Post by ScarlettP on Nov 3, 2009 18:51:49 GMT -5
Twenty years. I've been running a Costume shop for twenty years. Actually, 19.25 years, but 20 Halloween seasons. Today was the first time I ever totally lost my mind and unleashed the unholy terror that is my temper on a customer.
I didn't touch the stuck up, spoiled little rich girls. I didn't want to go to jail. But I have never wanted to grab two kids and slam their heads together as badly as I did today.
Let me back up a bit. I spent most of the summer on an emotional roller coaster totally driven by premenapausal hormone frenzies. (The real reason I didn't go to the Forum BBQ is that I wasn't fit company.) I started taking Estroven at the start of October because the symptoms had gotten SO BAD that I couldn't function anymore. Now, many of you know that I've been working 11 hours a day, 6 days a week for an entire month. If I had NOT on hormone replacement drugs, I probably would have tried to kill these girls with my bare hands instead of just screaming at them. Most of my job for the past month has been running around in circles restocking the shelves and cleaning up the mess left behind by inconsiderate shoppers. But one takes the good with the bad, we were making money and MOST of the customers were actually trying to find something to buy, not 'just looking'.
Now that it's all over, the big clean up started Monday. Every box on every shelf has to be taken down, sorted, restocked, notes taken about what's sold out, every costume refolded and packed neatly and the box put back on the shelf. We have about 200 boxes full of costumes to be 'straightened.' Plus the rental racks to straighten up. Plus all the wigs, accessories and make up that has to be restocked. Plus all the rental costumes coming back that have to be washed. It's a HUGE mess! It's an enormous job to clean it up.
THEN we have all the people who want to see Christmas costumes RIGHT NOW for some event that won't happen until after the first of December, but they can't possibly give me a week to get my act together, clean up the Halloween mess and unpack Christmas... they HAVE to see it all RIGHT NOW.
And one of my best Musical Drama teachers wants to put on the show Willy Wanka in three weeks. He needs a lot of costumes made. So I need to clean up Halloween and unpack Christmas even FASTER because I need time to sew Umpa Lumpa costumes.
Yeah. Are you getting the idea that I'm spread pretty thin yet? All my real friends know to leave me the heck alone this time of year. But not these two spoiled brats who came wandering in today with "We're just looking. Everything is on sale today, right?"
"No. It's not. I do markdowns in September. There's a big Clearance department in the back."
They go straight for the area I just cleaned up. I look down the isle and warn them "I've just spent TWO DAYS cleaning up two isles. If you make a mess, I'll kill you." They think I'm joking.
They pick out several costumes and head for the dressing rooms. A load of laundry has just come up and I need to hang it up next to the dressing room area. The first girl comes out with her three costumes rolled up and shoved back in the bags and asks, "What do I do with these when I'm done?" I tell her that she can give them to me. I see her friend still in the dressing room with three bags of rolled up costumes at her feet and another costume one. She's kicking one of the bags out of her way.
I say as politely as I can muster through clinched teeth, "Are we finding anything?"
"No. We're just looking."
"Ok. Then you're done. Good bye."
"What?" Astonishment crosses wide, vacuous eyes.
"You're done. Get out. You don't want to buy anything and you're making a mess. Go home."
"You don't know that. I might buy this."
"No you're not. Get dressed and get out."
"We're waiting on a friend."
"No. You're leaving. And don't touch my stuff."
This goes back and forth a few minutes while the one in the dressing room finally understands that I am NOT joking, I'm kicking them out. She starts getting snippy that she actually was going to pay for one of the outfits but now she doesn't want it. I know darned well that she wasn't going to buy it because I heard her complaining it was to big. Besides, they told me at least three times that they were "Just Looking".
On the way out the door, one of them snipes back "Gah! I thought it would be FUN to just go to a costume shop and try on costumes!"
That was when I lost it. Something in my exhausted, sleep deprived, hormonal nightmare of a brain just SNAPPED and I started screaming something unintelligible about "Yes! It's so MUCH FUN to spend 11 hours a day, 6 days a week for a solid month cleaning up after bored little bitches like YOU!"
Yeah. I lost it. It actually felt kind of good to vent a rage that I've kept pent up for 20 years.
---
Not five minutes later, a young man came in to ask if he could shoot a blue grass video in my store on November 6th. I had told him "No, I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next three weeks." He came anyway. He pressed his point no matter how Nicely but Firmly I said "No. I'm busy and I'm stressed out." Mom, seeing the fact that I was still shaking from my last encounter with the girls told the guy to get out of the store. We didn't have time or room for his video. He starts complaining that there is no reason to be so RUDE to him when he was a long time, loyal customer. I told him, "I was being as nice and polite as I possibly COULD be" I even held out my shaking had to SHOW him how stressed out I was. He still kept pressing the matter.
WHY the hell can't people EVER take "NO" for an answer? Why can't they figure out that tired, stressed out women might just get bitchy and yell at you?
