#I was in clicklist for over an hour

[nat-seal-well]

Didn’t even tell anyone I was leaving lol I just clocked out. I’ll see them all in like… 10 days

[bellshazes]

here is a summary:

ordered pizza Friday. it was the day before a horse race so it could not be delivered despite a promise they'd try again. this shouldn't matter but it's part of the setup of the joke

Saturday I played mc so long I continued building the crastle in my dreams. Just before midnight a co-worker calls me to genuinely ask if it's OK of her to like the girl she's seeing so much (she's recently realized she's bi, needs to leave her abusive husband). I spend an hour telling her ofc and being happy for her

Sunday is mother's day and I'm unprepared. I throw up a lot and skip dinner, rescheduling for Tuesday. I order a pepperoni pizza bc I'm still mad about Friday. Around 5pm I discover my living room window is covered in bees and nothing can be done until the morning, so I hide in my bedroom

This morning maintenance comes to take care of the bees. My coworker tells me I seem like I need good luck. Mom texts at 11am to let my know my youngest sibling came out as trans last night and she is emotionally torn but wants us to know she'd die for her kids. Work is a manic shitshow, but in a fine way. I have pepperoni pizza for breakfast.

Mom texts again to say youngest sibling wants me and my sister there when telling my grandma and to come over. I say I have to get my clicklist and then I'll be there, so I go to the grocery and drive straight there. When I arrive, my sibling offers me pizza (pepperoni) they're having for dinner. There's only two slices left, which seems odd, since sister isn't there yet

My dad is surprised to see me. My grandma asks if I'm coming tomorrow. I struggle to not reveal ahead of time I have come over to be part of a big reveal. I text my sister I'm there

Sister is at home with a headache. My mother meant tomorrow. She meant still come tomorrow, not it's an emergency come immediately

I realize I've essentially stolen pizza from my parents even though I have identical leftovers in the fridge and nothing is an emergency and I have to go back again. Tomorrow.

I still have to sweep up all the dead bees

[zombiescominginmywindow]

Friday evening Jake drove my car to pick up our clicklist order and it got him to the store fine but once the groceries were loaded and he went to leave it wouldn’t start 🙃 he ended up having to call the guy who we bought the car from at the dealership, who happens to be friends with our typical “bro” neighbors, and he was actually over at their house at the time. So literally across the street from us. So this guy and our bro dude neighbors drove down to Kroger and jumped my car and saved Jake basically. While my mom drove our cold groceries home. And now we can’t complain about said bro neighbor guy revving his motorcycle at aaalll hours of the day because you know, we owe him lol. And I have to get a new battery for my brandddd new car because thanks to the fucking pandemic, it’s been sitting in the garage unused for months now and the battery is shot.

[fuck-customers]

More of a fuck coworkers. More specifically fuck deli.

I work at one of those pickup services where we will get your groceries for you and bring them out to you and that includes service counters (aka meat case and deli counter). Well this morning I noticed we have 5 service counters for this one order. The store manager was in the room as I printed them off at 7am and took them to the deli (four of them one was for meat). I locked eyes with the girl working deli and told her “hey we have clicklist orders.” She said ok and told me where to set them then asked when I needed them by. I said 9:30 at the latest.

Hours pass, I’ve been running around the store like a mad woman and I notice it’s almost 9:30. Meat is cutting some things for me so I tell them I’ll be right back that I’m gonna grab my deli stuff. Ok no problem.

They’re not ready. Note it’s already been two hours. She said she’s the only one there and she will do them in a minute. Ok sure. Another 10-15 minutes pass. The customer is gonna be here in like ten minutes and we can’t finish the order without the meat. I send one of my girls over to pick it up while I deal with our computers that just rebooted. I go to talk to the store manager about the system when my girl walks up.

“She said she doesn’t have them and that they have orders ahead of you. Also next time don’t drop it off 20 minutes before an order is due.”

