So, it's my second night being a full time cashier. It was about one-thirty to two in the morning. A group full of customers randomly started piling up. There was a lady and a man together, one guy, and a guy and girl I had gone to school with were together.
I was very preoccupied with trying to ring people up and get them out of there. So, I didn't even notice that a girl had come up to the register in tears.
"Excuse me, may I use your guy's phone?" she said in between sobs.
I happened to look down at her arms and her arms were covered in blood. To me, my first thought was that she had gotten into a car accident and maybe road rash or something.
I thought for a second and told myself to remain calm because one of our jobs as cashiers, is to keep composure and not make the customers alarmed. So I called a CSM to come to the front over the intercom while the girl was still crying in front of me. I looked at her sincerely and asked her if she was okay. She shook her head no and looked over to see a chair in front of the managers office and told her she could have a seat while someone came.
I remembered I had a radio and went over to get it. I asked again for a CSM to come to the front and right as I said that, he came around the corner. He looked at me as if asking me what the problem was. My eyes trailed over to the girl and he softly talked to her and the next thing you know they were walking down to customer service.
I wanted to hurry up and ring up everyone quickly so I could find out what happened with that girl. While ringing up items, I would look down at the customer service desk trying to see if I could see what was happening. I started seeing firefighters and police cops come in. I could see someone had brought in a stretcher, and a couple of medics had come in.
I started seeing what looked like family members coming in and speaking with the cops. After about fifteen minutes or so, everyone started clearing out. The manager had come back from outside, and went into her office. I hesitated on asking her what happened with that girl but wasn't sure if it was any of my business, even though I witnessed it first and was kind of shocked by it.
"So what exactly happened to that girl?" I finally asked.
"She had cut herself for attention," my manager said casually.
I was in shock but not surprised. I mean if my first thought was road rash, you could imagine how bad it might have been. To cut yourself that badly on purpose; she must have been in quite a lot of emotional pain. I felt bad for her and hoped and prayed that she would have a better time in the future and hoped that was a turning point for her.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Stories About Walmart: Post 5
It was my first official day as a cashier and there were a nice handful of customers there waiting to get their stuff checked out. The day cashier switched places with me so she could go home and I could begin my day. Everything was going fine and things started to calm down as it hit about midnight. Soon a guy came up wanting to buy a cable charger of some kind and one other item. He paid for his stuff, but the entire time this guy was there, he was tweaking out or something. I was pretty sure this guy was on crack or something. His fingers were constantly tapping the plastic little tray surface next to the card reader.
Trying to go as fast as I could, it felt like his mind was on something else. He thanked me when everything was done and walked away in a very quick fast pace. Ten minutes later the guy comes back with everything out of the package.
"Excuse me, I just noticed as I was leaving, this is a cable for a phone and I was looking for a cable for my computer. Is it all right if I leave this one here to return, while I go get the other one?"
"Of course," I said.
"Thank you! I'll be right back!" he said while he tweaked and walked away really fast.
Ten minutes later, we started getting more customers, so my mind was obviously on customers. I did keep my eyes open for the guy in case he finally came back, but when he did, he came through the aisle really fast and something seemed off about him now.
"I'm going to go make a quick phone call, I'll be right back!" he said rapidly.
I said okay and he started walking quickly down the action-Alley of registers and headed towards the front doors. I then realized he had his jacket zipped like he was cold. I automatically thought to myself, those security bars are going to go off. Sure enough, they did. Then the guy who was watching electronics that night, had chased after him.
"What the f@#$?" I heard the thief say, "You can't accuse me of stealing!"
Obviously this guy doesn't understand that if someone physically sees you stealing something, they can say something. He obviously also doesn't understand if you have an oddly shaped tumor on your chest (not to mention tweaking beyond belief) and walking quickly out of the stare and acting as if you're trying not to get caught... I think we have enough evidence to believe you're stealing something. Oh, and you can't forget the security alarm going off!
