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Pookah posted:A pretty big supermarket near me got a complete layout redesign. It went from being a simple pattern of straight aisles, to an uncomfortably claustrophobic sort of labyrinth of small intersecting corridor-like aisles. There’s a chain here in Australia called Harris farm (think of it like a whole foods I guess) that lays out their stores like an ikea. You get forced along a linear path from start to finish and have to go past everything to get to the end. They’re great though, the cheese section is incredible, they have an in store proper butcher, fishmonger, salumi maker, donut maker etc. you can pour single herd milk from a tap.
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Mar 1, 2023 03:55
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Pookah posted:In retrospect, the impression I got was that the last few staff members who'd ventured too far into The Back had never been seen again. Given how often this kind of thing seems to happen (which still isn't a lot, but it's really weird that it happened two times!) I think you're more on to something than you would like...
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Mar 1, 2023 04:45
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The Lord Bude posted:There’s a chain here in Australia called Harris farm (think of it like a whole foods I guess) that lays out their stores like an ikea. You get forced along a linear path from start to finish and have to go past everything to get to the end. They’re great though, the cheese section is incredible, they have an in store proper butcher, fishmonger, salumi maker, donut maker etc. you can pour single herd milk from a tap. Central Market (Literally an upscale chain started by HEB) does that as well. There's shortcuts of course but the big path starts you at produce and winds you through everything you need.
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Mar 1, 2023 05:36
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Alkydere posted:Central Market (Literally an upscale chain started by HEB) does that as well. There's shortcuts of course but the big path starts you at produce and winds you through everything you need. Yea that’s how Harris farm works, though not much in the way of shortcuts. It’s great if you mostly do your grocery shop by planning out your cooking for the week and turning that into a list that you stick too - which is what I do 99% of the time - but it’s sucks on the rare occasion you get to the butcher/fishmonger, see something that’s a great enough buy that you change up your plan on the fly, then realise you need to backtrack to produce now because you need a particular herb or something as a result.
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Mar 1, 2023 06:10
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Welp, today I have learned something that is going to make my job loving suck real soon. The company is now cheaping out so much that they're downsizing the medium cups. I saw a box that says "new medium cups". Open it up and look confused, these are medium? Not small? I pull them out and sure enough, they have the design that the medium cups have. But they're now exactly as wide as the smalls. The difference between a medium and a small is about half an inch of a taller cup. I am absolutely hype to hear complaints about this, be accused of handing the wrong cup over, even if I show both cups to prove that yes, that is the new medium. Its gonna be so cool and I love being paid 50 cents above minimum to put up with it.
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Mar 1, 2023 16:00
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Are the soda machines on the customer side of the counter? Want to shake the hand of the economics goon that determined they'd save dick dollars a quarter in soda syrup by ripping off customers, not anticipating how many people will steal refills to make things fair after they get a rip off medium. 
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Mar 1, 2023 16:42
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There is a lobby soda machine and refills are free, but I work graveyard. Drive thru customers are what I have.
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Mar 1, 2023 17:55
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Can't wait to cryovac like 650lbs of corned beef
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Mar 1, 2023 18:35
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The Lord Bude posted:There’s a chain here in Australia called Harris farm (think of it like a whole foods I guess) that lays out their stores like an ikea. You get forced along a linear path from start to finish and have to go past everything to get to the end. They’re great though, the cheese section is incredible, they have an in store proper butcher, fishmonger, salumi maker, donut maker etc. you can pour single herd milk from a tap. I went to an Ikea once, just for a look-around, and the whole system of forcing you to look at everything before you can leave, plus the complete absence of windows made me never ever want to go back, not even for the meatballs. I just really hate being 'guided' around a shop - just let me free-roam dammit! edit: I've done my stint in retail, both supermarket and in a bookstore. The funny thing about the bookstore, is that years after I'd worked in one, I was shopping on another one, when an older man came up to me to ask where he could find books on topic X. I thought for a moment and gave him directions, but also said. "what made you think I work here?" He looked a little puzzled for a moment, and said " you just looked like you knew exactly where you were going" Pookah fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Mar 1, 2023 |
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Mar 1, 2023 22:04
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Yeah I’ve also been to an ikea exactly once - and while I kinda enjoyed the experience because I like looking at furniture and interior design stuff it did feel kinda like a ride at a theme park. I can see how someone who is more task focused and time poor could become incredibly frustrated. (Kinda like me when I actually had to assemble the bloody bookcase I’d bought). Now hardware stores, those make me feel deeply uncomfortable. In Australia one chain basically has an overwhelming market share, and they’re enormous - much much larger than any supermarket or department store I’ve ever been in. I’m not the least bit handy so it’s an endless expanse of artifacts I can’t identify and I can’t even begin to figure out where the thing I want even is.
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Mar 2, 2023 04:52
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The Lord Bude posted:Yeah I’ve also been to an ikea exactly once - and while I kinda enjoyed the experience because I like looking at furniture and interior design stuff it did feel kinda like a ride at a theme park. I can see how someone who is more task focused and time poor could become incredibly frustrated. (Kinda like me when I actually had to assemble the bloody bookcase I’d bought). Ok, gotta second this. I am also not in anyway a handy person or good with building , tools, etc. I can’t even do legos. I absolutely hate going to hardware stores. Super big, a lot of everything , and it’s impossible tk narrow down what I need. One of the worst places for me to be in. Thankfully I don’t have to go often, and I’ve recently found that online pickup helps solve it since it is easier to find in search and then I don’t have to go further than the pickup section at the front of the store and it’s there. But yeah gently caress hardware stores.
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Mar 3, 2023 13:49
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Duckman2008 posted:Ok, gotta second this. I am also not in anyway a handy person or good with building , tools, etc. I can’t even do legos. Hardware stores are easy. Most of the employees are desperate to flex their huge depth of knowledge in fixit, so just walk up to a random person in the store's vest and say "hey, could you please help me find a black cross threaded left handed flange" or whatever it is you need, and they'll either take you to it or page the guy who's been doing left handed flange work for 30 years.
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Mar 5, 2023 08:22
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The Lord Bude posted:Now hardware stores, those make me feel deeply uncomfortable. In Australia one chain basically has an overwhelming market share, and they’re enormous - much much larger than any supermarket or department store I’ve ever been in. I’m not the least bit handy so it’s an endless expanse of artifacts I can’t identify and I can’t even begin to figure out where the thing I want even is. That's wild to me. I'm used to smallish town America but around here hardware stores tend to be fairly small, if incredibly dense. If anything I prefer to hit up hardware stores because they have actual organization unlike the bigger stores with 1-2 aisles of mainly command hooks and scotch tape. My strategy has always been to find the old guy in staff who looks like a complete rear end in a top hat and ask him for whatever it is I need. It's a 50/50 if he's super nice or even more of a dick than he appears, but he's never not shown me to whatever inane bullshit I need.
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Mar 6, 2023 19:35
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So apparently I slandered one of my co-workers on another shift. We had an issue with various materials going missing at our workstation on some shift and someone throwing an utter shitfit about "Stop putting shortcut stickers on the screen. It's ugly!" I talked with a few other shifts and we thought it was the Back Half Days operator. Ran into him the other day and he immediately asks "Who the hell has been loving with our station?" As he sits there with his own shortcut stickers up. Me, being the VERY POLITE person I am straight up asks "We all thought it was you? Was it not?" "That one time, yes, but not this time!" Apparently best we can figure is there's a manager on some shift who's so bored that they have nothing better to do than to police a station they know literally nothing about. Yay. Also my station bluescreened last night and because Amazon, the richest company ever, buys only the best equipment it took me nearly 20 minutes of twiddling my thumbs to fully reboot.
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Mar 7, 2023 00:36
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Local fish store offers a weekend sale every weekend. They post the sale Friday, and the ad just has the picture of the fish/coral/shrimp with the price, and usually Limit 1 or Limit 2. That's it. So Sunday local Facebook aquarium page goes nuts: Apparently Dude goes to the store to pick up the sale item, which was Fire Shrimp, $30 (usually $60, these are marine shrimp), Limit 2 per customer. But when he got there, the employee told him they had sold out. End of story, but customer saw two tanks full of fire shrimp and asked about those. The price was $60 for those shrimp. Exact same shrimp as in the ad. Customer calls bait and switch and demands to speak to manager. Employee tells him no manager is there, customer should have called ahead before driving over, and to leave because store is about to close. They argue but customer does leave, and posts this on Facebook. Today the owner of the store chimes in and says the employee was right because the $60 shrimp were large and the sale price was for specially ordered small shrimp bought only for the weekend, and stock was limited, and there are no rain checks, and the dude should have called in advance. By this time the page has dropped into people calling the customer a whiny rear end in a top hat baby, and others stating that the ad SHOULD have had the size listed. For once I agree with the customer. And was pointed out, the cost to the store if the employee had honored the sale price because the ad was not clear was about $60, which is well worth the cost of reputation.
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Mar 7, 2023 02:21
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Yeah if you're running a promotion you absolutely need to be crystal clear about what it applies to, when I was working the asian store the bosses put up on Facebook a noodle promo but left off the part where it was only at the newest store. But every store had its own Facebook page and they posted it to all 3. We didn't have any stock of the noodles in question until the last day it was meant to run but if anyone mentioned the promo to us when buying them we honoured it because gently caress you for expecting us to cover for your fuckup.
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Mar 7, 2023 02:39
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That one smells more like an intentional bait-and-switch than a fuckup to me
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Mar 7, 2023 03:44
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I generally assume incompetance over malice and in that company there was a lot of evidence for incompetance.
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Mar 7, 2023 03:53
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Speaking of incompetence: At Amazon we see a fuckton of "If you like this product, please I was packing today and I got a tote with a good dozen of those cards in the bottom mixed in with the product I was supposed to pack. The cards were clearly for glasses (likely blue light filtering or shades, I didn't care to read more than something about glasses) and I amused myself for the next few minutes by tossing them into the packages for anything but glasses. Beard wax? "Thank you for purchasing our glasses!" Dildo? "Thank you for purchasing our glasses!" Sports bra? "Thank you for purchasing our glasses!" It's stupid and pointless but it's the little things that get you through these shifts.
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Mar 7, 2023 10:31
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bbcisdabomb posted:That's wild to me. I'm used to smallish town America but around here hardware stores tend to be fairly small, if incredibly dense. If anything I prefer to hit up hardware stores because they have actual organization unlike the bigger stores with 1-2 aisles of mainly command hooks and scotch tape. So Bunnings (in Australia) is kinda like something like Home Depot in the US, except it has no meaningful competitors and it drove most of the small chains and family owned hardware stores out of business a decade ago. You’ll probably find old school small hardware stores in small towns, and I’m sure they exist here and there in the big cities too but for the most part if you want hardware you just go to your local Bunnings.
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Mar 7, 2023 10:31
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The Lord Bude posted:So Bunnings (in Australia) is kinda like something like Home Depot in the US, except it has no meaningful competitors and it drove most of the small chains and family owned hardware stores out of business a decade ago. You’ll probably find old school small hardware stores in small towns, and I’m sure they exist here and there in the big cities too but for the most part if you want hardware you just go to your local Bunnings. All I know about Bunnings is snags.
