Where Do All The Purses Go?

Where Do All The Purses Go? It is a fact that one of the main items that are stolen in retail stores are the purses.

First I have to tell you about all the that I have come in all the time who bring shoes and purses that they plan on buying. The purses have to be left out with me, but shoes can be taken in to try on with the clothes. Of course, many people just pick up some shoes that are like the ones that would be worn with the clothes they are trying on. Many times they just want to see how the dress or pants look with that type of shoe and/or purse before they make a decision on the clothes they want to buy.

I can understand wanting to know how a dress looks with a certain heel height or jeans look with a certain style of shoe. But when they bring in a pair of thongs (the ones worn on the feet) with a swimsuit I start wondering about how far does a sense of style go?

Then there are the women who bring in 5 to 10 different purses (and carrying them all instead of getting a cart), throw them on the floor and proceed to check out how they look in the mirror. Is the purse too big or too small? Does it hang too far down or does it look too short? Does it make them look too short or too heavy? I never realized other women went to such lengths to make sure they got the right purse. Of course with purses and handbags costing what they do today I suppose there should be more care in which one we buy. Many purses cost more than one complete outfit does. And now a purse is bought many times to complete an outfit, not just to wear as an everyday accessory.

And why am I letting you know how important purses can be to the shopper? In our stores purses have become one of the main items for theft. It has become such a costly item as far as loss to the store that now we censor almost all of them. And for the more expensive ones we now have a new censor that looks like a bike lock, definitely making the theft of a purse much more difficult and much more uninviting to the thief. Wallets and belts are also two of the main items most stolen on a regular basis. We censor all wallets and all belts no matter what the price.

I do not know what the numbers are but I do know that with the economy the way it is today the stores have become much more aware of doing anything they can to prevent loss in the stores. A lot of money is spent just on devices bought and people employed to prevent theft or catch the thief in the act. But still so much does end up getting stolen anyway.

Stealing is the reason we are so aggressive in the fitting room as that is one of the main theft areas. Checking clothes on the way in and making sure the same amount of items come out. Many people tell me they have only 8 items which is the max they can take at one time. But then when actually counted it could be 10, 12 or even more. Many places just take peoples word for the count but we actually have to have the clothes hung and count them ourselves. I know it can be an inconvenience, but it is also an inconvenience to the person working there also. When we get busy and there are people coming in and out it takes a lot of our time to count and check each item every person has. Many times people just walk right out because they do not want to wait which I can understand. I just wish that they understood that this is part of my job. I am not doing it to be mean or make it harder on them.

I just would like all the shoppers to know all these things we do to try and prevent theft is actually to help them out. If we can keep theft down then we can keep prices down. But the more stuff that is stolen, the higher the prices will go. No one wants to raise prices if it can be helped but the loss has to be made up somewhere.

So in conclusion, please be aware that all these things we do are not to inconvenience anyone or makes things harder for the shoppers. They are done to make it easier and keep prices as low as possible. Sometimes when people get upset about having to take the time to do this, I just show them that it really does not take that much longer. Sometimes I will try to joke about it and tell them that we will make this as painless as possible or try to lighten up the moment and most of the time it does work.

So thanks for taking the time to read In The Fitting Room With A.J. today.

What's Wrong With Overtime?

What's wrong with overtime? This is a question many people do not even have to ask. Personally whenever I could get some overtime I jumped at it. But where I work now I guess overtime is frightening for management to even think about. let me tell you about Friday.

I was scheduled to work on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But then two of the associates I work with asked if I wanted to work for them. One on Monday and the other on Friday. I said yes as I always do (because I have such a great social life, right?). So Friday morning I received a call which at first I thought was going to be to ask me to come in earlier, but then when I listened to the message it was to tell me to come in later at 6 p.m. instead of 5 otherwise I would be going into overtime. I did not even realize I had worked that many hours.

Well, this is where it gets to be kind of humorous. When I got in my manager came and told me that I had to sign out by 10:00 p.m. and no later. Usually when we are scheduled to close it means we are going to be there 30 minutes to an hour and 1/2 later than the time the store closes which is 9:30 p.m. So no matter how long everyone else was going to be there I had to be finished by 10:00. Then later, the manager comes over and tells me that she wants me to clock out at 9:55. Okay, so that is what I planned on doing. But it got to be about 9:45 and she says as long as I clock out by 9:59 I would be okay. So that is the third time I have been told a different time to clock out. Then at 9:55 I hear over the intercom, A.J. you have 4 minutes. I mean come on, talk about being nervous about getting me out on time and making sure there is not even a minute of overtime on my time sheet. How nervous can someone get about something like that?

