New Testingstan

For real?

God how demoralizing.

Walmart is like a case study in Stockholm syndrome.

If Bob Gunslinger is reading this he might get a kick.

The Borders Bookstore I used to work at here in town was one of the last to close, and to my initial delight a new bookstore moved into the building.

Upon my first visit I was, well horrified is a strong term but I was disappointed at the very least. Crown Books is one of the shittiest retailers I've ever seen. Most of the signage is old Borders signage and I'm wondering if it intentianally left askew to signify the death of the former occupant. The carpets are wrecked and look like used toilet paper in some spots. Pile of beat up discount books are strewn about, and where the dvds once stood is a pair of dilapidated shelves with used VHS tapes. The old kids section is left super dark because its being used for inevtory or something and plastic trash bags cover a lot of it. In the store itself the lights were off, which was almost a good thing because you probably couldn't see a lot of the mess that way. The books themselves are in bad shape, and no they aren't going to get new releases but good luck ever finding a relevant title. I don't know what they are doing with the old inventory room but the scent of stale smoke gives me a few ideas.

Not that I'm one for whitewashing, but this is in a pretty nice retail area and close to upscale neighborhoods. This store will never attract the local clientele. Funniest part is the company web site where they have a blog post from 300 days ago saying they would work to update frequently. That was their last update.

I really really liked that store many moons ago, I would rather it had stayed vacant were it not for the fact that at least it created a few jobs.

Zod wrote:Walmart is like a case study in Stockholm syndrome.

Also diabetes.

surprisingly none of the staff were obese, just the clientele

the staff was divided mostly into drug addicts or middle aged people who've worked there for 20 years and unironically say to you "i only worked here for 12 years before i got to be an assistant manager, this company has great opportunities for advancement"

seriously the worst place i have ever worked, and this includes another company where they were worried i'd been exposed to anthrax

Los for a chill guy you sure know how to fill a heart with despair.

tell you what mang

going to henry doorly in the next couple weeks and i will remember to bring a camera

hopefully i'll get some pictures of the male gorillas trying to intimidate visitors but failing that the big cats are always good

My working life has been near exclusively in customer service, from Domino's to supermarket cashier to hotel receptionist. Pizza delivery is an amazing experience in a voyueristic way; you are a welcome guest on their property despite being a perfect stranger. People will receive you casually, with familiarity, and frequently in a state of undress.

A supermarket front end is a terrible place to work for the soul. People constantly piss and moan about the queues and the price of groceries. When they would make statements like why don't'you have more lanes open?' for the two minute rush that is in swing, the most reasonable answer a cashier could give would be to explain that keeping more lanes open in anticipation would increase the prices of groceries to cover the wage expenditure. The supermarket I worked at straddled income demographics, so there were plenty of middle-class shoppers, and then there were welfare families. I remember one lady in particular would come through the checkout with a trolley(cart to the Septics) loaded up and a purchase order from the Department of Health & Human Services marked to a value with 'No confectionery, tobacco, alcohol, or pet food.' You could be near certain that pet food and confec were in the trolley, and that she would ask for cigarettes. She would always act outraged that they were excluded and demand her 'change', the balance from the purchase order. Patiently, it would be explained to her that purchase orders do not work that way, which would incur further outrage. At this point she would leave the checkout lanes to find more items to try and fill out the balance of the PO. Often these would be pet food or confectionery.

Working in a hotel... Well...

Timmy, you are a very, very, very patient man. I misspent my youth slinging hash and booze; it both gave me an appreciation for the value of good manners and a good tip, and a barely concealed loathing for the powertripping subspecies of homo sapiens sapiens. You must self-medicate or live where there aren't a majority of assholes, or I would have read about your rampage in the papers. Kudos to you.

timmy wrote:A supermarket front end is a terrible place to work for the soul. People constantly piss and moan about the queues and the price of groceries. When they would make statements like why don't'you have more lanes open?' for the two minute rush that is in swing, the most reasonable answer a cashier could give would be to explain that keeping more lanes open in anticipation would increase the prices of groceries to cover the wage expenditure. The supermarket I worked at straddled income demographics, so there were plenty of middle-class shoppers, and then there were welfare families. I remember one lady in particular would come through the checkout with a trolley(cart to the Septics) loaded up and a purchase order from the Department of Health & Human Services marked to a value with 'No confectionery, tobacco, alcohol, or pet food.' You could be near certain that pet food and confec were in the trolley, and that she would ask for cigarettes. She would always act outraged that they were excluded and demand her 'change', the balance from the purchase order. Patiently, it would be explained to her that purchase orders do not work that way, which would incur further outrage. At this point she would leave the checkout lanes to find more items to try and fill out the balance of the PO. Often these would be pet food or confectionery.

Having worked as a cashier for a whole two months has given me a lot more patience for cashiers who aren't actively fucking it up on their end.

