loathing

These events took place over the last few days:

I was filling eggs and a man walking by said, "So that's why they're always broken, you fill them too fast!" o_0

These next three happened while checking:
There are some people who just totally freak out about upgrading their store card. "Why do I have to get a new one?" "Why are they changing?" "How come!?" *eyeroll* It's just a new card, it's a different color, different program, just pick a color and get over it. They come in four different colors and people can't seem to handle picking a color. It got to the point where I was all, "Pick a color, any color!" in standard magician voice, which greatly amused me. I even had to explain to this one couple that the color is just a choice, they're all the same card with the same meaning.

I had one couple talk to each other in "I'm talking kinda-quietly so that when you overhear me I can pretend it was an accident" voices and they were saying how since our new system is just like Albertson's they'll just shop there from now on. lol, yeah, go ahead, you do that. I love when people threaten to never shop at our store again. I want to say, "Really? Would you please? You are such a terrible customer I would be in heaven if I never saw your ugly face again."

And then there was the nasty woman. I looked up and greeted her, like I do all customers at the checkstand. She ignored me. All through the order she kept giving me looks that said she thought she was high and mighty. She gave me her phone number and I typed it in, instead of scanning her card. After she was all rung up and everything was done she said, "How do I know how many points I have?" Which indicated she knew about our new card system, so I took her receipt to show her and, hey, she wasn't on the new card system. Which means they didn't link her phone number to her new card. Just to check, though, I asked if she got a new card. She was all, in the nastiest, richest, snobbiest voice, "WHEN would I have gotten a new card!!!" Well, if you'd been in shopping since Wednesday you would have, and, btw, when you know all about our new program that means you know about the new cards, and if you didn't have a new card you should have asked since you clearly knew. So I got her a new card and sent her to customer service.

I checked a lot on Sunday. A lot a lot. In fact when a truck showed up of non-food's lawn furniture and stuff I almost felt like crying because I had so much to do and non-foods wasn't there to offload it so I had to. But Deana was really nice to me. She had talks with the CSMs and told them to check and not call me. I wonder what she's playing at.

Saturday I didn't do my order right away because Bret was stomping around and I wanted to make sure he saw me filling shelves instead of ordering. So I started ordering around 4:30, since my order doesn't go out till 6. Wrong. I guess on Saturdays it goes out at 5. I just hope I don't run out of anything cause I didn't have time to finish my order.

Apparently all the stores have been selling 400 pounds of butter a day (seriously, 400 a day!!! I dropped down to nearly 300 on Saturday because I wasn't very good at filling the shelf right away when it emptied, and quite on purpose), because the warehouse didn't have any to send me yesterday. So I'll be completely out of the kroger butter not a week from Easter. At least it won't be my fault. I ran around warning everyone yesterday who might want butter so they could buy it before it ran out. Which it will. And there's no telling when I'll get more. If it's a warehouse issue it can last anywhere from two days up to a month or so.

I do love it when someone goes, "Do you have any butter?" Well, sure we do. Would you want Country Crock, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Kroger, Imperial, Blue Bonnet, Private Selection, Chef Tom's, Parkay, Smart Balance, Nucoa, Gold and Soft, Fleischman's, Land of Lake's, Kroger Value, Meadowgold, Best Life? Would that be the 3lb tub, the 16oz tub, 15oz tub, sticks in sets of 4 or 2, butter or margarine, spray, whipped?

I had a guy who came up to me who went, "I need some tea."
Me, "Which kind?"
Him, "...tea."
Me, "...which brand?"
Him, "Just tea."
Me, "Any flavor?"
Him, "No, any tea."
Me, "Uh, Kroger? Green?"
Him, "Sure, that's fine."
So I went in the back, which I knew I wouldn't find any, and I didn't.
Me, "I didn't find any cases back there so you'll have to take them off the shelf."
Him, "No [enter name of whatever kind, pikopiko or something I think he said]?"
Me, "....no."
Him, "Where is the tea?"
Me, "Aisle 4."
You know if all he wanted to know was which aisle it was on then why couldn't he have asked! He sent me into the back room to look for a case when all he really wanted was to know where it was? And if he knew which kind of tea he wanted why did he tell me he didn't have a flavor or brand he wanted!

