Busy Busy Busy

 One thing I've never liked about working in retail is when the customers end up mobbing the store.

Like without fail we'll get a rush where we could totally have used an extra body or three and yet....we don't have the hours to schedule said extra body...or extra body ended up being able to come in leaving us slightly short staffed.

Most of the time the store, even one of my size, can do alright with just four people in it. 

A person in petcare. A person on register. And then like 2 extra people to wander the rest of the store and jump in to help as needed.

And like...we've made due often enough with just the three people. A manager, a petcare, a cashier.

But it still sucks.

Honestly, I get why corporate doesn't want to shell out more money to people who aren't 'busy' but I really wouldn't mind having people standing around if that meant that when the unexpected -yet also expected- rushes hit...we don't end up feeling like we're being pulled six directions at once.

Take 2:45pm today.

I had a cashier on register. I had the mid manager on register. I had the closing manager assisting with the sell of a skinny pig because me, also a manager -but scheduled to be the petcare person today- was off stuck in cat adoptions helping a couple adopt a cat. 

It's like 2:45. We have 15 minutes until THREE more workers show up. Two cashiers and one petcare. To replace our one cashier and me. 

And the store is a mad house.

Like everyone decided then and there that they needed to get in line right away.

So there's a line of a good 20 people it feels like even though we have 2 cashiers on registers.

And then the curbside pick up button goes off as somebody is in the store wanting to grab their online order.

And then the phone rings like six times.

I'm trying to do an adoption and am trying to multitask so I answer the phone to put it on hold only to have the phone immediately ring again and then I had 3 people in a row ask me questions in the store while I'm trying to do the adoption paperwork and get back to the person on the phone who was on hold --which that person only wanted to know when we were open tomorrow?? Like you couldn't have just GOOGLED that?? Google will tell you our hours and it's much faster than waiting for me to get back to you on the phone. *shakes head*

And I have no idea what's going on in petcare as I'm over on the opposite side of the store with the cats and the never ending customers who are also seeking help.

But my closing manager is doing at least one small pet sell but who knows if they helped other people as well.

But it was a good ten minutes before either of us could answer the cashier's call of "we need a 3rd cashier" 

Like there's 4 of us in the store and 2 of us are already on register and the other 2 are busy with customers.

And in typical fashion my Petcare person is late.

So even though I'm off at 3 and my petcare person is supposed to be in at 3 they don't show up until TWENTY MINUTES LATER. 

And like I've just finished the first cat adoption at 3 and am heading up front to try and decrease the line as a 3rd cashier until our two other cashiers show up to replace the one cashier already there who was off at 3 with me. BUT that cashier as they're leaving is like "Hey someone needs help at cats." So I get stuck adoptiong out A SECOND CAT and then after I'm done with that I have another person wanting to look at a THIRD cat -they put it on hold- and like *exhales* It's after 3pm. I want to go home. And there's NO SIGN of my petcare person.

So I finally break free at like 3:25ish. To finally hear that my petcare person is over in petcare.

So that means I'm free to leave.

But like.

It was just...irritating. Like why did a hundred people have to decide that 3pm was a great time to decend on the store?

Like we had 20 people in line 20 people at the fish wall and probably at least another 20 people wandering around the rest of th store.

And there were only 4 of us poor workers in the building.

When we probably could have used at least 3 more people.

If only they'd waited until after I'd left at 3 we would have had slightly more coverage.

But hey....we survived it in the end.

It's just...moments like this where I wish corporate wasn't so stingy and would give us more hours to be able to help the customers that they claim are so important to them. *shakes head*

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi