Helpful, Courteous, and Kind

In a refreshing change of pace, I actually worked steadily and was helpful and kind to my customers and some of my coworkers.

I was pulling the cosmetics bay, which means I took merchandise from upstairs, put it in totes, and tried to stock downstairs. I worked steadily, had a plan and actually accomplished the activity all by myself. When I wasn't shuffling around merchandise, I did stock checks and helped out customers.

The first woman I helped was an older woman, probably seventies, who was looking for a Neutrogena face lotion. It had to have retinol. She had a lovely, flowing accent, and said (several times) that she was from New Orleans. I most def dig that accent. Anyway, she kept saying the box had a small green label that said "Retinol" and that it was a squeeze bottle, not a pump bottle. Sadly, her memory or thoughts on what the box looked like was not consistent with our products. We stood together a little while, analyzing boxes, while I asked her what her beauty routine was, and what she hoped to accomplish by using this cream. The "consultation" made me feel like a real Beauty Advisor. She was actually quite pleased with my help, asked me my name, and said "thank you" a few times.

As I was heading into the stock room this Assyrian guy stopped me and wanted me to help him find something for itchy feet. The name sounded vaguely familiar so I stood there for a while looking at various itchy-feet products. He got the name from whomever he was buying for and I knew we had that product. I moved to another aisle and yelled to the pharmacy tech about itchy feet products and he looked at me like I was a fucking idiot and said "aisle 9". I walked back over there, stood around looking, and yelled to my coworker as he was coming out of the stockroom to help me find this damn product. He looks for a second, then points to it. I felt like a dum-dum. But the guy was happy, and he told me he knew I would find it. I made some sarcastic remark about how it takes three people to locate one item...and this guy stuck out his hand for me to shake. Which I did...but then as he is holding my hand he grabs me around the shoulder and I thought he was going to do more/worse. I quickly scurried into the stockroom. Creepy.

When people ask my name, I always hold up our ridiculous name-tag as I say my name. And every single time I think about Warren from Empire Records after he finally gets a job there during the fundraiser.

The last notable woman I helped was one of my regulars and she needed assistance in locating her hair-dye. Which was behind a misplaced product. She tried to haggle with me because the dye she wanted was in a clearance spot, but I said we wouldn't give her the clearance price because the identical item was in the right spot. In any case, she thanked me, and said
"As always, you are always so helpful and nice."
"Aww. Well, thank you."

While I was stocking the hair-dye I noticed that many of the models on the boxes have thick and slightly unruly eyebrows. It is true in many brands. I hadn't noticed it before. Despite this observation, I assure you I was actually working hard today.