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I did not know my store was doing secondary doorbusters at 10am, so I arrived to a line at the store and front door being closed. I go in the exit anyway, but it was a bit strange. Also they had armed security at the exit, two of them. And security roving the store, which was a first. In the past they just used LP. That was pretty much my excitement. My store decided that ordering 9 of my company's big sale item was a good idea, so they were gone before I arrived. Thankfully no one cared.
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Nov 30, 2013 10:44
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| # ? May 19, 2024 10:38 |
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Wireless retail is pretty slow on Black Friday because best buy has way better deals than anything they are willing to do, so traffic wise I have been surviving fine. It's just the hours since my store is understaffed, in at 56 for this week working 6 days, and I looked at the schedule and there is probably no way I'm getting much less weekly until January. I'll take the sweet overtime money, but I'll probably get sick of the hours really quick.
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Nov 30, 2013 14:09
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I almost feel bad. I called out today. But I worked the hell shift on Thanksgiving and then came back in a few hours later for a full Black Friday shift. I slept 12 hours last night and I'm still exhausted. Fun stories from Thursday: Best customer goes to a little girl who kept making funny faces at me. I made them back. It was pretty  Worst customer goes to a woman who maxed out her credit cards buying 7 $100 32" TV's and then acted like it was my fault that she ran out of money for TV #8. Most fun was the woman who came through my line with huge piles of DVDs. She had lots of duplicates and had them all very neatly organized by which store she was ad-matching. I had so many overrides it took two separate manager approvals to put the transaction through. It took 20 minutes and I had such a nice time chatting with her about movies while we waited on approvals that I gave no fucks about the grumpy customers behind her. Honorable mention goes to the people who came through my line with a bean bag chair and decided they didn't want it. I got a chair for 45 minutes that I wasn't allowed to sit in. 
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Nov 30, 2013 17:16
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This morning I got to throw away 50 turkeys that didn't sell. That's 3 full shopping carts of fresh turkeys. I can't believe how much food goes to waste in grocery.
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Dec 2, 2013 02:24
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Heh. On Thanksgiving day I pulled 4 1/4 carts worth of baked goods. 3 were breads and buns, one was nothing but hamburger buns, and the next day about another cartload's worth of hamburger buns were due to be pulled. Why did we make so many hamburger buns for Thanksgiving?  Another cart was mostly pumpernickel bread. I just went to the shelves and swept 'em all off into the cart, there were so many with the same expiration date. Dinner rolls of course sold completely out 
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Dec 2, 2013 03:42
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I had to mark down about 40 turkeys to $.59/lb and $.69/lb before they expired so I wouldn't have to throw them away. I was still the third worst store in out district out of 20 or so in throw-a-ways in our department the day after Thanksgiving. I live in area where people have expendable money so there's a lot fewer people looking for product that's discounted/marked down.
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Dec 2, 2013 08:14
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So I've gotten back into the job I was posting about far, FAR earlier in this thread. Merchandising, I make stores pretty. Though this company does something new that I didn't do in my old company, they throw a bunch of stores my way, say "these need to be done by this day" and let me do whatever, as long as its all done by the due date. So having no life I pretty much work 12 hours and finish everything ASAP. So while its cool that I can kinda work my own pace, as long as its within the times given to me my god the managers I need to speak with. Some people get irrationally hostile that a third party vendor has defiled their store. I've had moments where I've been intentionally ignored by a manager, making me stay in a store 2 hours longer then I was supposed to be in. Whatever rear end in a top hat, I'm still getting paid for that, and putting down "manager wouldn't see me" goes on your rear end. Also YOUR company pays my wages, along with the usual administrative costs that my company takes, so don't think you're being a passive aggressive dick to the unholy third party by hiding in your office and playing angry birds. What really pissed me off though is what happened tonight. I started at 8, did a few stores in my immediate area, drove 30 miles to another town to do a few stores there, then drive back 30 miles to my area, then continue driving another 20 miles to do work in another town up in the hills, then had to drive back to my area cause my company is full of tightwads that want to minimize expenses for mileage so I don't get paid to my first store or coming home from the last store, so I intentionally do a nearby store first, and another one nearby last so I'm not screwed 40+ miles and almost an hour of drive time, so THATS WHY I'M HERE SO LATE All I had to do today was make sure a headphone display was working fine, the headphones turned on, the volume button worked, the TV showing the right content, trouble shoot any problems, ensure the display isn't damaged, and I also installed a graphic that was missing for almost a month that was sent to my place. I call for a manager to sign off on my sheet just to be questioned ITS VERY ODD THAT A VENDOR IS HERE THIS LATE, WHAT DID YOU DO?! THATS IT?! THATS ALL YOU DID?! YOU CAME IN LATE JUST TO DO THIS, WHY DO YOU WANT ME TO SIGN THIS SHEET?! *throws hands in the air* By jove you got me my lady! I am the enigma known as "display fixer"! I go around to random stores and fix their poo poo for no reason other then kicks! Yes this is what I do! Your company loving hires third party people to make sure poo poo is working! They want to make sure that for Christmas customers can see how these headphones work and not have the headphones be broken! They want to ensure those demos have the right price tag next to them! Yes I have in fact seen stores that had the wrong price tag, customers just look at the numbers and seeing how this pair of headphones at your store is supposedly $299 while everywhere else its only $99 is a very bad thing! So yeah, this rant brought to you by a manager that wanted to not sign my sheet cause she can't wrap her head around companies hiring people to ensure displays and the like are up to date and functional.
