Five Days Of Suck Part 2: Pounds Of Pennies, Gallons Of Mouthwash (long, language)

[Beckpatton]

The area I work in is well known for its crazy people. We have a few computers in store for internet use and a big pump bottle of hand sanitizer next to them. I cannot count how many times a person would come in, squirt a big handful of the sanitizer into their hand and then walk out of the store and drink the stuff outside!

We had that happen here in one of our hospitals. I can't recall exactly what happened just that a guy had been in intensive care for a few days, and was found in his bed absolutely ridiculously drunk. Something like .08 BAC or higher. He'd somehow got around the hospital and nicked all the hand sanitiser and drank it. They've had to implement new lockable dispensers!

Sometimes it's desperation, sometimes it's trying to hide their addiction. Sometimes I'm sure they are in denial.. "I'm not an alcoholic, I just like having really fresh breath!"

[iPanda]

The mouth wash woman is quite sad :C Addiction is a scary thing. Maybe there should a systsem put in place to restrict how many times she can come in for it? Or anyone for that matter...

as for the DVD thing, you're just human! no one except a handful of people in the world have perfect memory. your manager shouldn't have flipped out so hard over your brain having a brain fart and confusing the dates--I mean, it's not like the person is going to go to the dvd companies and be all "they sold it to me a day early! 24 hours early!" Yes, he was right to be alarmed at what you did but to freak out about how the store will lose its license over human error...
that's just mean. :C

[ralerin]

Manager A set the DVD aside with this week's sale sign on it ($16.99 for the DVD as opposed to the usual $22.99), went off and freaked out when she noticed the DVD wasn't under the sign anymore. I sold it to a regular customer, he asked for it, I went "durrr, ok!" grabbed the DVD and sold it.

The DVDs usually come in a box that says "NOT TO BE SOLD UNTIL X DATE", but the one lone DVD we had was out of the box and the box was missing. So *shrug*

Thanks for the support guys, but I've sort of made my peace with being fired or not. If it happens, hey great, looky here there's a lawyer type guy who'd like to speak to you. If I'm not, then hey, great, I still keep my not even $8 an hour salary.

Edit to add: Hey wait a minute. I break street date all the time with the paperback romances we sell, but nobody really cares about those. Hm.

[PepperElf]

Manager A set the DVD aside with this week's sale sign on it

That is not the same as "do not sell until x date". If anything it's the manager's fault for putting it out like that

[sirwired]

The thing I don't get about the Mouthwash thing is... unless you are underage, Mouthwash, as far as $/oz of Ethanol goes, is actually MORE expensive that cheap Vodka. (The strongest mouthwash is only 54 proof... once you drink enough to be equivalent to standard 80 proof Vodka, it's pricier.)

And of course who knows what the other ingredients in mouthwash will do to your insides; the additional ingredients are technically supposed to make it undrinkable, which is why it isn't taxed like alcohol. (US BATF Specially Denatured Alcohol Formula 38-B.)

[NateTheChops]

Thanks for the support guys, but I've sort of made my peace with being fired or not.

I'm sure however you go out will top my exit.

[PepperElf]

The thing I don't get about the Mouthwash thing is... unless you are underage,

I'm kinda wondering if the woman has a home. It might explain why she's buying mouthwash over cheap ass vodka - no open container laws for mouthwash.

And some may use it as a means to convince themselves that they're not really alcoholics or something like that.

[hinakiba777]

I do so hope that you don't lose your job of the DVD. I remember that back in December a well known Canadian BookStore set out all the preorders of novel that was not supposed to be released until January 12th. All the people who had ordered it be mailed to their home got it at the end of December. I got mine on Christmas Eve. The author had to make statements on his youtube channel begging people not to spoil the novel.

Anyway, I hope it all works out.

[Sapphire Silk]

And of course who knows what the other ingredients in mouthwash will do to your insides; the additional ingredients are technically supposed to make it undrinkable, which is why it isn't taxed like alcohol. (US BATF Specially Denatured Alcohol Formula 38-B.)

Hey, I never said it was healthy OR smart

I'm kinda wondering if the woman has a home. It might explain why she's buying mouthwash over cheap ass vodka - no open container laws for mouthwash.

And some may use it as a means to convince themselves that they're not really alcoholics or something like that.

This. So this. If she drinks mouthwash she can honestly say she wasn't in the liquor store if she had a family trying to get her to quit drinking. A lot of alcoholics are closet alcoholics; they drink in secret and try to hide their addictions from their families.

Back to ralerin: I'm thinking it was the manager who fucked up, and since shit rolls down hill it is rolling on you. Hopefully he/she will "save" your job from their own PTB, or at least that's what they'll tell you.

[Gizmo]

Question: If it wasn't marked with a street date do you get 'huddle' sheets that say "Street dates this week: (blah). Don't sell them before this!" or something. Otherwise how are you supposed to know? *hugs*

We had a load of instances in hospitals over here of people drinking the hand wash (and of course being ill)! *bleh*!

[ralerin]

Question: If it wasn't marked with a street date do you get 'huddle' sheets that say "Street dates this week: (blah). Don't sell them before this!" or something. Otherwise how are you supposed to know?

Magic. No such info. I was snarked at by SM but am not fired, quit or written up. Apparently he didn't believe me when I told him that the DVD's box that said DO NOT SELL BY X DATE was thrown away. Someone probably used it for a recall or a tiny amount of damages. But well, there's not much he can do!

[dragon_wings]

We have a box of Lorax DVD's out by the register at my store. From what I can tell we've sold half the copies we had. Last time I (accidentally) tried to sell a movie before its street date a warning came up and I couldn't sell it. *ponders this*

[MoonCat]

Glad you're not losing your job. That would be totally unfair, it really wasn't your fault.

Drunk/mouthwash lady has probably been banned from all the liquor stores by now, so she's left with mouthwash if she wants to get drunk.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Manager A set the DVD aside with this week's sale sign on it ($16.99 for the DVD as opposed to the usual $22.99), went off and freaked out when she noticed the DVD wasn't under the sign anymore. I sold it to a regular customer, he asked for it, I went "durrr, ok!" grabbed the DVD and sold it.

The DVDs usually come in a box that says "NOT TO BE SOLD UNTIL X DATE", but the one lone DVD we had was out of the box and the box was missing. So *shrug*

Where were the others? New release DVDs don't come one in a box.

My guess would be somebody took the DVDs out of the box so they could reuse the box, and then didn't put up a note saying not to sell those DVDs until the release date. In which case you certainly can't be held responsible for not knowing the release date. Perhaps if you worked in an electronics store or the electronics section of a department store, but not when you're a cashier at a drugstore. And customers do ask for movies before the release date, because they don't keep up with the release dates themselves.

And any store that wants to safeguard its ability to sell new releases ought to program the registers to block sales before the release date. My company does not do this, and thus we've been popped a couple times for selling things before release date.

TL;DR--somebody else screwed up and the buck is being passed to you.

[Skarredmind]

The other thing is that you don't lose your ability to sell DVD's unless you are a BAD repeat offender. When I worked in the video store we used to report the local Fro Yo E-word (sorry its 6am here, hour 8 of 10 for me today) All. The. Time. for violated street dates. and they are still in business today.