No, we didn't forget about you

[Flood]

Last Saturday, me and coworker L opened. Normally, Saturday is the slow day around here, as none of the workers in any of the local offices are working and therefore don't need the caffeine to go about their days.

But not last Saturday. Last Saturday there was apparently a statewide middleschool one act skit thingie going on at the theater across the street (which may or may not give away my location). Within 15 minutes of opening, we had over 300 middle schoolers, teachers, and parents demanding coffees. Surprisingly, most of them were well behaved. Almost all of them, in fact. There was but one exception.

As I said, 15 minutes after we opened, we got swarmed. L began taking orders and I worked my way down the list as fast as I could. By the time the first mocha was finished, 30 people had ordered. As I turned to the pickup counter and called out "Small Mocha", a woman asked "Oh, did you forget about my Vanilla Cappuccino?"

All I could say at the time was "No, ma'am, I just haven't gotten to it yet."
SC: Why not?
Me: *what I said to keep it short as I was turning back to finish other orders* We're just a little backed up at the moment.

For goat's sake, this was less than two minutes after she placed her order, and none of the FIFTEEN people that placed their orders ahead of her felt that we were taking too long. Especially considering that I was by myself making all these lattes, smoothies, and milkshakes by myself while L was trying to thin the line a bit.

Fortunately, that was the only bit of true suckiness I had to deal with that day. There was one bit of idiocy where a kid called me up to the loft complaining that our TV and Wii were broken, but that turned out to be only because no one had bothered trying to turn the Wii on.

[piratemonkey]

But of course, HER order is so much more important than anyone else's. How could you not know that?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Don't you know it's Fifteenth come, first served?! Get it together!

[gunsage]

Apparently she believed it was all about LIFO, not FIFO. Kudos for any accounting profs that get it.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Apparently she believed it was all about LIFO, not FIFO. Kudos for any accounting profs that get it.

Last in First out...First in First out.

Can I trade kudos for cookies?

[gunsage]

Can't give you what I don't have. Refer to the "person above you" column for a nice chained combo, thar.

[chainedbarista]

gahh, of all the places to encounter accounting based references! *head implodes*

m'am, as much as we'd like to forget about you, you just won't let us.

[Primer]

Apparently she believed it was all about LIFO, not FIFO. Kudos for any accounting profs that get it.

AAAACCCKKK!!! I thought I was done with that! I don't teach that any more!

But it could have been worse...they could have been trying to keep "perpetual." See if you can figure out how that would have been worked. (Hint: She'd probably still be waiting to place her order.)

Last in First out...First in First out.

And to teach the kiddos which is which...LIFO is like a bachelor's refrigerator--the stuff in the back has been there so long, it's starting to come to life!

FIFO--everything stays Fresh (rotate stock)

[Lil Bunny]

...

I hate you people.

*goes back to reconciling bank statements with the ledger and wondering where the hell half of these charges went to*

[Broomjockey]

I learned about FIFO in my first job, and that rotating stock is very important.

I learned about LIFO playing Magic: The Gathering, and learned that order of effects is VERY important.

Now you tell me they can be used for accounting?

[Seshat]

And computer programming. We call FIFO a queue, and LIFO a stack.

[Onar]

And computer programming. We call FIFO a queue, and LIFO a stack.

Yay, some one got to it before I did.

"Ma'am, we run a queue here, not a stack."

I'd like to see a store that runs recursion. I'll have you know I just forced myself not to post the theory on how that would work.

XD

[Geek King]

Actually, LIFO and FIFO are also very important in programming databases and sorting algorithms. I won't even get into wierder stuff like middle sorts.

[HYHYBT]

I'd like to see a store that runs recursion. I'll have you know I just forced myself not to post the theory on how that would work.

I don't know how it would work, or if it would work, but I know the store would be located somewhere hot and firey.

What do LIFO and FIFO have to do with accounting?

(When they had the fireworks I had a queue running for ice cream orders. Anything else you could get almost right away, but the poor machine couldn't freeze as fast as people were ordering. I had it written down, and most people were understanding and either waited their turns or ordered something else (since the cashiers were telling them in advance about the wait; it was still 20 minutes for a while). Just a couple of them I had to show the list so they could see I hadn't passed them over and there were still others ahead of them, and only one who still wouldn't believe me. Yes, I *know* 20+ minutes for an Oreo McFlurry is a long wait. We're just not, and can't be, set up for hundreds of people showing up at once and most of them wanting ice cream since it only happens one day a year. We'd done as many sundaes (minus topping) and shakes in advance as we could and put them in the freezer, but they ran out and it doesn't work with flurries anyway.

[matty]

On our of our major television tabloid "current affairs" programs (local government "gone mad", terrible tenants, terrible landlords, consumer rip-offs etc), there was a story about how supermarkets were "ripping off their customers".

The reporter talked about how supermarket staff were instructed to sell food with the earliest use-by date first (in that "this is horrible" voice).

Oh no, supermarkets are using well-established stock rotation/FIFO methods - this is the end of the world - I think a class action is in order, right?