I've just been reminded (not that I already did not know), it's been around April since my last update. Apparently I have not been keeping this up to date like I wanted to. With what happened yesterday, this seems like the right time, then the other updates to my life and, of course, my car (which I know you all still love and want to be running perfect soon!) will commence soon.
It's been a typical slow day at work on 9/17/07 or so I thought...
I don't remember the exact time it was but I would say it was around 3:00pm, an hour before I had until I would normally clock out and get the hell outa there. I was talking to a young customer, in his early 20's, kind of short, stocky (like Elaine would describe George on Seinfeld), and of the Cuban/Mexican decent. I didn't bother to get his name at first because I knew he was just "browsing around" and did not have an intent to "purchase" (this is the key word right here). He wanted to know about a good laptop for gaming and I showed him the HP 9535nr which was the only laptop we had in the store with a good amount of dedicated video RAM for gaming. He was saying how he did not have enough money on his card to buy it and was going to come back later in the week to get it. He asked a few questions as to why it was the better one and started "inspecting" it. He then said something about trying to get into the "main screen" and I kind of reiterated what he said because he didn't make sense (typical for guys who think they are all that and know shit about computers but when you spend less than five minutes with them you realize they don't know dick!) so I just told him it was already on the "desktop" screen and the Best Buy program was on top of that. He was like, "Oh, ok, I see." I was with this guy for around 20 minutes talking to him about the laptop. One thing to note is he was holding his bike helmet and also had a big ass back-pack on his back. I did not think much of it because it was pretty fat and I knew he won't do something stupid in front of me or my associates around him.
A few minutes later, a female customer wanted my help with the printers, which was just the next isle over. I asked the guy if he had any more questions. Lets call him "fuckface" from now on. He said he had no more questions and was OK. I then went to the next isle over and proceeded to help the female customer with a printer, cables, and ink, and, of course, paper. I put it all in her cart for her and she was all set and proceeded to go up front to check out. I then went back to the lap area and still saw fuckface there.
Another associate was towards the end of the laptop isle and ended up talking to a man I talked to from before about a cheap ass Gateway laptop for $349 to take to the Philippians. I then took control of the conversation and the other associate ended up helping another customer with something else. The man said he wanted just that laptop and nothing else because it's going in a suitcase with his wife (his wife will be carrying the suitcase, not be inside it) and just taken to the Philippians. I walked back to the back, up the ladder and called a MOD (Manager On Duty) for the key to the top cage. I was looking around from atop but saw nothing out of the ordinary nor did I hear anything strange. I saw a manager up ahead and waved him down. He approached me and threw up the keys, which I then caught and opened the cage, removed the laptop, and handed the keys back.
Down the ladder I went, saw the man where I left him then, out of nowhere, with an odd smirk on his face, asked me, "do you know where that laptop the guy was next to went?" I was kind of caught in a strange moment and took a quick look at that HP laptop only to find out... it was no longer there. Now, here I have one cheap laptop in my hand, yet this other one which was locked on display, MIA, as if Hudini was just there and made it just vanish in thin air. I was a bit confused and asked that man if fuckface left already and he said he walked away already. Cheap laptop in hand, I proceeded to walk fast (more like a power walk) up towards the front of the store, while saying something on the headset which was too fast and haded to be repeated because nobody knew what the heck I just slurred out my mouth. I talked to the person in LP about the said person and the person said fuckface left already.
I stood there for a while, cheap laptop in hand, stunned and utterly shocked. "Did this big ass 17" laptop just walk out the door with fuckface?", I said to myself? I knew it did and I knew it was over now and there was nothing I could do about it now, for fuckface was long gone and with the damn big ass stickers on the windows outside, it's hard to see outside anyways.
I turned around and saw the man on his way up. Long story short, I took care of him, while having one of the worst moments I ever had in a retail store. I was on my way back to the laptop area and just repeated what happened over and over again in my head, as if I did something wrong, as if I let this happen. Why did I not sense this? It seemed like I was trying to take care of that customer who wanted the cheap ass laptop and I was not concentrating on my senses of fuckface. Maybe it was because I worked the morning shift (which I barely do) and my mind was not focused as good as it normally is? To this minute of typing this, I still wonder, what if I did something different, would I have stopped this from happening?
Maybe I should have told LP to watch fuckface in the laptop valley but I knew he/she must have known about fuckface because he did walk in the only door you can walk in to get in the store, which was up front, where LP is located. Because of this and looking at the puffy ass backpack, I did not do this. I did not find a logical reason for alarm of fuckface.
I do not play that "blame game" but in a sense, I do blame myself. I am still a licensed security officer. I was trained to some degree in these kind of things, even though I have not had the class in a few years and have not been in security for more than a year, it should still be second nature.
But the flip-side of the thing is, I am only one person. Why did the other 20 or so people in the store not notice this or have an idea as to what was about to take place?
Sure, there is LP (Loss Prevention) in the store, which manly consists of one person in the front of the store looking at cameras, while watching and greeting people who come in and out of the store. Sad thing is, the main focus is to be a so-called greeter. Customers are always first and everything else is on the bottom of the list. That's why everyone in the store has to keep out look out for this bullshit.
I work at Best Buy. Most of us on the sales floor are Customer Specialists, specializing in customers unknown needs. So, that's what I though since I been there for around two years and since this is what they drill our heads with every day while we our in there store. I realized I was wrong; they (the managers) are also wrong. We have other rolls as well, which is never brought up much, most of which are obvious but the last few are not.
Obvious to not so obvious:
1. We are Customer Specialists
2. We are merchandisers, even though there is a "merchandising team" for this, it is still part of our duties when wearing the blue shirt
3. We are the cleaning crew. If there is a mess in the break room, we clean it up. If our department is filthy, we clean it up, not the Clean-Up Busters you would find in the yellow pages
4. We are Social Workers. If there is an issue with a fellow associate, we have to find out what the issue is and the best way to solve the issue because we need to make sure everyone on our team is happy and have no work issues or personal issues which could affect the team players performance. This also applies to customers who come into the store. There is never a day where you don't get a pissed off, bitchy customer. We all have to become the social worker and psychiatrist to work out a way to change their anger and frustration (which could as well may be caused by some dumb ass outside of our store which has nothing to do with us) into happiness
5. We are the technicians. If there is a malfunction with a POS, computer, or printer, we have to fix it ourselves, even though we have tech support who can come to the store and do it for us. After spending a few hours trying to fix the problem, even though we usually have no clue what we're doing sometimes, we will then call tech support to come over and do what they get paid to do.
6. Last but definitely not least, we are the Security/Loss Prevention Officers. We, while talking/listening to customers, and showing customers where stuff is, have to always keep our eyes peeled for suspicious activity, not just with customers (that would be too easy!), but our team players as well because there is always at least one player who just wants to be different and just wants to think about himself and we all know there is no "I" in "Team."
I can go on and on but I think I beat this around the bush enough. Until now, I did not know there was so many things one would need to be efficient at in a retail job. I thought being a Private Investigator was much more complicated. Heck, maybe I should have went into the academy to become a cop because I know for a fact, I would not have to deal with all of the above; I'd be fighting crime (and, well, be a social worker as well).
The name is Rocque and I work in retail. I've been through it all and seen it all and am still going through and seeing a lot more bullshit out there a lot of people do not see because they have no idea how retail is "behind the scenes." It's more than just selling a laptop; it's a lifestyle which constantly changes and is constantly in motion.
Until next time,
Rocque out!