So here is what happened today at work.
Number one, I found out three things.
- Our DM forced my manager to keep the store open on days when dozens of other businesses were closing early or not opening at all because of the snow. The weather was so bad she brought a suitcase with her to work because she didn’t think she’d be able to make it home. Clearly, this company doesn’t give a damn about the welfare of its employees.
- One of my coworkers, who for some time has clearly been the manager’s favorite, apparently threw a temper tantrum the other day and threw a phone at one of the supervisors because someone else got called for a shift instead of her. I have no idea how this woman is still employed.
- I am scheduled only one day next week, and it is the one day I requested to have off for an important choir rehearsal. Luckily, I managed to switch with someone, but…really? I gave her plenty of notice for this.
Then, we had a worse-than-usual crop of closing customers. You know, those ones who lurk around after the store is closed for no good reason and waste your time? First, three people came in - a mom and daughter and a third woman who was maybe a sister or a friend. They also had a baby. My supervisor B and I let them know when they came in that we would be closing in 15 minutes. When 7:00 rolled around they showed no signs of wrapping up, so B made the closing announcement. The mom and daughter, neither of which were buying anything, met at the cutting table, but the friend was somewhere off in the deco section.
After another few minutes, the friend came to the cutting table wanting help getting some deco fabrics down. She wanted three of them, so I took two and she took the other. Then she realized she’d lost her patterns and didn’t know how much fabric to get, so she went to look for them. At this point, the daughter made some comment about “oh, sorry we’re such asshole customers, staying after closing.” And of course, I wanted to agree, but I had to laugh it off and say “no, you’re fine,” or some other kind of bullshit.
The friend came back, having found her patterns, then started hemming and hawing about which fabric should be the main color and which one should be the contrast. We finally got that sorted and I took her fabric to the register. At this point, it’s about 7:15, and suddenly, a woman started banging on the glass door from the outside, yelling “No! No! You can’t be closed! I only need two things!” I told her we’d been closed for fifteen minutes, and she continued screaming and yelling and begging about how we HAVE to open the store, all the while pressing herself flat against the door and hitting it. B, for whatever reason, let her in - she even stayed pressed up against the door while B was trying to open it for her - upon which she and her friend immediately started debating over what lampshade to get.
Meanwhile, the friend at the register decided she wanted an additional half yard of one fabric, which B had already put away. B went to get it to cut the new piece while I kept an eye on the lampshade women. They absolutely could not decide what to get, apparently. I finally got the friend all checked out, although there was a brief moment where she considered going to look at thread, but the mom in the group convinced her it was time to leave.
I went to go put up the last deco fabric, and B went to check out the lampshade women, who had finally made a decision. One of the women - the more polite of the two - made an offhand comment about having to come back sometime soon to buy quilting fabric, and the other one said to her, “Well, you want to look at some now?”
Luckily, B then told them that the store had been closed for 20 minutes and it was time for them to leave. As she was paying, the obnoxious one of the two said to B, “You will be BLESSED for unlocking that door!”
Seriously, people? SERIOUSLY???
