See, I am really bad at this bloggy thing. But I am back so here we go.
Some quick updates...I left my job at the clothing store to become permanent part-time at the bookstore/cafe. I am happy with this change, and it hasn't really affected my income at all yet, so that is both good and bad I guess. The fact that I don't have to worry about dividing my time between a job that I somewhat enjoy and a job I somewhat detest is a huge improvement. And since I'm now the only cafe server with open availability I will be getting much better hours and more responsibilities in Cafeland. Better yet, I may also start getting some training for the bookfloor and perhaps the eReader counter, both of which I have been longing to do for ages.
The downside to all this is that I do only make just above minimum wage, and money is still extremely tight. I will have to really struggle for a while to stabilize my situation now that I have yet another monthly bill to contend with: student loan repayment. My first statement came and I owe around $200 this month. How I will manage this is yet to be seen....
In other news, I did also sign up to sell Mary Kay cosmetics to make some extra money. It's been kind of a long and painful process so far, to be honest. Not sure where this will go from here, but I won't go into it any further until I make some decisions. Let's just say I'm starting to realize that direct selling involves skills that I don't think I'm ready to master quite yet. More updates will come on this later.
What all this mean is basically I am in a financial crisis. Therefore I will be attempting once again to shift this blog in a specific direction, to focus on a subject on which I have some expertise in order to bring in some extra income. I'm hoping to find a way to share what little knowledge I have that will help, entertain, or otherwise enrich people's lives. It may take me a while to hone in on what this topic or area will be, but expect some experimentation.
That's all I've got for now. I will post later this week with a review on the opening night excitement of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1!!!!! Very excite!!!!!!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Updates Schmupdates
Ok, updates, let's see....let's see....
SO, didn't really get most of my to-do list accomplished besides sending Mr. Socks (formerly Copernicus) to my Grandmother's house to find a home. Our apartment is now a much calmer place. Other than that, it's still a mess, still infested with fleas, and generally just disorganized and blahhhhh.
The money front is not much better. I'm trying to get my student loan situation straightened out, since I absolutely do not have the money to start making payments in a month. Which brings me to the biggest news I wanted to share. I have decided to start my own Mary Kay business. Now, many of you may think this is a scam or a waste of time or just a silly thing to do, but the fact is people DO make money in this, and I NEED money. So, I'm determined to make this work for me. I'm tired of working retail and answering to other people and getting paid almost nothing to do work that I really don't enjoy. With Mary Kay, you decide how much work to put in, and you get results directly based on that. You are your own boss and you can write off pretty much everything on your taxes. Most of all, you get help from your MK team and you make tons of new friends and get paid to play with makeup, which is what I've been wanting to do anyway. It really makes sense for me to do this.
The only minor hitch is that I do need to make a $100 investment to get started. This gets me all my training literature, paperwork, and demo products to start doing facials. I'm trying not to spend my own money on it until I can make a little first. Therefore I need to sell $100 worth of products without training, without demos, without really anything. If you're reading this and want to help me out, PLEASE let me know. I don't want to sound desperate, but I have until the end of this week to raise the money, and I want to get started ASAP. I really have a feeling this will change my life and give me what I need to feel good about myself and my life in general. =)
I will be back later to write about my experiences starting my business. There's a ton of great new people I'm meeting who I will write about, and I will probably start doing product reviews too! So keep checking back!!!!
SO, didn't really get most of my to-do list accomplished besides sending Mr. Socks (formerly Copernicus) to my Grandmother's house to find a home. Our apartment is now a much calmer place. Other than that, it's still a mess, still infested with fleas, and generally just disorganized and blahhhhh.