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Dec 3, 2013 08:02
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The greatest thing my job ever did was make our check in and check out completely automated through our phones so that I was never obligated to ever talk to a store manager ever again. Managers want nothing to do with any third party person who isn't their employee and would do everything to avoid me, make my job harder, or randomly start giving their employees tasks so they could avoid contact with me. Two stores were the biggest offenders of this and are two stores I'm glad I never have to cover, the big blue retail store, and a small chain of electronics stores that spun off from a grocery store. Also bless you display fixer person, you are my favorite people because if you do that my company doesn't send me random display poo poo to put up with vague instructions. Also all the merchandising third party vendors I've met have been the chillest people and great to shoot the poo poo with about how awful the store we're in is.
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Dec 3, 2013 09:03
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I went to Hobby Lobby as a customer the day after Black Friday. They were having a sale on 50% off all christmas decor. I was looking for ornaments for my chriastmas tree. When I checked out I noticed the cashier had to manually enter the 50% off on each item. It made the transaction take so much longer and there were a ton of other customers there. I felt so much sympathy for those cashiers. Is it really common for the company to not program the sales into the registers? At the big toy store it was all done for us. We only had to worry about the few odd items the wouldn't come up right.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:43
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I feel sorry for everyone when it comes to 3rd party vendors. It sucks as a vendor when you are just trying to get in and get out, and you somehow get put in a line to talk to the store manager with the rest of their staff. It sucks just as bad for a manager who's expected to drop everything to deal with a vendor, who they almost never know is coming. At my store, our 3rd party vendor process is automated for some vendors and not for others. Sometimes I'll be putting out my own fires at the store, I'll get a company truck delivery that needs to be received, and a vendor wants to show me this one little thing and won't understand why they have to wait. I've literally made vendors wait 20+ minutes for my initials, just because I have other time windows I'm worrying about and I don't have 2 minutes to read an invoice. It doesn't help that managers get bombarded with scams. "Hi! Corporate sent me, I just need your signature for the....uh....light that needed fixing." As they hand you a fine-print bill for $3000 for a 'light fixture'. I suspect the main beef though is just the fact that managers see someone who they don't have authority over and it annoys them, haha.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:43
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Thankfully all our 3rd party reps are regulars so it's no big deal when they need a signature, most of them just sign the log when they come in the back anyways. The few that need a manager's signature are ones that come in once a month and supervisors or managers can sign them. Our main problems are the contracted out delivery people. Mainly the magazines and our Payless Shoes (they sell within our stores) deliveries. They're either way late, don't show up at all, deliver the wrong stuff or not enough stuff. They were fine about 6 months ago, but both these companies decided to change their delivery company and they're complete poo poo half the time.
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Dec 4, 2013 02:15
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Buggiezor posted:I went to Hobby Lobby as a customer the day after Black Friday. They were having a sale on 50% off all christmas decor. I was looking for ornaments for my chriastmas tree. When I checked out I noticed the cashier had to manually enter the 50% off on each item. It made the transaction take so much longer and there were a ton of other customers there. I felt so much sympathy for those cashiers.
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Dec 4, 2013 02:30
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Dec 4, 2013 02:54
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It doesn't hurt that HL pay starts at $14 an hour for full time hourly workers. I don't know how many of their employees are full-time vs part-time, having never worked there myself. But it seems they pay much higher than the average retail gig.
