Work Stories - Blog Posts

This happened at work today and I thought it was funny and imagined what happened if it happened to painty. Yes my manager does remind me a bit of silver spoon 💀💀💀💀

The Watermelon Incident

At work yesterday, 5 minutes into the start of my shift, my produce manager had me and another produce employee clean up some sticky stuff on the floor from a watermelon, and we also had to dig through the big watermelon bin to find the crushed one. It wasn't pretty.

One of the cashiers working Deli told me that the sticky puddle had been there since the morning, and no one cleaned it up since then. Me and the other employee needed to use a whole stack of paper towels and like 4 regular towels to clean up all the watermelon goop.

And it was supposed to be my grocery shift...

Dear Valued Customer...

Why were you shopping for cabbages 5 minutes after closing. Why was it so important that you couldn't wait until the next day.

I just have questions.

Critter Counter-Measures (or CCM for short)

Not pictured are 4 more carts of chips and bread, and the 2 floor managers, one of the senior cashiers, and another diary/grocery employee brought in to LITERALLY TAKE AISLE 1 APART to try to find The Critters because my boss is too cheap to buy an exterminator.

Dear Valued Customer...

Why did you put a can of sweet baby corn in with the apples.

Just why.

I'm not mad. Just disappointed.

Work Stories: The Critters

So, at my workplace, we've had a, um, critter problem for a few months now. It started with Produce just having to put some of the grape tomatoes in the cooler for the night to everyone having to put all the extra bread in giant basins for the night and Produce having to put almost EVERYTHING in the walk-in cooler.

One my coworkers that has been there for a while, (10+ years i think) says that the critters have already won, but we're just delaying the inevitable, and one of my managers for my Produce closing shift has joked about staying all night long with an air rifle.

This is the same manager who had to make some DIY protection for the bread shelves because we don't own them apparently?

Anyways, I will provide updates on the critters, and I hope that this doesn't become a permanent thing.

Cashiers have all the power

let me explain. at my work, the cashiers are able to use a PA system to call people for customer service, taking baskets, price check, all that stuff.

When we close up, the manager has to go around and ask if anyone needed to buy anything, and no one had to.

One of the cashiers closing up decided it would be really funny if he asked over the PA if a certain employee, (who was right next to him) had to buy anything. He knew they didn't have to buy anything, but he still asked over the PA anyways.

All in all, cashiers have all the power.

Weird things heard at work pt. 1

"I am now the laundry detergent king."

"The celery case might have been dropped a few times."

*Upon seeing a large stack of boxes* "This looks slightly unsafe."

"That is the highest pile of celery I have ever seen."

"So this might have been sitting in the back for over a year..." *Pours out steaming, liquid mold from a bucket into organics bin*

"A customer said there's a garbage bag being attacked by crows in the parking lot?"

"Take a broom, it might be dangerous."

"Oh no! The popcorn!"

And finally:

"If it looks like dogshit, just throw it out. No one will miss it."

Work Stories From A Specialty Grocery Store (background context)

I work at a smallish, specialty grocery store. We pack our own bulk stuff, like rice, beans, flour, sugar, and also a bunch of other really specific stuff, like organic coconut sugar, or pine nuts. We have a produce department, and we sell a lot of organic stuff. We also do our own prep-work, and all organic produce has to be taped with yellow tape saying 'Organically Grown' We have a deli and a meat department, and the meat department sometimes sells uncommon meat, like rabbit. We only have 3 tills, and so it gets really clogged up if a lot of people are shopping. At the end of the day, everyone working the closing shift has to stay after closing and help clean up, as we don't have a cleaning team. Since it's a specialty store, sometimes the only place you can find a certain item in the entire city, we get a lot of weird customers.

I might make more context posts if i want to, but most of my posts under the #work stories tag will be posts about interesting customers, funny things coworkers said, or random out-of-context quotes or pictures.

Today someone at work called me sir and it gave me so much gender euphoria srsly I was so freaking happy! But then I ruined it by talking with my stupid customer service voice and they corrected themself and called me ma’am :(

alright folks, who's your weird regular? we have "snake guy" who always has a snake crawling on his arm (i've posted pics of it on here before)

I actually have 2 stories about this at the same place!!! The first one happened to my roommate, who I worked at the same place with.

We worked at a charity retail store and we were both placed in the clothing department. Which meant all we did was go through giant bins of donated clothes and hung up what could be sold. Really really simple. Not a single customer ever saw us as we worked in the back.

My roommate had a sprained ankle. Also note: we lived down the street and down a hill from the store. We didn't have cars. We walked to and from work from 7 am to 3 pm. My roommate was using a stool to sit on and hang clothes. She got dirty looks from coworkers the entire time and every single time she left to use the restroom or take her breaks or whatever, they'd HIDE her stool!

The second story actually happened to me. I started working there shortly after that so I knew how they felt about sitting at work. But I did not care. We walked to and from work every day and some days we had to make grocery trips, which consisted of us bringing our own bags and filling them with groceries, paying, and lugging the 10 large bags home between the 2 of us. We did that in snow and rain. We didn't have a choice. So I REALLY did not care that my coworkers didn't like that I felt like sitting. I didn't sit my entire shift. I only sat about an hour or two before my shift ended so I could give my feet a break before I had to walk home or get groceries etc. But the LOOKS I got!!! My god!!! They kept taking my stool too whenever I walked away, but I'd just grab another one that wasn't being used.

I have one more story regarding sitting at work in a retail setting. This is a different job. I replaced an elderly woman at a crafts store as she had fallen ill and I think needed surgery. She was recovering for months but I kept hearing stories about her from coworkers. So when I heard she was finally coming back I was excited to meet this legendary woman. When she got back we were both assigned as the cashiers for our shift together and she sat behind the counter in a stool. You know what???? I didn't question it!!! I was fine with her sitting!! I wanted to sit! I wouldn't have cared if she was young and had no health issues and still chose to sit for her shift! She still did the work.

Now for the scary part, because whenever I think of this lady I always think of this moment. We had radios and earpieces at this job for quick and efficient communication. We had a line and we were both taking care of customers. All of a sudden I hear her say over the radio "I'm not feeling well. I think I'm going to pass out." It honestly took me 10 seconds to register what she even said. But as soon as it registered, I stopped what I was doing and looked over at her to see her falling out of her stool, eyes rolled back, falling backwards over herself. I had never experienced this before! Wth??? My body started moving and I started yelling frantically over the radio and a customer called the ambulance. Everything both felt like slow motion but also very fast. She's fine!!! She came to a few minutes later. She decided to retire after that and she stopped working.

Anyway, those are my stories about work and chairs.

“Its lazy for cashiers to sit down

And it’s weird to care. Work shouldn’t be an endurance test. Let me sit. We’re not doing a survivor challenge. You don’t think people can sit down and work at the same time? You’re gonna be real mad when you find out what an office is.”

Today in retail:

I had a guy tell me my body was tight, that I should have been a stripper and he hopes we meet in another life since I'm married and he tried to give me $200 cash. I kept declining, then he dropped a $20 and demanded I keep it. He asked me if I had eaten lunch yet and said he'd buy it for me.

Gotta love retail! 😂