My Life

Those Darn Gummies!

It’s important to know when to battle, as well as when it is better to just walk away.

A while back, one of my cashiers had to make a decision. Battle or leave it alone.

A customer came in and made a purchase, in addition to paying for some gas. That was already being pumped by the person that was with her. She went to the bathroom and then left the store. The customer got into the car to leave and the cashier went running after her. In the process, she tripped over the little blue stool that we keep in the register area. We can’t always reach everything up high without it.

When she tripped, she came down on both knees. She regained her composure, and exited the store leaving a different customer waiting to be checked out.

She limped back into the store in pain and took care of the other customer. By then I had come out of my office and asked her what was going on. In tears, she informed me that someone hadn’t paid for their gas and she ran after them. Well for one, that’s against company policy. Since she was obviously upset and in pain, I didn’t want to start spouting off policy. Instead, I started asking questions to try to put the puzzle together.

“OK, What is that $5.00 on the register for?”

“It’s for her gas, but they got more than that.”

“How much did they get?”

“Well, she bought some stuff inside of the store too.”

“OK, what was the total amount they owed with the gas?”

She wasn’t completely sure so I pulled all the data from the journal tapes. In the process of trying to figure it all out, we realized that she was going to require medical attention. I called Justin in to run the store so I could take her to our company doctor. By the time he got there, she was unable to walk at all.

We called the paramedics and ended up getting the fire truck, ambulance...the whole shebang. People get very nervous when they see a fire truck at a gas station I don’t think we saw a customer during the entire ordeal. They had to take her to the nearest hospital for x-rays and treatment. When she was finally released several hours later, I took her to the drug store and got her medicine. I then dropped her off at her house for her family to continue looking after her.

In the end, we found that the customer had only shorted her 37 cents! She missed several days of work and the company had to foot the bill for all the medical. I think this battle would have been one to walk away from. No pun intended.

I try my best to fight only the ones I have to.

Friday we had an issue with Life Saver Gummies not scanning at the register. I went back to my computer and found that it had a different bar code than the first shipment we had received. I then called the marketing department and informed them that the grocery company had changed the SKU on this product and we were unable to scan them.

He told me to pull them from the shelf and that we would receive credit for them. I did as requested. Within moments, the grocery company called asking questions. I informed them that I received them on November 30th and that we stocked them and found we couldn't scan them.

He started going off on me. I mean, really upset that I had just now caught this. They weren’t going to pick them up at this late of date...on and on and on. I listened to what he had to say while becoming a little ticked myself.

I said “Al, you know what? I have too many other things to worry about. This issue is really a non-issue so I’m just going to get back to work now.” Click!

The next thing I knew e-mails were flying over the stupid bar code on Life Savers Gummies.

I went up front and paid for all the gummies that was in stock. $22 was a lot better than dealing with the chaos of, will they or will they not give us credit for these stupid things.

I then produced an e-mail to the now 6 people involved: “Sometimes you have to pick your battles. This one is not worth it. I pulled all the gummies we had in stock and purchased them using the original barcode that they were received on. This issue is now over and closed. If I wasn’t careful on how we rotate our candy, I would have caught the mistake earlier. I don’t make it a habit to check every bar code that comes through the door, especially on the products that I already know are authorized. At least it is a product that the kids like, so they will not go to waste. Thank you all for your help.”

I sent the e-mail thinking that this would end it. I thought wrong. The phone rang again, it was the marketing department.

“Gina, return the gummies. Then go into your system and create a credit invoice using today’s date. We are taking credit for this product whether they like it or not.”

“But it’s just not that big of deal.”

“I know that it’s not that big of deal, but it is happening too much and they need to get their shit straight!”

“OK, I’ll do it. I was just trying to help.”

Great I thought, now I’ll have to explain a refund over $10.00 to my boss!

I returned the gummies and produced the credit invoice. The gummies are now sitting in a little bag in my office waiting for someone to pick them up.

Three hours later, this issue is still alive and well. I received a CC e-mail explaining to the grocery company that they will pick them up and they will give us credit because we will not pay for their mistake.

Minutes later another one came through from the marketing department regarding my purchase of the gummies. It read: That was very big of you Gina. I wish everyone was so fair.

Now I’m just completely confused...

Are they picking up the gummies or not?