Ex-fucking-scuse me? I dropped that order off two and a half hours ago. The store manager was there when I did. He called the deli and told them to get my meat. Now. I went over there and the whole time they’re all glaring and whispering shit about me. Like not my fucking fault your opener neglected to do her job. Don’t attack me.

TLDR: dropped an order off for the deli two an a half hours before I needed it. Went to get it but they claimed I didn’t drop it off till twenty minutes ago. Jokes on them the manager was there when I dropped them off and I got my meat.

[brandytusk]

I was excited for so many new changes this year. I got a new job, I started renting a house. I was starting to build confidence I didn’t know I had, and I was starting to feel actually proud of myself.

Let me say that I’ve never felt ‘proud’ or ‘confident’ about anything I’ve ever done, and any times I have, it went unacknowledged so frequently that I figured the things I cared about must not be that great.

I’d been working as a deli clerk, at different places, total eleven years. Customer service is hell, yes, but I did my best with what I was given because at the end of the day I wanted to say I tried my hardest and somebody cared.

In the end, nobody cared. The supervisor at my first deli job was abusive and teased people regularly along with the butcher, both older men, they enjoyed making people feel stupid, and nobody ever did anything about it. They had promoted me to manager after seven years, only to give me the position, the responsibilities, and NOT the pay. The men there even had me cleaning up the butcher’s room on slow days.

One day, I got backed into a corner and had to leave for good. The building had mold and standing water underneath the deli floor, the store owner painted over it rather than treat it, and over time I developed pleurisy. I couldn’t even take big enough breaths to really get out of bed. They did NOT care that I got sick from the place, and kept telling me to come in because they were shorthanded. So I left a note, and I quit. I didn’t have a choice, I had to take care of myself. In the end, my husband had me apply for a deli clerk job at chain store, and it worked. I got in.

That first job closed about half a year after that, store owner owed companies a ton of money. Little local place, got bought and changed hands, the new owners fired all the people that had been there for decades. I had put up with so much, waiting to be acknowledged for all my hard work, trying to be cheerful and just do what I COULD with what little I was given.

So I started my career at this chain store, and immediately I could tell it was a lot of intense time limits and running around and even doing my best it felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I felt that I wasn’t even putting a dent in my portion of the work. Then I got better at it...and over four years I started to notice more and more was being put on me, but I wasn’t given the hours, or the acknowledgement. I wasn’t given any perks for doing a good job, only worse shifts so OTHER people could get off earlier or have lives, see their families. They put the person that worked hardest for them on the bottom of their give-a-shit list and strung me along with promises and gifted cupcakes and sweets. It was an entire gaggle of manipulative older women, all working together because to them me being in a gay relationship (they didn’t need to know my hubs was trans) basically meant I could be treated like I was single without kids. The ‘without kids’ part meant I was ‘available’ for absolutely anything they didn’t want to work, including holidays. I put up with ALL OF IT, DESPERATELY WAITING FOR ANY. KIND. OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

All while I was trying to do this chain store deli clerk job, at whatever hours they gave me (usually 10-6, 11-7, whole day shifts that prevented me from doing anything with other people) I was some kind of fucked up therapist for a huge catty gossip circle. Privileged young women who’s parents paid for their college courses, had rich boyfriends, could afford to get pregnant, and entertain the thought of a future where they could have babies, a dream house, their dream dogs, an actual family, and get married. I was surrounded by older women and younger women who all basically had their jobs as a hobby. Who voted republican or didn’t vote at all and were proud about it, who’s worst stresses once they left their jobs was that their husbands or boyfriends didn’t clean up after themselves. These same people I gave advice to and listened to everyday didn’t even keep me as a friend. When I finally started voicing that I was getting stressed out and that I felt used a lot of the time, the supervisor handed me a slip of paper of all the places that were hiring in my immediate area and told me to my face she didn’t want me there anymore. I stopped being useful when I voiced my opinion. I left that store, having made two lifelong friends at least I still have the numbers of and we still hang out sometimes. They weren’t from my department at the time, which, shouldn’t be surprising.

