It's 9:01.

[notalwaysright]

This isn't sucky, it's just something I've noticed so much it's a running joke. We open at 9:00. Now you think I'm going to complain about the sad group who stand peering in the door like vultures Surprise! It's not.


So like I said, we open at 9:00. Without fail, every single morning, at 9:01 there is a line for the bathroom. We have one unisex bathroom for customers. I've mentioned before, we need another customer bathroom, but it's just not happening. I've tried to come up with little stories in my head to explain the rush to the bathroom. A person drops her kids off at school, grabs some coffee, and by the time she gets to the store she needs to pee. Okay. That doesn't explain the fact that she waited outside for ten minutes when the coffee shop is about a minute walk from our front doors. But whatever. Again, not sucky, just... I dunno, something I have never done. Sometimes I tell myself maybe they have some condition or are on medication, or just don't feel like going over to the green mermaid. Fine.

Also, occasionally right after we open I might run to the back to grab a sip of water. It will never fail that on that morning I get a page on the headset "can we get someone to the cutting counter?" And when I get there, the person is outraged that they had to "go all the way to the register to get some help!" When I look at the time, it's still 9:00, possibly 9:01. I know, I should be at the flipping counter, fair enough. But they must have flat out ran through the store to the counter saw nobody, ran up the the register, complained, then ran back to the counter for the timeline to work. Any other day I won't have my first customer for ten minutes.

Oh, the other day it was about 9:05 and the cashier calls for change, it turns out the second or third person of the day had a $100+ cash return.

Also I feel so bad for the little kids who are dragged in at 9:00, and are still there when I leave hours later. Poor things, half the time the parent isn't even really shopping, she's chatting with her friend or texting. Bonus points if after two hours of leisurely strolling, she comes up to the counter demanding to be helped next because she's in a hurry, and her kids are tired/sick/hungry/wet.

So that's all. Mostly not sucky, just stuff I've noticed in the mornings.

[Food Lady]

I totally do that amble around and then realize I need to leave soon thing. But I don't whine at the cashier; it's my fault I wasn't watching the time! I do not understand how someone can need help at the counter at 9:01. It's like, Were you hiding in the back so you could shop all night and then grab the first employee 60 seconds after we open? Does not compute.

[greek_jester]

With regards to the queue for the loo, perhaps your loo is kept in better condition than the green mermaid's loo? I know that there are some places in town where I'll decide to hold it rather than go into them, so I'll end up going a few shops down then buy some silly little thing so that I'm officially a customer.

[XCashier]

Oh, the other day it was about 9:05 and the cashier calls for change, it turns out the second or third person of the day had a $100+ cash return.

And if it isn't this, it's ten people in a row paying for a $5 or less purchase with a $20 or higher. There go all the fives...

[Jay 2K Winger]

And if it isn't this, it's ten people in a row paying for a $5 or less purchase with a $20 or higher. There go all the fives...

Oh, I hate this. I had a coworker once at the wholesale club do this. She worked with overnight crew, but had worked day shifts as well, and one day I'd just opened the express register when she comes up with a gallon of milk and hands me a $100 bill.

J2K: "Hey, do you have anything smaller? I just opened up and this'll wipe out my till."
Her: "That's not my problem! I'm paying with the $100."

I stared at her for a moment, realized I'd get nowhere arguing with her, so I said. "All right, then. Wait right there."

I took her $100 bill, went over to the cash office (which was five feet away), and exchanged the bill with the cash office manager, making sure to tell them "[Name]'s my first customer of the day, has a [$x.xx] order, wants to pay with a hundred."

Of course, being that it was early in the morning, the cash office manager just happened to "have a few things to do first" and told me to "hang on a minute."

A couple minutes later, I step out of the office with five $20s and finish up CW's transaction. She was giving me a grumpy look at making her wait, but if she's gonna be petty and insist on paying with a $100 bill first thing in the morning, I can be petty right back and make her wait while I get her damn change.

[Aragarthiel]

I think it's worse when you're a customer and they don't have change for anything bigger than a $5 first thing in the morning, and nobody paid with big bills so there's no reason why they shouldn't. It happened at school once, there were four of us paying for four breakfasts with a $20, needed $12-ish in change, and we were third in line.

