Halloween is upon us!

[ScarlettP]

Life is starting to get interesting around Beauty & the Beast. The first rush of "Spirit Week" is showing a strong interest in Alice in Wonderland. (Sort of figured that one, but it's nice to be right once in a while.)

The general consistence of our customers has been "Wow! You guys are way cheaper than Spirit!" The mom's have just been happy to find something that the kids can wear to school that isn't against dress code. Heard a new one this week. One mom was happy that her daughter found age appropriate costumes for both Disney/Charactor day and Decades day. She said "This place is WAY better than 'Ho's R Us'. They didn't have anything at all that the kids could wear to school." I don't know how TRUE that is, I haven't been there. I just thought the new name for the place was funny as all get out.

One, slightly odd woman, came in and bought a $51 kimono costume. She looked at another one and told me the exact same costume was $10 higher 'at that other store.' She was delighted to find another style that was still less money and "More Authentic" than anything else she found. It took her a while to make up her mind, but I think she's happy now.

I heard a report that some nut who tried to "Rent and never return" some vests posted a nasty review somewhere on the internet. I suppose I should be happy that I can't find it. I would be hard pressed not to respond that when someone tries to rent something with a Driver's License that expired 2 years ago - but she's still driving on it - I don't get the impression that she's very trustworthy. Then she offered a license that belonged to her grandmother who was following along and obviously had Alzheimer or some other form of diminished capacity. There was no way that dear woman could have a valid license. When we refused the woman service without a deposit on the items, she sent her sister back to get them. We told the sister that we needed a deposit. She refused to leave so much as a credit card number for security. This whole deal had red flags flapping in the wind to the point we could barely see sun.

Guess who went running straight to the computer to complain to the world that she was treated unfairly? Odd how none of our amazingly happy customers ever feel the need to shout it to the world that we stayed 45 minutes past closing time to make sure their kids had something to wear to school the next day. Or explained exactly how to put on a make up appliance. Or steered them toward the Clearance department when they hinted that they were on a tight budget and happily handed them a Grease brand Pink Ladies costume for $27 instead of the full priced look-a-like. Or how we told them to go to a thrift shop for old clothes and 'age' them with a belt sander to make great Zombie costume instead of trying to sell them one. Nope. Those folks are not fueled with 'righteous indignation' because we were nice to them, had exactly what they wanted at a way lower price or told them where to get something better. The only ones who post on the internet are the ones who get caught tearing up the store and/or stealing and get bounced out. THOSE are the ones who want to be heard.

*sigh*

[Warkitty]

It's always that way though. The complaints are more often heard and published than the content. Content and happy people tend to just go on their merry way. Angry people want to make everyone else pay for their anger.

[Warkitty]

PS, I'm sending someone your way. Told him to ask for you because you'll know the movie reference he's wanting a costume from. He's... he belongs in the con family. Just didn't know it existed. I'm threatening him with Chattacon as a primer, then Dragon Con 25 for the crash course in geekdom so he can find his "family."

I also warned him it's your busy season, patience is a virtue.

[Tsavodiner]

EVERY day is Halloween for me. Ghouls, goblins, dead things with AIDS/HIV, hepatitis, gangrene, etc. walking around mouthing off....

[cadillacdude1975]

since the 31st is on a sunday this year, when is chattanooga as a whole having the tricks and treats? i havent heard anything.

[Tsavodiner]

Sept 30, 2010 22:02:19 GMT -5 cadillacdude1975 said:

since the 31st is on a sunday this year, when is chattanooga as a whole having the tricks and treats? i havent heard anything.

EVERY freakin' day; come ride a shift with me....

[Tsavodiner]

Sept 30, 2010 10:26:08 GMT -5 Warkitty said:

PS, I'm sending someone your way. Told him to ask for you because you'll know the movie reference he's wanting a costume from. He's... he belongs in the con family. Just didn't know it existed. I'm threatening him with Chattacon as a primer, then Dragon Con 25 for the crash course in geekdom so he can find his "family."

I also warned him it's your busy season, patience is a virtue.

I'm tired of waiting on you; I'm running off with Sir Elton John.

there

[ScarlettP]

Sept 30, 2010 10:26:08 GMT -5 Warkitty said:

PS, I'm sending someone your way.

Ouch! I hope that wasn't the nice guy with the beautiful, dark puppy eyes looking for a Sandman. I sent him to Janet to make it for him totally wishing that I had someone else. Janet has done excellent work for her customers through the years, but she has always been a touch odd. She's disabled and works out of her apartment. I have always sent her as much work as I could. Now she'd getting older and sicker. She's on dialysis and I don't know how much she can take on these days.

As I just told Bob in a PM, Ghod must have known that I needed a 'pick me up' yesterday. All my customers were wonderful. The most charming mom brought back her son's costume first thing. She was SO lovely. Her son had been polite, kind and very handsome. The type that if I had a daughter, I would have introduced them. I meant to tell that woman that she had done an excellent job raising him... but we got to giggling about crazy customers and she said "I work in a package store, I know all kinds crazy! These days, I think we have Full Sun days because they are way worse than Full Moon crazy." She did my heart good.

Later, a lovely woman and her three small children came in to pick out costumes. The kids were kids, but they were well behaved, polite, articulate and enthusiastic. One of the girls was set on being WonderWoman, but tried on a fairy. She was about 4 years old and just as adorable as she could be! She said "I'm going to be a fairy... Next year. Because this one comes with a beautiful hat." The 6 year son took a while to figure out what he thought a ninja should look like... but the 3rd one was the charm! It was instant love for that boy. He was all bright eyed and ninja-rama. The older girl, about 8?, wanted to be Jesse from Toy Story, but the larger ones had not come in yet. She tried a Southern Belle, but that was distorted from being in the package. Then she wanted an I Dream of Jeanie, but we were sold out of her size. Finally, she tried Violet from The Incredibles. PERFECT! The girl actually looked a lot like the character. The mom had mentioned that they were not going to be buying that day, they just needed to pick something and "Tell daddy how much money they needed." Such a charming Family! I think it's GOOD for parents to teach the kids about budgeting at such a young age. I do remember this family from last year. She'll be back in a week or so to buy all three costumes that the children picked out. There was no Whining "I want it now!" Just very polite understanding of delayed satisfaction from the kids. What a WONDERFUL MOM!!!!

[Warkitty]

Sad to say yes, it was puppy-dog eyes. He texted me happily a bit after to tell me he'd contacted Janet and she was going to help him with the costume.

[ScarlettP]

EXCELLENT! I'm glad he'll get what he wants. There was a time when I loved doing things like that... but now I'm just constantly snowed under with School Plays and what not.

Plus - this year, my fave niece Amie and I have been doing some MASSIVE clean ups at the shop. We are cleaning out the old crap and trying to make a lot of new costumes to help meet the demand from the growing popularity of school dress up days.

[Warkitty]

Oh I had told him that if you didn't have what he needed that you'd probably be able to help him find where to look far better than anyone else, and that though you're 'family' not to expect a free ride. It was either send him to you ore be stymied.

[cadillacdude1975]

i would love to do a ride a long with a police officer. im sure that would be one hell of a night based upon what i hear on the scanner on a daily basis.

[ScarlettP]

Be sure to ride with someone who's going to be where ever I am. Someone always seems to be calling the cops on me on Halloween night. I don't really know why. Maybe I'm just popular.

I have to give a BIG SHOUT OUT to the Dressing Room Nazis of the world! WOOT!

My biggest headache during Halloween has been the HORRENDOUS MESS that customers make in the dressing rooms. No matter what we said, some people would pull out and try on a dozen costumes or more. They tear up the bags. They loose the accessories. They deliberately 'Trade' for a bag with a lower price sticker or put all the best pieces out different costumes into one bag and leave me with unwanted, mismatched scraps.

I asked around about how other stores deal with these issues. Answer? Dressing Room Nazis! These are people who do nothing but hang out by the dressing rooms and WATCH people. Heck! All the real department stores do it. The Halloween shops don't let you have the accessories. Now, we're finally following suit.

Let me tell you, I just LOVE MY NIECE! She has worked in retail for so long that she has developed a wonderful 'stink eye' for customers who are being destructive. In only two days of enacting the "Check in" point, she had detoured TWO sets of teen aged "Dress Up" girls. She's just sucking all the fun right out of the "Let's go Try On costumes" game. This game involves at least 2 teen to early 20's girls. No parents. They try on all the expensive, sexiest costumes they can find, take photos of each other for the internet and leave empty handed. This leaves me with nothing but a huge mess to clean up and damaged merchandise. GREAT fun for the girls. Huge Headache for me! Another adult woman who has always been bad about Trying on all the costumes at my shop and then PROBABLY buying them on line has only tried on her 'legal limit' of 3 costumes and didn't even go near the dressing room area on her 2nd trip.