The money front is not much better. I'm trying to get my student loan situation straightened out, since I absolutely do not have the money to start making payments in a month. Which brings me to the biggest news I wanted to share. I have decided to start my own Mary Kay business. Now, many of you may think this is a scam or a waste of time or just a silly thing to do, but the fact is people DO make money in this, and I NEED money. So, I'm determined to make this work for me. I'm tired of working retail and answering to other people and getting paid almost nothing to do work that I really don't enjoy. With Mary Kay, you decide how much work to put in, and you get results directly based on that. You are your own boss and you can write off pretty much everything on your taxes. Most of all, you get help from your MK team and you make tons of new friends and get paid to play with makeup, which is what I've been wanting to do anyway. It really makes sense for me to do this.
The only minor hitch is that I do need to make a $100 investment to get started. This gets me all my training literature, paperwork, and demo products to start doing facials. I'm trying not to spend my own money on it until I can make a little first. Therefore I need to sell $100 worth of products without training, without demos, without really anything. If you're reading this and want to help me out, PLEASE let me know. I don't want to sound desperate, but I have until the end of this week to raise the money, and I want to get started ASAP. I really have a feeling this will change my life and give me what I need to feel good about myself and my life in general. =)
I will be back later to write about my experiences starting my business. There's a ton of great new people I'm meeting who I will write about, and I will probably start doing product reviews too! So keep checking back!!!!
Friday, September 24, 2010
This Week
I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again, so I'm gonna go ahead and do it now. I am scheduled for a record 30 hours next week, which is great because that means slightly more money than usual, but not so great because that means I don't get a day off. Granted, I do need to learn how to do more in one day than work a four hour shift at the mall, but that four hours does turn into about five or six hours with the drive to and from and everything. And my shifts are usually smack dab in the middle of the day, leaving little time to do anything practical. Regardless I thought I would give myself some things to accomplish this week besides just dumb old work. So here's my to do list:
- Find a home for this stupid cat (who at this moment is scratching my bulletin board and knocking stuff off my desk)
- Massive closet/wardrobe clean-out (in preparation for winter)
- Find a place to sell unwanted clothes (I would go to the Plato's Closet in Buford, but they fired me and I hate them)
- Clean out my office
- De-flea the rest of the apartment
- Finish Life of Pi
- Spend NO MONEY
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Copernicus The Crazed
It would be simply wrong of me not to devote a post to our "house guest," simply because he is an extraordinary and sometimes gravity-defying creature.
Let me start with how Copernicus came into my life. I was at my old apartment cleaning out the last of my personal belongings with my old roommate and another friend. We momentarily stepped out onto the back porch and saw two kittens hanging around the ground floor. One was very small and brightly orange, the other a little bit older and silver, both very skinny and starving for food and attention. I, being the sucker I am for babies of any kind, wondered aloud who they belonged to, and my roommate replied that our downstairs neighbor owned them. This didn't sit right with me, since no one who has any business owning a cat would know better than to let two very young kittens roam outside unfed for god knows how long. So to be certain I knocked on their door and asked the woman who answered if she knew anything about them. She replied, "well, dey was mah niece's an nephew's, but dey gawn nah." I politely informed her that if no one here would feed them or take care of them, I would find them both a real home, to which she thanked me a slammed the door.
So, I brought the little rascals home and immediately fell in love with them. Little Orange, as we named him, is the cutest cuddliest little thing I've ever met. Just a simple, innocent creature who would follow you to the ends of the earth for the privilege of sleeping on your pillow at night. And he was tiny, and he had that clumsy kitten thing going on that just melts your heart and makes you revert to the mental state of a 5 year-old.
We couldn't settle on a name for the silver one, who seemed for all intents and purposes a normal cat, albeit a very vocal one. He would let you know when he needed some love, which was often, and was a good big brother to Little Orange despite the fact that the latter nearly eclipsed him in cuteness. We loved them both, though, and suffered through more than one flea bath for their sake. Little Orange was adopted by Bee's sister and is now healthy and happy.
