I'm pretty tired right now. Sleepy too. But this morning was just too much of a morning to keep all to myself... I have to share the jollies with the world.
Yesterday, Thursday, was my day off, but I get a call at 545am in the morning from one of our shifts, Merkel, at Starbucks. Our manager, Josh, is on vacation this week, so who calls shots this week? Ding.
Anyway, Merkel tells me that the computers are down. We can't ring anyone up, we haven't run the "open store" program that has to be run for the store to open properly, at least computer-wise, and they have started just giving away drinks and pastries upon request. He's on the phone with the honchos at our Enterprise Help Desk (they "help" us with the computer issues). I roll out of bed, throw on some clothes and take an early morning drive to 280, across town from The Dos Pesos (our apartment) just to help out. He's got it all down pat, though, just like I knew he would. He's a good guy.
I leave, and Merkel calls me later, telling me that the system is up and running and la-dee-dah, all God's childrens are happy.
You ever had those days when so many weird, odd things happen, that if someone walked in, gave you a jar of peanut butter and $100 and asked you to kick him in the shins using authentic Super Bowl XVII cleats, you'd think to yourself "On any other day, this might seem strange... but not today..."? Yeah.
I have to open this morning, Friday. I roll up around 455am, go in, and what do I see on the screen on the computer in the back? Yep, the blue screen of death. I spend about twenty minutes on hold with Enterprise...
...which leads me to a point... if there are that many people having problems to keep me on hold at five in the morning, then either they need to hire more people, or really crack down on fixing what is wrong with all these problems...
...and then...
...we figure out how to get the registers up and running. There is no connection between the registers and the back computer, meaning its almost like a really fancy concession stand at a football game. We can't open the "dummy till" in the drive thru--the way it works is when we get busy, one person takes orders and punches it into the system, and hands off the cup to the bar person. Meanwhile, the other person pulls up the order you just punched in on her register, then opens the window and takes the money. While she's taking money, I take the next order and so on and so forth.
Well, the register I am using doesn't work. So now, I'm writing on post-its each order, passing it off to Renee, handing the cup to Nall on bar, and Renee is now having to enter everything in her register before taking money... and its slowing us down like crazy.
...and then...
...the paper order arrives. The driver comes in, and says, "I have two invoices, but I am thinking its not all for you, even though both invoices have your address on it." I look, and they are the same invoice... but since he has two, that means there is two exact orders on his pallet. And on the order we take, its got 16 boxes--SIXTEEN BOXES--of grande hot cups. We ordered 3. I told him that we would take three boxes, and he could send back the other 13. Sixteen boxes, thats about 500 pounds of freight that we'd have to pay for. Plus, we have no where to put it.
...and then...
...taking an order in the drive thru, there's a sweet young lady in a Jeep Liberty who orders at tall nonfat caramel latte, with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. I took the order, said, "We'll see you at the window." She sits for a minute, then says, "I'm sorry... my car just broke down." I laughed. I grabbed Rocky, one of our shifts, and we both went outside and pushed her vehicle out of the drive thru (we gave her the drink)
...and then...
...the mocha guy shows up. Apparently, there is a shortage in Seattle of mocha powder, which is used to make the chocolate syrup. Our district manager made the call to order a bunch of cases of mocha, and have them delivered to our store. Because our store is easy to find, we're the easiest place to store it, so the stores from Huntsville, the one in Anniston and the one in Tupelo can come get it from us. So, we've got seventy cases of mocha. No, seriously... seven-zero. SEVENTY. In the middle of the rush, we just stack 'em anywhere we can, some in the back, some in the front, wherever. I called the DM and asked him, to which he said,"Can you find a place in the back to put them?" and I replied, "Uh... no. There is nowhere." He tells me each store should get 3.5 cases.
Do the math. Of all the markets I listed, we have about 18 stores... that's about 63 cases. That leaves us with 7. Okay, as long as we can get all the stores to come get theirs, quickly, we can get rid of this. And each case has six bags of mocha, each bag weighing 2 or 3 pounds, so this junk is all over the place. Well, Scotty2Hottie from the 150 store comes in to pick up theirs... S2H tells me that he talked to Huntsville, they already have theirs. And that our DM has miscalculated, and so with each store now getting 3.5, we'll have about 25 cases left. I give 150 five cases. Lakeshore, 119 and Galleria all got 4. I sent 8 to Vestavia.
...and then...
...one girl didn't show up for work. Another girl called in, crying. Family emergency, she said she's going to be an hour late. I told her to not come in crying, just don't come in at all.
...and then...
...a girl named Brandi (you're a fine girl) bought six pounds of coffee. Well, when you buy three pounds, thru September 30th, you get $5 Starbucks gift card. Unfortunately, our systems are down, so we can't load any Starbucks cards. I have to get her name and address and promise to send it to her.
...and then...
...Nall dropped a bottle of Frappuccino--well, it actually fell out of the fridge when he opened it. It crashed, spilled under the immovable fridges. We got it cleaned up.
...and then...
...we can't close tills. When someone is leaving for the day, or we are closing, each person has to go count their register drawer electronically, and it transmits a report based on over/under and how much each deposit is, and how much should be left in the drawer. When the computers aren't working, however, there is no information transmitted to the back, so while counting the drawer isn't hard, there is no report. We have to wing it, and I have to get info from Jacob and Renee, who are both leaving, so I can finish closing their tills later.
...and then...
...I also have to wing the deposit. Nothing to compare it to in the system, I have to count and hope its right (which, by the way, when the system did come up, I was one penny off... who's house? Run's house. I said who's house? Runs's house.)
...and then, I spent an hour on the phone with Enterprise Help Desk, finally getting the computers working...
...and then, I had to go to the restroom, but four times when I found time to go, someone was in there (including one guy who didn't lock the door--eeesh)...
...and then, we were out of root beer...
...and then, after I left for the day, I'm sitting on the couch tonight watching The Lifetime Movie Network, and Meredith calls me from the store, saying the computer is still down. Everything is working up front, all the registers are okay, both drive-thru tills are operational, but the motherboard in the back is fried.
...and then, I look back on the morning, and realize how lucky I was to have Nall, Renee, Jacob and Rocky on the floor with me... they rocked. Absolutely rocked today, through everything...
...and then, I think about how I'm married to the most incredibly wonderful woman in the whole wide world... I've got a Creator that loves me very much... I'm friends with some of the greatest people in the whole world... I weigh too much (which means I get well enough to eat)... I've got DVDs runneth over... I have an iPod... my car works... I do enjoy my job... Jessica Hawbaker gave me just the nicest compliment the other day, one which I'm still kinda smiling about (the power of positve words, thats an upcoming column, I think)... and I'm listening to an inspiring Nichole Nordeman right now...
...and then...
I know I'm so blessed to be David Dollar right now. Life is good.
Dave, you make me smile and I'm thankful for you...
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mer