Day Three

It rained this morning and I left my house early. I didn't want to be late after the 24-day-early verbal warnings I received from non-managers the last time I worked. So of course, there would be a three car collision that blocked the only way I knew to get to the store. I got there three minutes late, but thankfully many people were late for the same reason.

I got to my register and looked to my left. It happened to be that I liked every single person I was working with that day. I immediately thought, "What the hell am I supposed to write on my blog for today?"

Calm After the Storm

This shift went by incredibly slowly due to two variables. Thursdays are the slowest days at this store because Wednesdays are the biggest days due to new sales. The store is flooded and barely anyone shows up on Thursday. There's also the fact that I was on register 8, the register no one goes to because it is on the far end. Then I thought, "Surely, I'll have one interesting, bitchy or crazy customer." Wrong.

Every single customer, and I mean EVERY single one that came through my line, was kind, happy and sweet. What if every day was like this? I would have to quit writing this blog. I also thought that this lack of noteworthy customers and employees was too a "calm" of sorts. The first two days was a goldmine of characters, I had to pick the best of many on both days. It makes sense that I would have this easy going day of kind people. It means tomorrow promises to be good.

Comic Con

MALE CUSTOMER: Your raspberries look like they traveled through Middle Earth and back.
ME: So...they're bad?

This was probably the strangest thing I heard anyone say all day. So many things could have been said in response. Did he think our raspberries looked like Gollum? Maybe he thought they looked like they had been chewed on by an army of orcs, or stabbed by the groaning, cloaked, former kings who rode those winged monster bird things. My knowledge of the Lord of the Rings trilogy doesn't stretch far past the few times I have seen the movies. I could never score a real geek.

Kids

The best entertainment all day came from kids. A group of siblings came up to my register and were in awe of the conveyor belt. Upon touching it they would exclaim, "WHOA." They pressed their hands to the moving belt as it went forward and each person closest to the sensor would immediately run to the end so that the belt could keep going. This sort of thing always entertains everyone but the mother of the children.

Another pair of kids were wandering around the front end of the store while their dad was checking out. They ran from display to display touching every piece of merchandise they could. They stopped at the sunglasses and tried some on. Instant superstars. These kids broke into poses and I think I heard them mention acting like "Mission Impossible." I forgot how quickly a kid's world changes when they are in costume. I tried to remember my own imagination when it was as vivid and wild as it was when I was a child.

The award for "Most Hilarious Kid" came from a little girl who was really cold in the store. Her mother was checking out her groceries with her 2 year old, who was in the cart. While the mom wasn't paying attention, this girl walked over to a heated display in the deli where hot rotisserie chicken and hot French bread was kept. This girl stood by the heat until her mom called her. It was then that the little girl grabbed a bag of French bread, opened it up and inserted her whole arm into the bag and let out a huge sigh of relief. Warmth at last! Her mom was not happy at all, she yanked her daughter back to the cart and paid for the French bread she said she had to buy now that her daughter put her arm all over it. I think she tried to scold the girl, but I think I made it difficult for her to do that since I was DYING of laughter.

That's it. One Thursday afternoon/evening shift with a dream team of coworkers, wonderful customers and silly kids. Smiles all day long and plenty of positive attitudes going around, the kind of working environment most businesses hope for but are only seen in the training videos (and those people are only smiling because they are getting paid to do it). It was boring and slow but also nice. This doesn't happen everyday and I'm glad it happened once.