Monday, November 17, 2008

Holiday Crazytown

I really do like working in retail...except during the holidays. And what's funny is that both retail jobs I've had (ULTA and The Limited) I've started during holiday season. The first day of work for The Limited? Black Friday. My first day of work for ULTA? End of October.. and the following week we had the company holiday meeting. Well, this year, holiday started this Sunday. Now, ULTA has some pretty nice deals during holiday (the best being the free bathrobe with fragrance. We get it every year. And they're always very nice).

Not only was this weekend the kick-off of holiday in the new store since remodel, but we also had our new district manager (our other one quit or something, which was fine because she was kind of insane) and the VP of the company in the store, Jodi. Jodi is a BFD... and she's very intimidating. Lovely woman, but very intimidating. We went out to dinner with Jodi last year, all of us prestige girls, and had a wonderful time. Jodi and I had many an intelligent conversation about the difference between theatre makeup and regular cosmetics, and why I got into ULTA, and this whole philosophical debate about actors. But because Jodi was coming? The store needed to be IMMACULATE. And it was close, but not quite.

The thing I hate most about ULTA holiday? The 5fer table. We always have "5 for $5" or "5 for $10" tables... and people go apeshit over this stuff. I had one woman yesterday who wanted ten each of everything on the 5 for $5 table. I spent 85% of my day filling that damn table. Because of the remodel our stock rooms are kind of non-existant, so we are trying to figure out where things are going to go. Some genius yesterday decided to store a glass shelf in the stock room. This said shelf? Broken... as in jagged glass laying open in the stock room for people (read: me) to cut themselves on. I now have this (very small) scratch on the palm of my hand because I didn't see the glass until after I cut myself on it. It didn't really hurt, but it's in such an awkward place that it is uncomfortable.

Holiday crazy of the week: This woman got all uppity with one of our Benefit girls because the line was long. And she was getting all in her face. One of our makeup artists from Urban Decay came over to see if the Benefit girl was okay... and crazy woman looked at Urban Decay and said "Excuse me... do you work for ULTA? No. You don't. You work for Urban Decay. Go away. Get away from me." Then she goes after a manager and DEMANDS to know the full name of the person from Urban Decay and starts ranting and raving. People are flipping crazy. I'm sure I'm going to have many more Holiday Crazy of the Weeks. There's always at least 5 per weekend.

2 comments:

*Di said...

I feel ignorant cuz I don't know what ULTA is...

Joanie said...

Aren't you glad you only work there once a week? You be inthe asylum long before Christmas if it was your full-time job!