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.

Things Are A Changing

Well, we're right in the middle of Canadian spring break and from what I hear, it's a complete disaster at my store. They've been there for ~2 hours past closing. THAT'S MIDNIGHT! That's completely unacceptable in my book. They KNOW when Canadian spring break is but yet every year, we don't have enough scheduling. I can only describe it as busy like Christmas shopping. It's nuts. But, we only have scheduling for a normal weekday in March. It fucking pisses me off. I'm not looking forward to closing Saturday because it will be BAD. I'm guessing even past midnight. I will not be a happy camper that day.

What I don't get is why Canadians are willing to spend a week in our city. There's barely enough to do here to last a weekend, but it seems like they come into Target EVERYDAY. Why? I have no idea. And another thing, why does the WHOLE country have spring break? I have yet to see college-aged students, it's all middle-aged women who think they're hot and old people. Gross. And it would be a cold day in hell before they'd leave their CANADA shirts/sweatshirts at home. We can tell you're from Canada without the flag plastered over every item on you.

But now to my blog title, Target is changing an aspect of the no receipt policy. For the good you think? Hell no! It's becoming even more limited. When we get our new Point-Of-Sale software, it will only allow us to do items under $40 without a receipt. The whole exchanging thing will stay the same. It used to be items under $100. But that's not all! We'll eventually phase out the $40 limit and replace it with a $20 one! Oh joy! I have no dates when this is happening, but it will be sometime this year. I'm not excited because if we thought people were assholes before, it's only going to get worse. But a way to combat this is to keep ALL of your receipts because within 90 days, you can still return pretty much the world.

I'll be closing tonight, so be sure to watch the ugly pink box in the sideline to hear what it's like at my store in real time. I'm so not looking forward to tonight.