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Anybody but me realize that Suckiness (and stupidity) is just as infectious, and just as dangerous, as the Zompocolypse? For those who don't believe me, I submit the following.
What seems like a million years ago (but that is just wishful thinking on my part), I worked as a CSM at Wally World. I also got promoted to CSM right before that years 'Black Friday'. The management in all it's wisdom decided to close on the day before 'Black Friday' so everything could be ready the big rush (Just asking for trouble) For those who have experienced this..you know what is coming..run now..it may be your only hope.
For those who have never been working on a 'Black Friday', let me explain how it works. About anywhere from 12 to 8 hours before a store opens, especially one like Wally World, a line begins to form. That line grows and grows, and people become agitated, grumpy, tired, hungry, thirsty, and who knows what all else. They have to have their 'deals' however, so leaving the line is impossible. People will try to cut in line, fight over a group of people leaving one person in line and switching out, and otherwise become a MOB.
It gets worse, however. See when the morning crew (which I got 'volunteered for' since I didn't work the previous night (as the store was closed and cashiers/csm's were not needed when it was closed)) tries to get into the door, people will try to force their way in. Yeah, even if you go through a back door, which in this particular store we were not supposed to do. You pretty much have to bulldoze your way in.
Well once in, you get the pounding on the glass, the rattling of the doors, as you try to get set up to be able to check out the horde of zomb...I mean customers at the front. Now as they get more impatient their IQ drops,until they might as well be zombies they have none left.
Now normally there is a lot of pushing/yelling/etc but the suckiness is manageable. I wouldn't be posting this if that were the case.
We had promoted <super hot item> (I forget what it was, but it wasn't the PS3, Xbox 360, or whatever..that was after my time> which was going to be at an insanely low price. We had a good deal of <Super hot item>, and were expecting a big semi of <super hot item>. 5 minutes before opening..no semi. We are told that semi won't be coming till late evening now..as the one that had been on its way had gotten in an accident. So..we knew that we didn't have <super hot item> (lack of preparation and foresight on Management's part was going to be an emergency on OUR part.)
Oh well, too late..door opens. Madness ensues, but for the first...hour things are only insane, not absolutely insane. Until we ran out of <Super hot item>. I don't remember what <super hot item> was, but I do remember we didn't have anything that close to it. Closest thing we had to it was about twice the cost. Anybody see where this is going? Good.
It started like this. One customer declared loudly. "BAIT AND SWITCH! We should get product X for Y's cost!!!" (Which is like asking for a Ipad because an mp3 player was sold out).
We didn't even get a chance to do much before another customer said "YEAH! Bait and Switch is illegal!! If they don't give us X for Y's cost, we should SUE!"
Then it just snowballed from there, to the point of a near riot (they were not doing anything but screaming, no trashing the place or assaulting employees at least). So the front end tries to reason with them, explain that it is not even in the same stratosphere, telling them about the semi, and absolutely refusing to ring up the other item for the sale price.
Of course we all know that corporate caved (Oh how I wished I had not been working right then..we are talking over 200 dollars difference here). However, in this instance, I don't really blame them. Violence was only moments away, and the suckiness was spreading like a mega virus.
Now..for that big of an override..you needed to have a key. Only CSM's and management has a key. So..can anybody guess what happened? Every blasted one of the higher end item bought had to have an override. So .. yep you guessed it, more suckiness.
MoD - Manager on Duty
Me - Guess? (Somebody who has cronic foot in mouth disease cause they are TOO honest)
MoD - "What is taking so long?!! There are lines back to dairy!"
Me - "It's <item x>, we have to override every single one of them. If you and the other management hadn't folded faster then a professional poker player with a 9 of clubs high we wouldn't be in this mess!"
MoD - "Mytical watch your tone with me! Get these people through here. Call more people up."
Me - "This is it, unless you and the rest of the managers want to hope on a register, we have no more people who have ever even touched a register. I could jump on one, but then there would be nobody to key these blasted overrides!"
MoD - "No more excuses, get it done!"
Me - "Call people in then. Cause it ain't going any faster until we have more people."
MoD - "You want fired or written up?"
Me - "Go for it. Do whatever you got to do, impossible is impossible. Now, the longer we stand here the longer the lines are. If you want me in your office after this madness is over, I'll be there with bells on..and I will still tell you what idiots you are."
Needless to say I got written up, but I really didn't care (it was my first write up, and the first negative thing on my record). They finally DID call in extra cashiers, managers, and CSMs. By that time the new <super hot items> were in, and the madness was pretty much over.
Edit : It was kind of scary to see normally somewhat rational people during this day. Zombies are downright civil and NICE compared when mob mentality settles in to a large group.
Edit the second : Yeah I know they may have had little choice to cave, or violence probably would have followed, but couldn't they have made sure that there were enough people with keys and realized how horrible this was going to be at least? *sighs*
Yes I realize this might be considered a MIM thing, but trust me .. the suckiness of the zomb...I mean customers was much much worse on that day.
