My First Day

I had a great first day on the job today. There's lots to learn, but it will definately be less hectic than working at Sears. What Taylors calls a rush of customers, was Sears' slow time. I'm tired after working eight hours today, but I think that's more from having to switch to a full working day after two unemployed months of sleeping in, taking naps when I like, and moving slowly through my days. I'm working every day this week and next, all eight, and eight 1/2 hour shifts. Then I'll go down to just working three or four days a week. My boss wants me to learn everything quickly, so she scheduled me to work the first two weeks full time.

My only problem with the job is that the store feels cold. Chilliness is my worst nightmare, I just can't stand it! Why oh why was I born in Canada? I'm thinking that one of the reasons I feel cold all the time is that I don't eat properly. Today I had no breakfast, and no lunch. Customers came into the store and actually raved about how "balmy" it was, and here I was shivering! "I hear it's supposed to reach six degrees today!" they said. (not farenheit - I don't know what six degrees works out to in celsius). I've noticed that people who are rarely cold, usually have more body padding than I do, so I guess I should eat.

It's a business products store, so we serve a lot of people who come in on behalf of their company. That's one of the big differences between this job and Sears. At Sears, people were paying with their own money. At Taylors we usually have to put the bill on the customer's company's account. People are very very serious about their office products! Men come in to buy bulk boxes of ledgers, or an office chair, or what have you, and they stand there at the till with this grim expression on their face. I get the impression these types would not take kindly to a mistake being made. Not that they're terribly unfriendly - it's just that they're "on the job", fitting in time between nine to five to buy specific things that they've been using for years and years and don't want the slightest change to make them irritable.

I'm happy to see that the computer system at Taylors is much more efficient than Sears' system. At Sears, if a customer couldn't find something on the shelves, and I needed to use the computer to find the nearest store and order the item, I had to go through a series of about twenty steps. I had to remember combinations of numbers and letters to get to each page, and run through lengthy lists and punch more keys and click esc twice and blah blah blah. At Taylors it's just two steps and I have my information. If the nearest stores in Vancouver or Seattle (U.S.) have the item in stock, that means I can tell the customer it will arrive next day. If those two stores don't have the item, it will take three or four days. Period. None of this intensive rigamarole I had to learn for Sears. Thank goodness, because I never did master it.

The store is just up the street from my old apartment building. It has a full view of the park where all the junkies hang out. One of my former neighbours from the old apartment building is a bag lady of about fifty or sixty. While I lived in that building, I used to see her quite often from my window, standing outside the building. Since I've moved, I often run into her on the street, just standing on the corner (she seems to have several favourite standing spots). She's taken a liking to me, and always rushes to greet me, button up my coat, give me a hug, call me sweetheart. I think she's a prostitute, because of all the time she stands on the curb. Though to look at her, bundled up in her purple coat, winter boots and ratty touque pulled down over her ears, you'd never believe it. She has no teeth (last time I spoke with her she was looking forward to new dentures). I think she suffers from some kind of mental dysfunction, but she's friendly enough. Anyway I noticed her all day today, wandering up and down the sidewalk outside, stopping on one corner for an hour or so, disappearing for a while, then reappearing further up the block. I hadn't realised she spent quite this much time out on the street! Actually it reminded me of my own past. I was glad I found a way to escape that crappy life - selling office products in a chilly store is much better than the life I used to envision for myself. If I hadn't set myself a goal to escape that trap, I'd be in her shoes.