Finding your voice

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

-Martin Niemoller

Walkin' After Midnight

In the category of, 'this could only happen to me. . ." So it was a usual Friday night.  I worked until midnight.  It was only a four hour shift but it felt like a lot lonnnnggeer then that.  Finally, finally, finally it was midnight and I was out of there--the moment I had waited for all week.  I went (more like bolted) upstairs to the breakroom, punched out, put my coat on and grabbed my purse.  (As I think many of you girls out there can relate to) I have a bottomless pit for a purse.  I put stuff in there and it seems to get sucked into a black hole.

At first when I couldn't find my keys I wasn't too worried.  As I kept digging some more around at the bottom of my purse I got a little annoyed.  Hmmm...I couldn't find my keys in purse.  So I checked my jacket pockets--nope my keys weren't there.  I looked through my purse again and I still couldn't find my damn keys.  Now I was starting to get worried.  They definitely weren't in my purse and they weren't in my jacket pockets so where the hell could they be?  Then, (unfortunately) it dawned on me where they were...they were in my car.  Crossing my fingers that I hadn't locked the car door, I put on my jacket, grabbed my stuff and went out to the car.  I peered in the window and sure enough there were my car keys--sitting right where I had left them, on the driver's seat.  I pulled the door handle...locked (but you figured that out already, right?)

So, here I was...standing in the parking lot of the grocery store locked out of the car.  The night crew guys were standing outside smoking--so I walked back to the store and sheepishly told them I had locked myself out of my car.  I laughed a little about how stupid I was and asked any of them if they had any ideas about breaking into the car.  Nope.  I tried calling a few people but it was after midnight and noone was answering their phones--either because it was Friday night and they were out or because they were asleep.  I left a few voicemails and waited for a few minutes in case anyone called back.  Keith, the night manager, asked what was going on and I explained that I was locked out of my car and waiting to see if anyone I had called would call back.  "Oh."  he said.  He took a quick look at the car and said he wouldn't be able to break in for me.  He also said he would have offered to drive me home but he couldn't leave the store.  At that point I was still sort of holding out hope that one of the people I had called would get my message and call back.  I said, "No, that's ok.  Don't worry about it."  I stood around for a few minutes staring at my cell phone and trying to figure out what to do.  

By this time it was close to 12:30 and faced with limited options I decided I wasn't just going to stand around all night and that I was going to have to just suck it up and walk home.  Keith saw me getting ready to leave and he asked what I was going to do.  "I'm going to walk home."  I responded, much in the same tone I would have used if I had burned myself and he asked my why I was putting ice on it.  "You are not seriously going to walk home."  he said.  "Well, there's really nothing else I can do."  I responded tartly, because it had become readily apparent to me that Keith was not going to do anything to help me.  And I'm as much of a feminist as the next chick but a whole night crew full of guys and not one of them offered to help?  "Well, I guess I could take you home."  he said hesitantly, but he stood rooted to the spot where he was standing and it was obvious from the tone of his voice that he wasn't really willing to leave the store.  Maybe I was just being stubborn because I do think that he would have driven me home at that point if I had pressed the issue but I just knew it wasn't a sincere offer to help.  "No, don't worry about it--I'll just walk", I told him quickly.  And with that I marched away from the store and out of the parking lot with as much pride and determination as I could muster under the circumstances.  "Call the store when you get home and let me know you got there ok."  Keith called after me.  I shook my head, kept walking and resisted the urge to give him the finger.

I walked the approximately three miles back to my house at 12:30 in the morning and with each step I took I became more and more angry with myself for being so stupid and frustrated with Keith for being such an asshole.  I understand he is the manager of the store and he can't just leave the store unattended--that is corporate policy.  But it seems to me that sometimes there are extenuating circumstances.  I also understand that it wasn't his fault that I was a dumbass and I locked my car keys in the car.  But I just don't understand what kind of person lets someone walk home by themselves in the middle of the night.  It took my over an hour and half to walk home--it would have taken him about 15 minutes to drive me there and get back to the store.  If you have the ability to help someone why would you not do it?  Am I being unreasonable here?  Or was Keith an asshole?  Or a little bit of both?  Maybe it was Karmic payback for times in the past when I could have helped someone but I didn't--like the time I could have/should have offered Miguel a ride to work but didn't.

But all's well that ends well...I walked home (good exercise), crawled into bed, slept like a baby and we went with the spare key and unlocked the car door the next day.

On the other side...

I was out runnning errands the other day.  It got to be around 5:30 or 6:00 and I was on my way home but I figured on the way back home I would swing by the grocery store and pick up a few things for dinner.  As someone who has both worked at grocery stores and been a customer at grocery stores I can tell you that from around 5:00 until maybe 6:30 or 7:00 there is a pretty steady rush of people.  People on their home from work are picking up things for dinner or they are running in to get stuff for kids lunches for the next day or they have realized they are out of something at home and swing by the pick it up while they are out.  I'm sure most of you have experienced this first hand when you have driven past your local grocery store on the way home from work and thought "Oh, I'll just run in and grab a loaf of bread or I'll just grab some milk."  You run in for two things and get stuck waiting in line of 3 or 4 people. 

So I went in and grabbed my spaghetti and pasta sauce.  I was expecting it be busy (which is was) but what I was not expecting was that there would only be 2 registers open and 1 of them was the express lane.  That meant that for everyone shopping who had over 15 items there was only one register. 

