Mental day #2
Did I really think the other day was that bad? I should have tried TODAY.
Under the cut because it's another long rant about madness.
Jesus Christ. I got down to the shop and had to move a whole load of paddling pools, arm bands, etc, left over from a delivery yesterday, which was fine, I got them all upstairs, then started putting the boxes out. Loads of people started coming in so it took me forever to get everything out, but it wasn't too bad. It was quite a reasonable start to the day, really.
Then it started to go downhill. A massive box arrived, I had The Biggest Queue In The World, and by the time it went quiet enough for me to even THINK about opening the box, another "delivery" arrived. This was just a few bits and pieces that someone offered me for cheap, so under normal circumstances it wouldn't have been too bad, we chucked the biggest bits upstairs to find that we no longer had much space because of the paddling pools etc, out the back was a complete mess from a massive delivery a couple of days ago. So we struggled to get everything inside in reasonable order, meanwhile I served about 234023940 customers so I could barely even think about what to do with it all.
The guy left, about 3409340 more customers came in, two girls walked out laughing. I didn't think anything of it until about five minutes later, someone said, 'has someone been having a fight with something round there?' I looked round and ALL OVER THE FLOOR was this white stuff. I was just like, 'WTF.' and on closer inspection discovered that someone had not only burst one of those squishy things with flour in, but proceeded to kick it all over the toy section. I'm not even kidding, there was flour EVERYWHERE!! I knew straight away it was those two whores so I noted everything I remembered about their appearance and made a note to call the police to report them for vandalism. Not that there was a quiet moment for me to do so.
So I got the hoover out and tried to clear up as much as possible, but flour being flour, the floor is still more white than green.
In the middle of doing that, ANOTHER DELIVERY ARRIVED. Normally, the deliveries we get from this particular supplier come on a pallet, we shove it outside the shop front and I deal with it at my leisure. But oh no, not this one, not on the busiest day we've had so far this year. THIS delivery was just 3458940 boxes that had to go in the first aisle of the shop.
At this point, I would normally have called Ash in, because I was seriously struggling to cope. But no, today of all days we have someone coming to look at the boiler, but would they give us a rough time (even morning/afternoon would be nice)? Of course not. So he's been stuck at home all day in case the guy turns up. He phoned them up to see if he could get a rough time, and the phone line had fucking technical difficulties.
Then I got a text from Jennifer asking if we managed to get Saturday Muse tickets (we have Friday ones - Lily Allen?! No thanks!) but in all my haste to get down to the shop this morning, I'd completely forgotten, so that upset me even more. I quickly managed to get hold of Ash and get him to see if there are any left.
Naturally, it then got even busier. Someone came in asking for 25 of a particular box, so I said I'd go out the back to have a look. Two people were waiting to be served at the till and on the way out to the back, a lady stopped me to ask for some advice about headphones. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! It took me about ten minutes to sort all that out, and by this point I just wanted to cry. By the time I'd finished serving the box lady, the headphones lady, and the two people already at the till, I had about five more people in the queue. Three of them asked if we had this / where it is in the shop / do you have any more in stock (which usually leads to me checking the stock room for them - as above, I think you get the idea that the stock rooms are a complete tip so it's not an easy task once, let alone thirty times!!!!) / will we be getting any more / etc etc etc etc etc.
It's literally been like that all day. I swear, I've had more people asking questions than simply paying for something and leaving. I don't mind this at all, I really don't, but TODAY?!?!? I've sat down and cried my eyes out TWICE. I bought a cup of tea and literally didn't have a chance to take a sip for FIFTEEN MINUTES. It's been insane!!
Most of the time, we have a couple of people in the shop at one time, often five or six, and when it's really busy, maybe ten. Today, we've had five or six almost the entire time, and about 15 people on numerous occasions. Please bear in mind we are a really small shop!!
One of the two times it's been empty today, I phoned Jennifer quickly to see if she'd managed to get tickets. About twenty seconds into the call, someone came in and stood at the counter, so I was just ending the conversation, when the customer goes, 'is there anyone ELSE I can talk to?! I'm in a hurry!!!' I was like, 'there isn't I'm afraid, but, bear with me two seconds, I'm literally just saying goodbye anyway' so I quickly said goodbye to Jennifer while the lovely customer stood there tutting. Grrrr! As if I haven't had enough to deal with today!
Anyway, Jennifer didn't manage to get any either, the tickets are all sold out again, which has REALLY fucked me off because Biffy Clyro are one of my favourite bands and instead, I'm stuck with Lily fucking Allen. PLEASE someone tell me you want to swap! lol.
ON THE UPSIDE, that person that bought a crap load of boxes spent £110, and the fact it's been our busiest day of the year so far has meant that I can well and truly treat myself to a Chinese and a few drinks tonight. :P
But for now, after a nice hour-long break to clear my head, I have to go back down and face the absolute indescribable chaos that is my lovely little shop. And then Ash has to come straight back up here, because it's 3.45pm and the boiler person still isn't fucking here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UGH!