That left us with one cat. We decided to name him Copernicus; it was one of those instances where there was no meaning behind it, it simply sounded right. The transformation was almost instantaneous. The moment he received his name and realized he was an only child, Copernicus went crazy. Discovering that he had free reign of the apartment, he started tearing through the place as if the floor was made of lava. He, quite literally, would bounce off the walls. We think he actually tries to climb the walls, but this being impossible and him being surprisingly uncoordinated, the results are just hilarious. We also learned that if he can jump onto it, he will probably slide off of it. Once we stopped fearing for his safety and wondering about possible brain damage, we actually started enjoying this spectacle. His Crazy Cat hours are generally evenings, VERY early mornings, and around midday. He gets this manic look in his eyes and starts just flying around, crawling spider-like across the back of the sofa (my sofa, which is now totally ratty) and leaping (playfully? murderously?) at anyone who crosses his path. This was amusing for a while, but a couple of weeks ago Copernicus just crossed the line from goofy to aggravating. He would, as many cats are wont to do, decide that he wanted to lay down precisely where you just placed your glass of water on the coffee table, thus knocking it over and spilling its contents everywhere. He started to do this on our bedside table as well, more often than not spilling liquid directly on us as we were sleeping. He also discovered how to make as much noise as possible with the smallest objects he could find. I woke up the other night to the loudest damn clanking and, upon inspection, discovered Copernicus knocking a small hairclip of mine around in on the bathroom counter. But from what I heard I could have sworn someone was banging a hammer on a PVC pipe. He has been keeping us up all night, and there is nothing we can do. When we lock him out of our rooms, he yells. And I mean, he yells. I have never heard a cat put up such a fit over lack of attention. And it's not as if we don't give him attention ALL DAY LONG, when we are AWAKE.
Now it's gotten to the point that we realize we can't afford to keep him, between getting him proper vet care, flea control (they are all over the apartment now), and the pet deposit at our complex. So I have to take him to the human society and hope for the best for him. I know he'll be fine; he's a gorgeous boy and with some proper care would be a perfect family cat. We will miss him, but at least we'll be able to get some sleep again.
Let me start with how Copernicus came into my life. I was at my old apartment cleaning out the last of my personal belongings with my old roommate and another friend. We momentarily stepped out onto the back porch and saw two kittens hanging around the ground floor. One was very small and brightly orange, the other a little bit older and silver, both very skinny and starving for food and attention. I, being the sucker I am for babies of any kind, wondered aloud who they belonged to, and my roommate replied that our downstairs neighbor owned them. This didn't sit right with me, since no one who has any business owning a cat would know better than to let two very young kittens roam outside unfed for god knows how long. So to be certain I knocked on their door and asked the woman who answered if she knew anything about them. She replied, "well, dey was mah niece's an nephew's, but dey gawn nah." I politely informed her that if no one here would feed them or take care of them, I would find them both a real home, to which she thanked me a slammed the door.
So, I brought the little rascals home and immediately fell in love with them. Little Orange, as we named him, is the cutest cuddliest little thing I've ever met. Just a simple, innocent creature who would follow you to the ends of the earth for the privilege of sleeping on your pillow at night. And he was tiny, and he had that clumsy kitten thing going on that just melts your heart and makes you revert to the mental state of a 5 year-old.
We couldn't settle on a name for the silver one, who seemed for all intents and purposes a normal cat, albeit a very vocal one. He would let you know when he needed some love, which was often, and was a good big brother to Little Orange despite the fact that the latter nearly eclipsed him in cuteness. We loved them both, though, and suffered through more than one flea bath for their sake. Little Orange was adopted by Bee's sister and is now healthy and happy.