First, let me tell you that this is just as frustrating for us as cashiers as it is for you as customers.  We don't like to look up and see tons of people waiting in line (some waiting patiently...others not so patiently).  So on this particular day I was a customer--standing in line with 2 items and wondering why there were only 2 registers open when practically everyday around this time there is a rush of customers.  It seems like poor customer service to me--when you know that it is going to be busy at a certain to not schedule enough people to work. 

It is the cusotmer service manager who generally does the scheduling for the front end and I will say in his defense that poor scheduling is not always the manager's fault.  Each department is given a certain number of hours for the week

Workin' 9:00-5:00

After lots (and lots...and lots...and lots) of searching I finally found a full time job at a really nice office!  Yay!  Now here's the part that surprised me the most--even after I got a full time job I still plan on staying at the grocery store.  You may be wondering why, after all the bitching, I didn't quit the grocery store when I got a full-time job.  Here's the major reason--my car is a 1996...and it is exhausted.  Get it?  Car?  Exhausted?  Ha!  Yeah the car is really falling apart (those of you who have read some of my earlier posts know that my car problems are well documented) and it is going to the big highway in the sky any day now.  So I got to thinking that if I stayed at the grocery store for a while longer I could save up money for a new car--or at least a car that would be new to me.  So I am going to work 2 or 3 nights a week and those paychecks can be my 'New Car Fund'.  Also, you never know what is going to happen--just as quickly as you get a full time job things could change.  I'm so excited to have a full time job with a steady paycheck but I guess being at the grocery store will remind me not to take anything for granted. 

I always sort of assumed that the second I got a full-time job I would leave the grocery store faster then but I haven't quit.  Well, at least not yet.  I don't know how long I'm going to do both but at least for now I'm gonna give it a shot and be grateful for 2 paychecks. 

Pass the Purell, please

As we are heading into cold and flu season I have gotten to thinking about sickness and germs.

Working with the public = germs.  Generally I am not a germophobe at all but even I have my limits.

First of all dealing with paper money is a germapoloza.  Think about how many different hands money goes through 

Free food

As I am writing this I think my cheeks are turning a little pink with embarrassment.  This has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever done since working as a cashier...

Not that any of this really excuses what happened but there were a few things that sort of set me up for disaster.

First, it was Sunday.  Sunday always seems to be the busiest shopping day at our store and that day was no exception.  It had been steady all day and I was just trying to get all of the customers out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Second, when this happened I only had about 15 minutes left in my shift so at that point in the day I was sort of on autopilot.

Third and finally I was working next to a new cashier and just as I was the at the end of the an order she asked me a question and I went over to help her.

So it was sort of a perfect storm of events and here's what happened...

So the lady in my line put her groceries on the belt and I rang up her order and gave her total.  Just as I was giving her the total and she had her credit card in her hand the cashier next to me asked me a question about how to do something.  The customer swiped her card through the machine to pay and I finished up with her order and went over to help the cashier next to me.  There was (finally) a lull for a few minutes and I was bagging groceries for about 5 minutes until I got a customer at my register.  I was about to begin ringing up his groceries when I realized something unusual--my cash register screen said, 'Not Authorized'.  For a minute I stood there wondering to myself, "What hasn't been authorized?  I haven't even done anything yet.'  Then it dawned on me.  The last order, the lady from about 5 minutes ago, hadn't gone through.  When the lady put her card through it had been declined and I hadn't even noticed--(D'oh!)  And (of course) the lady was lonnngg gone by now.  There was nothing else to do but cancel out the order.

What made things worse was that this had just happened to another cashier the week before.  The other cashier's had an order that was about $120.  The customer had ran her card through but it was declined.  The cashier was texting someone and didn't notice that the card had been declined until after the customer had already left.  The cashier was taken off the schedule for the rest of the week.  So after that, needless to say, the managers were already kind of pissed about someone walking out with free groceries.

When some of the other cashiers head that she let the customer walk off with $120 worth of groceries most of them were sort of like, 'How could you let something like that happen?'  But honestly, I was never smug about it (smug about some other things maybe--but not that) because that sort of mistake could easily happen to anyone.  I learned the hard way that when you're at work if something like that happens to one of your coworkers try to be sympathetic and don't get cocky because it could just as easily happen to you next time.

Luckily for me I didn't get into too much trouble--my situation was a little different then the other cashier because my order wasn't that much--it was about $39.00 and in my case there wasn't an element of 'fault" (meaning it didn't happen because I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing--like texting).  It was just pure stupidity.  I felt bad and what was so frustrating for me was that it was such a dumb thing to do and how easily it would have been to prevent if I had just taken an extra second to check my register screen.

Money for Nothing

There are lots of signs that the end of summer was rapidly approaching...the college kids were getting ready to go back, there is back-to-school stuff all over the store, the halloween candy is out (In August--I'm serious about this). 

I love fall and the crisp air and the leaves changing colors but I have to admit I was feeling slightly grumpy because while everyone else seemed to be talking about fun trips, concerts and summer vacations my summer had been uneventful (maybe a more accurate word would be boring). 

Then one day I got a pleasant surprise--I had unused, paid vacation time!  Please don't get me wrong--I certainly couldn't afford to go anywhere but I was excited that I had 12 hours of getting paid, without having to actually go into work!  I had until the end of the year to use it.  I thought this was really good timing because there were a few weeks of warm, summer weather left and I maybe I could take a day trip or do something fun.  So, I picked a few days to use up my vacation time and headed to the shore for sun and sand.  Yay! 

So in the end I ended up with a check for around $120 and I didn't have to go into work at all!  Money for nothing--sign me up for that!