Archived The Double (long story)

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Ok, so I did my longest shift ever and wanted to share it with you all.

Working cashier 8-430 seemed long enough since this was only my 2nd morning shift and it was back to back when I hadn't had a day off in 10 days (I was called in for 8 hr cashier shifts both days off last week). My shift began rather easily, doing things I normally did not do like restock one spot with fresh items, candy, just helping around the store, keeping the lanes moving. We had 5 cashiers today so it was easy until 1-2pm. Then I get notified that the CA for the night has called in and they ask if I can stay. They will flex my hours for another day this week if I do so. With the reward of 3 consecutive days off I agree. My new shift is now 8-430 cashier 430-1130 CA. I got 2 meals and 5 fifteens.

At one point when I began the CA shift we had several people with full leg casts come in looking for an electric cart. Apparently the CA the previous night did not charge any of them. The cart well is bone dry, but my GSTL asks me to search for one. I find a dead one in seasonal. Another dead one in electronics. There are 2 where they are supposed to be, but I later find out neither of them are working at all. I get the one from seasonal over and the one lady insists on taking it. I tell her, I just put it there, it will die shortly. She didn't listen. Long story short it barely makes it past register 5 and luckily for her a guest volunteers to put her in the back of a kid cart and push her around. I find one electric cart outside for the first guest (she had been waiting at starbucks for nearly 40 mins). Me and the previous CA (he didn't leave yet; stayed an hour late) have to bring the broken ones to the back. We have a total of 3/6 working (One needed repairs for the seat yesterday).

So I finally get my 2nd meal around 7. The cart well was not doing great and we were very busy. I asked if anyone could help me restock the well before I hit meal compliance and no one was sent to assist. Went on meal and came back to no carts in the well like it was black friday. AP offered to help and I just had him stack all the carts on the far side of the lot facing the store so I could get them later with the pusher. GSTL had other TMs bring all in store carts to the store while I handled the main rows. We did get it done eventually and I only saw 4 guests waiting around for carts.

The other crazy event was with the women's RR (of course). Apparently there was a code brown so bad that the previous CA was not allowed to clean it without ETL help. I was out doing carts all day, but long story short one of the cashiers and an ETL stepped up and took care of it. I love all my team members.

The night is winding down near 10pm and I am exhausted. I still manage to do a final RR check, put new bag boxes under each register, get all the carts in with the help of an ETL, do the hanger bin in the back and restock bags on all the lanes. GSTL had asked the cashiers (both new) to take care of the bags, but they didn't and went home as scheduled.

So ends my story. In case you were wondering, no redcards.
 
I've put in my share of 15-hour shifts before, but they were all in the backroom where I only saw guests a few times. It was awful enough knowing I would have to work for more than half a day, but at least I was working alone for most of it. You had to deal with customers and social situations throughout the entirety - I am happy to give you great appreciation and thanks for being the kind of team-member who can carry a team on his back. People like you make a store work, and from personal experience I can say you won't always get the immediate thanks or recognition or payoff, but with any luck you'll see some sort of reward in the long run. Karma!
 
Beer and round of liquor for you.

Sounds like some of my old CA shifts. I got called in early in my Target career because the previous Cart Attendants called in or were fired.

What's your store volume and layout? It sounds like they needed double or triple coverage on cart attendants.
 
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Beer and round of liquor for you.

Sounds like some of my old CA shifts. I got called in early on in my Target career because the previous Cart Attendants called in or were fired.

What's your store volume and layout? It sounds like they needed double or triple coverage on cart attendants.

I am not sure how to check my volume or anything, but we have the well in the center of the exit and entrance doors. Not one of those inside wells like Super Targets I have been to. They had 3 CAs scheduled day before, idk what happened with that schedule though.
 
If closing then opening the next morning is called clopening, what is it called when you're working for the entirety of the store's open hours? My longest ever was 11 hours.

At one point when I began the CA shift we had several people with full leg casts come in looking for an electric cart. Apparently the CA the previous night did not charge any of them. The cart well is bone dry, but my GSTL asks me to search for one. I find a dead one in seasonal. Another dead one in electronics. There are 2 where they are supposed to be, but I later find out neither of them are working at all. I get the one from seasonal over and the one lady insists on taking it. I tell her, I just put it there, it will die shortly. She didn't listen. Long story short it barely makes it past register 5 and luckily for her a guest volunteers to put her in the back of a kid cart and push her around. I find one electric cart outside for the first guest (she had been waiting at starbucks for nearly 40 mins). Me and the previous CA (he didn't leave yet; stayed an hour late) have to bring the broken ones to the back. We have a total of 3/6 working (One needed repairs for the seat yesterday).

Electric carts are the worst! The damn things are broken half the time and the angry guests only come in when none are available.

The other crazy event was with the women's RR (of course). Apparently there was a code brown so bad that the previous CA was not allowed to clean it without ETL help. I was out doing carts all day, but long story short one of the cashiers and an ETL stepped up and took care of it. I love all my team members.

Holy shit!

So ends my story. In case you were wondering, no redcards.

