Boxing Day
On the day after Christmas...
- In feudal times the lord of the manor would give boxes of practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land.
- Many years ago on the day after Christmas servants would carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day's work. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts.
- In churches, it was traditional to open the church's donation box on Christmas Day and distribute it to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day.
Take your pick.
In the world of retail Boxing Day is the day everyone brings back all the crap they got for gifts that they didn't want or is the wrong size or the wrong color or that they shoplifted and now want full retail for instead of the 10% that the local fence will give them.
Now fortunately for me I never had to work the counter during this period of long lines and testy, hung over sales people and managers dealing with irate customers who think that making their sob story more pitiful than the last one will get them any treatment more special than what everyone gets.
- Is it all there?
- Is it undamaged?
- Did you buy it here?
Bingo, have some store credit. Go nuts. Have a nice day.
What makes it especially crappy for the clerks is that you don't normally get a lot of practice with the return procedures because your manager will handle it since it's easier than training you. Now you have 20 in a row and the first 7 or 8 are slow until you get the hang of things.
As a customer I have to warn you, this is not a swap meet. If they didn't have a blue size 6 on Christmas Eve, they don't have it now either EVEN IF THE CUSTOMER RIGHT AHEAD OF YOU IN LINE JUST RETURNED A SIZE 6 IN BLUE!
It has to go back to the warehouse for processing and re-packaging. Really.
So if you braved the surly stares today you have my admiration for your tenacity. If you waited for the rush to pass my respect for your brilliance.
But don't wait too long. It all has to be out of the store before February inventory so it doesn't have to be counted.
Comments
Vent Hole
Be careful out there, people are driving crazy.
What else is new?
And at the end of next week, here in Illinois they will be driving stoned as well. I wonder if I'll be able to tell the difference?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I dunno.
Are you stoned?
I find it makes me a timid driver, which is not an advantage in Connecticut where we drive both fast AND stupid. No Breathalyzers yet but they can blood test exposure for 30 days and hair samples for...
How long do you say you've been clean again?
But it's been a long, long time since I've been truly stoned. Normally after a period of abstinence. Once you get used to it you hardly notice except when it's gone and then you feel mildly sad like your favorite hot sauce (Trappy's Original Recipe, btw) isn't stocked at your local MegaMart anymore and you'd have to drive across town to get it.
Can;t be worse than Illinois drivers
74 years.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Too long.
Drop in and tune out. Sativa is good for energy, Indica is generally Gorilla Glue (sticks you to the couch contemplating the quantum Universes in your thumbs) and many strains have an aroma that is a mixture of Skunk and Diesel.
Not that it doesn't work because it does like a champ and if you're taking it medically for appetite, nausea, or insomnia it's entirely effective, but not good for business.
As a veteran of many years in retail, this resonates.
Every year, I would volunteer to work Xmas eve if it kept me out of the day after. In my non-scientific research, people coming in to pick up layaways or the dudes (it was always dudes) who played the last minute shopping game were actually very pleasant to deal with. I usually had a good time actually.
Day after, not so much. Entitled attitudes, off the chart. Patience gone. Plus I am by nature a person who tries to find ways to make people happy. Often inflexible corporate policies and unreasonable customers are not going to work for that.
I don’t miss that grind at all.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
I worked shipping and receiving.
You lift heavy things but there's leverage and simple machines. I started a grunt and was put in charge of the Flagship store during and after a move. Like everything else at management level it's all paperwork and staffing, downside there's no career path except Operations Manager. Truth is I took a solid hour of lunch at the end of the day before supervising the last trailer and except at delivery times I would eat bagels and smoke cigarettes with the Head of Security who dug that I didn't enforce policy so much.
Of course I did have to clock in at 6 am.
Full holiday (“2nd Christmas Day”) in Germany & the Netherlands
TV news here was full of commemorations of the 230,000 victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami 15 years ago in countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.
I know someone...
who was there. They never talk about it.