On Friday of last week, I was having a few drinks with friends after getting off work at Starbucks. We were planning on splitting up pretty soon, and we were each most likely going to meet up later at a bar where my friend Brad was bartending that night. After my second drink...
Sorry, more to come later...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Character List
This is a list of all of the people at the Ann Taylor Loft store at which I work. The names of the people are changed on this page to protect the innocent. There are more people than are listed currently, I just can't think of them yet...
- Erica-Sales Associate
- Double zero petite, pretty Sorority girl. Short dark hair.
- Jassie-Sales Associate
- Another sorority girl, just as skinny, just as pretty, but a little taller. Long dark hair.
- Kayla-Sales Associate
- Long blonde hair. Not the sorority type, but not in looks, in personality.
- Madrina-Assistant Manager
- Rumor has it she won't be here much longer. She is nice, but unpredictable.
- Monisa-Fellow Stock Associate
- Forty-something mother of two teenage boys, one just graduated, and the other just turned 16. I am in contact with her 75% of the time I am working.
- Shania-Store Manager
- Former up-state Louisiana girl, she moved to our store as an Assistant Manager. After our store manager left three weeks ago, Shania took her place. We are all very proud of her and happy she is our new boss.
A Fond Farewell
One of my assistant managers at the Loft is leaving. Her name, on this blog, will be Sheniqua. She only has a few days left to be our boss, and so we organized a going away party for her at Chili's Sunday. Nineteen people showed up! We were LOUD, we were funny, we were HOT! They placed us at a table RIGHT by the door, obviously to dull some of the noise we were bound to make. We met up at the bar as they readied a table for us, and everyone had a drink or two in them before we were seated. Madrina had three or four... Everyone saw this as a sign of future intoxication...
When we sat down, I was on the end, next to Jassie, who was next to Erica, and I was across from my boyfriend Kevin, who was next to Monisa. Madrina was three more girls down from me, and the Loft Employee of the hour was one seat closer. I know that if my boyfriend hadn't been new meat to these girls, Madrina would have been the absolute life of the party, and that would have probably been more problematic than fun. Sheniqua got lots of love and cheers, Madrina had to be caught a few times to prevent her face from meeting the floor, and Kevin made our half of the table laugh non-stop. Jassie asked about tips for giving head, and Monisa (a married mother of two) wanted to know how to actually enjoy it.
Madrina was fully plastered by the end of the night, and we all had a good time laughing at her while she was out of ear-shot.
There were some very awkward moments as Kevin gave away a bit too much information, and a few times when I nearly knocked his teeth out, but I am glad he came with. I wanted all of my loft girls to meet him, and now they have. I think I feel much more comfortable around them now than ever before, and I think I am really going to like working here a lot more than at first.
There really aren't any interesting client stories to tell... I haven't dealt with them...
The stock room is insanely busy because we keep getting in new product, and I think we are getting in July's merchandise before we get in all of June's... I sure hope we can put it out on the floor, because we have NO room to store it back there...
Until next time,
-FTG
When we sat down, I was on the end, next to Jassie, who was next to Erica, and I was across from my boyfriend Kevin, who was next to Monisa. Madrina was three more girls down from me, and the Loft Employee of the hour was one seat closer. I know that if my boyfriend hadn't been new meat to these girls, Madrina would have been the absolute life of the party, and that would have probably been more problematic than fun. Sheniqua got lots of love and cheers, Madrina had to be caught a few times to prevent her face from meeting the floor, and Kevin made our half of the table laugh non-stop. Jassie asked about tips for giving head, and Monisa (a married mother of two) wanted to know how to actually enjoy it.
Madrina was fully plastered by the end of the night, and we all had a good time laughing at her while she was out of ear-shot.
There were some very awkward moments as Kevin gave away a bit too much information, and a few times when I nearly knocked his teeth out, but I am glad he came with. I wanted all of my loft girls to meet him, and now they have. I think I feel much more comfortable around them now than ever before, and I think I am really going to like working here a lot more than at first.
There really aren't any interesting client stories to tell... I haven't dealt with them...
The stock room is insanely busy because we keep getting in new product, and I think we are getting in July's merchandise before we get in all of June's... I sure hope we can put it out on the floor, because we have NO room to store it back there...
Until next time,
-FTG
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Senorita Loca!
May 31st
Today, at Ann Taylor Loft, a crazy woman came into the store and harassed me. Well, she didn't exactly harass me, and she wasn't visibly crazy, either... However, I KNOW she was crazy, and she had it out for me!
I was doing markdowns of our May line, which included a great deal of very drab-looking browns, yellows, and oranges, when I encountered her. I had been marking down shirts, pants, skirts, sweaters, and jackets for nearly three hours, without incident, and I had actually begun to feel that I was getting the hang of this tiresome chore, which I had only done once before, when I couldn't find a pair of pants.
This specific pair was midnight brown, and, according to our computer, only came in lettered sizes (XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL), which meant that it was out of some sort of a knit (T-shirt-like) material. They were baggy, and had a naturally wrinkled look to them, which went well with the rest of our peasant-like clothing this month. It reminded me somewhat of a drawstring skirt we had in, and so I walked over to the pause-point we had those skirts hanging on, to see if one had accidentally been mixed in with the skirts. This happens often when, in the middle of a rush of clients, an associate will put back an item in the wrong place, like with the same style, but wrong cut, or the same color, but wrong style altogether.
As I approached the pause-point, the woman was browsing through the skirts. She was about 5'5", Hispanic, had short, curly, white hair, about half as wide as she was high, and was very intently staring at and sorting through the skirts I had previously marked down from $35.00 to $19.99. I figured she liked the price, and I found out that I was all too right. She pulls out a pair of XL pants, which resemble the skirts closely, only longer and sewn together in the middle like pants, not open and connected like a skirt.