If you're going to play stupid in an activity that may require you to be smart, just give up now. There's a 100% chance you will not succeed. So please, save you and your local Walmart the trouble and be a decent respectful human being. But anyways, that was my first encounter with someone stealing something.
Trying to go as fast as I could, it felt like his mind was on something else. He thanked me when everything was done and walked away in a very quick fast pace. Ten minutes later the guy comes back with everything out of the package.
"Excuse me, I just noticed as I was leaving, this is a cable for a phone and I was looking for a cable for my computer. Is it all right if I leave this one here to return, while I go get the other one?"
"Of course," I said.
"Thank you! I'll be right back!" he said while he tweaked and walked away really fast.
Ten minutes later, we started getting more customers, so my mind was obviously on customers. I did keep my eyes open for the guy in case he finally came back, but when he did, he came through the aisle really fast and something seemed off about him now.
"I'm going to go make a quick phone call, I'll be right back!" he said rapidly.
I said okay and he started walking quickly down the action-Alley of registers and headed towards the front doors. I then realized he had his jacket zipped like he was cold. I automatically thought to myself, those security bars are going to go off. Sure enough, they did. Then the guy who was watching electronics that night, had chased after him.
"What the f@#$?" I heard the thief say, "You can't accuse me of stealing!"
Obviously this guy doesn't understand that if someone physically sees you stealing something, they can say something. He obviously also doesn't understand if you have an oddly shaped tumor on your chest (not to mention tweaking beyond belief) and walking quickly out of the stare and acting as if you're trying not to get caught... I think we have enough evidence to believe you're stealing something. Oh, and you can't forget the security alarm going off!
If you're going to play stupid in an activity that may require you to be smart, just give up now. There's a 100% chance you will not succeed. So please, save you and your local Walmart the trouble and be a decent respectful human being. But anyways, that was my first encounter with someone stealing something.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Stories About Walmart: Post 4
I didn't really care working for Walmart after a while. It was a job getting me started in life. My coworkers were awesome. A couple little oddballs in there but those were the people that made work fun.
The person that didn't make work fun though was the other night manager, we'll call her Kay. I was okay with her in the beginning but as time went on, it was like I was her personal target. I mean she did that to everyone but it seemed like she leaned on me the most. Every time I turned around, she was on my case about something and practically breathing down my neck.
She almost made me cry once because I was late from my break. You see, there are a lot of smokers at Walmart. I don't know if working at Walmart is their reason behind their smoking habits but it's pretty sad seeing a whole group of them hanging out in the 30 degree weather smoking their death sticks. It's almost like high school, when you walk by a group of people and they all of a sudden stop talking as if they were just talking about you. That's what it feels like. Don't get me wrong though, even though they smoke, some people are really cool normal people. But it made me laugh every once in a while because seeing them all lined up against the wall, made them look like the emo kids back in school.
But anyways, the normal break time we're given is 15 minutes. Sometimes we get away with 20 minutes because the smokers like to squeeze one last cig in before going back to work. But god forbid if the non-smokers go over the 15 minutes. You see, if they don't get to have a break over 15 minutes, you can't. Especially if you don't smoke, cause you know smoking his important and all.
I however, do the best I can to have a 15 minute break. But one day, I was taking my break in the break room and I ended up chatting to a coworker. It was a topic that I felt passionately about and just couldn't leave the conversation. So I had finally noticed my 15 minutes was up but I was still under 20 minutes. So I thought I was going to be okay. NOT. Kay had been watching electronics during my breaks because I was security in electronics that night.
So I all of a sudden heard Kay calling me back over to electronics just as I was on my way over there anyways. I knew immediately I was probably going to get an ass chewing for being literally like two minutes late.
"Where have you been?" she slightly yelled at me.
"I'm sorry, I just got caught up in a conversation," I quickly said.
"That's not an excuse."
"I'm sorry," I said even faster.
I was sort of dumbfounded on what to say because I didn't want to cause any trouble and I sincerely did not mean to go over my 15 minutes. So all I could blurt out was I'm sorry.
