Only December? I worked at superstore throughout high school and after Halloween was over Christmas music would take over. Most of November, all of December and a bit into January it was the same 8 songs covered by 10 artists.
Getting crushed by a pallet of bananas was preferable to listening to that awful music.
Seasonal music was the worst. For the first bit it was a nice change from the monotony of the other 10 songs they play on repeat but after awhile your compelled to look up a surgeon for a semi-professional lobotomy.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
Southland and MacLeod! Represent! So many stories...that was such a bad job.
Un-jamming the Trash Compactor is CSR work.
So, for the uninitiated, CSRs are usually 15-16 year old kids, they're 'Customer Service Reps' and they're usually the poor bastards you see collecting carts from the parking lot in 2 feet of snow and -30.
.
It was different for our store. Either because our store did it differently or that's the way it was in the 90s.
We had shipping and receiving staff - a small crew of about 5. We had fill crew. They worked after the store closed (and before the store opened at one point too) and they stocked the shelves. We had Promo Team. They did the shelf ends and the pallets down the middle of the larger aisles. Then we had Floor staff, which would probably be the same as CSR. We made up the bulk of the staff in the store and ages ranged from 15-65. We were divided up between departments and rarely changed departments. Then, of course, we had cashiers. Oh, and office staff, mgmt, and security (Loss Prevention Officers).
The Following User Says Thank You to Buff For This Useful Post:
Only December? I worked at superstore throughout high school and after Halloween was over Christmas music would take over. Most of November, all of December and a bit into January it was the same 8 songs covered by 10 artists.
Getting crushed by a pallet of bananas was preferable to listening to that awful music.
I couldn't stand listening to Christmas music for nearly 20 years after I worked at CT. November 1 to December 31 was non-stop Christmas music. We had about 3 or 4 CDs that we could change but you were usually too busy to change it and had to listen to the same CD for an entire shift.
The Following User Says Thank You to Buff For This Useful Post:
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
Exp:
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14
Only December? I worked at superstore throughout high school and after Halloween was over Christmas music would take over. Most of November, all of December and a bit into January it was the same 8 songs covered by 10 artists.
Getting crushed by a pallet of bananas was preferable to listening to that awful music.
I did 30 years with Safeway and the staff to a person would always moan about the Christmas music being played. The only relief was to get assigned to the night stocking crew during that period of time where we would bring in our boom boxes and play our damn music.
We had codes paged over the PA.
Code 17 was hot chick alert. Code 17 aisle 34. And the horny guys would go check her out.
There was a code for cashier needing change and a code for floor staff to go jump in the cash register and help them ring through customers.
Then the fun one was 10-33.
If you heard 10-33 to the front or 10-33 to the mall or wherever else it was called then you ran as fast as you could to help arrest a shoplifter. Adrenaline rush! I'll share a couple of those stories a little later.
It was different for our store. Either because our store did it differently or that's the way it was in the 90s.
We had shipping and receiving staff - a small crew of about 5. We had fill crew. They worked after the store closed (and before the store opened at one point too) and they stocked the shelves. We had Promo Team. They did the shelf ends and the pallets down the middle of the larger aisles. Then we had Floor staff, which would probably be the same as CSR. We made up the bulk of the staff in the store and ages ranged from 15-65. We were divided up between departments and rarely changed departments. Then, of course, we had cashiers. Oh, and office staff, mgmt, and security (Loss Prevention Officers).
Wow, thats way different than us.
All deliveries happened at night and the warehouse crew would take care of that and leave floor merchandise in the loading area, take what was labeled down to the warehouse and each department was responsible for stocking and facing it's own product.
There were so many times where I'd badger the manager to stock shelves, face product or re-fill the Oil Wall.
Because product doesnt harass you. It just sits there and goes where you force it to go!
Whereas at the Desk you were 100% customer facing. And I've already described Auto Parts Customers. 'Stage 10 Pissed' before they even walk through the door.
And sometimes when you were stocking shelves they'd even let you take your CT shirt off so you could get work done without:
"Hey...do you work here?"