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Dec 4, 2013 06:14
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BradleyJamers posted:Thankfully all our 3rd party reps are regulars so it's no big deal when they need a signature, most of them just sign the log when they come in the back anyways. The few that need a manager's signature are ones that come in once a month and supervisors or managers can sign them. The biggest fun for me as a rep is when we covered Walmart and their phones didn't support our old phone clock in system, so we had to get a dated receipt to prove we were there. I was regular enough that I knew a couple people at the customer service desk and they knew me and knew what I needed when I walked in. The horror was when those people weren't there and I had to explain how I needed a non-sales receipt and inevitably had to wait for them to call a CSM because they didn't think they were able to do it (they were). And then doing the same at Best Buy when our system was down and being told by all levels that such a thing didn't exist and I had to buy a pack of gum once just to prove to my boss I was in the store.
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Dec 4, 2013 07:52
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So a few weeks ago, a new manager position opened up; I applied for it, not thinking for a second I would get it, as other managers had applied to transfer into that spot, and other people had as well, ones with degrees and supervisory experience. Hell, the phone interviewer even said I wasn't qualified but she would recommend me for an AM spot if it ever opened. So why the gently caress did I get an email asking if I could do a face-to-face interview at a certain date and time for the manager slot? HR can't really be worried about me getting pissed I didn't get another interview and wanting to complain, can they? I'm pretty worried about this. It would be fun to be a manager, but unless they do this to everyone just to say they treated every applicant fairly, why this, why now? Why not just say I am not qualified and let it be, rather than ask me to come down and do another interview? Also has me worried because as far as I know, I've done nothing wrong, but an old manager of mine pulled a trick on an old thief coworker, telling her to be at This Place at This Time, and Loss Prevention was waiting for her.
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Dec 4, 2013 10:50
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Cowslips Warren posted:So a few weeks ago, a new manager position opened up; I applied for it, not thinking for a second I would get it, as other managers had applied to transfer into that spot, and other people had as well, ones with degrees and supervisory experience. Often times, DMs will start people on the path to manager to see how they do -- the transition takes some time. At my company, about half the people who start the manager program don't actually get the position -- it's kind of like an extended tryout. Also, depending on your company, a manager position can be extremely political. At my place, the DMs and RM know manager applicants within the company intimately and have a history with them. I see newer, less qualified people get fast-tracked to manager when there's people who have been applying and training for it for years. Unless you really think it's a setup and you're going to get fired, I would let it play out and be open minded about it.
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Dec 4, 2013 11:02
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Cowslips Warren posted:So a few weeks ago, a new manager position opened up; I applied for it, not thinking for a second I would get it, as other managers had applied to transfer into that spot, and other people had as well, ones with degrees and supervisory experience. Sounds to me like they want to talk to you because you showed interest. They probably want to know what your short and long term goals are within the company and depending on what you say and how well you interview will mark it down for the next time this situation comes up. It's definitely not a bad thing. At worst it's probably like you said, HR covering their rear end. But it's still an opportunity to show your what you'd like to do and that you would be competent doing it. Retail interviews are mostly bullshit anyway. Also if you're worried about interviews, why apply for a manager spot in the first place?
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Dec 4, 2013 13:14
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Cowslips Warren posted:So a few weeks ago, a new manager position opened up; I applied for it, not thinking for a second I would get it, as other managers had applied to transfer into that spot, and other people had as well, ones with degrees and supervisory experience. At worse, they're like my company an need 'x' number of interviews to show they're not just picking the person they want for the job (I think at my work it's something like at least 3 people need to be interviewed, so sometimes they'll stack the deck to make their guy stand out). At even worse, they're interested in you and you're on your way to becoming retail management. Go hog wild.
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Dec 4, 2013 15:39
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You've got nothing to lose by going to the interview; if nothing else, it's valuable experience and you can get an insight on how you might be able to do better next time - remember to write down any thoughts about that as soon as you have them, as they tend to disappear quickly when you've just been under stress.
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Dec 4, 2013 21:37
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BrainToad posted:Also bless you display fixer person, you are my favorite people because if you do that my company doesn't send me random display poo poo to put up with vague instructions. Also all the merchandising third party vendors I've met have been the chillest people and great to shoot the poo poo with about how awful the store we're in is. Actualyl last night I was doing some work in the DI department of a store, and the guy who was there said I was like an angel sent from upon high for getting the entire DI department 100% secured. It was a great feel good moment 
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Dec 6, 2013 06:14
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So I've been working this grocery gig with the intention of going to school for something after saving up a modest sum of money. Issue is, I feel like I'm some 10-year old kid who can't make up his mind on what to do with his life. Realistically I'm looking at a trade of some sort, or nursing. Most other things seem a bit out of reach financially. In actual retail related news, the store was completely destroyed the other night as people came in like stampeding animals and bought everything for the oncoming ice/snow/hellstorm.