Also, it sounds like 'Murrica is way ahead of you jagovs, as our Foodstamps now come in debit card form and automatically only pay for approved products only.

Well if you're a dependent your choices are likely to be limited by others. makes sense yay automation.

They could be using debit cards; I don't know. I'm talking about ten years ago, and from the state-level DHHS, not federal.

If I wasn't patient I couldn't effectively working in this industry; all the bitching I do on here is just venting.

Darth Fanboy wrote: Then of course you have your people that won't be happy no matter what. Especially when you come to one of America's smallest accredited zoos on a Tuesday afternoon after 2:00pm because its half price admission and expect fucking San Diego with every animal on the planet.

Dude, the Santa Ana Zoo is the shit. I went to summer camp there for years and never got bored.

The Orange County Zoo, though is even cheaper and has trained bears, so...

Darth Fanboy wrote:If Bob Gunslinger is reading this he might get a kick.

The Borders Bookstore I used to work at here in town was one of the last to close, and to my initial delight a new bookstore moved into the building.

I think I've seen some pictures from this Crown Books. It was RSM, right? (Or maybe I'm thinking of Mission Viejo. Now I forget whose facebook page I saw them on...) I couldn't believe the store actually looked worse than it had during liquidation. Also, I wonder what they're planning to do with the overstock area.

Losonti Tokash wrote:tell you what mang

going to henry doorly in the next couple weeks and i will remember to bring a camera

hopefully i'll get some pictures of the male gorillas trying to intimidate visitors but failing that the big cats are always good

Effin love that place man. Simply cannot wait to go back.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote: Dude, the Santa Ana Zoo is the shit. I went to summer camp there for years and never got bored.

The Orange County Zoo, though is even cheaper and has trained bears, so...

Hey don't get me wrong I love me some OC Zoo. But we have way more endangered and exotic species. Plus BABIEZ. We are having a good spring for monkey babies. Oh, and we also have bathrooms on the zoo grounds and don't charge to park, points for us.

Course they got the cutest pair of mountain lion cubs a couple of months ago they are the shit, and the renovations and new signage over the past few years glook really cool. I heard a rumor I have not been able to substantiate that the OC zoo was able to obtain a couple of weird animals via the county sheriff raiding someone who wasn't supposed to have them but it is all rumor.

I really hope OC Zoo keeps imporving and gets their nonprofit going again one day, their Zoo Director is really good at what he does and their keepers are great but they could use some better fundraising.

Bob the Gunslinger wrote: I think I've seen some pictures from this Crown Books. It was RSM, right? (Or maybe I'm thinking of Mission Viejo. Now I forget whose facebook page I saw them on...) I couldn't believe the store actually looked worse than it had during liquidation. Also, I wonder what they're planning to do with the overstock area.

Crown books took over both the MV and RSM Borders locations and they both make the ass end of postwar Baghdad look downright hospitable by comparison. I remember both of those stores frequently full of customers, new merchandise, and were generally nice places to browse and now the reading material selection at a rural dental clinic is more varied.

Speaking of zoos, have an aquarium. http://s1159.photobucket.com/albums/p62 ... um%202012/

OMG Shedd!

Used to go here all the time as a kid. We would go before Bears games and just chill on Lakeshore all day. They had a dolphin calf born the other day that made me squee a bit.

Although lately I have been enamoured with a much larger aquarium know as the Pacific Ocean, spotted a Minke Whale today and a trio of near shore Bottlenose.

It had a massive line, but the camera I was using clearly sucks for anything with motion in it. I'll be going to a few aquariums when I visit San Francisco though.

They have a pair of nice ones there that is for sure.

Long Beach just opened their new Penguin exhibit and I scored a backstage tour of it in two weeks. Had a separate tour back in December when they started putting out the Arctic Fox.

But really in Northern California there is nothing that compares to Monterey, even the ocean can get jealous of Monterey.

monterey's just a wee bit south of my target area but it might make it on my "to visit eventually" places list

Havok lives in the Bay Area, so you could see a whale easily enough without needing a boat or an aquarium.

Hahaha so work again since we were just talking about it

Ops Director calls me into his office this afternoon to thank me for my hard hard work over the last two weeks

Then reluctantly brings up that he'd 'heard' that I was posting about the new system install on facebook

I laughed at this because I knew where it was going. I told him that I was posting updates about how we were going with it through the night(when I pulled a 23 hour shift) and that as an epilogue I had pointed out that this was a once-in-a-job-life project(viz not a regular occurence for me) and that I was very much satisfied with a job well done. He told me what I already knew - that saying anything about work is a grey area and that he didn't want anyone fostering the perception that our staff are overworked



I replied that after fourteen hours of work I probably had not used my best judgement on that one

If anything I write on here ever gets read I'd be out of there so fast that (insert phrase)