I am so LOVING This!

Amie also counted the "Do Not Open Wigs" signs. I'm now up to 19 of them all over that section of the building. Some are bright yellow. Others have neon highlighter marker on them and are taped to the floor because some people "Didn't see" the dozen all the way across the tops because they didn't look up.

While this may sound harsh, I'm so giving into the "Behave or get out" mentality. Suck all the "Fun" out of those activities that make me crazy. Leave all the options open for all my wonderful, well behaved customers who have no problems playing by the rules and enjoy having a nice, clean place to shop with a huge selection of quality merchandise that is neatly folded and stocked.... Not having to dig through the left over MESS of torn bags, costumes that have been smeared with make-up, wadded up and shoved back into the wrong boxes.

I'm so much HAPPIER! My Real customers can come in, find what they want, pay and leave in a much shorter time. None of us are grinding our teeth and getting angry over messy, time wasters, which makes us more available to be helpful and friendly to those who actually appreciate it.

It's such Win/Win!

[Warkitty]

GREAT solution:D

[joedog]

hehehehhe you did pick the right dressing room Nazi.
I think it can from one of her grandparents. Not saying which one..... But I think coffeeshooter knows who I talking about. LOL

[ScarlettP]

WOOT! Three cheers for me! I bounced my first shop lifter of the season today.

I don't know if these two were just stupid as heck or thought we were all blind and stupid. I was cleaning the costume aisle near the place where the guy wanted to steal a big death mask & matching shoulders off a wooden display high on the wall. She asked me to go show her something on the other side of the building. Amie was sitting in that spot, so I asked her to help the "Decoy" customer. I went back to picking up hangers out of the floor before someone stepped on one and fell down. I hear rustling on the other side of the rack, I can see the big display is down, I start around the corner to tell the man that he can put the wooden thing on the counter to try on the mask and shoulders. He's got a cheeper head from around the corner (Like I wouldn't notice the difference) on the display and he's trying to put it back. I asked him point blank "Where is the mask that belongs on that?" He mumbles something like "I don't know." I look down to see if he dropped it on the floor. It's folded up with the shoulders as small as possible and shoved UNDER the longer dresses on the other side of the rack. I pulled it out and held it up. He starts back peddling. I told him "I think it's time for you to LEAVE!" He throws both hands up in the air and starts hurrying toward the door.

WTF were these people thinking? They were the ONLY TWO customers in the shop at the time! They were OBVIOUSLY getting me away from the guy while he tried to pull the lamest 'switch-a-roo' in history. Did they think we couldn't see that a big black mask & shoulders were NOT on the wall???

DOH!

Oh well. Made my day to bounce the nincompoops.

[joedog]

You know with those actions you could have pressed charges.

[ScarlettP]

More fun to bounce the dip sh*t myself.

[Bob]

Joe: If she had called the police, I don't think they could have done anything. He hadn't actually stolen it. It was only wadded up under his shirt but he hadn't left the store. If he had left the store and she tried to detain him, that would be assault and he would then have her arrested. If my understanding of how our system works is correct.

Ya did good scarlet!

[Red]

Mr.Bill brought the girls in a few months back (I was up the street at an appointment), he had no clue of the forum connection, that we knew each other etc... but said that Lil Red (now 6) LOVED the place and has been begging us to take her back there to get her costume this year. He's been to costume shops all over the place and was thrilled to put yours on his "go-to" list.

[Fatally Yours]

Ah, my favorite holiday of the year.....what are your hours on the weekend ?.

[ScarlettP]

Saturdays are 10 am until 8 pm.

9 till 8 Monday through Friday.

Closed on Sunday... Which is why this is the first time I've gotten back to the forum.

This "3 packaged costume try-ons per customer per day" thing is the BEST idea we ever came up with. The place stays so CLEAN and well stocked when we're not spending 100% of our time cleaning up after Dress Up Girls.

[Babs]

Hope to make it by after work to pick up the nun costume. It will make it easier to decide what to wear to Club Lib! I called the shop earlier and you have some! I lost a part of the one I got a few years (or a year?) ago.

[ScarlettP]

Glad to be of service to you, Babs. And very nice to see you dear. After your long ordeal, it was good for me to see you up and about with my own two eyes.