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So. Some of you miiiiiight have heard about this little bitty 'blizzard' thing that's wandering loose around the East Coast right now. Since yesterday was a holiday, and two days ago they weren't predicting a blizzard, people couldn't get things a day ahead of time, so I give them a tiiiiiiny bit of leeway for waiting to the last minute. But only to the people who showed up EARLY.
We had a line of people outside the store for snowthrowers. It was longer than the line we had for Black Friday--the entire length of the store front. The coworker who opened at the service desk got screamed at for cutting in line when she tried to push through so she could get in. The store manager was on top of things, though, and passed out tickets to the line. He stayed on hand in the seasonal department to talk to customers and rotate out empty pallets for new merchandise. Snowthrowers were replaced with ice melt and firewood, shovels with generators. He also did most of the manager overrides I needed during the day since the head cashier was on register for the insane morning.
We were sold out of even the $999 commercial-grade models within an hour. In under an hour after that, we were out of shovels. By the time I left, we were dangerously low on ice melt, had sold half our firewood supply, and only had the smallest ice scrapers left.
And, of course, alllllll day, every other customer was whining "How can you be out of shovels?!" So many deer-in-the-headlights stares. So many people simply turning around and leaving the store, though some of them did thank me for answering. One customer told me she'd driven there in the horrible snow (yeah, so did everyone else), dodging snowplows that were ramming cars, JUST to get a shovel, like she expected that to get her one.
The WORST, though, was the wife of a customer I've ranted about before. He's a bit of a weasel, not allowed to use credit cards OR checks at our store without ID (he usually pays with cash or store credit), and tries to use an expired out-of-state ID for returns without a receipt. But he's also unfailingly polite, one of our highest-spending contractors, and never makes a fuss when we have to refuse something.
He came in around noon for a snowthrower. His wife was LIVID that we were out of them. Their oldest son, maybe 12, tried to get an attitude with me, too. Sorry, kid, I'm just going to laugh at you.
But the guy talked to the store manager (the manager knows all the major contractors on sight), then came back to his wife and told her "There's nothing they can do. They simply don't have one in stock they can sell to us." Ooooh, was she pissed.
Oh, and soooooo many customers wanted us to tell them where they could find snow shovels. "Well, you can go to the K or grocery store across the highway, but we've been telling people that since 10 AM, so they're probably out too." Seriously. Visibility was already down to only a block, maybe a block and a half, when I left at 2 PM, and people were JUST coming out to find snow shovels.
We had a line of people outside the store for snowthrowers. It was longer than the line we had for Black Friday--the entire length of the store front. The coworker who opened at the service desk got screamed at for cutting in line when she tried to push through so she could get in. The store manager was on top of things, though, and passed out tickets to the line. He stayed on hand in the seasonal department to talk to customers and rotate out empty pallets for new merchandise. Snowthrowers were replaced with ice melt and firewood, shovels with generators. He also did most of the manager overrides I needed during the day since the head cashier was on register for the insane morning.
We were sold out of even the $999 commercial-grade models within an hour. In under an hour after that, we were out of shovels. By the time I left, we were dangerously low on ice melt, had sold half our firewood supply, and only had the smallest ice scrapers left.
And, of course, alllllll day, every other customer was whining "How can you be out of shovels?!" So many deer-in-the-headlights stares. So many people simply turning around and leaving the store, though some of them did thank me for answering. One customer told me she'd driven there in the horrible snow (yeah, so did everyone else), dodging snowplows that were ramming cars, JUST to get a shovel, like she expected that to get her one.
The WORST, though, was the wife of a customer I've ranted about before. He's a bit of a weasel, not allowed to use credit cards OR checks at our store without ID (he usually pays with cash or store credit), and tries to use an expired out-of-state ID for returns without a receipt. But he's also unfailingly polite, one of our highest-spending contractors, and never makes a fuss when we have to refuse something.
He came in around noon for a snowthrower. His wife was LIVID that we were out of them. Their oldest son, maybe 12, tried to get an attitude with me, too. Sorry, kid, I'm just going to laugh at you.
But the guy talked to the store manager (the manager knows all the major contractors on sight), then came back to his wife and told her "There's nothing they can do. They simply don't have one in stock they can sell to us." Ooooh, was she pissed.Oh, and soooooo many customers wanted us to tell them where they could find snow shovels. "Well, you can go to the K or grocery store across the highway, but we've been telling people that since 10 AM, so they're probably out too." Seriously. Visibility was already down to only a block, maybe a block and a half, when I left at 2 PM, and people were JUST coming out to find snow shovels.
don't wait until after disaster strikes and you're left standing in a line a mile long waiting for the dozen or so generators to be sold out.
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