Wherein Irv regretfully returns to work

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

It is a sad fact of life that all good things must come to an end, and that includes vacations from work, so today I was back at it for the first time in a week.

I went to punch in on the computer, and the time clock program went tits-up. None of us knew how to restart it. Not a good omen.

Backroom Buffoonery

While I was gone, the stock people continued straightening up the backroom. It looks marvelous. All the furniture is organized and together so counting it was a snap this morning.

Except for the 8 items on my list that weren't in the backroom but still had locations, because the idiots doing the carryouts don't delete items when they take the last of them. The past few weeks we've only had 2-3 items that were gone but still had locations. I'd like it to be zero, but that will never happen.

And then I caught our lazy slug of a salesfloor supervisor taking the last of a certain office chair for a carryout and not deleting the location. When she came back I asked her why she didn't delete the location. She said "Oh, doesn't it do that automatically when you take the last of something?"

I should mention this woman has several years experience working for my company at another store. Items never did automatically delete from the backroom when the last one was taken, they never will and they never should. Given that the on-hands get gradually fucked up as time goes by, we'd have nothing but headaches. So either she lied about her experience or she's just unbelievably dense.

I WANT KLEENEX!!!11!

With older people, there are those who are very sweet, kindly and polite, and those who are organic vessels for transporting entitlement cheap. So guess which kind asked me for Kleenex this morning?

She wanted the stuff that was on ad. I looked for her and it turned out we were sold out.

: WHY ISDN'T THERE ANY KLEENEX! IT JUST WENT ON SALE YESTERDAY!
: Well, Kleenex is frequently on sale and might have been last week. We haven't gotten any more in.
: Well why do you advertise stuff and never have it?
: The ads are planned months in advance and corporate doesn't know what they will be able to get. We can't control that at the store.
: Well you should!
: If you want to file a complaint, you can go to the service desk and get a survey and contact corporate personally.
:You should be doing that!
: You should go screw.

Geez lady, you're 75 going on 4 for chrissakes. I'm surprised I didn't get an "I know you are but what am I?" out of you. It's just stupid Kleenex. It isn't my problem we're only getting one truck a week and people are catching colds and the flu. You can buy it anyplace. You just blow your schnozz with it and throw it away, or at least I hope you do. With the way some people get over Kleenex or Puffs I wonder if they're insulating their homes with the stuff.

Oh, and Numbnuts is still festering around the store and even more ripe since I last encountered him. He came down the aisle where I was stocking shampoo to ask me where the Ziploc bags were, and his smell nearly made my eyes water. I just pointed and told him to go to household supplies. Nowadays whenever I'm near him I hold my breath and make no effort to hide the fact I'm doing so.

[Apathy]

So, this supervisor was either lying about being a moron or is a moron? Which makes her the bigger idiot?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

So, this supervisor was either lying about being a moron or is a moron? Which makes her the bigger idiot?

I'd go with both for $500, Alex.

[hinakiba777]

So, this supervisor was either lying about being a moron or is a moron? Which makes her the bigger idiot?

The latter makes her an idiot. The former makes her a dishonest idiot.

I would rather an honest idiot any day.

[Evil Queen]

God, just tell Numbnuts to take a shower all ready!

[Pagan]

Oh, and Numbnuts is still festering around the store and even more ripe since I last encountered him.

Dammit Irv! It's damn good thing I wasn't eating or drinking or you'd owe me a keyboard.

And I keep seeing Uncle Fester in my head, now, too.

[I_Hate_SCs]

And then I caught our lazy slug of a salesfloor supervisor taking the last of a certain office chair for a carryout and not deleting the location. When she came back I asked her why she didn't delete the location. She said "Oh, doesn't it do that automatically when you take the last of something?"

First off, does your store require anyone pulling items from the back to be 'backroom certified' like mine did? They required it because of errors like you described---the best way to keep the errors down was to restrict those who can pull. If your store does require this, go to the backroom team leader and tell her/him what you told us, and request the salesfloor TL's backroom certification be temporarily revoked so she'd have to re-train for it before she can pull again! That is what would happen at my store if your error count fell below a certain percentage.

Either way, who ever heard of the computer system to magically know that the last item was taken? It can't read minds, and there are no sensors to automatically know the last item was taken!

: WHY ISDN'T THERE ANY KLEENEX! IT JUST WENT ON SALE YESTERDAY!
: If you want to file a complaint, you can go to the service desk and get a survey and contact corporate personally.
:You should be doing that!
: You should go screw.

Ugh. These people who think the ad is created at the store level and is based on items available should come in the store around 10am on Sunday (the first day of the ad) and watch customer after customer after customer after customer take the damn kleenex off the shelves, then watch the employees bring box after box after box out to keep the shelf full. Even in this case, they'd still think the ~*~Magical Backroom~*~ would have an unlimited supply of Kleenex!

And also, in regards to having the wench say YOU should complain about not having the product: it doesn't affect you either way if you are sold out. You aren't purchasing the kleenex. I would have not resisted a second to tell the woman "If you are so angry about us being out of stock, I think you would like to tell Corporate yourself about the problem. I'm not the one buying the kleenex, so what makes you think they'll listen to me?"

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

First off, does your store require anyone pulling items from the back to be 'backroom certified' like mine did? They required it because of errors like you described---the best way to keep the errors down was to restrict those who can pull. If your store does require this, go to the backroom team leader and tell her/him what you told us, and request the salesfloor TL's backroom certification be temporarily revoked so she'd have to re-train for it before she can pull again! That is what would happen at my store if your error count fell below a certain percentage.

No.

It would be nice if corporate went back to having autopull on at all times of day and you had to go through backroom training to work as a carryout person, but those won't happen.

Instead, we just have whoever's available carrying out merchandise and doing pulls.

[Gerrinson]

To be honest, I am one of those Puffs Plus people.

But, I have good excuse, if I don't use the kind with lotion in them my skin dries out and I get horrid outbreaks of cold sores. So, I really do need the good kind.

[Boozy]

: Well why do you advertise stuff and never have it?
: The ads are planned months in advance and corporate doesn't know what they will be able to get. We can't control that at the store.

My crappy company does this too! They plan these major promotions months in advance, including point-of-sale posters and signs, special shirts for the staff, and gift-with-purchase stuff. Then they announce two days into what is supposed to be a month-long promotion that they are out of the product in question.

This is especially ridiculous for my company because we are vertically-integrated, which is to say, we make the products we sell. You'd think a single phone call to the winery would settle this issue once and for all. "Will you be able to produce thousands of cases of this wine in time for this promotion?" If they say "No", our marketing department geniuses might reconsider their big plans.

But what do I know? I'm just a part-time sales clerk who has to deal with all the pissed off customers.