Is There a Dollar Store Around?

On occasion, people ask us to hang flyers in the window for an upcoming event, which is cool. But this woman went above and beyond the window. “If you can’t put it in the window, you can hang it up somewhere, or on the counter – or in the employee breakroom.”
 (May I remind you that we don’t have space for an employee breakroom … the closest would be the extra bathroom.)

Or the woman walking around for a balloon order, pacing the store several times.
 ”I feel like I’m walking in circles!” she exclaims to me.
 ”Well, you are.” I say back, smiling.

Uneventful? Yeah, Right.

So it was a Monday night. Now, back in the day *cough cough*, we used to never have anyone on Monday nights. But, these days, the crowd is pretty continual. But you know what that means: with more people comes the crazies.

I love this customer/cashier interaction:
 Customer: Are you part redneck?
 Cashier (aka myself): I’m sorry? [I've been told I have the most northern accent of anyone.]
 Customer: I mean, you just don’t seem normal.
 Cashier (aka myself): In what way? [Besides isn't that offensive?]
 Customer: Like you carry a wallet, not a purse.
 I assured him I was not a redneck, that I simply enjoyed carrying a wallet rather than a purse, because I’m cool like that.

Some moms just crack me up.
Daughter: Mom, look!!
Mom: Yeah, that’s all you can do: look at it.

My Mess Up
 So there I was, no people in the store. I’m happily stocking away, when I hear one of our smelling wall things drop. I hear some stuff below it hit the ground, and I sigh. About ten seconds later, I hear the glug, glug, glug. I look down, and between my feet is a large bottle of hardwood floor cleaner spilling all over the carpet. Yeah, that was fun to clean.

And Then, There’s The Just Plain Stupid
 Background Info: It is 20 degrees outside, and it’s been snowing.
 *carts roll by outside*
 Customer: Wow, is it raining outside?

Dollar Store, Anyone??

“Oh, my gosh!!” A customer blurted out to me. “I have to tell someone, so I’m gonna tell you. See, my name is Julie, and I thought it was cute that it was in that book over there for kids. So, I’m contemplating buying the book, when I walk around the corner and see my name on a pack of *whispers loudly* maxi pads!!”
 (Yep. She bought them – just to show her friend.)

Out-of-town people who just moved in-town tend to stop at Dollar Alley first. (well, close enough, anyway) They also tend to be the most chatty – probably to find out how the town is. Anyway, we were talking about Giant, when I heard this story from Maryland.
 ”All our Giant’s were bought out by a farm company named A. Hold … and if ay-hold is not bad enough, they preferred to say it ahh-hold.”

And for the record, I now despise Dora the Explorer. The new balloon fell off the wall … and took out three others with it. So I taped it back up, only for it to disappear 15 minutes later. (It hid in the pet aisle.) I taped it again. Five minutes later, I hear a rustling. Sure enough, it had fallen off the wall again. With a vengeance, I put no less than 23 pieces of new tape on it, threatening it.
 But to be perfectly honest, Murphy (who I’m sure was behind it) and Dora won … besides standing on a wobbly ladder, almost breaking the tape dispenser, and taping up all three others beside it, I managed to take out four of the toy displays near the top.

Never Truly Boring

It’s true. I mean, there’s always something to do, or some new person to amuse you at the dollar store.

Like last Friday, when an older guy came in, looked at another woman, who said, “Now, wait…”
 He interrupted, “Hello, suicide woman.” He then turned to me, explaining, “She’s crazy.”
 (She was laughing in the back ground).

The napkins fascinate me. They do. First of all, they’re “Napkins fit for Royalty.” Secondly, their motto is, ” Safe for the Planet, The Country, and for You.”

And we got tire foam in … well, at least, that’s what the sticker said. The sticker itself was put on a shipment of baby oil.

Welcome Back to Dollar Alley

A Tale of Pirates
 I’m used to strange people by now, as you’ve probably guessed. But I must admit I was a little surprised when this occurance happened. I had told the old woman how much her bill was, and she pulled out her change, and handed it to me, saying, “There you be.”
 An old woman pirate? I tried not to give her a strange look. But I did watch her leave … and I noticed a bit of a limp, perhaps from some earlier fight.

Random Saying of the Day
 ”You the girl, man!”

Alas, winter is truly here. But this exchange still made me smile.
 ”My word, it’s cold outside!”
 ”It’s not cold; it’s just your imagination.”
 ”Well, tell that to my imagination!”

Craziest Story of the Day
 ”Thank you so much for asking to see my ID. I left my card unsigned for that purpose. I was on a business trip once, and I ate at Taco Bell for a week. (I’ll never do that again.) Anyway, I used the same card every day, and they never asked to see ID. So finally, I asked the girl why she never asked to see ID, and she replied that if the name on the printed reciept matches the name on the card, it must be me.”