So many stories about that.
I remember helping this one mechanic out, he was working on a car and their stock had run out and he just needed a bulb. So he wanders out onto the floor and has no idea where to go, he and I were good so he asks me to help him out because he's on the clock.
So we run the bulb number and 'no problem, I know where this is on the floor.'
We're going there and this lady taps the mechanic on the shoulder and...
"Excuse me...do you work here?"
Now I've got my CT Auto Parts shirt on and he's dressed in full blue coveralls with a Canadian Tire logo on it...I should mention, he was a Newfie with a sense of humour but...that classic Newfie attitude, that guy was great.
Oh did he lose it...went into full Newf lingo...It. Was. Priceless.
"Naw lady I just dress up like this for FUN!"
And he gives me the 'Death Stare' and I'm just thinking...
"Don't pass her off to me you bastard...this is your problem now!" Whilst internally laughing my ass off.
He sends her in Newf Lingo to the other side of the store, which is the Garden Centre, for windshield wipers that were like 7 feet away.
She. Was. Pissed when she came back. And my boss was not happy, but somehow I managed to maintain a straight face.
"That Newfie employee of yours sent me on a wild goose chase and I don't appreciate it!!!"
- Madam...we don't have any Newfie employees in Auto Parts (which was technically true, he was a mechanic)
"I know a Newfie when I talk to one!!!"
That lady thought she was hallucinating and I was dying inside. I had to run to the back to kill myself with laughter...at which point my manager finds me...
"What did you do??"
Oh The Tire. What a job.
You have no idea about the next story I'm going to tell. It was goddamned grim.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Locke For This Useful Post:
We had codes paged over the PA.
Code 17 was hot chick alert. Code 17 aisle 34. And the horny guys would go check her out.
There was a code for cashier needing change and a code for floor staff to go jump in the cash register and help them ring through customers.
Then the fun one was 10-33.
If you heard 10-33 to the front or 10-33 to the mall or wherever else it was called then you ran as fast as you could to help arrest a shoplifter. Adrenaline rush! I'll share a couple of those stories a little later.
"10-33 to hardware emergency exit!" I went running across the store, nobody was in my path, I could see down the hunting aisle across the centre aisle and down one of the Hardware aisles. After a few steps I realized the emergency exit door siren was going off. It didn't take me long to get there. The floor staff kid in hardware saw a guy take some paint thinner and walk straight out the emergency exit. My counterpart part in sports and seasonal had beaten me to it and saw the guy step outside, put the paint thinner down just outside the door and quickly walk away. Looks like he was going distract us while a friend grabbed the pain thinner as we chased him down.
My counterpart part grabbed the paint thinner and shouted "Excuse me sir, your forgot your purchase!". He thought the guy was long gone and we were just going to recover the item and call it a day. Wrong! The guy turned around and came back. He was thankful that we noticed he forgot it and faked being sheepish because he forgot it. Did he really think the 5 of us were going to unwittingly help him steal? Apparently so. He walked up in to us and he was quickly told to step inside as he's under arrest for shop lifting. He went willingly, the guy who called him back ha helped loss prevention a few times so he knew what to do and soon the cops came and took the guy away.
Another time a co-worker in sports and seasonal working the evening shift with me saw a young teen pocket something from the hunting aisle. He told me about it so I followed the kid out the doors and I told him he was under arrest and he had to come back to the security office with me. Turns out the kid was 11. Unsure of what I had to do I called the Loss Prevention Officer at home and he told me to put the kid on the phone. I heard the kid say a few "Yes sirs," and "No sirs" and I'm sorry sirs". Then he said "Please call my mom, just don't call my grandma". Then the kid panicked and kept pleading that his grandma can't find out. He started crying and handed the phone back to me. Loss Prevention told me the kid seems to have learned his lesson, walk him out of the store and tell him to go to his grandma's house. I wonder if he ever told his grandma, we never called anyone.
