Work was a bit wearing yesterday.
A recap: I manage a store, and have worked there for about 15 years, less a sabbatical at a museum. Last summer, we opened a second branch in a nearby town. (It happens that this other town is our big football rival, and don’t think that doesn’t matter.) At the end of March, we will be closing the first store. I will be doing some of the many things I haven’t been able to do much of for the store hitherto because I was managing the store: doing vendor tables at conferences and curriculum fairs, visiting the schools, doing workshops and inservices, writing stuff…. In particular, we want to make our website successful.
But the basic fact is this: we are closing our #1 store.
We got an advertising person to help us phrase this in flyers, letters, and emails. She said things like “We have more ordering options than ever before!” and used words like “consolidation” and “relocation.” All the messages mention a big “relocation sale” throughout the month of March. We have been relentlessly upbeat and never used the word “close.”
Yesterday, we started getting the word out.
It appears that the advertising person was successful, in that the people who come in say things like “Is it true? Are you really moving?” and “I hate it that you’re moving!” There may be a sense in which getting people to think we are moving is a plus.
However, so far I have mostly seen angry and unhappy people. They want to know if business was really that bad. They want me to know that they are not planning to go to that other store and are teed off that I would think they should. They don’t feel much better about the idea of shopping online, either. They resent the idea of our abandoning our town for the rival town.
There have been a few moments when I have wondered whether it hasn’t occurred to them that this might not be good news for me. For all they know, this means that I now have to drive all the way to the rival town every day. For all they know, this might mean that I will be unemployed. Not one person has asked about this. They are too busy berating me.
I expect the entire month to be like this.
Book Club was a bit of a break in the day. We discussed Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a book which everyone had enjoyed in spite of the overall unpleasantness. We thought of footbinding and compared it with corsets and girdles and high heeled shoes. We considered women’s complicity in their own oppression and that of their daughters. We debated whether it was acceptable for us to condemn the cultural norms of another society.
It was refreshing.
Today the sale begins, so perhaps we will see some people who are happy about the sale, rather than all angry or sad people. (Actually, I am keeping track of customer responses, and there were two people who were not upset. One even said, “I love you guys! I’ll drive there! I’ll keep comin’!” Bless her.)
Maybe we will be too busy for people to harangue me.
I sympathize with you. You can only have cheerful uplifting responses for so long. I hope the sale perks up the customers.
Try to keep firmly in mind the fact that it’s not really you that people are haranguing — you just happen to be the only representative of this event they’re opposed to who’s standing there within the reach of their voices. They’re upset about what’s happening, because it isn’t what they would have chosen to have happen, and there you are, available to be harangued. Keep responding with platitudes and murmurs, and eventually everybody who feels free to do harangues will have had his or her opportunity to do so, and it will be over. I hope the sale is a smash hit, and that you are, as you say, so busy that you’re not haranguable.
Sympathy headed your way, for sure…
The store may not survive, but you will. Just keep that in mind, and keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will get through it.
I hope this will leave an opening for some wonderful opportunity for you.
Spit on them. Or take joy from the chance to practice patience.
Or spit on them.
I wish change could be easy for once. My husband used to say the only constant in our lives was change. Hang in there. Most people are so self-centered they can’t see past how something affects them. They probably had no idea how much you didn’t need their comments. I love the poster before who said, “spit on them.” That’s funny. I don’t recommend it, but it’s funny.
What type of store? Is it a book store? That’s what it “sounds” like (from previous post and the grammer books…). Even with the ups and downs of customer relations, I miss retail terribly. If I get to go part time at the hospital, I would love love love to pick up a part time retail gig near by… perhaps a yarn shop or book store. Maybe even the little coffee shop here in town. I would do that just for fun.
I know, I know. I can learn how to knit socks. You have a tute and there are a bunch of tutes on line with lots of of pics… it’s my fear that keeps me from doing it. Why am I afraid of socks? What a doofus. Next weekend, I have the weekend off. I will sit here in front of this monitor and learn how to knit socks. Keep me accountable on this one; you are my knitting Titus woman!
My book store is set to close at the end of March as well. It looks like we’re both captaining sinking ships. Most of our customers are only curious if our books are going to be on sale. Working in a museum sounds like a lot of fun, but I guess at this rate independent booksellers are only going to be found behind display cases in museums.