I just wanted to cry because of how she had said that to me and I was mad because it was okay for her to get 20 minute breaks but if I get two minutes past 15, I'm going to get bitched at. Yeah, that seems fair. I was absolutely infuriated with show she was treating me.
The person that didn't make work fun though was the other night manager, we'll call her Kay. I was okay with her in the beginning but as time went on, it was like I was her personal target. I mean she did that to everyone but it seemed like she leaned on me the most. Every time I turned around, she was on my case about something and practically breathing down my neck.
She almost made me cry once because I was late from my break. You see, there are a lot of smokers at Walmart. I don't know if working at Walmart is their reason behind their smoking habits but it's pretty sad seeing a whole group of them hanging out in the 30 degree weather smoking their death sticks. It's almost like high school, when you walk by a group of people and they all of a sudden stop talking as if they were just talking about you. That's what it feels like. Don't get me wrong though, even though they smoke, some people are really cool normal people. But it made me laugh every once in a while because seeing them all lined up against the wall, made them look like the emo kids back in school.
But anyways, the normal break time we're given is 15 minutes. Sometimes we get away with 20 minutes because the smokers like to squeeze one last cig in before going back to work. But god forbid if the non-smokers go over the 15 minutes. You see, if they don't get to have a break over 15 minutes, you can't. Especially if you don't smoke, cause you know smoking his important and all.
I however, do the best I can to have a 15 minute break. But one day, I was taking my break in the break room and I ended up chatting to a coworker. It was a topic that I felt passionately about and just couldn't leave the conversation. So I had finally noticed my 15 minutes was up but I was still under 20 minutes. So I thought I was going to be okay. NOT. Kay had been watching electronics during my breaks because I was security in electronics that night.
So I all of a sudden heard Kay calling me back over to electronics just as I was on my way over there anyways. I knew immediately I was probably going to get an ass chewing for being literally like two minutes late.
"Where have you been?" she slightly yelled at me.
"I'm sorry, I just got caught up in a conversation," I quickly said.
"That's not an excuse."
"I'm sorry," I said even faster.
I was sort of dumbfounded on what to say because I didn't want to cause any trouble and I sincerely did not mean to go over my 15 minutes. So all I could blurt out was I'm sorry.
I just wanted to cry because of how she had said that to me and I was mad because it was okay for her to get 20 minute breaks but if I get two minutes past 15, I'm going to get bitched at. Yeah, that seems fair. I was absolutely infuriated with show she was treating me.
Stories About Walmart: Post 3
On my second day of actually being a cashier, it was busy immediately when I got there. So I was put on register 18 and started ringing up customers. Eventually a guy came up with his friend who walked to the aisle away from the register, like he was waiting for his friend.
The guy was buying some ice cream bars and beer. Great combo, I know. But there was a girl farther down the line who worked during the day time and was buying some items before she went home for the night, and she was making gestures to me at one of the customers.
I didn't understand what she was trying to say, until she mouthed the words, "check the other guys ID."
I immediately looked at the guy and said, "I'm going to have to see some ID, and that gentlemen's ID as well."
"Why do you have to see his ID? I'm the one paying for it!" he yelled.
"It's just the rules, sir."
"That's bull! His license is in the car!"
"I'm sorry, I can't sell this to you unless I see his ID too," I explained.
"Why?! I'm 34 years old, I have the right to buy this! I want to see your manager."
"Okay, just hold on a second and I'll get her for you," I replied backing up and turning around to see if my manager was in her office but the moment I turned around she was right there, coming up the aisle. "This gentleman would like to talk to you. I asked him if I could see both his and his friend's ID and his friend won't show me his."
She immediately knew what I was talking about. "Yeah, we can't sell it to you."
"Why? He's not the one buying it!"
"It doesn't matter, we can't do that I'm sorry."
"This is such bull! Where is Lynette? I want to talk to her!" he said asking for one of the day time managers.
