Inconvenience

So I was working a side walk sale at work. Lots a merchandise was outside of the store, and all of it had to come in before we could close the doors. There was a lot of people shopping until well after we had to close the doors, often the line was long towards the register. There were two people that were cashiering, and I was one of them, as well as being the only manager on duty after 7. Everyone wants to talk to the manager. Plus I had to make sure all the employees were doing something productive. So, needless to say I was stretched out.

I can tell you right now, when you are in the service industry, you can tell which customers have never worked in the field, because they are the biggest jerks. Perhaps they even have Napoleon complexes, this I know not. They try to bully us around to get a rise. Several people all day were trying to get discounts that they did not deserve, and cheat us out of money. If you have never worked in a retail store, and you think that a pair of Nikes are only 5 or ten dollars in worth after manufacturing, then you are naive. You forget all the people that are involved in the shipping, making, distributing, on Nike's end, and then everyone on our end. All the management, sales, etc., from the company that made the shoe, and the company selling it. Several mouths are fed from one pair of shoe, so please don't steal or try to cheat us out of one pair of shoes. Several people tried, and did accomplish. The heat wore me down, and being stretched thin, people that tried to carry on the argument for too long I gave into, believe me I would not do it again.

I tried to drinking plenty of water all day long, but the amount of Gatorade I drank, (full of salt,) and the caffeine from the excedrine, dehydrated me ultimately. I get migraines when I get dehydrated. Uncomfortable, annoying things. If you have never had them, you are incredibly lucky, and should thank God quite literally. I would rather suffer through a broken arm again than a migraine. Plus on top of all this, the migraine was making me naseous. So I wanted to puke at any moment.

But when you are the boss, DUTY CALLS! So I trudged on through the battlefields, denying this, approving that, yelling at slack employees, talking to senior managers on the phone, making sure everything ran as clockwork, ( everything was a slow clock last night.)

Now, let me get to the part that I have been obsessing over, and wished to right this about now. My work sells guns, if you did not know. There is a lot of legality involved, since guns are federally controlled, and they are dangerous, yet fun, devices. And they should be controlled, especially with our gang ridden streets. However, this requires a lot of paper, both at the time of sale, and release. It can take time, and when there is no time to spare, especially when you only have one cashier beside yourself, a line building up, and you are late in cleaning up.

So you can imagine my horror when I walked up to the gun counter and asked a man if he needed help, and he pulled out a pick up slip saying he needed his shotgun. Ten minutes to closing, and twenty minutes worth of paper work had appeared! I groaned and screamed inside, "How dare he!" I wanted to yell. Did he not see the anarchy of the trenches I am in. Does he not see the sweat and confusion my employees are piled under. I am there leader, and only I could rescue them. But this was customer service, and yelling is not advisable when the customer is always right. So I put my best foot forward, and did what any good soldier should do, remember my training.

Ah yes, my training, all those gun seminars I attended so long ago, and my manager who trained me. What did they all say, "lie." To tell them the that the place, ( I am vague for only security reasons, I do not wish to get my self in trouble with secrets I must not share, for I am bound by oath,) that the place of which we do our background checks are closed, and they will have to come back later. Yet, I felt that just to say that was not enough, no, to sell the lie, I would have to make it look like I tried, they would appreciate me more for it. It is not my fault that it is down, then I could go back to fighting the anarchy, and the recession, by bringing in the big bucks, and closing the store. I could not afford wasted time on this blasted paper work, when all I wanted was to go home, and soothe my aching head, which I could not do, NO, for it is against my solemn duty.

So I go into the office, sit down for a moment, I took it into myself, relaxed, and breathed out the anarchy. Then I arose and told them that I was sorry, but the system was down for the night, and if they could come back later.

Then what they told me would haunt me for the rest of the night. They said what an inconvenience this was for them, and how they wanted a percent of there transaction. It was not even that they wanted a percent off their transaction, but that it was an inconvenience. WHEN THEY CAME IN SO CLOSE TO CLOSING, WHEN EVERYTHING WAS SO CHAOTIC. The blinding selfishness in their eyes when they could not see what was going on. People are so cold, and inconsiderate. True they did not know of all my trevails, of my headache, but I could care less at that point if the gun was for shooting the invading aliens the next day, (when I picked my gun up, I did so in the middle of the day, so I was prepared,) there was work to be done. They had no right to say such a thing, for they had in fact, been an inconvenience on me, and taken me away from my staff.

(It is true that I do exagerrate how much my staff needed me, but not too far.)

We got the merchandise and all the customers out 15 minutes after we were supposed to close. We stayed late, ( the overtime would have been sweeter if I had not felt like drilling a hole in the side of my head to relieve the pressure,) and we worked hard all night. I say this so you know that I did not exaggerrate the work that needed to be done, and to further stress my point.

So please, try not to be an inconvenience to the customer service people that serve you. They are there, true, for you, however they are human beings to with stress levels, anger, and soft spots. If you were in there position what would you do. Do you really need those Air Jordans by tomorrows game? Do you really need that shotgun for tomorrows hunting trip? Just let it go, there are things in effect far bigger than you wherever you go, and late at night all the employees want to do is go home and go to bed. This is my plea.

I bid you Adieu.

John Gifford