Unacceptable. /sarcasm

Forget Red Cards, here's a case of your favorite brew (assuming you're 21 or older, of course). :drinks:
 
18 hours or so was my longest. Came in around 1:30pm and left around 7:30 the next morning. I believe the overnight guys called out. I vowed to myself that that was the first and last time I would pull an overnight freezer caf.
 
If closing then opening the next morning is called clopening, what is it called when you're working for the entirety of the store's open hours? My longest ever was 11 hours.

Not sure lol. My last job was a thrift store job where I worked open to close every day and no one did any of my work (pricing/processing everything in the store) when I was off. 2/10 would not recommend.

Electric carts are the worst! The damn things are broken half the time and the angry guests only come in when none are available.

Yeah they are so heavy. Lifting them when they won't drive at all is a pain too. The new CA is about 6'5'' or so and I am 6'1'' so we both had to hunch over to lift it up and drag it. I came up with the bright idea of using a flatbed to move the 2nd one. It was still heavy and getting it off was a little clunky, but it got the job done. Definitely calling for a 3-4 person team lift next time.

Holy shit!

I don't know if I would call it that. What happened in there looked like a scene straight out of the Exorcist.
 
FYI if your store has the older metal & plastic carts, you can wedge the front of the metal rail on the cart underneath the front rail on the electric cart and that makes it extremely easy to move, although rather hard to turn. You can pretty much push one along one-handed using that trick, just sorta gotta steer it like you're fishtailing on snow in a car. Too many dead carts left in seasonal/handicap spaces/cart corrals at the back of the lot/middle of pfresh to deal without using that trick.
 
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FYI if your store has the older metal & plastic carts, you can wedge the front of the metal rail on the cart underneath the front rail on the electric cart and that makes it extremely easy to move, although rather hard to turn. You can pretty much push one along one-handed using that trick, just sorta gotta steer it like you're fishtailing on snow in a car. Too many dead carts left in seasonal/handicap spaces/cart corrals at the back of the lot/middle of pfresh to deal without using that trick.

I need to test this trick out next time. We do still have the older style carts (They changed the carts at the super near me to the bulky new plastic ones). I don't know anything about fishtailing in snow, but if it is similar to hydroplaning I might have it down.
 
Well since you're pushing the cart backwards it has a tendency to try and turn constantly, and if it turns too much it'll slip out from under the front rail of the electric cart bringing the whole enterprise to an abrupt halt. Kinda gotta weave with it, constantly turning into the skid direction of the cart (steer in the direction the rear of the cart is pointing). This is made much more complicated by guests not seeing a big guy pushing a heavy electric cart + a shopping cart attached to each other as an event that perhaps warrants taking 2 steps out of the way. Also the 90 degree turns on the racetrack are a bitch, easier to just lift & drop the whole contraption by hand there instead of trying to make the turn.

Dunno what I'm gonna do if they ever upgrade the carts at my store, between making that impossible and the fact that our parking lot is on a hill, I imagine the plastic carts will be a nightmare anytime I grab CA shifts.
 
When our carts are low on battery, you know? when they move at the pace of a snail, I just hop on and have another TM push me.
It's probably easier to just push and hold the forward lever myself, but not as fun as the first method.
 
Target and other retailers need to look into getting electric carts that have replaceable batteries. If a cart dies, pop out the old battery and install the new battery. Guest goes on their way.
 
When our carts are low on battery, you know? when they move at the pace of a snail, I just hop on and have another TM push me.
It's probably easier to just push and hold the forward lever myself, but not as fun as the first method.

You can't push and hold the lever forward yourself. There has to be weight on the seat in order for it to move. I learned that the hard way after a guest left one in the pouring rain that I really didn't want to sit on to bring in, but ended up having no choice.
 
The longest shift I've ever done was 13 hours. Had a 1-5 shift in Market, and then picked up a 5-11 in Hardlines. And then they asked me to stay till 2am because of a big muckity-muck visit in the morning. At that point I was like, what's a few hours more, lol.

On Black Friday, one guy in our store worked almost an entire day without going home...I don't know how many hours he ended up doing in a row, but he took four lunches...
 
When our carts are low on battery, you know? when they move at the pace of a snail, I just hop on and have another TM push me.
It's probably easier to just push and hold the forward lever myself, but not as fun as the first method.

I do this. I try to find a relatively light TM and push them. I pushed 3 of my ETLs on the carts so far lol. It wasn't an option for those 2 carts though, they wouldn't budge at all. I am no maintenance guy, but the first one seemed to have a mechanical malfunction and the 2nd was definitely the battery not taking charge anymore.
 
When our carts are low on battery, you know? when they move at the pace of a snail, I just hop on and have another TM push me.
It's probably easier to just push and hold the forward lever myself, but not as fun as the first method.

You can't push and hold the lever forward yourself. There has to be weight on the seat in order for it to move. I learned that the hard way after a guest left one in the pouring rain that I really didn't want to sit on to bring in, but ended up having no choice.

If I have to bring one in from outside and the seat is wet, I just stand on it with one foot on the seat so there's enough "weight" for it to move. Probably not the safest way to do it, but it's better than walking around with the seat of my pants soaked afterwards.
 
@Vic: this may be your first open-to-close but, as others can vouch for, it probably won't be your last.
Just hoping it won't happening too often in a short time.
And take care of yourself.
 
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