"She's obviously not here. And it's Leann by the way," she said pointing at her badge and walking away from the guy. The guy rolled his eyes and huffed and puffed his way out of the store with his friend.
I pulled his stuff to the side of my little enclosed area on the ground. I thanked the girl who told me to ID both of them as I began checking her items.
After the rush of customers finally diminished, my manager came up to me and asked if I was okay after dealing with that guy. Of course, it was uncomfortable but I was just doing my job and that's the only thing that matters.
The guy was buying some ice cream bars and beer. Great combo, I know. But there was a girl farther down the line who worked during the day time and was buying some items before she went home for the night, and she was making gestures to me at one of the customers.
I didn't understand what she was trying to say, until she mouthed the words, "check the other guys ID."
I immediately looked at the guy and said, "I'm going to have to see some ID, and that gentlemen's ID as well."
"Why do you have to see his ID? I'm the one paying for it!" he yelled.
"It's just the rules, sir."
"That's bull! His license is in the car!"
"I'm sorry, I can't sell this to you unless I see his ID too," I explained.
"Why?! I'm 34 years old, I have the right to buy this! I want to see your manager."
"Okay, just hold on a second and I'll get her for you," I replied backing up and turning around to see if my manager was in her office but the moment I turned around she was right there, coming up the aisle. "This gentleman would like to talk to you. I asked him if I could see both his and his friend's ID and his friend won't show me his."
She immediately knew what I was talking about. "Yeah, we can't sell it to you."
"Why? He's not the one buying it!"
"It doesn't matter, we can't do that I'm sorry."
"This is such bull! Where is Lynette? I want to talk to her!" he said asking for one of the day time managers.
"She's obviously not here. And it's Leann by the way," she said pointing at her badge and walking away from the guy. The guy rolled his eyes and huffed and puffed his way out of the store with his friend.
I pulled his stuff to the side of my little enclosed area on the ground. I thanked the girl who told me to ID both of them as I began checking her items.
After the rush of customers finally diminished, my manager came up to me and asked if I was okay after dealing with that guy. Of course, it was uncomfortable but I was just doing my job and that's the only thing that matters.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Stories About Walmart: Post 2
Looking back, that is one of the most boring stories of my experiences at Walmart. I know that if I were just your typical customer, I would've been a little freaked out, but as a cashier, that was my first experience at the register.
On my first night working at Walmart, I was asked where the condoms were, and of course my response was, "next to the tampons, sir". There had also been another another time where someone asked me where the condoms were, although it was a creepier experience. I was with a male associate just chatting while he and I stocked the shelves, and I had seen a guy walk by several times.
He acted like he wanted to ask a question. He looked at my associate several times as he kept walking by. A few seconds later he came up to me instead of my associate he had been eyeing at, and asked where the condoms were. I didn't catch what he said, but didn't need to hear him because my coworker interrupted and showed him where they were.
Thankfully my coworker knew that this guy was a psycho so he took him off my hands for me. So it was good to have a fellow coworker look out for me.
Of course that experience happened when I used to stock the shelves, which was never a super tense situation as a cashiering job is.
One of the last times I stocked, I was labeling some overstock items and I happened to be in front of the electronics department. There was a lady holding a huge thirst buster thermos, and was searching in the window curtain aisle.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" she said to me while she was across the aisle. "Are these the only curtains you guys carry?"
I got up and went over to where she was. "Yes, I believe everything on the wall is what we have," I said politely.
"Are you serious? Wow......, that's really disappointing. Well, thank you anyways," she said with a snooty attitude.
I shook it off and didn't think much of it and continued with my work. She eventually ended up walking her upside-down pear hips over to electronics.
She started looking at movies and eventually went over to one of the more experienced guys working over there at that moment and asked about a particular movie. I couldn't really hear exactly what she was asking for but I did hear her ask if they could call the surrounding areas Walmart's if they had this particular item she was asking for. I heard him say, "yeah, hold on," and walk over to the phone on the electronics desk.