That left us with one cat. We decided to name him Copernicus; it was one of those instances where there was no meaning behind it, it simply sounded right. The transformation was almost instantaneous. The moment he received his name and realized he was an only child, Copernicus went crazy. Discovering that he had free reign of the apartment, he started tearing through the place as if the floor was made of lava. He, quite literally, would bounce off the walls. We think he actually tries to climb the walls, but this being impossible and him being surprisingly uncoordinated, the results are just hilarious. We also learned that if he can jump onto it, he will probably slide off of it. Once we stopped fearing for his safety and wondering about possible brain damage, we actually started enjoying this spectacle. His Crazy Cat hours are generally evenings, VERY early mornings, and around midday. He gets this manic look in his eyes and starts just flying around, crawling spider-like across the back of the sofa (my sofa, which is now totally ratty) and leaping (playfully? murderously?) at anyone who crosses his path. This was amusing for a while, but a couple of weeks ago Copernicus just crossed the line from goofy to aggravating. He would, as many cats are wont to do, decide that he wanted to lay down precisely where you just placed your glass of water on the coffee table, thus knocking it over and spilling its contents everywhere. He started to do this on our bedside table as well, more often than not spilling liquid directly on us as we were sleeping. He also discovered how to make as much noise as possible with the smallest objects he could find. I woke up the other night to the loudest damn clanking and, upon inspection, discovered Copernicus knocking a small hairclip of mine around in on the bathroom counter. But from what I heard I could have sworn someone was banging a hammer on a PVC pipe. He has been keeping us up all night, and there is nothing we can do. When we lock him out of our rooms, he yells. And I mean, he yells. I have never heard a cat put up such a fit over lack of attention. And it's not as if we don't give him attention ALL DAY LONG, when we are AWAKE.
Now it's gotten to the point that we realize we can't afford to keep him, between getting him proper vet care, flea control (they are all over the apartment now), and the pet deposit at our complex. So I have to take him to the human society and hope for the best for him. I know he'll be fine; he's a gorgeous boy and with some proper care would be a perfect family cat. We will miss him, but at least we'll be able to get some sleep again.
His favorite sleeping spot: my desk.
Just a typical guy.
I was lucky enough to also get video of him in this position. What a bum!
Well, now I must away. My bestest friend Brent is coming over soon and we shall go on adventures because it's my DAY OFF!!!!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wish List
Okay, so earning barely above minimum wage means having to give up a lot of things that one would normally like to enjoy. Really tasty food at restaurants, nice clothes, evenings out, movies, etc. Since I only bring in about $800 a month things are pretty tight. My rent is $243 a month, electricity and other utilities run about $30-50 a month, and because I drive 30 minutes to and from work every day, gas is about $30 a week (a whopping $120 a month!. Those are the things I HAVE to pay for. So altogether that's around $413, over half my monthly income. Come November, I may have to start paying back my student loans, which could be up to $250 a month. I will probably apply for lowered payments, but it's also very possible that I will have to just defer them. If so that will leave me $387 each month. As a human, I need food, so I must allow myself about half of that each month to nourish myself, so $190. Now, I am sometimes a bad, bad girl and end up spending copious amounts of money at the cafe where I work. I get a 50% discount, but that still ends up costing around $5 each meal. Working four days a week there I will end up spending $20 a week, $80 a month, for just ONE meal of the day. That leaves $110 to shop for groceries for the month...not enough, especially if I want to eat well. And I haven't even gone into paying for stuff like toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, etc.
Long story short, I need to spend less money on useless crap and unhealthy food at work. Because there is a lot of stuff I want. For my personal upkeep, since I need to look good to climb the career ladder and conquer the world in general. For my personal enjoyment, because I need to be able to de-stress once in a while. And I need to be saving, because someday I will need to start paying for my phone and car bills (my parents can't do it forever), and maybe even upgrade those two things so I can move through the world with greater ease.
Specifically, I want to tackle my personal appearance by investing in a really good makeup collection. I'm thinking of pursuing a career path that will require this, but more on that later. I DEFINITELY want to clear up my skin, for good. I want to start ordering Proactiv again and use it properly. I also want to try micro-dermabrasion to get rid of the nasty red scars on my face. For my hair I want a new, edgier cut, more vibrant color, and a good collection of product to maximize styling capacity. I want to try extensions, too, at some point. And of course a new wardrobe, which everyone needs once in a while anyway. I will need need ne headshots, too. =)
That's all for now. I will add to the list as different things strike my fancy. Let the frugality commence!