I didn’t follow that supervisor’s advice, and I applied for a whole different kind of job that was still part of the chain. I now work with one of my friends from the previous store. ‘Clicklist’ or E-Commerce, whatever you want to call it. A different kind of clerk that shops for other people’s groceries. I said goodbye to eleven years of my life wasted doing deli work, and now I’ve been a different kind of clerk since February of this year.

I didn’t feel like I was any good at THAT either, when I started. But I finally started to see what it was like, working with people my own age. See, a lot of older people were afraid to apply for such a new type of job that involved technology and regular computer work, at least in my area. It insured only a ton of young people got in. So, with the exception of maybe three coworkers, two older women and one older man, in a team of twenty people to this department, everyone was thirty years old or younger. I have people that don’t treat me like I’m ‘too weird’, who have almost all my same interests. They know my jokes, we all grew up with the same things. Since February, going to work felt like...going to go see friends, but also working.

I was happy.

I was actually happy. I thought things were getting better. I thought things would really change for me, and while it’s not some dream job, I could function. I felt strong enough that I felt I could apply to do different things, that I was ‘good enough’. Imagine, finally feeling ‘good enough’! After years of NOT FEELING GOOD ENOUGH, FOR ANYTHING. NOT EVEN FOR BREATHING AND EXISTING, FEELING WORTHLESS CONSTANTLY BECAUSE YOU ARE NEVER RECOGNIZED FOR THE WORK YOU DO AND SUDDENLY THAT WAS ALL GONE AND JUST BEING AROUND THE RIGHT PEOPLE MADE ME FEEL POWERFUL. I had a supervisor that cared about me! One that cared that I was half-deaf, who went out of his way to FACE me when he spoke, he didn’t believe I was ‘making it up’! He kept telling me I was doing great, so I kept pushing myself, and it felt good to do so! It felt like my CARING wasn’t wasted! He would take me home, because I’m not allowed to drive because I can’t hear certain things! He treated us to lunches, gave us the time off we asked for! Last month, early/mid July, I felt like a different person. A good person. Someone who fit in somewhere and mattered. I felt like I could apply for positions that would support my supervisor in a more meaningful way, I wanted to help him out more.

The managers of the store I work at now, once again from that older generation, didn’t like how happy we were. That’s your too-long, didn’t read. They didn’t like that we all clicked, and we had no behavior complaints. They let some mistakes my clicklist supervisor was making build up against him, exposed my supervisor’s faults rather than warn and coach him, and got rid of him out from under us -- and then those same managers treated themselves to a vacation. They left my department flailing without guidance.

We’ve lost four more people since then who went back to school rather than deal with this job. One full time person loyal to my supervisor walked off and never came back. Another one went on medical. Nobody comes by to tell us we’re managing or doing a good job. Nobody comes by now to tell us how ‘worth it’ we are. They just come by to yell at us our percentages are low when they’ve scared away what help we had, and fired the good of us. Management gets angry when they can’t borrow workers from us to work in other departments, when they’re the ones that made us short-staffed.

Now, I’m working twice as hard at full time, everything hurts from my hips down, I’m getting scared over a really bad toothache I have, my weird side pain is back, and my legs and feet are getting really stiff, and I’m not even dancing for anything more than a paycheck now. I can’t even slow down enough to save myself some pain because computers record how efficient I am. Nobody cares about me.

I know I’m just some clerk grunt...but it was nice for a small blip in time to know what it was like to be happy, and to feel like I mattered. For someone to tell me they depended on me, for someone to tell me I was amazing. And they’re gone.

Now I feel...worse than I ever have, mentally. I feel like I’ve regressed back to how I felt back in high school about myself. A formless, worthless blob. Someone that will never be anything, that never mattered. That nothing gets better. There’s no real ‘up’. I feel like me and my entire generation will die off by the time we’re forty (most of our idols are dying off like flies anyway), trying to struggle for the happiness my parents’ generation keeps to themselves. For about two weeks so far now, I have had to excuse myself to just go cry and/or scream in the bathroom at work. I’ve been almost breaking equipment at work in the stockroom because I can’t control how emotional I feel. Today near the end of my shift, people stopped talking to me for a minute after I beat the royal fuck out of some equipment using some other equipment as a battering ram. I cry when I’m spoken to at work, just in regular conversation, suddenly, without warning. As quickly and easily as if it were hiccups, just full out bawling.