The lady then walks over to him at the desk and they exchanged a few words and all of a sudden I hear voices getting louder.
"Watch your language, ma'am!" the guy said to her.
"I'm just showing my frustration!"
"Okay, well you can show your frustration buy you don't need to curse at me!"
"I'm not cursing at you, sir!" she said to him as she continued to cuss.
"Okay, I'm done trying to talk to you. There are 38,000 different titles we hold and we're not supposed to memorize every single one," the guy explained to her.
"Well you should know!"
The guy threw his arms up in the air and said,"have a good day ma'am," and went back to what he was doing.
"Ya whatever, you too!" she said stomping down my aisle. She walked down a little bit and turned back around and came towards me and said, "Ma'am, could you put this back for me, seeing that you're working this department?"
"Of course," I said politely.
She started walking down the aisle again but quickly turned around again.
"Ma'am, how do I get out of here? Because they have that other aisle blocked off."
I had remembered that maintenance was waxing the floors on one of the major aisles near my department. But I did ask myself, how did you get here in the first place bitch? They've been waxing the floors all night.
"Walk all the way down to pharmacy and turn right," I replied pointing.
She thanked me and left, thank god. I eventually found out that she was with a group of men who were drunk, so they got kicked out as well as the lady.
On my first night working at Walmart, I was asked where the condoms were, and of course my response was, "next to the tampons, sir". There had also been another another time where someone asked me where the condoms were, although it was a creepier experience. I was with a male associate just chatting while he and I stocked the shelves, and I had seen a guy walk by several times.
He acted like he wanted to ask a question. He looked at my associate several times as he kept walking by. A few seconds later he came up to me instead of my associate he had been eyeing at, and asked where the condoms were. I didn't catch what he said, but didn't need to hear him because my coworker interrupted and showed him where they were.
Thankfully my coworker knew that this guy was a psycho so he took him off my hands for me. So it was good to have a fellow coworker look out for me.
Of course that experience happened when I used to stock the shelves, which was never a super tense situation as a cashiering job is.
One of the last times I stocked, I was labeling some overstock items and I happened to be in front of the electronics department. There was a lady holding a huge thirst buster thermos, and was searching in the window curtain aisle.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" she said to me while she was across the aisle. "Are these the only curtains you guys carry?"
I got up and went over to where she was. "Yes, I believe everything on the wall is what we have," I said politely.
"Are you serious? Wow......, that's really disappointing. Well, thank you anyways," she said with a snooty attitude.
I shook it off and didn't think much of it and continued with my work. She eventually ended up walking her upside-down pear hips over to electronics.
She started looking at movies and eventually went over to one of the more experienced guys working over there at that moment and asked about a particular movie. I couldn't really hear exactly what she was asking for but I did hear her ask if they could call the surrounding areas Walmart's if they had this particular item she was asking for. I heard him say, "yeah, hold on," and walk over to the phone on the electronics desk.
The lady then walks over to him at the desk and they exchanged a few words and all of a sudden I hear voices getting louder.
"Watch your language, ma'am!" the guy said to her.
"I'm just showing my frustration!"
"Okay, well you can show your frustration buy you don't need to curse at me!"
"I'm not cursing at you, sir!" she said to him as she continued to cuss.
"Okay, I'm done trying to talk to you. There are 38,000 different titles we hold and we're not supposed to memorize every single one," the guy explained to her.
"Well you should know!"
The guy threw his arms up in the air and said,"have a good day ma'am," and went back to what he was doing.
"Ya whatever, you too!" she said stomping down my aisle. She walked down a little bit and turned back around and came towards me and said, "Ma'am, could you put this back for me, seeing that you're working this department?"
"Of course," I said politely.
She started walking down the aisle again but quickly turned around again.
"Ma'am, how do I get out of here? Because they have that other aisle blocked off."
I had remembered that maintenance was waxing the floors on one of the major aisles near my department. But I did ask myself, how did you get here in the first place bitch? They've been waxing the floors all night.
