and so it begins

on wednesday, i put in the first of many 18 hours days to come.

today is friday. black friday.

here.
we.
go.

judging the book

I'm frequently reminded how important appearance is in this business of mine. Just yesterday, a man came up to the ice cream counter, pointed at a bucket of ice cream (instead of reading the labels...but that is a whole other rant) and said "i'll take the strawberry". I grab my weapon and start toward the strawberry cheesecake ice cream. A side note: this ice cream happened to be sitting next to the one he was pointing at, but sometimes it can be really hard to tell where people are pointing through the glass.

"NO! I want that one!"
"Oh, this one is strawberry cheesecake...did you want the peppermint instead?"
"yes, please."

Lesson of the day kids: Customers only know what they want about 25% of the time. The rest is going by look and perception.

Another example:
We have pumpkin fudge. It's really good and has a pretty strong pumpkin flavor to it. However, most people only experience pumpkin through pumpkin pie. Most of the flavor and aroma from pumpkin pie comes from the spices...not the pumpkin itself. At least once a week, we'll get a customer who comes in and samples the pumpkin fudge and claims that it doesn't taste like pumpkin at all. Well, 10% of the loaf is pumpkin and it's a vanilla fudge so i'm pretty sure there's nothing overpowering the pumpkin flavor. I think they just don't realize what they're tasting.

i hate people - part 6

it's a good thing it isn't legal to possess a firearm in public. i wanted to shoot this bitch in the store today. the first thing she says when i ask her if i can help is "you NEVER have any pecan apples". I explain to her that i was sold out by noon as 3 people each bought 4 of them. I'm not exactly happy about being out of them either as it is costing me sales but at that time, there's really nothing i can do about it. I apologize just as her daughter is asking if i remember who she is.

"you know, I'm the one who ALWAYS comes in and gets an apple!"
to myself - um...if you always come in, there's a pretty good chance i would remember you.
"oh come on. you remember me! I work down at Sirens!"
"oh! of course! I remember!" I'm lying...now please just shut up.
Her mom continues on the pecan apple rave and asks to speak to the manager.
"i'm him."
"oh...well, it's not your fault. you don't make them. can you just ask them to make more next time?"
"well, actually, i DO make them...but yes, I will bump up our count for next week."
"oh...well...so you'll make more?"
***CRASH***
I look to see the daughters hand knock a dog bowl filled with dipped dog bones to the floor.
Daughter: "it wasn't me! It just fell. I didn't touch it."
Neither mom nor daughter makes any move to pick up anything that dropped.

Well, of course she didn't knock the bowl off the counter. I mean, it could have been an earthquake, a ghost, or maybe telekenesis by someone who wanted me to *think* that she did it.

Stupid bitch.

What bothers me most about the whole situation is that neither mom nor daughter ever made a move to correct the situation (i.e. bend your lazy ass over and pick something up for christs sake) or even offer an apology. NOTHING. They just stared at me and waited for me to move. It's just fucking rude. I was about ready to explode so I had one of the girls finish out the transaction with them lest I say something that I'd regret.

Welcome to the holidays...when every idiot asshole comes out of the woodwork and shops for chocolate.