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Right! As I mentioned somewhere, I've been saving up a post on how gross my store is. Not regarding its policies or customers, literally physically gross.
First, the shopping center was built in the late 1970s. It was at least two different fabric and craft stores before it fell to the current company. The area of town is not as popular or busy as it once was. A certain discount outlet is the other anchor store, and I'm absolutely amazed that it hasn't closed.
My first complaint was going to be the parking lot, which had deep divots that collected water, and tended to freeze in the winter, making it super fun to drive home at 10 PM. But they repaved it, so that's out. Though they didn't give us any cart returns, why is that? I'll continue with the shopping carts. My guess is that they are 15 years old. At least 10, because they are the same old crappy ones as when I started in 2005. For years they had accumulated fabric and thread in the wheels, so that a large percent wouldn't roll. Last year corporate decided to do something about it. Give us new carts, you say? Nope. They hired people to pressure wash them. It took most of the day, and the crew and truck took about 10 parking spots. Now the carts wheel okay, but they are still 15 years old. Many are rusty, and make the worst squealing sounds as they go. Also the plastic over the metal part you hold to push is cracked off on the majority. It's totally gone in some cases, and in others parts remain, like a crafter's post-apocalyptic nightmare.
On to the interior of the store. You know those false ceiling tiles that are going out of fashion? Well, like most shopping malls, the roof is flat, and that's bad news in this part of the country. So we have a lot of water damaged tiles. It rains so often, that the leaks have caused some tiles to mold. Part of the upper office ceiling tiles caved in during a hard rainstorm and never got fixed. And I don't think the floor has been replaced since this company took over. It has had several minor to moderate remodels since, so there are really clear outlines of where fixturing got moved from. If you look at the floor near the bottom of most fixtures, it's yellowing and discolored. Not positive why, it might be because it repeatedly gets floor wax but I don't think it gets properly stripped. The company who is contracted to do this habitually lies about completing the job. Old Manager knew this, but didn't have enough backbone to stand up to them. I bet New Manager does.
Now various minor gross outs. Framing has a chronic black spider infestation which never really goes away. The hanging number display (which can be seen from most of the store) that shows what number we are currently helping has about an inch of dust on the top. When the air kicks on, clumps of dust fall from the vent in a terrible parody of snow. The break room was sponge painted who knows how many years ago. There are weird discolored lines coming down from near the ceiling, like the walls sweated. There are various places when someone spilled something, it got on the wall, and they didn't clean it up. There is enough room for maybe 5 people to be on break at once. Maybe. The room is about 15'x10' and has a narrow table, a small counter with a sink, a coffee maker, and a microwave. There is a fridge, and a coat rack. Oh, and an industrial metal garbage can, which blocks the door open. The customer bathroom is directly across from the breakroom. That means while you're eating your lunch, you can hear what goes on in the bathroom. The customers waiting for the bathroom can hear our conversations. Sometimes they come to the door and tell us how icky the bathroom is, want a price check, or demand we help them even though we're on break.
Our handhelds only work in the center of the store. If you go around the perimeter it won't communicate and sits on “connecting.” Why, why couldn't they have got a slightly better router? It's freaking torture to attempt to do markdowns on quilting fabric. Last time, I loaded a bunch of bolts onto a cart and wheeled it to the middle of the store, scanned them all, wheeled it back and re-shelved them. Can we all say waste of time? We have six registers at the front of the store. Two are in the big customer service station. It's where the go-back bins are, and where we mostly do returns. The other register never gets used. Why, you ask? Because during the last remodel the line area got moved so that customers are funneled from the opposite direction and if there is a line, they would have to push through everyone backwards, and go around to the other side of the station. It would be like Costco having one register at the entrance of the store, where the person checking cards stands. So each morning, I have a till which I count, which never has money in it.
What's left? Oh! The stockroom. Each Monday, when we receive freight, the convayor belt blocks the customer bathroom. Since there is some kind of law which says we must provide one, we have to let customers into our super cramped stockroom to use ours. Well. We started getting our trucks at 3AM. Was it because of the bathroom issue? Nope. It was because our DM didn't think we were getting enough stocked. Yeah, because the freight crew couldn't work as fast with customers underfoot. (Actually, the earlier trucks have been good for everyone, I just hate that corporate did it because they decided WE weren't going fast enough when it was totally not our fault)
We have been told that a competitor is coming to our city. Currently no other store in town sells even close to the amount of fabric we do. There are a couple of little quilt shops, but that's it. The one that's coming is the one with the rhyming name. And, while I totally think there is the market for two fabrics stores in our area, I think that store would kill the one I work at. Partly because of the trashy store, and partly because of the way corporate runs things. Hell, if I didn't have specific issues with said competitor (I know, all corporations are evil, I have my reasons) I would jump ship in a heartbeat.
So! Anyone work at someplace worse?