I also had to help out a woman who insisted she didn't want a half pint of whole milk, she wanted a pint. Problem is she was pointing at the pints and was calling them half pints. So I picked up the pint and pointed to where it said, "one pint". Turns out she actually wanted a quart. Which was empty so I started to go to find more and she said it didn't matter which brand, so I moved her one door over and showed her the other brand it comes in. Not really a big complaint cause if you're new to that sorta thing you might not know.

This next one is just boasting. A man asked me what the difference between whipping creams were, what makes one heavy and one light. So I proceeded to point to each and every cream and say what percentage of milk fat they are just from memory. Mwaha! The man even complimented me on my knowledge.

Yesterday I was puttering along through the day, it was fairly easy, no big problems. Then at 11:30 it all went downhill. I was putting everything away from doing markdowns and suddenly the truck driver for produce who'd been there since 11 offloading produce, came towards my cooler with a pallet of freight and asked where I wanted him to put it. So I got mad. The backroom was a mess and there was nowhere to put the freight while I cleaned up the coolers and got them ready. So I told him, "If you had told me you had this I could have been ready by now!" and he asked where to put it, I told him not in my cooler, he asked where in the backroom, and I said I didn't know or care. So I started getting the cooler ready and then Tony showed up with grocery. How delightful! The most impatient driver I've ever known. And he'd have to wait while I got the coolers ready and put the deli/meat/dairy stuff away. Thankfully Dustin showed up 15 minutes early and I made him do it. I still couldn't do anything though cause Bonnie pulled me outside and started yelling about how no one separates their pallets when they take them outside. Dustin came out and she snagged him and started yelling at him about it too. So at one point while we were helping her organize we were a bit away from her and I told him it's not as big an issue as she's making it, in case he felt she was mad at him. She was saying how she gets in trouble when we send stacks back that aren't sorted. I've never known her to get in trouble for this, but ok. I play along, I always do. Nod and agree to everything Bonnie says and you'll be ok. She has no idea what I do when she's not around. I run into her doorframe and filing cabinet, I've even knicked her desk once. I don't sort pallets and I don't call pepsi back to the store just to run their shells out. Which is something she did yesterday, she called Pepsi back to the store just to run their shells out.

Ooh, Easter, how I used to love you. I can tell my sales on eggs have dropped. Usually by now my back is in so much pain I can barely move. This year it's more of a constant dull ache than a constant searing pain. I do wish people would take from the display rather than the shelf. I see people actually step over the display to get to the shelf. It is so so so so so so so much quicker, easier, and better to fill the display than it is to fill the shelf. But since I started spacing the display apart so I can step inbetween the cases to fill the shelf my back is better. Used to be I'd have to lean at this incredibly awkward angle while I filled the shelf and that would get my back worse than hauling around tons of eggs.

Oh, and we have another corporate visit on Thursday. Which means I'll probably have to go in at 4 on Thursday. Great timing, there, corporate. Three days before Easter I'll need to be concentrating on filling the shelves, not mopping the floor and facing.

I nearly broke myself yesterday. A woman wanted 8 2-liters of diet caffiene free coke and there was only one case (I hope no one else wanted that kind!) so I took her cart in back, climbed up on a pallet of 12pks and got her 2 liters down off the top of another pallet. On my way back down I held onto her cart and used it to balance myself on as I jumped down off the pallet of 12pks. Only problem was one of my feet got caught in the shrink wrap. Which, if I hadn't yanked it free in time, would have resulted in the equivalent of falling off a horse and getting your foot caught in the stirrup mixed with a face-plant. Fortunately I yanked free in time to land on both feet.

Oh, and sparkling water woman never picked up those two cases I said I'd hold for her two or three weeks ago. Next time she harasses me I'll tell her, "Maybe you should have picked up those two I held for you back in the end of March. If you're in here every day you would have done so."