Then there was the time one of the Loss Prevention Officers flagged me down. He had been following these two dudes around and they had hundreds of dollars of merchandise in their back packs (later turned out to be nearly $2500). Me being in the red CT shirt, I had to stay back and wait. The other guy he flagged down hadn't started his shift yet so he wasn't wearing the red. After a while the two dudes headed to the front doors. They didn't stop at the cashier, they just kept going. I was a couple steps back but the LPO and the coworker was hot on their heals. The dude with the shorter hair was several steps ahead of the long hair dude, so the LPO began to apprehend the long hair dude. A fight ensued. Long hair took a swing at LPO and LPO and coworker tried to subdue him. LPO managed to toss some handcuffs to me and told me to bring the other guy back. I'm 6'3" and was probably 220lbs and a regular st the gym at that point. This guy was 5'10" and a bit soft looking. So I think I intimidated him as I approached him and he didn't try to run, I simply asked him to come with me and he immediately complied. He asked what was going on and I told him that our LPO wanted to have words with him and his buddy. He tried to play dumb and said he didn't know the other guy and I told him he knew better than to lie to me. "Yeah, we're friends, sorry"
By the time we got back to the fight they had cuffs on the fighter and we took them to the security office where we called the cops. They arrived rather quickly, and after being regaled with the events the cops began to search the two shoplifters. We got lucky. They had knives and knuckle dusters in their backpacks. One of the cops pulled out a nice golden knuckleduster, commented on it and the long hair dude replies "I get to keep that, I paid good money for it!". The cop told him that he should have invested his money legally. Had those guys been prepared for a fight we all could have been hurt! Those two were from Ontario and were passing through, I think with a stolen car, and at least one of them had a warrant. Much later the LPO told me he went to court for those two and they didn't show up and nobody came to represent them.
One other time I wasn't around to witness, we had a retired RCMP officer who was the new head LPO. Tough looking mofo in his mid 50s. Apparently he followed a shoplifter out the mall entrance and walked up to him. Then he remembers waking up on the ground with several people looking down at him. The suspect one punch knocked him out and bolted. RCMP wasn't around for nearly two weeks after that.
I enjoyed helping out the LPOs. After a while we stopped hearing many 10-33s over the PA as the LTOe purchased some radios and would choose staff members to wear them so they could discretely call us for help.
I don't believe that is the approach to shoplifters anymore. Seems that it's safer to just let people walk out with items than to try to apprehend them. It's much better to have staff pay attention to customers and interact with them as a deterrent.
There was some interesting people get arrested during my time there. I was shocked to come to work and see a prominent business man in Lethbridge being walked to the security office in handcuffs. My supervisor had the hots for one regular customer. She was his dream girl until he had to help the LPO arrest her.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Buff For This Useful Post:
Oh man! I remember when they installed a lock-box for...I can't remember what, I think it was paint thinner?
Because Indigenous people allegedly bought it and drank it.
But we had this one guy who was Indigenous and was a contractor and we always had to call a manager to unlock the case to sell it to him.
He was the nicest guy and I apologized to him one time and just said,
"I'm sorry man, these are the rules and theres nothing I can do about it...I know you're trying to work, but they locked it up and I don't have the keys."
And he just told me not to feel bad and that he understood.
Ugh. That sucked.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
Back in 97 on a November evening I was heading back to P.G. from Kamloops and for some odd reason opted to take the long route up highway 5 to 16, than West back to P.G. it like like 65 more km, but had a lot less settlements to slowdown and drive thru. I had a new VW GTI that I had bought like 5 months earlier and thought I'd enjoy a nice rural drive where I could let it loose a bit.
In Valemount around 7:00 I topped up the fuel and it was cool but still like 6 degrees outside. About an hour 15 later I hit some black ice on a bridge deck and the car spins on me up the hill until there's a curve and I launch off the side of the road and down a hill. Maybe 25 feet down the hill a smallish tree which probably saves my life stops the car after rolling over 2 times. The floor of the car close enough to the center of gravity hits the tree and stops the car. Car was still operational enough that I could open the Moonroof, so I crawled out if it as the drivers side is up in the air on this tree.