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Mar 7, 2023 11:06
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What I know about Bunnings is their foray into (and out of) the UK, with all the craziness that involved.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:24
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njsykora posted:All I know about Bunnings is snags. All I know about Bunnings is a joke in an Aunty Donna sketch about snags.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:32
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Yea iirc their attempt at entering the UK didn’t go well. As for snags, here in Australia we have a tradition of a sausage sizzle - you cook a sausage (an actual sausage, not a hotdog) on a grill plate and stick it in a slice of white bread that gets folded over it, and you top with grilled onions/ketchup/mustard as desired. Kinda like a hotdog but with better meat and worse bread. This is often done for fundraising for charities; and the two places you can reliably find sausage sizzles is the car parks of Bunning stores and polling places On election day (you’re also likely to find a variety of cake stalls and the like there - polling places tend to be churches and schools and community centres and this is a major fundraising opportunity for them.) Otherwise though it’s basically Aussie Home depot. Edit: some years back Bunnings caused a massive national scandal that basically was front page news for a while when they decided that people doing sausage sizzles had to place the grilled onion under the sausage instead of on top to minimise onion falling out and causing a slip hazard. IIRC they were forced to backpedal because the PR fallout was so bad The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Mar 7, 2023 |
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Mar 7, 2023 18:47
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Hey retail thread, I need to vent a little. I just got fired today from 18 years at a job I enjoyed (somewhat less so the last few years), a 'natural' grocery and supplement store. Last week, I went to the manager and demanded a raise since the last one I'd gotten was before COVID started, and I had just found out that I was making the same amount as the teenager that was hired a month ago. I don't know if my recent complaints to coworkers made it back to the owner's ear somehow, but the manager showed up at the store halfway through my shift to "have a chat" and fire me. I was just starting to get the hours I'd been asking for, and the manager had said she was trying to get me a raise (when I went to talk to her, she said she'd been "working on it" with the owner). I'm pretty sure about 80% of what the manager's been telling me has been bullshit just to try and keep me from walking out (if not more), but I'm still a little sad. I was there for 18 loving years. I liked my coworkers, I liked my job (most of the time), I liked (most of) my regular customers, and they liked me. There are going to be a lot of disappointed people this week, but that's not my problem anymore. I haven't written a resume in so long. Fifty Farts fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Mar 12, 2023 |
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Mar 12, 2023 22:27
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Man, I'm sorry, that's super rough. Good luck with the resume, sending out job applications sucks majorly.
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Mar 12, 2023 22:31
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What cause did they offer? Because that sounds like grounds for an unemployment claim to me.
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Mar 12, 2023 22:38
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Coasterphreak posted:What cause did they offer? Because that sounds like grounds for an unemployment claim to me. Vague "complaints" about my "attitude" which got back to the owner somehow (admittedly, it had been less than stellar lately, mostly because I've been getting paid gently caress-all for way too long now, and I was done keeping quiet about it). I'm not going to worry about unemployment, just gonna sit around here for a day or two and then find something else. I'd already been looking, before I talked to the manager about needing a raise, but was giving them until my next check before I made a decision. Then they made the decision for me. I wouldn't be surprised if they just got rid of me before I could walk out because my raise was denied (I have a feeling they weren't going to give me one). Every other job I saw looks like it will start at more than I was making at that store after almost two goddamn decades, so I'm just going to move on. gently caress 'em. I am going to miss the employee discount and being able to order stuff when I wanted/needed something specific. Fifty Farts fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 12, 2023 |
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Mar 12, 2023 23:02
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Just remember when poo poo explodes since you're not there to fix everything and they call you to just start laughing back into your phone.
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Mar 12, 2023 23:03
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Alkydere posted:Just remember when poo poo explodes since you're not there to fix everything and they call you to just start laughing back into your phone. Oh yeah, definitely, "Sorry, that's not my problem anymore" is chambered and ready to go. Thanks, everyone. I'm just kinda sad and angry right now and needed to let it out somewhere. Fifty Farts fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Mar 12, 2023 |
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Mar 12, 2023 23:10
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beats for junkies posted:Oh yeah, definitely, "Sorry, that's not my problem anymore" is chambered and ready to go. gently caress 'em. Take a couple of weeks on unemployment. Start looking right away of course, but push your start date out a bit.
