Bookseller

Today was a crazy day at work. I hesitate to say bad day because it was actually pretty good. I am so thankful to have a job that does not involve washing dishes.

So, I stepped behind the register and the madness began. The new manager-in-training arrived today and my manager spent most of the day training her. That's all kind and lovely, but that left me...one week into the job....alone with a growing line of customers.

That wouldn't be hard except the phone was ringing, the line was growing, and the computer stopped working properly. So, I meandered through it as best as possible. One lady must have decided she didn't want me to scan her purchase, because she put her book down and walked out. I'm so glad my manager didn't see that.

I am supposed to meet a 90% goal on customers who use our Family Perks card. A lot of the individuals during my mini-rush didn't have one. Since it was taking so long already, I decided not to ask for their names and addresses. That's one quota I did not meet today.

Things improved and I even got some coffee during my break. But then I spilled it on my white shirt...twice.

I went back to work and found out a man I had talked to on the phone earlier in the day had come in for the books I told him we had- which the computer showed me we did. But none of the sales associates could find them and he left before I came back. Ok, so I learned my lesson about basing inventory on a computer and telling customers we have items in stock without physically going to the bookshelf and looking.

That would have been a great lesson to learn before I did it again. The ladies had come all the from Raleigh. Earlier in the day the computer had shown that we carried 6 of the item they were looking for. Usually with a number as big as that you can assume they are there.

So in the ladies came and no, no one could find the boxes of cards they wanted. A co-worker called various stores, another co-worker and I scanned the shelves and the computer and there appeared to be no indication that the cards were in the store. I felt rather embarrassed and apologized more than once. Finally, when all seemed to be gone in the hopes of finding the cards, one of the ladies found them in another section of the store. I was relieved.

I ended up doing better with my MO (member only items) sales than I expected. We're supposed to meet a goal of 25% with those and I earned about 44%. That made my incredibly low Family Perks card number not look so bad.

With all the craziness of the day, it's not to say there weren't some funny points. For instance, I was carrying a stack of books to the teenage section when I read that the forward was written by Chuck Norris. I stopped in my tracks and laughed. The book's title? "Do Something Hard" which of course is even funnier because that's exactly the kind of title Chuck Norris would write a forward for! (FYI: it was a book about battling mediocrity in the teenage years. But I could still see Chuck Norris staring straight into a studio camera and saying...."Don't be average. Do something hard." It's just funny that it wasn't...."Be Your Best" or "Living Without Limits." Nope. It was straightforward- "Do Something Hard.")

I also gasped out loud twice when I got excited about two new books. Rob Bell came out with another title. I never either of his first two, but I was excited.

Anyhow, I rather enjoyed my day at the bookstore. In my Dr. Scholl's shoes from Wal-Mart, I experienced a day free of foot pain.

Yea, I think I'll go in for another shift.