She looks at me and smiles. It was a devilishly, devious smile that only Satan himself could make look so sweet and innocent; because, you see, the pants had been originally priced at $44.00, and so when marked down, would have been $24.99, and not $19.99, like the skirt. She had obviously noticed the difference in the original price of the skirt and the pants, and had already unfurled a plan to get the pants at a discount.
Before she can even hold the, what would be, size sixteen pants to her swolen hips to see if it would sufficiently hide her tail, I inform her that those pants had been marked incorrectly. She, acting surprised (and poorly), looks at the tag and replies "Oh! Really? Well, what are they supposed to be?" After she hears the correct price is actually $5 more than what she sees there, I swear her head spun around 180 degrees to reveal a different woman; strong, resolved, and determined to save those cinco dollars.
I ask her if I can have the pants, to change the price, and she immediately adds them to her minuscule pile of clothes to purchase. She replies, "No, no, you see, I am customer, and I already see this, this number here," pointing to the midnight brown, drawstring, wrinkled, gauchos. "I am customer and I get that when you mess up." I immediately attempt to defend myself by pointing out they were put in the wrong location and I marked everything in that spot, yet she only repeated her broken-English assertion. I then tried to say that the computer will ring up the correct price and not that one, we do not type the price, the bar code tells the computer what to do, but she just smiles even wider and talks even faster, saying "No, no, no, no, I get it like this... I already see it before you fix, I see it, already I see it."
I simply stare at her, dumbfounded for a few seconds, and turn around and proceed to change the prices on the remaining pants in the skirt section.
I later moved the pants to another location to prevent future mix-ups, and informed my manager what happened so she would know ahead of time that she would have a bitch asking for a price that is $5 lower than what is on the computer.
So, that was my day at the Loft, I marked-down the rest of the clothes, back-stocked the new product that came in yesterday, and organized the sale section. It was fine, except for the bitch from Mexico.
I should have called the INS to our store... That'll teach her to mess with a low-paid part-time employee of a retail store in a mall! You threaten my job, woman, you get deported!
-FTG
Today, at Ann Taylor Loft, a crazy woman came into the store and harassed me. Well, she didn't exactly harass me, and she wasn't visibly crazy, either... However, I KNOW she was crazy, and she had it out for me!
I was doing markdowns of our May line, which included a great deal of very drab-looking browns, yellows, and oranges, when I encountered her. I had been marking down shirts, pants, skirts, sweaters, and jackets for nearly three hours, without incident, and I had actually begun to feel that I was getting the hang of this tiresome chore, which I had only done once before, when I couldn't find a pair of pants.
This specific pair was midnight brown, and, according to our computer, only came in lettered sizes (XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL), which meant that it was out of some sort of a knit (T-shirt-like) material. They were baggy, and had a naturally wrinkled look to them, which went well with the rest of our peasant-like clothing this month. It reminded me somewhat of a drawstring skirt we had in, and so I walked over to the pause-point we had those skirts hanging on, to see if one had accidentally been mixed in with the skirts. This happens often when, in the middle of a rush of clients, an associate will put back an item in the wrong place, like with the same style, but wrong cut, or the same color, but wrong style altogether.
As I approached the pause-point, the woman was browsing through the skirts. She was about 5'5", Hispanic, had short, curly, white hair, about half as wide as she was high, and was very intently staring at and sorting through the skirts I had previously marked down from $35.00 to $19.99. I figured she liked the price, and I found out that I was all too right. She pulls out a pair of XL pants, which resemble the skirts closely, only longer and sewn together in the middle like pants, not open and connected like a skirt.
She looks at me and smiles. It was a devilishly, devious smile that only Satan himself could make look so sweet and innocent; because, you see, the pants had been originally priced at $44.00, and so when marked down, would have been $24.99, and not $19.99, like the skirt. She had obviously noticed the difference in the original price of the skirt and the pants, and had already unfurled a plan to get the pants at a discount.
Before she can even hold the, what would be, size sixteen pants to her swolen hips to see if it would sufficiently hide her tail, I inform her that those pants had been marked incorrectly. She, acting surprised (and poorly), looks at the tag and replies "Oh! Really? Well, what are they supposed to be?" After she hears the correct price is actually $5 more than what she sees there, I swear her head spun around 180 degrees to reveal a different woman; strong, resolved, and determined to save those cinco dollars.
I ask her if I can have the pants, to change the price, and she immediately adds them to her minuscule pile of clothes to purchase. She replies, "No, no, you see, I am customer, and I already see this, this number here," pointing to the midnight brown, drawstring, wrinkled, gauchos. "I am customer and I get that when you mess up." I immediately attempt to defend myself by pointing out they were put in the wrong location and I marked everything in that spot, yet she only repeated her broken-English assertion. I then tried to say that the computer will ring up the correct price and not that one, we do not type the price, the bar code tells the computer what to do, but she just smiles even wider and talks even faster, saying "No, no, no, no, I get it like this... I already see it before you fix, I see it, already I see it."
I simply stare at her, dumbfounded for a few seconds, and turn around and proceed to change the prices on the remaining pants in the skirt section.
I later moved the pants to another location to prevent future mix-ups, and informed my manager what happened so she would know ahead of time that she would have a bitch asking for a price that is $5 lower than what is on the computer.
So, that was my day at the Loft, I marked-down the rest of the clothes, back-stocked the new product that came in yesterday, and organized the sale section. It was fine, except for the bitch from Mexico.
I should have called the INS to our store... That'll teach her to mess with a low-paid part-time employee of a retail store in a mall! You threaten my job, woman, you get deported!
-FTG
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