I flag down a trucker and hitch a ride back to McBride. Call the local tow truck who had just finished playing hockey and he will bring it back to McBride, but doesn't want to tow it to P.G. that night since hes is tired. He gets me at the gas station and drives me out to where it happened and we recover the car pretty quickly. Even if I had to crawl back in to unlock the steering and make sure he pulls it up straight. So back to McBride and I get a suitcase, a bread maker and another box with some other food my mom sent with me and to make bread including canned raspberries. In fact the flour opened up and there's a mix of flour and raspberry fruit in the car which also ended up in my hair. By now it's 10:30 and I'm supposed to be at work by 8:00 the next morning. Nothing is open except a gas station and they have the Greyhound schedule there. Turns out the red eye from Edmonton to P.G. rolls thru at 4:30 in the morning. Of course in a small town it's a small station off main street that's only open for a few hours a day from Monday to Friday.
I try the lone motel/inn the Sandman, but it's locked and no one answers the after hours buzzer. After 30 minutes, I'm getting cold and I'm pretty beat. So the one warm place I can find is the vestibule at the Scotia Bank which is about halfway from the gas station to the bus station. I drag these boxes and suitcase down main street, and attempt to crash there for like 5 hours. Of course in 97 cell phones are very rare, and I have an analog Gucci Watch that my parents got me for graduating my crappy 2 year CADD diploma. So no alarm, still cold, and not wanting to miss this 4:30 bus I lay there mostly awake. Finally just after 4 I haul all my stuff to where the bus stops and it shows up pretty close to on time. The driver is pretty stunned to see someone but helps me load the stuff and gets me on the bus.
A couple Idigenous guys see me come sit behind me and start asking me questions since I'm looking a bit rough. Do they hear the story and they haven't been to P.G. for a decade so they keep badgering me about the city when all I want to do is sleep. As we roll into P.G. they're like this place isn't as rough as it used to be they really fixed this town. I get off the driver grabs me to go pay the $35 fare at the P.G. Station which at that time was a pretty rough place as they didn't build the new commercial area next to it for like another 18 months. My room mate and his boss come and get me and drop me off for work just on time. Yes his boss just had to see this himself when he called to say why he might be a bit late himself. My boss didn't send me home, had me work the day, although he did let me spend like two hours reporting the claim and finding a shop who'd get the car and tow it to P.G.
So on one hand I'm grateful to the Hound for getting me out of McBride that night. If I had a knife that night....I might be notorious for beheading a couple guys. I still did a couple trips after that on the Greyhound in Canada out of sheer cheapness. Also rode the thing in Australia. Rode busses in Brazil a lot too. On a trip from Sao Paulo to Curitiba we were on a nice 4 lane highway going into some hills. Get up to take a leak. Midstream we're now on a rough goat trail...I tried to stop, but I sprayed that lavatory and definitely got some backslash on myself. That was the last time I used a bathroom on a bus.
__________________ "Some guys like old balls"
Patriots QB Tom Brady
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Sylvanfan For This Useful Post:
Macleod Trail store more specifically, and ugh 30 years ago....gross. I was up in Sports and if I wasn't calling Sports to Warehouse and waiting at the belt, I was poorly running the skate sharpener, or randomly handling guns with the equally as unqualified Hunting associate - some fun times for sure.
I actually think one of the "older" guys I worked with in Sports is still at the store, that's dedication.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Madman For This Useful Post:
Macleod Trail store more specifically, and ugh 30 years ago....gross. I was up in Sports and if I wasn't calling Sports to Warehouse and waiting at the belt, I was poorly running the skate sharpener, or randomly handling guns with the equally as unqualified Hunting associate - some fun times for sure.
I actually think one of the "older" guys I worked with in Sports is still at the store, that's dedication.
I don’t think I received any sort of “Guns ‘n Ammo” training beyond where the trigger lock key was stored and how to security bag the ammo for the walk to the checkout. Now get out there and sell some guns!
