Crazy DVD Player Dude

This incident probably happened about a month ago. A skinny short white man came into the store and demanded that we give him his DVD player back. He had left it earlier after a return went bad. He said he had attempted to return the DVD player at 11. He had left to "get his receipt,". By this time is was 7 in the evening. Who leaves a DVD player that belongs to them at a store for 8 hours intentionally? Very fishy. On top of that he kept saying how he wasn't a "criminal". Who was calling him a criminal? Maybe the voice in his head. I of course made the mistake of saying, "Why did you leave it in the first place?" while the security guards were checking the tapes. This set him off. He was very fidigety to begin with but he started pacing, talking about how he knows someone who works for us and that he knows we can do the return. Well lo and behold when we got the confirmation that the DVD player was in fact his I couldn't do the return. He insisted that he knew better, still couldn't do it, he freaked out and left with the DVD player again in search of his receipt. All I have to say about this man is crack is whack.

Rude, rude, rude people

So today I was working doing my normal thing. A young blond girl, probably 18 or 19, comes up to the counter with a very bad attitude. I realize that when I say that I sound like a 65-year-old grandmother, but seriously, this girl was awful. The first thing she says when she walks up is, "You guys need to stop hiring stupid people." I don't know what she expected me to say, "Yes everyone who works here is a complete idiot, thank you for noticing"? What I actually did was take a moment to stop myself from slapping her, calm my voice, and say "Do you have a specific complaint about an individual?" She seemed flustered when I said this, probably because she didn't realize that I have a vocabulary. She responded with "her..." and pointed towards the front lanes, never really finishing her thought. I finished her return, and did not tell her to "have a good one". She didn't deserve it.

Crazy Eyes

This week I encountered a woman who literally scared me. While she didn't scream at me, or jump over the counter, she had the most frightening, intense eyes I have ever seen. Her eyes made it seem as if she was on the brink of insanity. She would ask a question such as, "Can I have this price adjusted?" and I would tell her our policy, and the expression in her eyes would change so dramatically that I would change my tone to bring the intensity down. Hey eyes made me feel like I was staring at a bull about to charge. I don't know if she was doing this intentionally or not, but I lean towards not being aware. I wonder if she realizes that everywhere she goes people are scared of her.

Intro to Dealing with the General Public

Before I start my blog I figure that I should give you, the reader, a little background into my subject. To begin I should tell you that I work for a large retail corporation in the guest service department. Working in guest service my duties include handling returns, processing defectives (all the opened and destroyed items that we can no longer sell), sorting reshop (random crap that you the customer/guest leave all over the place), and most importantly staying as cheerful as possible in the face of very aggravated/rude people. I will admit that many times I do have an incredible amount of difficulty staying nice in the face of true evil; but I'm only human.
Now with that out of the way we can dig into the juice that is the random crazy people that I deal with on a daily basis. I will start by talking about a "regular", someone who comes in often enough for me to actually recognize.
This particular woman likes to come in around closing time. Once she is spotted everyone who knows her will do whatever they can to avoid her, because once she spots you it is impossible to get away. She is like a pitbull. She latches on and will not let go. Now while I wish that I could get a still from a security camera to show you what this woman looks like (so that you can avoid her) this is the best I can do.
One night she came in about 2 hours before closing. First she came to guest service, asked a few pointless questions, and got a sales ad. She proceeded to spend about the next hour and a half in one of the motorized carts reading the sales ad, bothering employees passing by, and talking to random customers. Throughout this time my supervisor "D" (who is her favorite person) would periodically walk over and ask why she hadn't started shopping yet, to which she answered some nonsense.
Finally this woman actually goes out into the store (in the motorized cart). She is driving around everywhere, bumping into things, knocking over displays, just in general making a mess. I'm glad that I don't work on the salesfloor. So by this time the store is closing, announcements have been made but she is still shopping. People throughout the store politely tell her that the store is closed and finally she is led to the front to be rang up. This woman who closely resembles a bag lady spent more than a thousand dollars! By the look of her you would think that she is homeless. I mentioned this to one of my fellow employees and he told me that she does this all time time, spends an obscene amount of money on random crap. It is his opinion that she is a hoarder. He is probably right.
Anywho, this is one example of the many interesting/crazy people that I deal with on a day-to-day basis. More stories to come.

VH1, VH1, What Have Ye Done

I don’t know how many people remember this, but VH1 was originally a music station. The basis of VH1 entertainment was forever changed with one show; The Surreal Life. If one thinks of the primetime programming on VH1 as a tree of sorts, The Surreal Life would be the base, spawning many branches. From the Surreal Life came My Fair Brady, and Strange Love. Here is where it gets really crazy, from Strange Love came Flavor of Love. Flavor of Love in my opinion is somewhat of a cult classic. Everyone has heard of it, everyone watched it even if they didn’t like it, you couldn’t look away; VH1 struck oil. Flavor of Love on its own had 3, count them, 3 seasons, and Flavor still didn’t end up with any of those women. From Flavor of Love came I Love New York, Charm School and Rock of Love. While Rock of Love wasn’t a direct spin off the concept was derived from Flavor. At this point I could continue the list, but I think we all get the point. Since when is it so hard to come up with a fresh idea? It's like they have created this never ending chain of shows. However I have to give them some credit, each show has been popular, and they have quite a following; which begs the question, will people watch whatever you put in front of them?

3 Blogs that Interest Me

Black and Missing, but not forgotten: This blog I found on blogspot, and while I will admit that the topic of this blog is not light hearted, I think that the subject matter is very important. I see this blog as a modern grassroots organization. I like that these people are taking matters into their own hands and raising awareness about an issue that does not get enough attention.
PostSecret: Postsecret I didn't even realize was part of blogspot. This is one blog that I read religiously, every Sunday when the posts are new. I find it really interesting to get a glimpse into the lifes of people that I will never meet. It is a way for people to be more connected, even if it is just for a few minutes while your reading the secrets, it makes you feel more connected to all the people around you everyday.
Monday Artday: I like this blog because it is simple, and because I like that they post art work from different kinds of people. There have to be millions of people who create their own artwork all over the world, but it is such a small selection that we actually get to see. I think it is interesting to see different peoples talent and perspectives.

1) The first idea I have for my blog is to write about funny people that I interact with during my shifts at Target, it is a goldmine.
2) The second idea I have for my blog is to write a series of short scary stories, I think this would be fun as well as creative.