I wish I could just CLOSE the shop for anything other than returns for a solid week after Halloween. But people just keep insisting that getting one more thing during that time is a matter of life and death.
I didn't touch the stuck up, spoiled little rich girls. I didn't want to go to jail. But I have never wanted to grab two kids and slam their heads together as badly as I did today.
Let me back up a bit. I spent most of the summer on an emotional roller coaster totally driven by premenapausal hormone frenzies. (The real reason I didn't go to the Forum BBQ is that I wasn't fit company.) I started taking Estroven at the start of October because the symptoms had gotten SO BAD that I couldn't function anymore. Now, many of you know that I've been working 11 hours a day, 6 days a week for an entire month. If I had NOT on hormone replacement drugs, I probably would have tried to kill these girls with my bare hands instead of just screaming at them. Most of my job for the past month has been running around in circles restocking the shelves and cleaning up the mess left behind by inconsiderate shoppers. But one takes the good with the bad, we were making money and MOST of the customers were actually trying to find something to buy, not 'just looking'.
Now that it's all over, the big clean up started Monday. Every box on every shelf has to be taken down, sorted, restocked, notes taken about what's sold out, every costume refolded and packed neatly and the box put back on the shelf. We have about 200 boxes full of costumes to be 'straightened.' Plus the rental racks to straighten up. Plus all the wigs, accessories and make up that has to be restocked. Plus all the rental costumes coming back that have to be washed. It's a HUGE mess! It's an enormous job to clean it up.
THEN we have all the people who want to see Christmas costumes RIGHT NOW for some event that won't happen until after the first of December, but they can't possibly give me a week to get my act together, clean up the Halloween mess and unpack Christmas... they HAVE to see it all RIGHT NOW.
And one of my best Musical Drama teachers wants to put on the show Willy Wanka in three weeks. He needs a lot of costumes made. So I need to clean up Halloween and unpack Christmas even FASTER because I need time to sew Umpa Lumpa costumes.
Yeah. Are you getting the idea that I'm spread pretty thin yet? All my real friends know to leave me the heck alone this time of year. But not these two spoiled brats who came wandering in today with "We're just looking. Everything is on sale today, right?"
"No. It's not. I do markdowns in September. There's a big Clearance department in the back."
They go straight for the area I just cleaned up. I look down the isle and warn them "I've just spent TWO DAYS cleaning up two isles. If you make a mess, I'll kill you." They think I'm joking.
They pick out several costumes and head for the dressing rooms. A load of laundry has just come up and I need to hang it up next to the dressing room area. The first girl comes out with her three costumes rolled up and shoved back in the bags and asks, "What do I do with these when I'm done?" I tell her that she can give them to me. I see her friend still in the dressing room with three bags of rolled up costumes at her feet and another costume one. She's kicking one of the bags out of her way.
I say as politely as I can muster through clinched teeth, "Are we finding anything?"
"No. We're just looking."
"Ok. Then you're done. Good bye."
"What?" Astonishment crosses wide, vacuous eyes.
"You're done. Get out. You don't want to buy anything and you're making a mess. Go home."
"You don't know that. I might buy this."
"No you're not. Get dressed and get out."
"We're waiting on a friend."
"No. You're leaving. And don't touch my stuff."
This goes back and forth a few minutes while the one in the dressing room finally understands that I am NOT joking, I'm kicking them out. She starts getting snippy that she actually was going to pay for one of the outfits but now she doesn't want it. I know darned well that she wasn't going to buy it because I heard her complaining it was to big. Besides, they told me at least three times that they were "Just Looking".
On the way out the door, one of them snipes back "Gah! I thought it would be FUN to just go to a costume shop and try on costumes!"
That was when I lost it. Something in my exhausted, sleep deprived, hormonal nightmare of a brain just SNAPPED and I started screaming something unintelligible about "Yes! It's so MUCH FUN to spend 11 hours a day, 6 days a week for a solid month cleaning up after bored little bitches like YOU!"
Yeah. I lost it. It actually felt kind of good to vent a rage that I've kept pent up for 20 years.
---
Not five minutes later, a young man came in to ask if he could shoot a blue grass video in my store on November 6th. I had told him "No, I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next three weeks." He came anyway. He pressed his point no matter how Nicely but Firmly I said "No. I'm busy and I'm stressed out." Mom, seeing the fact that I was still shaking from my last encounter with the girls told the guy to get out of the store. We didn't have time or room for his video. He starts complaining that there is no reason to be so RUDE to him when he was a long time, loyal customer. I told him, "I was being as nice and polite as I possibly COULD be" I even held out my shaking had to SHOW him how stressed out I was. He still kept pressing the matter.
WHY the hell can't people EVER take "NO" for an answer? Why can't they figure out that tired, stressed out women might just get bitchy and yell at you?
I wish I could just CLOSE the shop for anything other than returns for a solid week after Halloween. But people just keep insisting that getting one more thing during that time is a matter of life and death.
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I figured you would have no idea who I was though and knowing my luck you now carry a shotgun behind the counter.