I don’t think I received any sort of “Guns ‘n Ammo” training beyond where the trigger lock key was stored and how to security bag the ammo for the walk to the checkout. Now get out there and sell some guns!
I remember having beers with some of the Sporting Goods guys and I'm telling them...
"You guys shouldn't even be allowed to sell Oars or Hockey Skates much less actual firearms!"
And their response?
"Yeah, we know! Right?!?!"
Oh good God...we're doomed.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
Macleod Trail store more specifically, and ugh 30 years ago....gross. I was up in Sports and if I wasn't calling Sports to Warehouse and waiting at the belt, I was poorly running the skate sharpener, or randomly handling guns with the equally as unqualified Hunting associate - some fun times for sure.
I actually think one of the "older" guys I worked with in Sports is still at the store, that's dedication.
Macleod...30 years is a lot, I was there...I want to say in the 2007-ish range? We might have overlapped a little?
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
The World Ends when you're dead. Until then, you've got more punishment in store. - Flames Fans
If you thought this season would have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
Oh man! I remember when they installed a lock-box for...I can't remember what, I think it was paint thinner?
Because Indigenous people allegedly bought it and drank it.
But we had this one guy who was Indigenous and was a contractor and we always had to call a manager to unlock the case to sell it to him.
He was the nicest guy and I apologized to him one time and just said,
"I'm sorry man, these are the rules and theres nothing I can do about it...I know you're trying to work, but they locked it up and I don't have the keys."
And he just told me not to feel bad and that he understood.
Ugh. That sucked.
Yeah, the homeless will huff it or mix it with their pop or even KFC gravy or anything, really.
Close to the end of my time at Canadian Tire they had a section of empty shelves in the paint department where they kept the paint thinner. There was a sign to as an associate for help. It was always being stolen... and now I remember another story.
My supervisor paged me to call him. In those days each department had a cordless phone and he was carrying one around that night. He told me to meet him at the front as we were about to make an arrest. He witnessed an indigenous woman stuffing paint thinner in her jacket. We followed her to the front where she was actually about to purchase something. So he walked up to her and asked her if she was paying for the paint thinner too. She was a bit drunk already and her speech was a bit slurred. She said "What paint thinner?" He informed her that he saw her take it so she pulled it out and put it on the counter. Then, he said "Can I have the other one? Because I'm not stupid. Your zipper is down and we can see the bottle of paint thinner in your pants." So she pulled out that bottle too and he told her to leave.
Macleod Trail store more specifically, and ugh 30 years ago....gross. I was up in Sports and if I wasn't calling Sports to Warehouse and waiting at the belt, I was poorly running the skate sharpener, or randomly handling guns with the equally as unqualified Hunting associate - some fun times for sure.
I actually think one of the "older" guys I worked with in Sports is still at the store, that's dedication.
Apparently I was good a sharpening skates. Some people would come in and ask for me and would only let me sharpen their skates. It was $1 or $2 per sharpening back in 1998.
I was also the only person who had a gun license. The store made me and two others take the course to get the license because of the gun laws that came into effect around 1998 or 1999. We'd have to call the Gun Registry in Mirimichi to register the sale of the gun and sometimes we'd wait on hold for up to an hour. Some Canadian Tire stores took the opportunity to sell all their gun stock to other Canadian Tire stores before the gun-laws took effect so they wouldn't have to deal with all the new red tape. Our GM bought close to 300 guns and I would be busy in hunting season and after a couple of years I was the only one left in the store who could sell or even show guns to customers who also had a gun license.
I had one guy who immigrated from Britain who would come and buy guns from us quite regularly. Quite a nice guy, friendly and easy to deal with. I wondered if he loved the freedom to buy guns since he wasn't in Britain anymore, or if he was planning something devious. I never did see him in the news as an active (or dead) shooter, so he just must have loved guns. What a pain the butt it was to sell guns back then though.
The Following User Says Thank You to Buff For This Useful Post:
