Posts with tag: expecttheunexpected

Clocked in thinking I’d coast through a short shift. Small truck, not many pull lists, and only two aisles assigned to zone. Easy, right? Except from the moment I stepped in, it felt like retail decided to throw a full obstacle course at me.

First, the system was down. Scanners wouldn’t sync and the handhelds kept crashing. So everyone’s scrambling to track product manually or wait for one functioning device to pass around like it’s sacred. Then midway through that chaos, I hear our team lead on the walkie say that the cooler’s reading high temps. Of course it is. So half of us get redirected to check, move, and document anything that might spoil.

By the time we sort that out, a call comes in—somehow all the shopping carts are gone. Turns out they weren’t brought in last night, and now customers are wandering around with baskets stacked five high or just abandoning items at random spots. While trying to fix that, I end up helping a frustrated customer who can't find anyone from electronics. Not my department, but I go. I help. And then I get pulled aside because I’m "off-task." Really?

Break finally comes, and I sit down only to get called back early because we’re down a cashier. Again. So I get on register, manage the lines, and still get asked if I finished zoning before end-of-day. At that point, I just laughed. Not out loud—but in that tired, quiet, retail kind of way where you know no one above you actually has a clue what just happened on the floor.

That “quick shift” ended up feeling like a twelve-hour marathon. If you know, you know.