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Dec 7, 2013 07:18
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Arthil posted:So I've been working this grocery gig with the intention of going to school for something after saving up a modest sum of money. Issue is, I feel like I'm some 10-year old kid who can't make up his mind on what to do with his life. If you're looking at a trade, you could always do HVAC & Refrigeration. I did some work with my uncle and it's okay. People will always need A/C, and if you can get into commercial/industrial, you can make some good money, get to know people, then start your own company and steel those customers away from your old boss. Otherwise, for me, all part timers in the store are getting their hours cut across the board, on top of managers asking for people to volunteer to have their hours cut even more. I've lost 6 hours this week, putting me at 20 hours, and I'll be at 20 hours next week. Manager sent out an email about how if anyone had questions he'd be more than happy to teach us about how sales effect our budget or some bullshit like that.
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Dec 7, 2013 16:46
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I've gotten the "hours are tied to sales" schtick and had it explained to me that last year's performance determines the hours for this year. It's a pretty depressing moment when you realized that you've worked there long enough (several years) to see that it's totally bullshit because you hear sales are trending up year to year while you see department's hours are clearly going down over time.
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Dec 7, 2013 22:27
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YF19pilot posted:If you're looking at a trade, you could always do HVAC & Refrigeration. I did some work with my uncle and it's okay. People will always need A/C, and if you can get into commercial/industrial, you can make some good money, get to know people, then start your own company and steel those customers away from your old boss. I'd actually been eyeing Electrician over many of them, simply because I can think of many practical uses for that sort of skillset. Nice thing about most trades, is you can go into business for yourself after you have enough experience. So I kind of couldn't go into work last night because of the snow, ice and hellstorm. Got quite the pestering about finding an alternative form of transportation(haha catch a bas fucker) by the manager that was there at the time. But see here's the issue with that, I work night shift. So I'd be going in at 8-9ish for a shift which starts at 11. And once that shifts ends at 5 AM, I'd have no way to get home, and the only good path home will be the darkest frozen hellhole we've seen here in years.
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Dec 7, 2013 23:05
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What up, dickbags. So, got some student loans and poo poo, got income based repayment. Sweet gig, but only had it for a little bit. Now they want to check my income based repayment but it's the holiday season. For now it is fine, but once the holidays are over am I totally hosed? What are my options? I'm getting a bonus for the holidays but not for the rest of the year.
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Dec 11, 2013 04:48
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Shbobdb posted:What up, dickbags. IBR is a good deal and if you are on lovely retail wages your IBR will never be that high unless you are on a graduated plan, and even then only much later (which may be called something different than IBR, I forget at the moment). People on retail wages are lucky to have clothes in many cases, so the chances they will revoke your IBR seem low.
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Dec 11, 2013 05:50
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I can't speak for the US system, but when I was working retail after uni, even after being promoted to deputy manager and running a store as acting manager for six months, I never got anywhere near the threshold for having to start make payments on my student loans. Unless you're working for a particularly generous employer I doubt you'll hit it working retail.
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Dec 11, 2013 09:02
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Well, it looks like I'm sorta getting back into the world of retail. I've mentioned helping my mother with inventory where she works before, and it looks like that's going to make itself into a part-time job starting next week. M/W/F 7:30-5:00 with a half-hour for lunch and a smoke break whenever my mother makes me take one so she can vent. Starting at $8 an hour, which means I can make in a week what I made in two weeks at Dollar Tree or more, working less time overall and more regularly. Best part is, I'll be learning all I can about the aluminum business, learning how to use a chop box, how to tell one patio door roller from another, what balance shoes go on what balances and whatnot.  A big chunk of it is retail, but I know a good number of the customers through stories from my mother and repeat business is huge. Her plan is that eventually someday I know the business well enough to take over her job.  Wish me luck, goons! Hopefully I'll have my fair share of stupid stories to continue sharing.
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Dec 11, 2013 20:39
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Working retail has made me unable to enjoy Christmas music this season  .
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Dec 12, 2013 03:10
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Azuth0667 posted:Working retail has made me unable to enjoy Christmas music this season My first time living in Japan, every time I went to the local grocery store they were playing the training song from Rocky. (Not Eye of the Tiger, the other one) As soon as it ended it would just start again. It's pretty sweet when yours just shopping, but I can't imagine listening to it 8 hours a day. They were doing it for at least 2 years while I was there.
