Life In Lumber, Week #1

Day 16:
Shift began fairly quiet.  I relieved Brenda, and rang up a few customers...then Tiffany left and rang up more.  At 5:30, I took my 15 minute break, then B left at 6.  Only had one snippy customer; I honestly hadn't seen the guy, and told a woman I could take her.  Rang her up and sent her on her way, then smiled at the guy.

"Thanks for ringing her up ahead of me."

My jaw dropped.  "OMG....I am so sorry!  I honestly didn't see you!"

"She did."

I kept smiling and rang him up, then sent him out the door with a 'have a nice day'.

I had to call for one override, help with a coupon, and two Code 50s.  Aggie came down when I had about 5 people in line, and at first, I wondered if maybe she was firing me, due to the fact my cell phone was on the counter with the NCAA Tournament playing.  I clearly wasn't watching it, but as I rang the purchases up, she sacked.

All of a sudden, the lights went out.

"I didn't know you guys closed at 7...."

"Is it that time already?"

Aggie nodded.  I'd lost all track of time!

Final two customers:  One had left a water heater while she shopped, and I'd wondered if she'd forgotten it.  Nope....she had a cart load!  Rang her up, and first she said no to the warranty, then changed her mind.  Aggie tried to zero it out and re-scan it, but no warranty popped up.  So I apologized, and the customer said not to worry about it.

Man bought several stacks of lumber, and said he was tax-exempt.  I'd done one previously without any issues, but a screen popped up saying his was expired.  He had paperwork to show he'd renewed it, but neither Aggie nor I could find it.  Finally, Tara, the night manager, zeroed out the sales tax so I could process the payment, and I could clock out and go home.  I'd not restocked the cooler, swept the floor, wiped down the counters, or even locked the doors!  I HAD managed to gather the trash.  Aggie said not to worry about it.  Clocked in at 3:33; out at 7:45.

Day 17:  April Fool's Day!
Relieved the lady at register 1, and promptly the April Fool's Gods descended on me!  Nothing went right; I think I spent more time on the phone with Jess and Mel than I've ever had to!  Finally after an hour, things settled down, and things went smoothly...until I tried to ring up one guy's heavy duty screws.  The total rang up more than $10K....I looked at that and said, "That's not right."

Hit F-3 to return....those 8 screws?  $10,000!

Started over....tried to key in the bar code, and it told me 'item not found.'

Tried looking it up in the computer.  Nope.

The app.  Nope.

The Blue Book.  Nope.

Finally, I called Hardware, and got transferred to Chris, in L&G.  He came down and looked it up, couldn't find it.  Meanwhile, customers are backing up.  Mel arrives, jumps on #2 and starts ringing up the backlog.

Chris and my customer go off to find the item, and returned with a different number.  Surprise!  There they are!  He backs out and knocks the $.97 price down to $.60.  I finished ringing them up, then thanked Mel for arriving, and told her what had happened.

"That's CRAZY!"

I toddled off to dinner when Vicki relieved me.

After dinner, things were quiet.  I managed to record my soda machine count, sweep the floors, and wipe down the counter tops.  Had to call Mel when I ran low on 10s and 1s,  and she took my soda count and my tax exempt forms (I'd done 2 of them).

Then my final customer arrived at closing time.  He wanted to price-check three items, then picked the one he wanted.  After HE left, I was able to take the trash down to the dumpster, take all the retur items back to their spaces, clock out and go home.....after refreshing the bags and pushing 5 carts to the front.  Clocked out around 9:40-ish.

Hubby very nicely took me to Old Chicago for a sandwich!

Forgot to mention.....think a man with the last name of Hinz is now convinced my elevator doesn't go all the way to the top.  Sunday, he had his temporary card on his phone and we couldn't scan it, type it in, or anything!  So Aggie put a note on his lumber and he agreed to return the next day.

When I got there today, I was hoping he'd picked it up.....but no, there it was by the door.  He showed up and I honestly was blanking on what the issue was, so I called Mgr Jess to come help me, because I couldn't even explain it over the phone!  He was expecting me to recall it, and I didn't ask the right questions.  About ten minutes later, however, I remembered....but Jess had already solved the problem and had his lumber loaded and sent him on his way.  Apparently we hadn't pressed the correct button, indicating store card???

I kinda hope I don't see him again....here's hoping April 2nd will be kind to me!!

Day #18:  Bad Day
So April 2nd decided to be unkind....first few customers were smooth, but then a series of screw ups and me being on the phone again to help with errors and overrides sent Jess over the edge, and she sent Carly to replace me.

Feeling like a colossal failure, I closed down my register and went back up front, trying to stay positive.  I even cracked, 'Too many phone calls?' , to which Jess nodded, and said she felt I was struggling, and wanted to give me a break, which started the waterworks.  I tried to blink them back, and somewhat succeeded, and it helped that Makayla made me laugh.  But the front was a little slow, and I knew I needed customers to distract me from too much introspection.  At 5:45, Mel sent me to lunch, and the first thing I did was lock myself in the Family bathroom and let myself cry for ten minutes, in order to get it all out.  Thankfully the break room was empty, so was able to eat my lunch and scroll FB until it was time to return.

The later hours went smoothly; I only needed one override, and successfully wiped down the counters, emptied the trash, and attempted to restock the coolers, but ended up letting Cassie do it (she was much faster!)

At the end of the shift, I asked Jess if I should report up front tomorrow, but she said no; she thought I was doing a good job, but just got overwhelmed on a day when there were only 2 Head Cashiers scheduled.

I thanked her and left.

I THINK Makayla and I are going to swap shifts:  She'll work for me on the 14th and I'll take her shift on the 15th.  I just need to double-check the schedule tomorrow.

Day 19:
Answered prayer!  Shift was slightly slow, but very smooth.  Only had to call for overrides twice, and only had one CFH (customer from hell), who wanted to know how much everything was, and did the guy who cut her linoleum get it all, and what was the width....I was sooo happy when she finally left!

Had one guy whose chip wouldn't read.....when he swiped it, computer told him to insert it.  He didn't have the cash, so I put everything aside.  Fifteen minutes later, he was back, and only bought the seven trim pieces with cash.

Weather was warm; we left the large door open the entire shift.

I'm off until next Monday, so come back on Friday for the Flashback, and Life In Lumber will continue next week.