First, the shopping center was built in the late 1970s. It was at least two different fabric and craft stores before it fell to the current company. The area of town is not as popular or busy as it once was. A certain discount outlet is the other anchor store, and I'm absolutely amazed that it hasn't closed.
My first complaint was going to be the parking lot, which had deep divots that collected water, and tended to freeze in the winter, making it super fun to drive home at 10 PM. But they repaved it, so that's out. Though they didn't give us any cart returns, why is that? I'll continue with the shopping carts. My guess is that they are 15 years old. At least 10, because they are the same old crappy ones as when I started in 2005. For years they had accumulated fabric and thread in the wheels, so that a large percent wouldn't roll. Last year corporate decided to do something about it. Give us new carts, you say? Nope. They hired people to pressure wash them. It took most of the day, and the crew and truck took about 10 parking spots. Now the carts wheel okay, but they are still 15 years old. Many are rusty, and make the worst squealing sounds as they go. Also the plastic over the metal part you hold to push is cracked off on the majority. It's totally gone in some cases, and in others parts remain, like a crafter's post-apocalyptic nightmare.
On to the interior of the store. You know those false ceiling tiles that are going out of fashion? Well, like most shopping malls, the roof is flat, and that's bad news in this part of the country. So we have a lot of water damaged tiles. It rains so often, that the leaks have caused some tiles to mold. Part of the upper office ceiling tiles caved in during a hard rainstorm and never got fixed. And I don't think the floor has been replaced since this company took over. It has had several minor to moderate remodels since, so there are really clear outlines of where fixturing got moved from. If you look at the floor near the bottom of most fixtures, it's yellowing and discolored. Not positive why, it might be because it repeatedly gets floor wax but I don't think it gets properly stripped. The company who is contracted to do this habitually lies about completing the job. Old Manager knew this, but didn't have enough backbone to stand up to them. I bet New Manager does.
Now various minor gross outs. Framing has a chronic black spider infestation which never really goes away. The hanging number display (which can be seen from most of the store) that shows what number we are currently helping has about an inch of dust on the top. When the air kicks on, clumps of dust fall from the vent in a terrible parody of snow. The break room was sponge painted who knows how many years ago. There are weird discolored lines coming down from near the ceiling, like the walls sweated. There are various places when someone spilled something, it got on the wall, and they didn't clean it up. There is enough room for maybe 5 people to be on break at once. Maybe. The room is about 15'x10' and has a narrow table, a small counter with a sink, a coffee maker, and a microwave. There is a fridge, and a coat rack. Oh, and an industrial metal garbage can, which blocks the door open. The customer bathroom is directly across from the breakroom. That means while you're eating your lunch, you can hear what goes on in the bathroom. The customers waiting for the bathroom can hear our conversations. Sometimes they come to the door and tell us how icky the bathroom is, want a price check, or demand we help them even though we're on break.
Our handhelds only work in the center of the store. If you go around the perimeter it won't communicate and sits on “connecting.” Why, why couldn't they have got a slightly better router? It's freaking torture to attempt to do markdowns on quilting fabric. Last time, I loaded a bunch of bolts onto a cart and wheeled it to the middle of the store, scanned them all, wheeled it back and re-shelved them. Can we all say waste of time? We have six registers at the front of the store. Two are in the big customer service station. It's where the go-back bins are, and where we mostly do returns. The other register never gets used. Why, you ask? Because during the last remodel the line area got moved so that customers are funneled from the opposite direction and if there is a line, they would have to push through everyone backwards, and go around to the other side of the station. It would be like Costco having one register at the entrance of the store, where the person checking cards stands. So each morning, I have a till which I count, which never has money in it.
What's left? Oh! The stockroom. Each Monday, when we receive freight, the convayor belt blocks the customer bathroom. Since there is some kind of law which says we must provide one, we have to let customers into our super cramped stockroom to use ours. Well. We started getting our trucks at 3AM. Was it because of the bathroom issue? Nope. It was because our DM didn't think we were getting enough stocked. Yeah, because the freight crew couldn't work as fast with customers underfoot. (Actually, the earlier trucks have been good for everyone, I just hate that corporate did it because they decided WE weren't going fast enough when it was totally not our fault)
We have been told that a competitor is coming to our city. Currently no other store in town sells even close to the amount of fabric we do. There are a couple of little quilt shops, but that's it. The one that's coming is the one with the rhyming name. And, while I totally think there is the market for two fabrics stores in our area, I think that store would kill the one I work at. Partly because of the trashy store, and partly because of the way corporate runs things. Hell, if I didn't have specific issues with said competitor (I know, all corporations are evil, I have my reasons) I would jump ship in a heartbeat.
So! Anyone work at someplace worse?
Our wee little town got "rhyming craft store" and "mickey's" (craft store) at the same time a couple of months back, tho. I figure the leadership at one or the other is feeling really optimistic o_O ...That and a 'mermaid coffee'. And yet, even though this is one of those "the interstate IS one of the two main roads" towns, no Cracked-out Barrel ~_~
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