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Dec 12, 2013 07:35
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Azuth0667 posted:Working retail has made me unable to enjoy Christmas music this season Despite working in retail as long as I have, I still love Christmas music and enjoy Christmas as a whole. It probably has to do with the stores I work at not playing it constantly though. Also I just loving love Christmas music.
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Dec 12, 2013 09:39
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BrainToad posted:Despite working in retail as long as I have, I still love Christmas music and enjoy Christmas as a whole. It probably has to do with the stores I work at not playing it constantly though. As much as I like Christmas music, whatever terrible music streaming service we use often picks terrible songs, or horrible remakes of otherwise decent songs. I don't understand what's so hard about getting some Sinatra or Bing Crosby and the like.
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Dec 12, 2013 12:06
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YF19pilot posted:As much as I like Christmas music, whatever terrible music streaming service we use often picks terrible songs, or horrible remakes of otherwise decent songs. I don't understand what's so hard about getting some Sinatra or Bing Crosby and the like. I'd imagine that the licensing rights would be horrifically expensive, or at the very least more expensive than the company is willing to tolerate.
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Dec 12, 2013 13:22
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Yeah I imagine it's all about rights. Regular Radio can play whatever they want for free but I imagine whatever Internet or satellite service these places use try to cut corners wherever they can. At my store the Christmas music is mostly of the <obligatory Christmas album by mediocre band> sort. Similarly the normal music is not-quite-top40 and bad covers of classic songs. I just called off and always feel like the biggest shithead doing so. Hey guys, I might actually come in for a few hours until you find a replacement if I knew it would happen and not just you guilting me into staying while I feel awful.
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Dec 12, 2013 14:08
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Listening to Christmas music all day wouldn't be so bad if there was a bit more variety in Christmas music. I hear 8 versions of jingle bell rock, 9 versions of winter Wonderland and 5 versions of I saw mommy kissing Santa clause in any given day.
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Dec 12, 2013 20:58
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Master Twig posted:Listening to Christmas music all day wouldn't be so bad if there was a bit more variety in Christmas music. I hear 8 versions of jingle bell rock, 9 versions of winter Wonderland and 5 versions of I saw mommy kissing Santa clause in any given day. Christmas music is fine - on Christmas day. Hearing it for 10 weeks leading up to Christmas SUCKS.
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Dec 12, 2013 21:05
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Master Twig posted:Listening to Christmas music all day wouldn't be so bad if there was a bit more variety in Christmas music. I hear 8 versions of jingle bell rock, 9 versions of winter Wonderland and 5 versions of I saw mommy kissing Santa clause in any given day. And if they're like my old store, they always find the most obnoxious versions too. Our version of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus in particular sounded so loving creepy and sleazy. And we had some other "classic" covered by Destiny's Child.  Oh and speaking of Rocky, one of our regular rotation songs was Eye of the Tiger. It wasn't too bad but I can't imagine any song being on repeat all day long. Really, the best times in the store for me were when the CD player broke down and we just had some sweet silence.
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Dec 12, 2013 21:56
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There's nothing like working in a 10' X 5' steel gas station booth with a schoolroom speaker 3 feet behind you blaring out 57 different covers of "Let it Snow" in addition to the usual grocery store pages and Christmas muzak at 30 - 60 degrees F (busted heater) for 4 to 8 hours while listening to people bitch at you about how they didn't get the gas discount they didn't qualify for as if it was their God given constitutional right even though the amount they would have saved would have added up to less than the amount of loose change in your pocket.
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Dec 12, 2013 22:17
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| # ? May 19, 2024 10:38 |
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Rassle posted:There's nothing like working in a 10' X 5' steel gas station booth with a schoolroom speaker 3 feet behind you blaring out 57 different covers of "Let it Snow" in addition to the usual grocery store pages and Christmas muzak at 30 - 60 degrees F (busted heater) for 4 to 8 hours while listening to people bitch at you about how they didn't get the gas discount they didn't qualify for as if it was their God given constitutional right even though the amount they would have saved would have added up to less than the amount of loose change in your pocket. Yeah people go loving insane about saving money, especially this time of year. And then when they realize they've been throwing a screaming fit over $1-2 in savings they'll usually try to play it off with some weird camaraderie thing like "Hehe well you gotta save every penny you can these days am I right?" Why yes I guess I do since I'm getting paid minimum wage to listen to bullshit like that.
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Dec 12, 2013 22:40
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