Karma’s Bitch

January 24th, 2018

For all I know, by the time anyone reads these journal entries, I’m either dead, or alive somewhere wishing I never posted them. Regardless, I feel in order to explain this post, I have to paint a picture of the current era. I’ll try to be brief:

Donald Trump is president. He promised a boat load of tax reform that promised to see money in everyone’s pockets. Walmart and Disney recently gave out $1,000 bonuses to employees — implying this is the sum result of Trumps tax reform. Major retail stores are closing — implying intense competition from Amazon and other online shops. On the same day Walmart announced giving out bonuses, they closed some 60 Same’s Clubs and a few Market stores.

Today, I found out they are closing 180+ Toy’s R Us stores. One of them in my area. So that will be TWO major stores closed near me. Sam’s Club was across the street from Toy’s R Us. I use to work at the Walmart next to that.

Now, a few years back, there was a Target store near here and that was the first to go. Gradually, other stores were closing and Sears is about to close their doors in a few weeks.

What’s all this about?

Well, look at where Walmart is as centered in a box. All stores in this box is closed except for that one Walmart.

How much longer will it stay open?

Oh, so you’re wondering why I’m even thinking of Walmart at this time? Well, the wounds are still fresh. It’s only been a month. My wife came home from shopping there and said the shelves looked bare — considering we didn’t have a major storm or anything. There’s another Walmart one exit away and it was recently remodeled. The store I worked out isn’t, and as far as I know, no plans to be.

All these companies are saying they suddenly have money to give their employees. As if they didn’t have it before. Apple was recently forced to bring back some 30 Billion dollars from overseas. What the current administration is doing is supposedly making the atmosphere either HARD for these companies, forcing them to bring money back here — or EASIER for these companies to give out extra money.

It’s my opinion that these companies had the money to give bonuses to employees in the first place and are just giving Trump the praise for a little tax manipulation.

Apple was flush with cash for YEARS before this administration started and they seemed to be forced to bring the money back here from tax havens overseas. So, in that regard — only in Apple’s case — maybe there is something to the tax changes. Some sort of leverage play.

I’m not a tax genius by any stretch of the word, but it all seems rather lateral to me. Like the money has never changed. Just rerouted. Money given to employees as a so-called bonus was money they had extra anyway and it makes Trump look good. Money overseas was money owed in taxes anyway.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-apple-tax-20180122-story.html

Walmart’s generous bonus scheme is balanced out by closing stores. If you understand that NO business will give bonuses freely, and follow the money closely, you’ll see things haven’t changed. It all seems like a major PR stunt.

If I’m wrong, then a business like ‘Carrier’ will start offering bonuses and stop laying off people. Carrier was a company that Trump vowed will stay alive:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/01/10/carrier-plant-lay-off-215-workers-thursday/1022504001/

What do all these thoughts of the financial status of the world have to do with me?

Welp, this project I’m working on directly ties myself in with the service industry and the more these stores close down around here, the more likely property values drop and setting up shop in this area makes more sense than ever before. The stores may close, but the residents are still here.

Also, Amazon has Atlanta in the top 20 states to put a second headquarters and, believe it or not, this is the area it’s considering. Makes no sense, right? Fact is, the property values are falling and there’s space. Amazon typically posts up in lower-ranked locations.

And, as I said, my project is a service concept that actually would work well with Amazon. I can say, if I accomplish a few things, I was striving for a contract with Amazon no matter where they place their headquarters. Long story short, this may work in my favor no matter how things go.

I can’t say what the future holds for me — but I am trying every day to get it to one specific outcome — let the record show that on this day, I was sufficiently attuned to the current events that shaped what the heck I will try to do in the future.

That I got out of ‘retail’ right on time to pursue my degree. As you read in the previous journal entries, even when I was in Walmart, I knew it wasn’t for me and I needed something more. All these retail shops closing, I feel bad for career retail managers. What the hell are they going to do? Fuck ‘em. I know what I’m doing.

