Total lack of perspective

[Marxfan]

I worked at a mall bookstore for a little over a year. Towards the end of that time, it went out of business, so we were having our clearance sale to get rid of everything. Though we weren't always crazy about working there, my co-workers and I were nervous because, you know, this is our livelihood and we had to start over. Not always a good feeling, especially since it's often hard to find a new job

So I'm ringing up this one customer, and she couldn't believe we were going out of business.

SC: You're the only bookstore in the mall, though!
Me: I know. It's crazy.
SC: But that means there won't be a bookstore in the mall anymore! That means if I'm shopping here and want to go to the bookstore, I'll have to leave the mall, get in my car, and drive all the way to Barnes and Noble!

Yeah, lady, how tough for you. Driving all the way to a bookstore that is a fraction of a mile away from the mall is much, much, much worse than, you know, being out of a fucking job! No kidding, this woman was genuinely whining and bemoaning her bad luck in front employees about to be out of work.

By the way, I myself am not asking for sympathy, since my boss helped hook us up with jobs at different Barnes and Noble stores after that.

[Shengirl]

She probably assumed corporate was just going to transfer you all, not fire you. But regardless, there's no reason to assume her bad luck would be worse than yours. Changing jobs and losing all your work friends is still way worse than an extra little drive to get to the bookstore.

[AriRashkae]

Deanna, do you work for a bookstore that starts with W in a mall in the Western MA area?

It's just, our mall has 1 bookstore, and B&N is walking distance (unless the weather sucks) from the Penny's end.

[Marxfan]

No, I worked at B. Dalton in GA. It's owned by B&N.

[Sparky]

Maybe the lady was trying to express sympathy for you by complaining about how closing was a bad decision? It's not always easy to tell. Or maybe she was just in shock.

My favorite grocery is being closed down. I don't even know what to say to the employees. I always shopped there because of the good service.

[Kara]

Both of my previous places of employment have closed down. I do a good job, but it seems that they cannot function without me

Actually, the Kroger where I worked didn't renew their lease because they wanted to buy a larger store that closed down, but Walgreen's swooped in and bought it out from under them. Then they were going to build a new location, but decided that 1 store in that city was enough and just forgot about it. The other store, Circuit City, suffered from poor sales because they took a bunch of jaded, sarcastic, narcissistic sales people and decided to screw us all over so the people in charge could have more money and no one gave a crap after that. Plus, the store manager kept hiring her drinking buddies, who were mainly party-girls who didn't even show up for work for weeks at a time. I had quit about a year before it happened, but I was there the night they closed their doors. I had finally found a job that was perfectly willing to go out of their way to make me (and all its employees) happy and spoil us with benefits, so I just had to go dance on their grave. The manager wouldn't even look me in the eye. In true Circuit City fashion, they hadn't bothered to tell the employees until the day before that they were all out of a job, so they got to mistreat all the customers the whole day. A friend of mine was telling me this as the phone right next to him was ringing, and he just picked up the receiver and then dropped it, saying "Who f*cking cares?"

One of the guys back in the car audio department was arguing with a guy who wanted his stereo installed the next day. He kept telling the SC that they could not install anything tomorrow because they were closing down that night. The guy said he didn't have time that evening so he just told him to go somewhere else then. Naturally, the SC complained about the poor service and he'd never come back.

[Tigress]

I got fired from my title insurance job over something idiotic (long story short, a client lied about me and the company made a "business decision" to let me go).

Does it make me a bad person that I derive pleasure from the fact that it took them six months to find my replacement? Or that they've had to replace three very large glass window panes in a year? Or that they're having to work until 10 pm? (The office is on my way to taekwondo class and I see people in there when I pass by it both going and coming back. It's probably the employee that's being paid extra to clean, but cleaning doesn't take three hours either.)

[Becks]

One of the guys back in the car audio department was arguing with a guy who wanted his stereo installed the next day. He kept telling the SC that they could not install anything tomorrow because they were closing down that night. The guy said he didn't have time that evening so he just told him to go somewhere else then. Naturally, the SC complained about the poor service and he'd never come back.

Oh. My. Damn. Talk about NOT getting it. Wow.

[BookstoreEscapee]

If B. Dalton in the mall closed, you can be assured there is a Barnes & Noble nearby. In my case it's right across the highway. Now there is still the W. store but they are building a Borders at the mall so I'm sure that'll go soon enough.