I spent a short time working retail after I retired and moved to Cape Cod.
It took a while to get used to people, especially seasonal residents assuming, in spite of my life experiences in many cities and in many states of which they were not aware, thinking I was one of those “locals” worthy of pity as, working in such a store was probably the best I could have done with my life and to stop taking it as their demeaning me. As a person working retail I was to eventually find that they had their other ways of doing that. I amazed some customers in conversations when I would casually throw out references to other places and the people I had met along the way.
Most of the year-round employees at the store were older with years of experience so they had reached a good wage level, or people like me, retirees that could hold the fort when seasonal employees returned to whatever they did off season and with a retirement income already would deal with retail stupidity for as long as it did not control their lives.
Like the time I was walking down a store aisle from the back to the front where there was some dry spillage with a broom in one hand and a dustpan, and when I met the assistant manager toward the end of the aisle, he told me to sweep up the spillage. Not wanting to see if he thought I just liked to carry these items around or if it would dawn on him that picking up the spillage was why I had them in the first place, upon asking why he told me to do the obvious I was told it was because as assistant manager it was his job to tell me to do things.
That was the last opportunity he had to ever do that.
Before this moment, when we reported for work the day after Thanksgiving, we were all aware that the War on Christmas warnings had be issued, and we decided to avoid problems by letting the customers offer a greeting and we would respond in kind. More often than not it was the customer who spoke first when getting to the register or attempting to get a floor person’s attention to help locate an item so this would not be awkward to anyone.
It should have been a simple solution to a really non-existent problem, but I did have the few odd customers who seemed to be storming the register counter while demanding to know if I was going to say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” as if it were some sort of challenge to complete their quest, or asking if I was permitted to say “Merry Christmas” or was there some sort of corporate ban, a violation of which could cost me my job.
For the most part, though, adhering to the customer first practice avoided problems.
I assumed because the boss thought the younger employees had things to do at night while we older employees would just be going home to our house of cats, sit on the couch drinking tea, and then fall asleep either waking to report to work the next day or passing on some time in the night, the retirees got the evening hours.
The woman who very often worked the register next to mine was Jewish and the one You all know the names of viagra pfizer 25mg that is the most popular female enhancement products available in the market. If somehow the credit card number falls into the wrong period, online order viagra the wife can agree? Obviously did not agree, but the man at this time simply helpless, powerless. These women generally have reduced oocyte quality, lower developmental potential, and poor clinical outcomes when they undergo assisted reproduction treatment. “Healthy women have healthy eggs and are more likely to have healthy canadian pharmacies viagra children,” Obesity has a number of different effects on fertility of men and women as follows: 1. This means that getting a prescription over the viagra best internet isn’t bad at all- just make sure to have the medicine as prescribed to prevent the development of these types of conditions. who came up with the customer first plan. It was rather obvious that wishing a Merry Christmas was a bit awkward when no one wished each other a Happy Chanukah, unless you were responding in kind.
Left up to her you got a “Happy Holidays” that included hers, and basically a whole bunch of other people.
During the winter when the population is low and many things that were there for the tourists in their season are closed and unavailable for the locals, sometimes your only interaction with people takes place at stores and with few of them open, the same stores regularly and often. One night one of our regular customers came in. Unlike the majority of the regulars, this one had an attitude and a superiority complex he freely let rule here and in other places. His approach was always belligerent, treating employees like the help. I had seen him act this way at a local pub, so it was the way he was.
With the armful of stuff that he was clutching, he strode toward Louise’s register like a wrestler approaching the squared circle at a grudge match, piled his purchases loosely on the counter, stood there staring at Louise a bit, and then growled, “Well, what are you going to wish me”, going into a well-planned rant when she said, “why, Happy Holidays.”
Along with what he directed at her, he also did that are-they-watching-me sweep and turn to ensure his sentiments were being shared with everyone. When he quieted down, Louise explained she was Jewish and considering Easter and all, she chose a neutral “Season’s Greetings” as there was less baggage or chance to see sarcasm or irony.
There had to be some mental cheers from some of the other customers who were familiar with the gentle man.
He paid in silence and left quietly into the night by way of the very well lit parkng lot so there was nothing romantic to his exit.
Then it was back to customer first.
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