That said, let it be known that I called the potential closing of the local Walmart I worked at — a private ‘fuck you’ to the management working there.

Customer and Management Scum

December 16th 2017

Having a hard time with being at Walmart and I don’t know why it’s so bad. More than ever.

Actually, I know why. The usual: it’s Christmas season. The customers are assholes. The management are assholes. I’m not ‘managing’ my department the way I would like and I’m constantly fighting over creative control of how to put a fucking box on a shelf with the other management.

Really. I could set up a display or feature of items, and the next day, it’s taken down. Fuckers. If I can’t come to work with a desired purpose to get work done, without it being re-worked every time I turn, then it’s no wonder I feel the way I do. So, I come to work focusing on my own work (i.e, school, writing, etc) and Walmart just gets ‘enough’ during my shift.

It needs to be said, I never started into this position feeling this way. I wanted to give my all, but management is playing by a rule book that doesn’t allow me to be a leader. So fuck ‘em.

That said, for the past few days, I’ve been leaving early.

I’m on lunch now, but I already scheduled PTO (Paid Time Off) to leave at 1pm. It’s 11:28am. The goal is to go back to work after lunch, work an hour, and go home at 1pm. I’m off tomorrow. I was scheduled to 4pm. It’s not a cool environment to work on a Saturday at a Walmart during the holidays. They have no cashiers so their asking Department Managers to come up front. Bad enough I can’t stand customers as it is.

Speaking of customers, let me give a snapshot of the shit I commonly have to deal with:

* An associate buys an un-assembled bike. She brings it back because she wants the one that was pre-built. No problem. I bring her the exact same bike and she thinks its too small. Fine, she goes and gets another pre-built bike. It’s the same maker and name, but bigger. The original bike was 12 inches. The new one is 20 inches. She’s wanting the 20-inch bike for the same amount of money as the 12 inch. Myself and everyone else are like: “No.” But she, again another employee, is looking to speak to management to get the price changed.

* Customer is looking to buy her son a weight set. She wants the tilted platform with rack. I tell her the “Weights and the bar for the weights do not come with the rack, but we sell them separately.” She doesn’t want them separately and scoffs at the price of the weights and bar against the rack. Of course the rack will be cheaper than the weights. I told her to shop around for cheaper weights but this is how they sell them here. If the bitch wanted the weights included, she’d be paying three times as much.

What I’m finding is many adults really hate shopping for kids. And they do the worst thing possible: a slow inspection of a toy they’re going to buy and judging it based on whether or not THEY would like it. It’s ridiculous to see—watching people study a fucking Nerf gun and making decisions if they, themselves, would like it. It’s true. I hear them all the time: “Oh, I don’t like this toy, but it’s on their list.” or “It’s for my daughter. I wouldn’t play with it.”

Another issue is the customer that comes in asking me “Would I get this toy for a 5 year old kid?”

First of all, you got to be an asshole if you think every five year old kid is the same as your bratty fuck kid. The fucking kid down the block will want different toys than another kid. What does YOUR specific kid want?

Second, when I DO give a recommendation, why the fuck would you tell me “No, he wouldn’t like it.” Especially if your ass doesn’t know what a five year old wants in the first place?

To all fucked up customers that shop at ANY retail, I say this: Stop asking for recommendations for your kid. We don’t know your bastard ass sperm-result. We don’t want to know your fucking kid and if anyone dares to even suggest an item for your kid, stop acting as if you know if your kid would like it or not.

If you DID know what your kid likes, you’d just get the fucking toy and stop being cheap bastards. Cause you KNOW the kid asked for Xbox in the first place so you’re just trying to dumb down.

Sigh.

I’m off in an hour. Off tomorrow. Will finish the last of my school work for this term and focus on what’s important because Walmart and the customers suck ass.

On a brighter note, I’m fleshing out another novel concept. A story I have had for years (in addition to the hundreds of others locked up). But I feel this is the right time to work this particular story. I’ll try not to make the mistakes of the past novel by planning it better, get it done faster and with tighter edits the first time around.