[Android Kaeli]

Going along with the comments about $100's first thing in the morning, had one of the cashiers at the Warehouse come over to the café one morning around 9:30 or so, wanting to get some cash back. Told her that's fine as long as it's not a whole lot of money, since the Warehouse doesn't open it's doors to the basic membership until 10 and the café area wouldn't get busy until 11 or so. She said she'd need about $500 or so back, I told her that I have no where near that amount for cash over -- and wouldn't see it until after 1 pm.

She got PISSED because she had to wait for a manager, wait for the cash lady, wait for her food, and a whole lot of other things -- even complained to the manager that we should have that kind of money in the drawer so early in the morning! Manager did ask her if she hit her head on the way into work, 'cause she should know that no register in the Warehouse (well, save for the customer service desk) has more then $XXX amount in the register.

[notalwaysright]

I'm not sure we'd even be able to do a cash return for $500... I mean, we'd have to deplete the change fund, so much of the money would be in small bills and rolled coins. Probably they'd offer a gift card or corporate check, and the customer would not be pleased.

Our bathroom isn't particularly nice, though in the morning it's at least clean. It only gets cleaned before we open and then not at all during the day. After a few hours an employee might need to pick up toilet paper or refill the soap, but it's not our job to clean. It's pretty dimly lit, too. I have only been in the coffee shop bathroom a couple of times, and it has been very clean. To be fair, I often use the men's room, because it is exactly the same as the women's, and there is always someone in the women's side. I suppose that's odd, but there's no point in waiting when there's a perfectly good bathroom empty, and no men waiting. A green mermaid employee suggested it in the first place.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yeah, if someone had come to the wholesale club wanting change for $500, we'd have straight up told them to go to a bank.

[notalwaysright]

Long reply to my own post. *_*

The same thing with the bathroom this morning, except the next person in line stood directly in front of the bathroom door, blocking it with her shopping cart!

Oh, this morning we had someone request a chair to be brought to the front of the store so the customer could sit and wait for the bus. To explain this, we used to have chairs at the front of the store which we don't have now that we remodeled. The front of the store is much better now. When you walk in there are carts to the left, and to the right. That way people coming in can grab carts from the left, while the people leaving can return the carts on the right, and nobody gets in anyone's way. Sorry if that's hard to picture.

Anyway. The point is that there is no good place to put chairs anymore, and we aren't supposed to have them up there at all.* This was communicated over the radio, unfortunately we had a certain cashier who just kept repeating "I have a customer asking for a chair to be brought to the front." Yes, we heard you, you block-head. We were busy and shorthanded, so that chair didn't get brought up right away. It shouldn't have been brought up at all, but that cashier seriously kept paging until one of the kindhearted managers was free and went up. By that time the woman had left. The chair went back to the pattern table, where it should damn well stay! I know people are used to the chairs, but we have to break them of it, because we aren't allowed to have the chairs there anymore.

Maybe if enough people complained to corporate we'd get benches outside, but I doubt that would appease these people. It rains a lot here. I believe the closest bus stop (it's not that close, people, it's two streets away) doesn't have a shelter, but come on people! It's the pacific northwest, expect rain. I swear, the weather forecast just says "chance of rain" for two weeks straight. I should note, today it was not raining. It was like 50 degrees and partly cloudy. Though now it's sunny and raining/hailing. Yay weather!

*I'm sure if someone had a genuine need we could bring one up for a few minutes, then immediately take it away. However just saying that you're waiting for the bus doesn't qualify.

[wolfie]

It's the pacific northwest, expect rain. I swear, the weather forecast just says "chance of rain" for two weeks straight. I should note, today it was not raining. It was like 50 degrees and partly cloudy. Though now it's sunny and raining/hailing.

If the Pacific Northwest is anything like the Pacific Southwest (Canadian perspective), you have 2 kinds of weather: raining, and "not raining? wait a few minutes and it will be". Vancouverites (even those transplanted to the Big Smoke) don't tan - we rust.

[Seanette]

It's the pacific northwest, expect rain. I swear, the weather forecast just says "chance of rain" for two weeks straight.

I grew up on the Oregon coast. There was a joke about how when the weather forecast said "X% chance of rain", it meant that it would rain X% of the day.