Busy time of the year

We are now heading into the busy time. First was Thanksgiving, next comes Christmas and New Year's.
And then there is Easter.

Ahhh, Easter. Spring flowers, little birds hatching, bees humming..... and people buying groceries like there is going to be a famine.

I said last year I will never work another Easter. It is absolutely insane!!!!

I like to be busy, but WOW !

We just had Thanksgiving and sure there were crowds, but people weren't so panicked. They come in, get a buggy load of food, pay and go on their way. Christmas its a little more frenetic*.

*(Adjective: Fast and energetic in a rather wild and uncontrolled way: "a frenetic pace of activity")

New years the same. People are in a pretty good mood, they have company coming and they are excited.

But,....... you get to Easter and there are two 'holidays' going on. There is Easter and Passover. Both are pretty important to their respective peoples. Well, do we get busy???!!!!!

Holy mackeral ! ! ! ! There are customers everywhere. It gets absolutely nuts. You would seriously think that there is about to be a world wide food shortage. Customers come in and buy one of EVERYTHING. Orders are always kissing $200 or $300 totals. Most people are patient, but when you get the ones that don't celebrate anything, or that are just plain ignorant, they try to stir it up.

They are the ones that make it an unpleasant experience. They bitch about the lines, the service, the lack of a certain product, the price of a certain project, why they have no friends, why the cigarettes are so much, etc.

I forget what it was last year that made me say I will never work Easter again, but it must have been the customers and the lack of work ethic with some of the younger cashiers. They just don't know how to do a job fast.

* * * * *

One afternoon last week, I worked with a customer service person that was really great to be with. She is never afraid to step in and help. She makes sure the 'please see another cashier' sign is at the end for you to go on break, she tells the last customer in the line that they ARE the last ones. She is helpful, friendly, and runs a tight ship, but not pushy in an "I'm the boss and you aren't" kind of way. She takes a lot of crap from customers and employees. Not as much as she used to though. There were some cashiers that just did what they wanted, when they wanted.

She would ask them to do something and they'd either ignore her or look at her as though she had suddenly grown another head. Well that soon got resolved. I think it was because she is close to the same age as some of the cashiers and they just thought that seeing as she was their age they could goof with her.

WRONG! She has several things to get done, and that she is responsible for. She can't do them all by herself and she has to keep the front end busy or they will cut our hours more.

And that's another thing. I am really tired of being one of only three cashiers on when we have our afternoon/evening 'rush hour'.