Long story short, I need to spend less money on useless crap and unhealthy food at work. Because there is a lot of stuff I want. For my personal upkeep, since I need to look good to climb the career ladder and conquer the world in general. For my personal enjoyment, because I need to be able to de-stress once in a while. And I need to be saving, because someday I will need to start paying for my phone and car bills (my parents can't do it forever), and maybe even upgrade those two things so I can move through the world with greater ease.
Specifically, I want to tackle my personal appearance by investing in a really good makeup collection. I'm thinking of pursuing a career path that will require this, but more on that later. I DEFINITELY want to clear up my skin, for good. I want to start ordering Proactiv again and use it properly. I also want to try micro-dermabrasion to get rid of the nasty red scars on my face. For my hair I want a new, edgier cut, more vibrant color, and a good collection of product to maximize styling capacity. I want to try extensions, too, at some point. And of course a new wardrobe, which everyone needs once in a while anyway. I will need need ne headshots, too. =)
That's all for now. I will add to the list as different things strike my fancy. Let the frugality commence!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
But...the sign said that was $5
I know a lot of people who will react the same way when you tell them you work in retail. "Oh, god. That's the worst, isn't it? Poor dear." Yeah, poor dear. People who work in retail deserve both a crap ton of respect and a good slap in the face. No person in their right mind should subject themselves to the soul-crushing work of a retail business, especially clothing. In no other line of work will you see more stupidity or be shown more proof of the declining critical thinking abilities of American citizens. And to pour salt in the wound, one must smile and let oneself be walked upon by the idiotic masses for the sake of positive results in Customer Experience Surveys. But we do it because we have to live, which involves money, and because people have to shop, which involves giving us money.
The most common example of the idiocy I face on a regular basis is when a customer comes to the register and piles his or her selections onto the counter, usually on the wrong side although the scanner is very visible, and immediately begins ticking off which items should be on sale at what prices. About 8 times out of 10 they are totally wrong about what is "on sale." This is not entirely their fault. On most of the sale signs in the store, the letters that indicate which items the gigantic, bold-printed "NOW $10" actually refers to are significantly smaller. However, I would not define this as "fine print," since any person of average intelligence would be able to read the sign in its entirety if they actually bothered to look past that giant $10. Apparently, though, most people seem too lazy to perform this simple task and instead pick up, for example, a brand new heavy winter coat thinking it is $10 because it is hanging next to the sign. In reality, the sign is hanging directly above a full rack of scarves and does indeed refer to said scarves. Now, if you saw a sign reading $10 (let's pretend you simply didn't bother to read the rest of the sign, because that's the logical thing to do) above a row of scarves, and a rack of heavy-duty winter coats about two feet to the left, you would assume that the coats would naturally be the $10 items, right? I mean they were RIGHT NEXT to the sign! Not so. An item being within two feet of a sale sign does not qualify that item as "on sale." When I ring the item up the customer (usually a woman), who has been carefully scrutinizing the small credit card terminal that displays each item as it is rung, sees that the heavy-duty woolen winter pea coat is ringing up at $75. What?????? She scoffs, one of those agitated half-cough/half-sighs, gives me a little frown.
"That should be $10. The sign said it was $10."
She wags her finger at the terminal, trying to banish the offending numbers. I'm no fool: I know we just got these coats in a week ago and there is no way in hell they would be $10, even if they had been on clearance for a year.
"Ma'am, we just got these in. They are still full price and will be for a while. I'm sorry, the sign must have been referring to another item."
"No....They are hanging RIGHT NEXT TO the sign. There are bunch of them and they are all $10."
I now have to call someone on a walkie talkie to stop whatever they are doing and do what the customer should have done in the first place, actually read the sign. They only confirm what I already knew.
"Ma'am the sign refers to the scarves. The coat is still full price. However, you can get 10% off if you sign up for a credit card with us."
"Hell no, I don't want no damn credit card. I want the coat for $10 as advertised!"
"I can't do that ma'am. The coat is not on sale"
"Well forget it then, I just want to get the hell out of here."
