LODs did returns to help. The closers were there until 11:40, a full hour and forty minutes AFTER close. And of course tonight will be worse and of course I close. I have to do the ad and everything, so I'm usually doing my Guest Service business until 11. But I just fucking hate the way they run the store. You know it's Canadian spring break, you know it's going to be REALLY busy, and yet we have no hours to show it. All so the LODs and STL get their bonuses because god forbid they actually care about the employees who got them their bonuses. I feel like the store shouldn't be judged on sales because there is really nothing we can do to control them (besides having MORE people on to help guests) and more on both guest and employee satisfaction.

So onto something else. I was already talking about how the no receipt limit was dropping to $40, then $20, but I didn't know it dropped to $40 TOMORROW! I get to work too so that should be fun. I believe August 1 is when it drops down to $20 but since there is NO communication in our store, I don't know for sure. Yes, change a very important fact about our job, but don't tell us about it. Great business plan.

I suppose I can end the bitter bitchfest here...for now.

"The Customer Is Always Right" Is Wrong

I found this excellent article "Top 5 reasons why 'The customer is always right' is wrong" and I'll post it here so you can read it. It's available at http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/. This goes beyond my hatred for some people and focuses more on the business side of things.

When the customer isn’t right - for your business
One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.
She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.
Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’
In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”
The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:
Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
Convince employees to give customers good service
Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

1: It makes employees unhappy
Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.
In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:
When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .
We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?
You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.
So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.
Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive.
2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage
Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.
Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back.
3: Some customers are bad for business
Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.
Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:
One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.
When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.
Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.
4: It results in worse customer service
Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt.
Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:
They care more about other people, including customers
They have more energy
They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
They are more motivated
On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:
Employees are not valued
That treating employees fairly is not important
That employees have no right to respect from customers
That employees have to put up with everything from customers
When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only.
5: Some customers are just plain wrong
Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:
Herb Kelleher […] makes it clear that his employees come first — even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”
If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:
A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”
The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.
He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.
The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.
So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.