Today's rambling: Happy Thanksgiving!
Written on November 22, 2001 at 6:24 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Finally, a couple of days off!

The past week at work has been crazy busy, what with Thanksgiving and all that. Thanksgiving is probably my LEAST favorite holiday, so it wasn't as if I was all excited about it or anything. And yesterday especially we weren't busy as far as having to wait on customers...but in the morning there were like 5 people (including me) in the main part of the bakery (then the two women in the cake decorators' section)...Any more than THREE people is a crowd back there, because the department is so small! Besides that, I was being pulled around from all sides...Zenon would tell me to do something, then John would say to do something else...then Zenon would ask what the stuff from my FIRST task was doing out on the table...GAH!

It was surprising that yesterday wasn't very crowded. Geoff was saying that at any other store, you'd hardly even be able to walk through the aisles because it would be so crowded. And I've heard other workers say stuff like, "At a real store..." That phrase always irritates me. Just because we're not as crowded as other Genuardi's stores, what makes us any less of a store? If you LIKE the craziness of crowds so much, then for heaven's sake go find a way to get back there! As for myself, I'm not a people person and so the amount of customers we have is just fine. At lunchtime I go crazy, not because the bakery gets busy, but because the entire food court area is usually PACKED! And I hate being around that many people at a time...makes me feel claustrophobic. Funny...I have no problems with being in small spaces (well, I guess if it was REALLY small, like a narrow tunnel you had to squeeze through on your belly, I'd get panicked, hehe). In fact, I usually feel more comfortable in a smaller room than I would in a larger one. But as soon as you pack in the people, everything shrinks around me and I get nervous and anxious (not to mention more irritable, hehe)...

But I digress! I was talking about work. ;) There were several times during the past few days where I was actually out of breath from having to do so much...and I've had to lift so much (a lot of it from high over my head, which I know is not such a good thing) that my arm muscles have been in pain! That, combined with the usual aching feet (since we don't have those floor pads which SHOULD be there), and I was one miserable little girl! I have off today and tomorrow though, thankfully, so that should give me enough time to relax before I have to go back. If I'd only had today off...well, it wouldn't be pretty.

Yesterday, despite my frustration at being ordered all over the place, was actually pretty nice. There's a Geoff story attached to that, but you don't get to hear it. *grins*

After I got home from work, Tiff came over and we stayed up 'til 2 in the morning. I haven't stayed up that late in quite some time! It was nice hanging out with her again, though...feels like ages, LoL! We watched my new copy of Slipper and the Rose, but I was so tired by the middle of the movie that I couldn't really enjoy it. All I could keep thinking was, "Oh, it's only at THIS part? That means there's all this left to go!" *giggles*

Because I stayed up so late (anything past 10 pm is late for me now!), I ended up sleeping until 3 pm...so basically by the time I got OUT of bed, showered, and all of that stuff...dinner was ready! The only good part about Thanksgiving this year was that it was actually a sit-down, not-out-of-a-box dinner. Seriously. My meals for the past...YEAR or more, really, have consisted of fast food and frozen stuff. It's too much of a hassle to actually cook stuff when you have to work all the time, and neither Mom nor I really have any energy anymore. So I guess I can be thankful for ONE cooked meal, right? *giggles* Other than that, though...Thanksgiving is one holiday I could do without. I'm not exactly sure why, I've just never liked it.

Anyway, to a different subject. The other day I was looking at my site tracker, and apparently someone found my diary by typing "hate safeway" in the Google search engine. My diary was one of like 4 results. Can you believe there's actually a Yahoo! group for people who hate Safeway? I hope there's more of a purpose to it than just complaining about the company, because as much as I hate Safeway, I'm not going to join clubs just to bitch about it. Hopefully they do cool stuff, like organize things to sabotage the company...*grins teasingly*

So yeah, my diary was one of the search results, and another one was some sort of a column from Salon 21st. I've never heard of this place before....Nonetheless, I couldn't resist the urge to read this column, and so I clicked on the link.

Oh my, I could feel a grin slowly forming on my face as I read through it. The writer lives in Colorado, but he shops at a Safeway...the column was written in 1998, but the stuff he was talking about is EXACTLY what has been implemented at Genuardi's! Here, I'll be nice and give you curious folk the link. For those of you who DON'T feel like clicking, the column talked mostly about the fact that Safeway employees have to greet the customer by their last name. I haven't cashiered at all since Safeway took over Genuardi's, but I know that credit card slips have the name, and now that we use "Bonus Cards" the name shows up on the receipt. So cashiers are required to say stuff like "Have a nice day, Mr. Jones"....as if this is going to make people think, "Wow, what a friendly store!"

To me, greeting by last name is not only rude, it's also rather creepy. You don't know this person, what gives you the right to start calling them by name? Now, if you saw this person every week and had started up a rapport or something, then I could understand saying "Have a nice day, Mrs. Smith!" But who wants a total stranger using their name? I certainly don't...and thankfully, this columnist doesn't, either! *giggles* Well, he didn't really say that he thought it was rude, he just thought it was creepy. And it doesn't show any sort of real friendliness...it's just fake friendliness, or "Welcome to McDonald's" friendliness, as he put it.

Unfortunately, as I said cashiers are required to perform this awkward ritual. And if they don't, they could very well get in trouble for it thanks to the wonderful Mystery Shopper that comes into our store every week. Should said Mystery Shopper go into your line and not be greeted by last name, your name goes into their report, the store manager finds out later, and you get in trouble. It's disgusting.

Oh, so as I was reading through this article, I found a link to another column, this one about those stupid bonus cards. I knew about this before, but those cards don't just give you savings, they help to keep detailed records of what you buy. This is usually used for demographic purposes, but the information is also given to marketers. In worst-case scenarios, the information could also be used against you. The column was talking about this guy who slipped on spilled yogurt inside a store, shattering his kneecap. However, when he tried to sue the store, they came back and said that according to the database, he bought quite a bit of liquor. This they would use against him to insinuate that he fell because he was drunk.

THAT'S disgusting, too, and another MAJOR reason why bonus cards should not be used. Or, if you're like me and have very little money, you could just sign up for a new one every time you come in...or put your name down as "Safeway Customer" or something like that. Anything to prevent them from being able to keep records on you. It's not that I'm even saying that I would have anything to hide (unless they'd like to count how many times I buy feminine hygiene products, something I'm still not comfortable buying); it's just the idea of them keeping records period, especially for something so stupid.

But that's my rant for the day. My wrist is starting to hurt, and I'm bored, and I think I might go get a drink. I feel like I should be getting ready for bed, since it's so dark out and it's nearing my usual bedtime anyway...but I slept all day, so I couldn't very well go to bed NOW!

Oh, by the way...if anyone's curious about my "determined" imood...it's because my goal is to get Geoff before the new year is here. *sly grin* Poor man...doesn't even have a chance.