Day 2

Greetings readers,

So, Day 2 has come and gone.  I learned from my experience yesterday, or so I would like to believe.  Either way, today's goal went a lot better than yesterday.

Today, I went back to the place where I used to work.  As you may recall, my former manager knows about my situation.

Without going into detail, the place where I used to work is a retail store, mostly clothing with a few other odds and ends.  The store is part of a strip mall.

Back on topic, I went to my old store.  There, I talked to my old manager.  With her permission, I hung out in the store for a while, gauging all of the shoppers.  Considering the target audience of my old store, it was mostly parents with their kids, shopping for back-to-school supplies.  I wandered around, pretending that I was shopping.

In the end, I found what I was looking for.  A young man, I pegged his age to be 13-14, wandering the store with his mom.  They were browsing clothes, and checking prices as they went.  Having worked at the store, I knew what clothing was expensive, what is cheap, and what is in the middle.  I noticed the young man browsing the clothing and picking things out, and the mom was the one checking prices and putting things back.

Now I have never been a person to judge others, but working in retail, you eventually gain the ability to pick out the various types of shoppers.  The one's who have money to spend, the one's who are browsing without thought of buying, the budget-wise ones, and then there are the people who are buying things out of necessity, but really do not have money to spend.

The young man and his mom were in that last category.  Once I knew who I was looking for, I went back to my former manager, who allowed me to take a position behind the register.  I did not actually ring anyone out, my former manager did.  I acted as the trainee person.

When the people that I had marked out came up to the register, my former manager rang them up, and announced their total as $0.00, or free.

The two of them were stunned.  The mom had been digging in her purse, I'm guessing for her wallet, when she stopped and looked up.  She asked if there was a mistake.  My former manager calmly informed her that there was no mistake, and the total was $0.00.

After some back and forth between the two women, the woman let out a large smile, and took her bags with the new clothes.  Thanking my former manager, she and her son walked out of the store.

I turned to my former manager and thanked her, before allowing her to let me pay for the purchase.

I left my old store, feeling happy, feeling accomplished.  Perhaps my perception is skewed, but I feel as if I have done something good today.

I have a plan for what I am going to do tomorrow, but you, dear readers, shall have to wait until then to find out what.

Until next time,
B