{"id":5862,"date":"2020-12-20T11:01:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-20T19:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5862"},"modified":"2020-12-20T11:01:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T19:01:31","slug":"christmas-at-the-counter-victoria-12-20-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5862","title":{"rendered":"Christmas at the Counter \u2013 Victoria \u2013 [12\/20\/2020]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-5863\" src=\"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1969hs5ugdtjejpg-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1969hs5ugdtjejpg-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1969hs5ugdtjejpg-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1969hs5ugdtjejpg-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/1969hs5ugdtjejpg.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/>\u2018Twas the week before Christmas<br \/>\nAnd all through the town<br \/>\nThe store staff were frazzled<br \/>\nAnd their spirits were down<\/p>\n<p>Okay people, here\u2019s the deal. Working retail at Christmas? Is it\u2019s own special brand of crazy\u2026this year? It\u2019s even <em>more<\/em> crazy.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a lot of years since I was behind a counter during the holidays. I have usually been spending my days in the Caribbean with uniform Santa hats and wax painted smiles, and about 200 children running about a large vessel where Santa comes in by jet-ski (which is still crazy\u2026just a different kind). This year? Obviously I\u2019m not there. And that\u2019s okay. I am <em>totally<\/em> okay with that. I am home, with my family and my oranges and our \u2018shared\u2019 household cat. I have a tree and hot chocolate and fresh made Christmas cookies and that\u2019s all <em>exactly what I hoped it would be<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But all that aside, I am still a shopgirl at Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>And as a shopgirl\u2026here is my plea.<\/p>\n<p>Be kind.<\/p>\n<p>Please please please. Be kind. Be patient. And know that there are things you can do that will make everyone\u2019s life a little easier. Let me be as straight forward about this as possible:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You\u2019d be amazed how much different it makes just to see a customer take a second to smile. Yes, even behind a mask. We can see your eyes, and they <em>do<\/em> reflect what you\u2019re feeling.<\/li>\n<li>To us. Not to your phone. Not to your friend behind you in line. Speak to us. Say hi! We promise we\u2019re really very nice!<\/li>\n<li>Be patient. We are super busy this time of year. If you see us running from one corner of the store to the other, realize that we are likely already in the midst of assisting someone and wait for a moment to pause and ask if we can help you. We promise, you\u2019ll be helped as <em>soon<\/em> as it is humanly possible.<\/li>\n<li>This is a weird year. Please don\u2019t pay with huge bills if you can avoid it. We get it, cash is legal tender, and it may be all you have. But please, don\u2019t hand us a $50 to pay for a $2.50 purchase. Our floats are small right now and all it takes is one or two purchases like this to completely clear us out.<\/li>\n<li>Have your method of payment and loyalty cards and all your purchases ready when you get to the counter. We really don\u2019t want to rush you, we really really don\u2019t, but when there\u2019s a double line up of people behind you stretching the length of the store, we really need you to be on top of things.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your temper. We know it\u2019s raining out, we know you don\u2019t want to be wearing a mask, we know that you\u2019re stressed and tired. So are we. But no matter what kind of a day you\u2019re having, it\u2019s not our fault\u2026even though we\u2019re the ones right in front of you. Be nice. It\u2019ll make everyone\u2019s day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fight us on the mask mandate. We\u2019re not the ones that made it. We hate it just as much as you do. But we are the ones that have to enforce it. Don\u2019t be jerks. Don&#8217;t make us cry.<\/li>\n<li>Leave a massive pile of purchases on the counter while you go back for \u201cone more thing\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Ignore us when we ask you to split the line up for the sake of speed and safety.<\/li>\n<li>Get angry when we can\u2019t help you right away. We have four phones ringing at once, two line ups at the till plus one at the door. We\u2019re short staffed and doing the work of a staff double our size\u2026take a breath please.<\/li>\n<li>Talk on the phone while we\u2019re serving you. It\u2019s a small thing, but we\u2019re people, please at least acknowledge us instead of throwing your purchases at us and not even breaking your flow of conversation.<\/li>\n<li>Cut line. Even if it\u2019s just to ask a question.<\/li>\n<li>Show up before opening or after closing and demand to be served. Please. Just don\u2019t.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And for all of you who are being <em>awesome<\/em>. Thank you! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. This is a weird Christmas, but it\u2019s a weird Christmas that has the opportunity to give us something beautiful. Take a breath, take a pause\u2026and continue to be kind to your fellow humans\u2026because we all need that right now.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for hanging in there.<\/p>\n<p>Another tired Shopgirl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Twas the week before Christmas And all through the town The store staff were frazzled And their spirits were down Okay people, here\u2019s the deal. Working retail at Christmas? Is it\u2019s own special brand of crazy\u2026this year? It\u2019s even more &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5862\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-life-in-the-times-of-covid"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1wy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5864,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5862\/revisions\/5864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}