So particular
I thoroughly enjoy things being placed JUST SO. I am the type of person who feels more joy over organizing a linen closet than I do tidying up an entire room. There is something magical about sectioned boxes and organized stacks.
This affection does not, unfortunately, translate into my office or my entire home being perfectly organized at all times-- I drool over pictures in magazines like Real Simple and stores like The Container Store because they get me. Meg does not share this same affection, but she understands and is moderately supportive (though I've heard "So you had all these plans to straighten up the house while I was away for a week, and you focused all your energy on the vanity in the bathroom?" My response: "But look how AWESOME IT LOOKS.") My sister understands and supports my need for neat by sending me book recommendations (of course, the Konmari method) or websites (have you ever looked at ThingsOrganizedNeatly? Do it. It is a mecca of lines and perfection.) although I think sometimes she is mocking me and my obsession.
At home and at work, the simple truth is there are WAY too many things, and not enough space to place those things neatly. It is so frustrating that I just completely ignore it. My office is quite a disaster... though it's not the worst in the building, so I've still got some dignity. After this post goes live I may spend some quality time purging and re-organizing. But I digress.
My first "real" job as a teen was working at Eckerd's (for the younger demographic, that's basically CVS, but blue.) I worked mostly as a cashier, but sometimes I was required to stock the shelves. I can not put into words just how much I loved stocking shelves... reading the tags, straightening the merchandise, and finding new products amid the hundreds of plastic delivery containers were activities that brought me great and simple joy. Meg gets that same type of joy from vacuuming. In grad school, I worked at Barnes and Noble as a "bookshelver", which I'm pretty sure was my official title. My hours were 7 am to 11 am, and for the first two glorious hours of every day, I worked in a silent bookstore, searching for homes for thousands of publications before the rest of the store even opened. It. Was. Magical. (I loved that job so much that when my class schedule permitted, they had me work full 8-hour days, during which I would shelve, do customer service, and run the register. And after I graduated and moved to Charlotte, I worked at a B&N there. GREAT company.) Both jobs afforded me the opportunity to use some skills-- organizing and problem solving-- and I did well. Because of that type of work, people could come to me in either Eckerd's or B&N and offer some vague description of some obscure product they heard about on NPR, and I could locate it in seconds. (ALWAYS. They always heard about it on NPR. And as my punishment for judging them, I am now them.)
So all of this is to say that I have worked in retail, and I understand the ins and outs of stocking shelves, and not only that, I thoroughly enjoy it. And this brings us to the point of this post:
We have to do the majority of our grocery shopping at Walmart, and we hate it for so many reasons: it's always crowded, the produce is not usually in good shape, many Walmart employees don't know where things are, not to mention the societal ramifications of supporting Walmart... the list is truly endless. But the number one thing that irks me about this mega-store has to do with shelving.
I can not even recall the sheer number of products we used to purchase at our local Walmart that no longer exist there, simply due to the fact that the people who are in charge of shelving do not give a rat's ass where they place items. This laissez-faire approach to shelving causes items to take up residence in homes that are not their own, causing the person who orders items to order the wrong item, thus further reducing the space for MY items, until one day the person in charge of ordering says, "Huh, we haven't ordered ITEM X in about 3 months... I guess that's because no one buys it... so I'm canceling that from our shipments from this point forward."
"What could possibly be missing?" I hear your silent judgment. Well, here's a list: Starbucks Decaf Caffe Verona, both ground and whole bean; really any Starbucks brand of decaf coffee, both ground and whole bean; Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips; Nature's Own no-sugar-added bread; anything that is pre-packaged and also gluten-free; vitamins; shampoo/conditioner; light bulbs; pens... this list is not exhaustive. But it is a testament to a general "lack" in our society. Many of today's people do not care about where things go; but more importantly, they don't make a connection between things being in the wrong place and the ordering getting screwed up. So who is to blame here-- the worker who is grossly underpaid and overworked, or the trainer who does not do the proper training? Perhaps the trainer was not trained correctly, either, further exacerbating the issue.
"Stop shopping at Walmart." Again, the judgment. In a small town like this, options for groceries and other necessities are not that great, so you go where you can after work without having to drive 60 miles one way (see future post about Food Deserts.) Walmart is convenient, and generally a lot cheaper than our other "major" grocery store, Food City.
I realize I live in a post-Amazonization world, and because of this, we will continue to happily pay for our Prime membership with the hope that we can have our necessities shipped directly to our doorstep. In the meantime, I will be suffering from heart palpitations as I consume a few cups of caffeinated coffee.