"Walk all the way down to pharmacy and turn right," I replied pointing.
She thanked me and left, thank god. I eventually found out that she was with a group of men who were drunk, so they got kicked out as well as the lady.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Stories About Walmart: Post 1
In mid-October, It was one of my first nights of cashier training at Walmart. I had previously been a stocker for four months and the night managers thought it would be better for me to be a cashier so of course I had to do it.
So I was cashiering at register 18 out of 19 registers. The 19th register was the cigarette counter, or the "home" of all the registers. Since my back was facing the 19th register, I could only hear what was going on behind me.
One guy had come into my line, an older gentleman, and asks me if he could do returns in my line; and me not knowing how to do returns, I referred him to go to register 19. He made his way over to 19 and I could hear him greeting someone he knew.
Every now and then, I would tune into their conversation because they went from talking about dogs and what they were buying/returning, to sports. I don't really remember why they were there for so long but I rounded it up to waiting for the returns and purchases and just chatting.
After about ten minutes, I was getting to a break point of customers, and quickly went to listening to the two men behind me.
"Hey, I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to her!" one of the guys had said, talking about the girl ringing them up.
"Whoa! Whoa guys! Just calm down, it's okay," the girl had said to them, but thankfully they had ignored her because as a cashier, or an associate in general, we're supposed to keep calm and composed and not show any alarm to a customer and keep out of people's arguments until it becomes physical.
"I'll meet you outside and we'll settle this there!" the other guy had yelled out. One guy went and left first and then about 30 seconds later the other man followed. Soon after he was walking out the door, the night manager and CSS manager went outside to make sure nothing bad would happen.
Since me and the other cashier girl didn't have any customers at the time, I went over to her and asked what made them so pissed at each other?
"I have no idea," she replied. "First they were talking about dogs and one of them noticed my 49ers lanyard and started talking about sports."
In conclusion, they were fighting over sports. I thought it was hilarious, just because they were two old guys and obviously that's the only thing that wakes them up in the morning!
So I was cashiering at register 18 out of 19 registers. The 19th register was the cigarette counter, or the "home" of all the registers. Since my back was facing the 19th register, I could only hear what was going on behind me.
One guy had come into my line, an older gentleman, and asks me if he could do returns in my line; and me not knowing how to do returns, I referred him to go to register 19. He made his way over to 19 and I could hear him greeting someone he knew.
Every now and then, I would tune into their conversation because they went from talking about dogs and what they were buying/returning, to sports. I don't really remember why they were there for so long but I rounded it up to waiting for the returns and purchases and just chatting.
After about ten minutes, I was getting to a break point of customers, and quickly went to listening to the two men behind me.
"Hey, I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to her!" one of the guys had said, talking about the girl ringing them up.
"Whoa! Whoa guys! Just calm down, it's okay," the girl had said to them, but thankfully they had ignored her because as a cashier, or an associate in general, we're supposed to keep calm and composed and not show any alarm to a customer and keep out of people's arguments until it becomes physical.
"I'll meet you outside and we'll settle this there!" the other guy had yelled out. One guy went and left first and then about 30 seconds later the other man followed. Soon after he was walking out the door, the night manager and CSS manager went outside to make sure nothing bad would happen.
Since me and the other cashier girl didn't have any customers at the time, I went over to her and asked what made them so pissed at each other?
"I have no idea," she replied. "First they were talking about dogs and one of them noticed my 49ers lanyard and started talking about sports."
In conclusion, they were fighting over sports. I thought it was hilarious, just because they were two old guys and obviously that's the only thing that wakes them up in the morning!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Dresses
I had bought two dresses, and asked some people for their opinion on which one I should wear to a wedding on Saturday, and went with the red and black one!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Happy Anniversary!
It's officially been a year that I've been with my boyfriend! Of course we've had our ups and downs but that's just what makes a relationship interesting. I love you so much, Honey!
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