Rough Days

November 30th 2017

I usually don’t like the holidays. These days, being in retail, it’s the worst. Customers, or at least from this area of Georgia, are living breathing assholes that don’t give a fuck. Imagine leaving a full cart of chicken in a shopping cart (buggy, depending on what side of the swam south you’re from)…in the toy aisle. That’s across the store only to leave it there. Fucking animals.

On other notes, I let my mother know I achieved dean’s list and she sounded genuinely proud of me. I can’t understand why I’m cautious with her. Past hurt I guess. I’ll take her on her word.

My wife is home so I feel better than I did the other weekend. Odd how I let her absence bother me so.

I started the first steps of building that website to help find missing people. I think I titled the site appropriately. I have the domain name and I’m sketching out how I’m posting and adding data to the site with contributions down the line.

In order to ignore the shit storm that is Walmart, I really need to get my head wrapped around success at my school work and the idea of being a private investigator/lawyer. I go to work pissed knowing I can’t accomplish anything there. Why should I even be concerned with that damn job?

Need the money. Need the insurance.

I can get those things in a better career. Until I can make headway, I’m just biding my time.

But I do have to give the job the best I can while I’m there, and it turns out that even that is cockblocked by poor, confused upper management.

I considered writing my regional manager for the store a paper. Something to the effect: “The problem with our store and how to fix it”. I’d send it anonymously.

Would it matter? Why would I take the time to write that when I have papers in school to finish. Fuck Walmart, right?

Always a thin line between saying ‘fuck the job you’re at’ and ‘needing to do a good job to keep it’. I’ve never been that good at doing a basic job. Others seemed to master it: just showing up. Doing just enough.

Christmas is coming. I get to have some of my kids with me for the holidays. That’s always special to me. This year I’ll actually have money to get them something for Christmas.

To that end alone: I am grateful for being at Walmart.

The Death of Retail Approaches

November 12th 2017

It’s been a good week. The new classes began: English Composition and Presentations. My work is caught up and I ended that dreadful criminal justice intro with an A. The percentage was a little low but I’ll take it and be satisfied; maintaining 4.0 status and hopefully going into another dean’s list.

I’m also in this non-credited class called “Career Management”. I’m not 100% sure what I’m going to get out of this but going in, I don’t want my resume to look like a jigsaw puzzle of random jobs anymore. If I’m going into law, I can’t have Macy’s, Walmart, Target, Delta, that factory, security positions, etc, etc. I’m hoping this class will help me manage a new career.

Just in time, too. If I take a step back and look at my work at Walmart, I have to say I’m doing a fair job without the help I need. Still not enough workable associates to work with. Heading into Christmas season and keeping the ship afloat just barely everyday. I want to rant about the constant Walmart issues and customers. I won’t. AS testament that I’m moving past this shit and into important things—above and beyond, remember? Walmart will never, ever change. Been to three-four different Walmart’s in my lifetime and the problems are exactly the same.

Me, however—-I’m in the middle of an evolution.

I’m casting this random employment life away; killing off the ‘need to be where I’m at’ and replacing it with ‘I’m at where I want to be’. A real career.

Sadly, I still regret not achieving the author, animator, filmmaker career I wanted.

But recently I discovered it’s okay. I can still achieve it after I get the bachelor’s degree and go back to school to study animation/film-making/etc and have the money to do so. Even more, have the mental ability to do so.

During the career management class, we were to write about where we are in our lives. I commented that I feel I am retaining information better these days than I did when I was younger. I mentioned it was a cosmic joke that I’m 49 years old and I’m remembering everything clearly than ever before when I could have used it growing up.

That said…my birthday was recently (November 7th). It’s been common practice that I don’t celebrate my birthday.

I feel good. I look good. I’m doing better things — on my terms — than ever before. Not the terms of someone I married. Not the terms forced on me. All MY terms. I see a future that I’m a willing participant in.

I think I will celebrate my 50th birthday like never before.