This affection does not, unfortunately, translate into my office or my entire home being perfectly organized at all times-- I drool over pictures in magazines like Real Simple and stores like The Container Store because they get me. Meg does not share this same affection, but she understands and is moderately supportive (though I've heard "So you had all these plans to straighten up the house while I was away for a week, and you focused all your energy on the vanity in the bathroom?" My response: "But look how AWESOME IT LOOKS.") My sister understands and supports my need for neat by sending me book recommendations (of course, the Konmari method) or websites (have you ever looked at ThingsOrganizedNeatly? Do it. It is a mecca of lines and perfection.) although I think sometimes she is mocking me and my obsession.
At home and at work, the simple truth is there are WAY too many things, and not enough space to place those things neatly. It is so frustrating that I just completely ignore it. My office is quite a disaster... though it's not the worst in the building, so I've still got some dignity. After this post goes live I may spend some quality time purging and re-organizing. But I digress.
My first "real" job as a teen was working at Eckerd's (for the younger demographic, that's basically CVS, but blue.) I worked mostly as a cashier, but sometimes I was required to stock the shelves. I can not put into words just how much I loved stocking shelves... reading the tags, straightening the merchandise, and finding new products amid the hundreds of plastic delivery containers were activities that brought me great and simple joy. Meg gets that same type of joy from vacuuming. In grad school, I worked at Barnes and Noble as a "bookshelver", which I'm pretty sure was my official title. My hours were 7 am to 11 am, and for the first two glorious hours of every day, I worked in a silent bookstore, searching for homes for thousands of publications before the rest of the store even opened. It. Was. Magical. (I loved that job so much that when my class schedule permitted, they had me work full 8-hour days, during which I would shelve, do customer service, and run the register. And after I graduated and moved to Charlotte, I worked at a B&N there. GREAT company.) Both jobs afforded me the opportunity to use some skills-- organizing and problem solving-- and I did well. Because of that type of work, people could come to me in either Eckerd's or B&N and offer some vague description of some obscure product they heard about on NPR, and I could locate it in seconds. (ALWAYS. They always heard about it on NPR. And as my punishment for judging them, I am now them.)
So all of this is to say that I have worked in retail, and I understand the ins and outs of stocking shelves, and not only that, I thoroughly enjoy it. And this brings us to the point of this post:
We have to do the majority of our grocery shopping at Walmart, and we hate it for so many reasons: it's always crowded, the produce is not usually in good shape, many Walmart employees don't know where things are, not to mention the societal ramifications of supporting Walmart... the list is truly endless. But the number one thing that irks me about this mega-store has to do with shelving.
I can not even recall the sheer number of products we used to purchase at our local Walmart that no longer exist there, simply due to the fact that the people who are in charge of shelving do not give a rat's ass where they place items. This laissez-faire approach to shelving causes items to take up residence in homes that are not their own, causing the person who orders items to order the wrong item, thus further reducing the space for MY items, until one day the person in charge of ordering says, "Huh, we haven't ordered ITEM X in about 3 months... I guess that's because no one buys it... so I'm canceling that from our shipments from this point forward."
"What could possibly be missing?" I hear your silent judgment. Well, here's a list: Starbucks Decaf Caffe Verona, both ground and whole bean; really any Starbucks brand of decaf coffee, both ground and whole bean; Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips; Nature's Own no-sugar-added bread; anything that is pre-packaged and also gluten-free; vitamins; shampoo/conditioner; light bulbs; pens... this list is not exhaustive. But it is a testament to a general "lack" in our society. Many of today's people do not care about where things go; but more importantly, they don't make a connection between things being in the wrong place and the ordering getting screwed up. So who is to blame here-- the worker who is grossly underpaid and overworked, or the trainer who does not do the proper training? Perhaps the trainer was not trained correctly, either, further exacerbating the issue.
"Stop shopping at Walmart." Again, the judgment. In a small town like this, options for groceries and other necessities are not that great, so you go where you can after work without having to drive 60 miles one way (see future post about Food Deserts.) Walmart is convenient, and generally a lot cheaper than our other "major" grocery store, Food City.
I realize I live in a post-Amazonization world, and because of this, we will continue to happily pay for our Prime membership with the hope that we can have our necessities shipped directly to our doorstep. In the meantime, I will be suffering from heart palpitations as I consume a few cups of caffeinated coffee.
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