What seems like a million years ago (but that is just wishful thinking on my part), I worked as a CSM at Wally World. I also got promoted to CSM right before that years 'Black Friday'. The management in all it's wisdom decided to close on the day before 'Black Friday' so everything could be ready the big rush (Just asking for trouble) For those who have experienced this..you know what is coming..run now..it may be your only hope.
For those who have never been working on a 'Black Friday', let me explain how it works. About anywhere from 12 to 8 hours before a store opens, especially one like Wally World, a line begins to form. That line grows and grows, and people become agitated, grumpy, tired, hungry, thirsty, and who knows what all else. They have to have their 'deals' however, so leaving the line is impossible. People will try to cut in line, fight over a group of people leaving one person in line and switching out, and otherwise become a MOB.
It gets worse, however. See when the morning crew (which I got 'volunteered for' since I didn't work the previous night (as the store was closed and cashiers/csm's were not needed when it was closed)) tries to get into the door, people will try to force their way in. Yeah, even if you go through a back door, which in this particular store we were not supposed to do. You pretty much have to bulldoze your way in.
Well once in, you get the pounding on the glass, the rattling of the doors, as you try to get set up to be able to check out the horde of zomb...I mean customers at the front. Now as they get more impatient their IQ drops,
Now normally there is a lot of pushing/yelling/etc but the suckiness is manageable. I wouldn't be posting this if that were the case.
We had promoted <super hot item> (I forget what it was, but it wasn't the PS3, Xbox 360, or whatever..that was after my time> which was going to be at an insanely low price. We had a good deal of <Super hot item>, and were expecting a big semi of <super hot item>. 5 minutes before opening..no semi. We are told that semi won't be coming till late evening now..as the one that had been on its way had gotten in an accident. So..we knew that we didn't have <super hot item> (lack of preparation and foresight on Management's part was going to be an emergency on OUR part.)
Oh well, too late..door opens. Madness ensues, but for the first...hour things are only insane, not absolutely insane. Until we ran out of <Super hot item>. I don't remember what <super hot item> was, but I do remember we didn't have anything that close to it. Closest thing we had to it was about twice the cost. Anybody see where this is going? Good.
It started like this. One customer declared loudly. "BAIT AND SWITCH! We should get product X for Y's cost!!!" (Which is like asking for a Ipad because an mp3 player was sold out).
We didn't even get a chance to do much before another customer said "YEAH! Bait and Switch is illegal!! If they don't give us X for Y's cost, we should SUE!"
Then it just snowballed from there, to the point of a near riot (they were not doing anything but screaming, no trashing the place or assaulting employees at least). So the front end tries to reason with them, explain that it is not even in the same stratosphere, telling them about the semi, and absolutely refusing to ring up the other item for the sale price.
Of course we all know that corporate caved (Oh how I wished I had not been working right then..we are talking over 200 dollars difference here). However, in this instance, I don't really blame them. Violence was only moments away, and the suckiness was spreading like a mega virus.
Now..for that big of an override..you needed to have a key. Only CSM's and management has a key. So..can anybody guess what happened? Every blasted one of the higher end item bought had to have an override. So .. yep you guessed it, more suckiness.
MoD - Manager on Duty
Me - Guess? (Somebody who has cronic foot in mouth disease cause they are TOO honest)
MoD - "What is taking so long?!! There are lines back to dairy!"
Me - "It's <item x>, we have to override every single one of them. If you and the other management hadn't folded faster then a professional poker player with a 9 of clubs high we wouldn't be in this mess!"
MoD - "Mytical watch your tone with me! Get these people through here. Call more people up."
Me - "This is it, unless you and the rest of the managers want to hope on a register, we have no more people who have ever even touched a register. I could jump on one, but then there would be nobody to key these blasted overrides!"
MoD - "No more excuses, get it done!"
Me - "Call people in then. Cause it ain't going any faster until we have more people."
MoD - "You want fired or written up?"
Me - "Go for it. Do whatever you got to do, impossible is impossible. Now, the longer we stand here the longer the lines are. If you want me in your office after this madness is over, I'll be there with bells on..and I will still tell you what idiots you are."
Needless to say I got written up, but I really didn't care (it was my first write up, and the first negative thing on my record). They finally DID call in extra cashiers, managers, and CSMs. By that time the new <super hot items> were in, and the madness was pretty much over.
Edit : It was kind of scary to see normally somewhat rational people during this day. Zombies are downright civil and NICE compared when mob mentality settles in to a large group.
Edit the second : Yeah I know they may have had little choice to cave, or violence probably would have followed, but couldn't they have made sure that there were enough people with keys and realized how horrible this was going to be at least? *sighs*
Yes I realize this might be considered a MIM thing, but trust me .. the suckiness of the zomb...I mean customers was much much worse on that day.
) doing autopulls at the Big Bullseye. I knew exactly what flat to avoid until about an hour before my shift...ahem..."ended." It was the toy flat. I would never see any of those pulls finished if I started with toys.
but I never started on Black Friday. I've never shopped on Black Friday! Now I don't buy that much anymore. I haven't been in a mall in two years. 
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