"Alright ma'am, sorry about the misunderstanding. Have a great day."
"Yeah, right." She then throws the rest of her items at me and walks away muttering something about "ridiculous...horrible service....never shopping again....."
Thank God.
What's even worse is when a customer bring an item to the checkout that they "found in the clearance section." Every single clearance item in the store is marked with a red sticker showing it's markdown price. That is the final price, end of story. No red sticker, not on clearance. Many customers try to take a red sticker off of a clearanced item and put it on a full priced item. An easy thing to spot, since mot of the time it ends up looking very sketchy if it's been peeled off and sloppily put on the wrong tag, and a customer usually won't argue if they know their guilt. More often customer just get lazy, pull an item, let's say a nice pair of slacks, from the front of the store (which is all full priced merchandise), and by the time they get to the back where clearance is they decide they don't want the full priced slacks and go with $5 nasty mom pants from last April instead. So she puts the much more expensive dress pants right where the ugly mom-butt once hung. The next customer comes along and spies a very nice pair of trousers that look oddly like the expensive ones up front, but they're hanging in clearance. Hallelujah! They don't have a red sticker but they must be insanely cheap anyway since they're hanging RIGHT HERE. And look, next to them is a ratty-ass pair of yoga pants for 5 bucks! They MUST be the same price! Wait till I tell the ladies at Curves what an amazing deal I found, they'll be so jealous.
The same routine ensues. Pile of clothes on the wrong side of the computer. Ring up a bunch of ugly stuff for under $3 each, while the customer vigilantly monitors prices on the terminal. Ring up the pants.
"WOAH. Seventy. Five. Dollars?! Those were on clearance!!!"
"I'm so sorry ma'am. These are actually one of our newer items, there's no way they'd be on sale yet."
"BUT, they were hanging in the clearance section."
"I'm sorry they must have been put there on accident. Would you like to buy them anyway?"
"No. I. Want. My. Discount. If they are hanging in clearance they should be on sale."
"I'm sorry, we have no control over that."
"Well, you need to fix it. There is A BUNCH hanging back there!!!" (no, there is not)
"I'm sorry ma'am, we will get it fixed. What would you like me to do?"
"I want you to give me the pants for five freaking dollars, is what I want!"
"I can't do that.....if you want to sign up for a credit card, you'll save 10% on your entire purchase?"
".......I don't. Want a. DAMN credit card! Just....fine, just take the freakin' pants out. I don't want 'em."
"Ok ma'am. I just need you to swipe your card then."
And then, to make the exchange even more epic, the credit card terminal freezes as the woman is signing for her purchase. This happens at least five times a day, always at the worst possible times.
"Oh my god. The FREAKING thing won't work!"
"I'm so sorry ma'am, this happens once in a while. Would you like me to print a paper slip for you to sign?"
"I DON'T CARE. JUST GET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS PLACE."
"Ok ma'am. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a great day."
"Well not anymore, thanks to you. What's your name?"
"Sloane, ma'am."
"Alright then."
This semi-threat of her taking my name does not scare me so much as it annoys me and offends me. It might if my name was Mary or Amanda or Jessica, but the likelihood of her remembering my name is slim. And even if she did, she wouldn't know how to spell it or even what the hell to do with it. I was smart and did not give her a CES. She could possibly tell one of my managers, but in such a case my managers are smart enough to see that she is a crazy bitch and would probably not do a thing about it. So....jokes on you, lady. Go get some five-dollars pants at Kmart if you want them so damn bad. Don't you dare to blame me for your fellow shoppers' laziness, or imply that I am less than worthy to lick your butt crack or even keep my slightly-above-minimum-wage job because I didn't give in to your demands. Especially when there are people who are decent and willing enough to pay full price for their nice things.
These things remind me every day of how I would rather be acting. Or at least have a desk job.