The end of that story is that I actually did not end up clocking out until 10:01 p.m. So I do not what they plan on doing about that one minute. As far as I am concerned they can just adjust the time and take off a minute or two. I just hope it does not turn into a big fiasco because of one minute or two.

They do not think twice about giving us overtime on holidays, but one minute over 40 hours on a regular work week and it seems to make them turn into nervous Nellie's or maniac Managers? Personally I would love to not even have to think about whether I need that money. I would love to find a way to work at home and make enough money so I never had to even think about overtime at all.

AS for working at home, I keep trying to find a way a niche or product that would be good enough to be an affiliate for. I have read all the different ways of researching niches and tried many of them but I still am not sure of how to find a really good one. With all the reports and books I am still searching. I really do believe that finding that niche and product(s) is the hardest part of getting started as an affiliate. Maybe I should just start with anything just to get my feet wet with affiliate marketing. So after I finish this post I am going to do some research and hopefully today will be the day that light bulb goes on inside my head and I find what I am looking for.

What Do You Do When Overwhelmed?

Goodmorning and thanks for stopping by. This post is not going to be so much about The Fitting Room but about why I have been neglecting writing posts in this blog and therefor I feel that I am also neglecting anyone who reads them.

Right now and for the past month I have let everything happening in my life overwhelm me. I know that this is not a good thing but I felt like I was handling all the "stuff" that was going on when in actuality I am not. What I have been doing is shoving everything to the side and acting as if there is nothing wrong instead of taking care of all the things that need taking care of head on. I have to do something about these problems instead of acting as if there are none.What I have to do is "Take Action".

What has been going on that has overwhelmed me so much? Well, to start with, and probably the main thing is our house. You may notice I used the word house instead of home. It is hard to call it home when we are unsure of whether we are going to be able stay here, and if not how long before we have to be out. At this point I am not even sure we want to stay here, but moving is a very expensive and timely option. If we do want to stay here, then we have to negotiate with the mortgage company and hopefully come up with a viable plan to be able to afford to keep it.

I have to also think about my mother who is living with my daughter and I. Having to move at any age is hard enough, but she is in her 80's and having to move again would be much harder on her. And as I mentioned before, moving is very costly when it comes to both time and money.

I really do not want to go into all the other overwhelming aspects of my life. AT least right now I am not involved with anyone so I have no relationship issues, unless not having one at all can be considered an issue. But right now, not being involved is probably a good thing.

I was thinking that I could actually coallate the way things are going in my life to how I handle problems at work. At times it gets quiet and there are very few customers. I can get a bit of a breather and do stuff I do not get a chance to do when it gets busy. Then all of a sudden a charge of customers come in all at the same time and yes, sometimes I do get overwhelmed because after shopping for a couple hours the customer comes in and wants to be in and out of the fitting room as quickly as possible. As I have said before most of my customers are polite and respectful but still in a hurry to get in and out when tryuing on the clothes. Then all the clothes get piled up for lack of time to put them on the correct racks. The fitting room is a mess.
The customers are coming and going so fast it is hard to keep up with them. And yes, sometimes I do get overwhelmed. When this happens I have to stop what I am doing for a minute, take a few deep breaths and kind of readjust myself. I can then see what must be done and then I can prioritize and continue on. This is probably what I should do when I get overwhelmed with the the situations I have to deal with at home.

But the main thing I do believe is once I figure out what I have to do I actually have to take action and do it. I am a procrastinator. I put things off til the last minute. It is very hard for me to ask for help. And I am scared that I am going to make the wrong decision or do the wrong thing. I do not even know where to go to ask for help. I am really doing my best to get past all my barriers but it has been rough. No wonder I feel overwhelmed.

Well, I called for mortgage counseling. I really need to put my best foot forward and get I will get through this.

Any suggestions are welcome.

I am going to get back on track with my blog this coming week.