Mixed Signals

Last night one of my regulars came in drunk. He said he was on his way to stalk Lewis Black. He also said that I was The Queen Bee and he has my back. I appreciate the sentiment, not the inebriation.

My manager called me into the office to tell me not to tell him to 'relax' in front of a customer, especially when I (supposedly) asked him for help. But then he bought me an Affy Tapple.
P.S: I apologized to him for seeming disrespectful. Prior to the Affy Tapple acquisition. 

Venus Flytraps

We have Venus Flytraps! They come all in a neat little row, in a box that says,
Mother Nature's Savage Garden
and they come with a little plastic top over it. Love it. I will probably purchase one at some point.

I helped this woman purchase a memory card for her camera. I tried to explain what a gigabyte was, but when she told me she still had a rotary phone, I stopped. We turned on the camera to make sure everything worked, and she held it up...and took my picture! Not sure why, but she showed it to me before she left, and I look like I'm telling somehow how it is. Very accurate.

Speaking of photos, I fixed a jam in the phaser printer all by myself! And I located an order I thought I deleted and/or lost. But not after I made a slightly frantic call to the Head Photo tech. And then sent a slightly less-frantic text to the Head Photo tech.

There is an angst-y high schooler who comes in. She has bright dyed hair (pink, green, blue) which she keeps combed to one side and has to constantly pull it to one side with a head flip. She usually has an attitude, and today was no different. But she also had two fake liprings in. I guess she's just trying something new.

I rung up this guy who asked me how my night was going. I told him that it was going good, but I wished it was busier because it keeps me focused. I told him I feel flighty and weird. And he said,
"Oh yeah. Standing around and talking to the product and yourself."
For some reason the way he said it cracked me up.

We got out early. The new guy is good. 

Russain Mullet

The woman who has cancer came in. She was buying a Lunchable and a disposable camera for her son who is going on a field trip. She has a sense of humor about her situation. Because she has to, she says. Apparently when the cashier up front up asked if she wanted to donate to the Susan B. Kohmen foundation she told them that she was donating her own boobs to the foundation. And the cashier didn't laugh. I said maybe it was because it is hard for people to understand and find humor in jokes like that. Which is when she told me she has to joke. Then she told me that she'll get new boobs. Which will be like mine. So I bounced them at her, which luckily she thought was funny.

I printed some photos of someone's facebook profile. The quality was very poor. And the rest of her photos were self-portraits, and her phone was in the way of her face.

Money=Purchase

We were short today. Again. And we got out 25 minutes late.

While I was on the register covering a lunch, this woman came in a got me all kinds of frazzled. She brought a bunch of stuff, and I was too polite to ask if she had money. She had been in earlier and got to the register, and didn't have any money, but was snacking on her wanna-be purchases. This time around, she still had no money. I told her politely that she needed money to finish this transaction. She said that she has no money, but she just asks people to pay for her stuff. So I told her that she should gather her money first before coming to register. She nodded and said was very agreeable about being so difficult. Over the next twenty minutes she got people to purchase her two boxes of sleep-aid, a six pack of Diet Coke, a yogurt, and a caramel. While she was standing next to this guy who was trying to finish his transaction, she started breathing all heavy. The guy asked if she was ok, and she said she would be as soon as I gave her the cigarettes. He told her that probably wouldn't help and she got irate with him, telling him that the smokes would help. Then she told me to get them for her, so I explained that I had to finish the transaction with this gentleman. She was obviously not quite right, but I told her I would call the cops if she continued to hang around. My co-worker said I had balls for telling her how "the shopping experience" works. (I.e: you need money to make a purchase.)


I've grown to expect this kind of nonsense. But it is still stressful.

95%

Yes, that was me saving 95% on my purchase today. Go me!
Robitussin 4oz $4.99
Lays Pico de Gallo 91/2 oz $1.99
Lays Lightly Salted 9 1/2oz $1.99
Advil (that new shiny one) 20 ct $3.99
I had a $2 Advil coupon, a $3 Robitussin coupon, and a $5 blanket coupon.

A Jewish woman called me a "mitzha". Perhaps? Obviously not the correct spelling, but she meant it as a compliment. She had negatives she wanted prints from, and she wanted to know how long I had been working there. She was at one of our stores but she left because she felt like the women at Photo was too young and hadn't been working there long enough to know what was going on. I had to break the news to her that we don't deal with actual negatives anymore. But I called another store for her, and she really appreciated it. And I told her I understood about the feelings surrounding negatives.

The Injustice!

I was puttering around on Freeflys.com (not at work) and entered at sweepstakes to win free milk. I won! They emailed me a coupon, which I printed out, with low ink. So my store didn't accept my coupon! My manager said he would about a week ago, then decided not to today. So on my way home, I stopped by the other store and they were able to use my coupon. Because it is real. And I wanted my free milk!

The soundtrack my store is playing makes me feel like I'm in a weird B-movie.

Cancer

I put up new price changes. Prices are rising! Up and up. We had to put up new ad tags to match those higher prices. It is a little alarming when prices goes up and paychecks stay the same.

A regular of mine announced to the rest of the line, but mostly to another mom, that she had just been diagonosed with cancer. No one really knew what to say. But it was scary and awful. She tried to lighten the mood by saying that she was going to lose her hair.