The most common example of the idiocy I face on a regular basis is when a customer comes to the register and piles his or her selections onto the counter, usually on the wrong side although the scanner is very visible, and immediately begins ticking off which items should be on sale at what prices. About 8 times out of 10 they are totally wrong about what is "on sale." This is not entirely their fault. On most of the sale signs in the store, the letters that indicate which items the gigantic, bold-printed "NOW $10" actually refers to are significantly smaller. However, I would not define this as "fine print," since any person of average intelligence would be able to read the sign in its entirety if they actually bothered to look past that giant $10. Apparently, though, most people seem too lazy to perform this simple task and instead pick up, for example, a brand new heavy winter coat thinking it is $10 because it is hanging next to the sign. In reality, the sign is hanging directly above a full rack of scarves and does indeed refer to said scarves. Now, if you saw a sign reading $10 (let's pretend you simply didn't bother to read the rest of the sign, because that's the logical thing to do) above a row of scarves, and a rack of heavy-duty winter coats about two feet to the left, you would assume that the coats would naturally be the $10 items, right? I mean they were RIGHT NEXT to the sign! Not so. An item being within two feet of a sale sign does not qualify that item as "on sale." When I ring the item up the customer (usually a woman), who has been carefully scrutinizing the small credit card terminal that displays each item as it is rung, sees that the heavy-duty woolen winter pea coat is ringing up at $75. What?????? She scoffs, one of those agitated half-cough/half-sighs, gives me a little frown.
"That should be $10. The sign said it was $10."
She wags her finger at the terminal, trying to banish the offending numbers. I'm no fool: I know we just got these coats in a week ago and there is no way in hell they would be $10, even if they had been on clearance for a year.
"Ma'am, we just got these in. They are still full price and will be for a while. I'm sorry, the sign must have been referring to another item."
"No....They are hanging RIGHT NEXT TO the sign. There are bunch of them and they are all $10."
I now have to call someone on a walkie talkie to stop whatever they are doing and do what the customer should have done in the first place, actually read the sign. They only confirm what I already knew.
"Ma'am the sign refers to the scarves. The coat is still full price. However, you can get 10% off if you sign up for a credit card with us."
"Hell no, I don't want no damn credit card. I want the coat for $10 as advertised!"
"I can't do that ma'am. The coat is not on sale"
"Well forget it then, I just want to get the hell out of here."
"Alright ma'am, sorry about the misunderstanding. Have a great day."
"Yeah, right." She then throws the rest of her items at me and walks away muttering something about "ridiculous...horrible service....never shopping again....."
Thank God.
What's even worse is when a customer bring an item to the checkout that they "found in the clearance section." Every single clearance item in the store is marked with a red sticker showing it's markdown price. That is the final price, end of story. No red sticker, not on clearance. Many customers try to take a red sticker off of a clearanced item and put it on a full priced item. An easy thing to spot, since mot of the time it ends up looking very sketchy if it's been peeled off and sloppily put on the wrong tag, and a customer usually won't argue if they know their guilt. More often customer just get lazy, pull an item, let's say a nice pair of slacks, from the front of the store (which is all full priced merchandise), and by the time they get to the back where clearance is they decide they don't want the full priced slacks and go with $5 nasty mom pants from last April instead. So she puts the much more expensive dress pants right where the ugly mom-butt once hung. The next customer comes along and spies a very nice pair of trousers that look oddly like the expensive ones up front, but they're hanging in clearance. Hallelujah! They don't have a red sticker but they must be insanely cheap anyway since they're hanging RIGHT HERE. And look, next to them is a ratty-ass pair of yoga pants for 5 bucks! They MUST be the same price! Wait till I tell the ladies at Curves what an amazing deal I found, they'll be so jealous.
The same routine ensues. Pile of clothes on the wrong side of the computer. Ring up a bunch of ugly stuff for under $3 each, while the customer vigilantly monitors prices on the terminal. Ring up the pants.
"WOAH. Seventy. Five. Dollars?! Those were on clearance!!!"
"I'm so sorry ma'am. These are actually one of our newer items, there's no way they'd be on sale yet."