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Mar 12, 2023 23:18
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beats for junkies posted:Vague "complaints" about my "attitude" which got back to the owner somehow (admittedly, it had been less than stellar lately, mostly because I've been getting paid gently caress-all for way too long now, and I was done keeping quiet about it). I'm not going to worry about unemployment, just gonna sit around here for a day or two and then find something else. I'd already been looking, before I talked to the manager about needing a raise, but was giving them until my next check before I made a decision. Then they made the decision for me. I wouldn't be surprised if they just got rid of me before I could walk out because my raise was denied (I have a feeling they weren't going to give me one). You absolutely should be angry, but kudos for standing up for yourself. You should def still file for unemployment. Even if you get a job in like, 2 weeks, that’s 1-2 weeks of unemployment pay that you deserve. You paid the taxes, file for the unemployment. This should long term be good for you, so sorry to hear about the bullshit, but end of the day you deserve more and will get more in the future. You got this.
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Mar 12, 2023 23:19
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beats for junkies posted:Vague "complaints" about my "attitude" which got back to the owner somehow (admittedly, it had been less than stellar lately, mostly because I've been getting paid gently caress-all for way too long now, and I was done keeping quiet about it). I'm not going to worry about unemployment, just gonna sit around here for a day or two and then find something else. I'd already been looking, before I talked to the manager about needing a raise, but was giving them until my next check before I made a decision. Then they made the decision for me. I wouldn't be surprised if they just got rid of me before I could walk out because my raise was denied (I have a feeling they weren't going to give me one). You got fired for pretty much the only thing a retail drone can get fired for, other than stealing or committing a felony: stirring poo poo among your co-workers about money. You need to file an unemployment claim right now. Today. It's money you're entitled to, part of which your rear end in a top hat ex-employer has to pay you, why would you not take it?
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Mar 12, 2023 23:37
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That reminds me of the only time I've been fired from a job. I was working for a franchise owned AT&T store selling phones. I got sick of misleading customers and selling them poo poo they didn't need, so I decided to start doing what was best for the customer. It was a little bit of a pay cut in commission, but the base hourly wage I made was enough to live on at the time. They fired me because "my sales numbers were too low," but since I never got reprimanded beforehand for it or even had a conversation about what could happen if I don't improve my numbers, I knew the real reason was that they probably found out that I was looking for another job and used it as an excuse to just get rid of me. But it was for the best. It happened like 2 weeks before I turned 21, I still lived at home and didn't have many bills to pay, so I spent the next year going to bars and partying while collecting unemployment. I was about to get another extension on the unemployment too, but I ended up getting a job instead. It's grocery/retail, but it's a company that actually treats their employees well, so if I end up working there the rest of my life I won't hate myself for it.
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Mar 13, 2023 00:25
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I once spent four months as the world's only totally honest car salesman--and actually got away with it, because I sold enough cars to satisfy the bosses and in that world, as long as you move enough metal you can get away with anything.
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Mar 13, 2023 00:28
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Fine, you guys convinced me. I have my unemployment account set up, but I have to file the actual claim in the morning because even their online portal isn't open at this time. Thanks again for the support/sympathy/advice. I've been wanting (needing) a new job for a while now, so this is ultimately good, but I wanted to leave that place on my own terms, when I had something else already set up.
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Mar 13, 2023 00:39
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Eric the Mauve posted:I once spent four months as the world's only totally honest car salesman--and actually got away with it, because I sold enough cars to satisfy the bosses and in that world, as long as you move enough metal you can get away with anything. Even being honest? 
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Mar 13, 2023 00:42
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Agents are GO! posted:Even being honest? it actually works, my dad spent a few years as a double glazing salesman and he would go in, measure the windows and give them a price and finish it with "this is the price you'll pay, I'm not going to pretend to call my boss, not going to sit in your house for hours until we're all fed up, that's the best price I can do and it's yours if you want it" He fuckin slayed it, especially with people who had been given poo poo treatment from sketchy salesmen
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Mar 13, 2023 21:06
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So it’s “Employee Appreciation Week” at my store and today a bunch of people made chili to have a chili competition. I appreciated all the crock pots full of yummy chili in the break room, I did not appreciate when the closing manager tried to dump all the dirty dishes in my department. Yes, I politely told him to gently caress right off because I have enough to do
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Mar 14, 2023 03:16
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"Do you work here?" "Nah, man, I'm just on a step stool, organizing the shelves for fun."
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Mar 14, 2023 05:06
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