"BUT, they were hanging in the clearance section."
"I'm sorry they must have been put there on accident. Would you like to buy them anyway?"
"No. I. Want. My. Discount. If they are hanging in clearance they should be on sale."
"I'm sorry, we have no control over that."
"Well, you need to fix it. There is A BUNCH hanging back there!!!" (no, there is not)
"I'm sorry ma'am, we will get it fixed. What would you like me to do?"
"I want you to give me the pants for five freaking dollars, is what I want!"
"I can't do that.....if you want to sign up for a credit card, you'll save 10% on your entire purchase?"
".......I don't. Want a. DAMN credit card! Just....fine, just take the freakin' pants out. I don't want 'em."
"Ok ma'am. I just need you to swipe your card then."
And then, to make the exchange even more epic, the credit card terminal freezes as the woman is signing for her purchase. This happens at least five times a day, always at the worst possible times.
"Oh my god. The FREAKING thing won't work!"
"I'm so sorry ma'am, this happens once in a while. Would you like me to print a paper slip for you to sign?"
"I DON'T CARE. JUST GET ME THE HELL OUT OF THIS PLACE."
"Ok ma'am. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a great day."
"Well not anymore, thanks to you. What's your name?"
"Sloane, ma'am."
"Alright then."
This semi-threat of her taking my name does not scare me so much as it annoys me and offends me. It might if my name was Mary or Amanda or Jessica, but the likelihood of her remembering my name is slim. And even if she did, she wouldn't know how to spell it or even what the hell to do with it. I was smart and did not give her a CES. She could possibly tell one of my managers, but in such a case my managers are smart enough to see that she is a crazy bitch and would probably not do a thing about it. So....jokes on you, lady. Go get some five-dollars pants at Kmart if you want them so damn bad. Don't you dare to blame me for your fellow shoppers' laziness, or imply that I am less than worthy to lick your butt crack or even keep my slightly-above-minimum-wage job because I didn't give in to your demands. Especially when there are people who are decent and willing enough to pay full price for their nice things.
These things remind me every day of how I would rather be acting. Or at least have a desk job.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Adventures In Hairdying
I've been a brunette for about three years now, which has suited me fine, but I was recently overcome with nostalgia for the flaming red hair I sported all throughout highschool (with the exception of a year-long stint as a blonde). I loved being a red head, thought it made me unique and pretty damn good looking, if I do say so. And changing my hair color was never a problem since my parents are hair stylists and my mom could always just brush some color on me and that was that. In the past few years though, as I've been living away from home and money has gotten tight for everyone, I found I could no longer just sit down in the kitchen and have my hair dyed with little prior notice. Especially now that my parents have moved their salon all the way to Buckhead, getting free hair service is no longer that easy.
So, long story short, I took the plunge into budget self-hair styling and bought a $4 box of color from Walgreens, and had my lovely roommate Bee help me apply it. The results were not ideal; my roots were much brighter than my ends and overall it just wasn't the shade I wanted. However, after one more attempt and a couple shades up, I'm happy to say that I am almost back to my highschool glory! Man, that's not something most adults would be proud to say unless referring to their weight. Regardless, it does feel good to be a redhead again. And drugstore hair color is not as bad as I thought. Though next time I will probably splurge a little on some Paul Mitchell or something from Sally's, at least.
Yay for redheads!!!!!!
So, long story short, I took the plunge into budget self-hair styling and bought a $4 box of color from Walgreens, and had my lovely roommate Bee help me apply it. The results were not ideal; my roots were much brighter than my ends and overall it just wasn't the shade I wanted. However, after one more attempt and a couple shades up, I'm happy to say that I am almost back to my highschool glory! Man, that's not something most adults would be proud to say unless referring to their weight. Regardless, it does feel good to be a redhead again. And drugstore hair color is not as bad as I thought. Though next time I will probably splurge a little on some Paul Mitchell or something from Sally's, at least.
Yay for redheads!!!!!!
Yeah, that's not me. I wish....
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