My pain doesn’t matter. I will always be at the bottom, no matter how hard I try.

I am in control of nothing. I am ugly and I am weak and I want to crawl into the dirt and bury myself. Like I want to take a nap, and then just...never wake up. Nothing gets better. ‘Bad things just happen’ isn’t just...isn’t just some small thing, and you move on, not when the bad situations have been your whole entire life. I’m quick-tempered, I can’t stop being upset, and I’m tired.

I don’t feel strong enough anymore to press the next continue. I just...I just don’t. I keep getting to peek out of the dark pit, only to get washed back in.

I don’t feel accomplished, I’m not going to have kids, I am nobody.

[suzannemsabol]

We spent the weekend in Pittsburgh. We took Scarlett to Kennywood for the day and had a nice little weekend away. See, she’s having a blast on tiny tiny rides.

On Sunday morning, we drove the 3.5 hours back to Columbus. Now, I hadn’t slept really well over the weekend and the drive kinda took it out of me. By the time we got home, I still had to do laundry, figure out what the fuck we were going to have for dinner, get groceries, and take Scarlett to swim lessons. I had a full day of shit ahead of me and already noon.

Kroger (a supermarket chain) has this thing called Clicklist where you can buy your groceries online, the store gathers them up for you, and then you just have to pick them up. This sounded like an amazing thing in my sleep addled brain. Ross and I decided to give it a go.

This….however…was a mistake.

When we moved to Worthington a few years ago, we started by going to the grocery store near our house. One week, they just didn’t have garlic bread. Another week we couldn’t find the yogurt. It was always stupid shit like that. When I was in college, my friend Audrey lived in DC around Dupont Circle and there was a Safeway that she liked to call The Soviet Safeway. You might think that’s insensative but it was because there would be empty shelves where toilet paper was supposed to be. They just didn’t have toilet paper that day. This Worthington Kroger was a little like that and we started calling it The Worst as it’s formal name. Like: “Can you stop at The Worst on your way home and get some milk”.

Here’s where we should have known better.

The only store near us that has this new Clicklist feature is The Worst. I didn’t care. I didn’t want to spend an hour and a half running around the grocery store and I just wanted it done. So we decided to try. You have to try…right?

First, setting up the account for this was ridiculous. Evidently, I already had an account set up in Korger but who knows what the password is, cause I don’t. I hit the forgot password link, you know where they send you an email to reset your password. It never came. It still hasn’t come. So, I had to set up this account with a different email address. Whatever. Fine. I place my order at 1:53 pm, making the deadline for a pick up window of 6:00-7:00 pm. Great!

We go about our day. We go to swim lessons and spend about an hour at the pool after lessons because Scarlett loves the pool and I’d rather spend my time having fun with her than grocery shopping. We decide, since we don’t have food in the house, that we’re going to order something and Ross can go pick that up with the groceries and it will be perfect.

Here’s the thing. I should know better. This shit never works out like I hope. Something always goes horribly horribly wrong and all of our good intentions are scattered way the fuck off track.

At 6:15 pm, Ross leaves to pick up the food and the groceries. Before I know it, Ross is home and I’m like, this was so easy.

No. Just no.

He got the food but they were running a little behind on the groceries. He told them he would come back.

Flash forward to 7:15 pm

He got home at 7:50 pm.

I guess the guy parked next to him had been there for an hour and had passed the point of no return since he’d already paid for the groceries and now had been waiting for an ungodly amount of time. When The Worst finally brought out the groceries, some woman from the Deli was in charge. She loaded the bags and Ross was like, “That’s not enough for $128 worth of groceries.” So, she’s digging through crates and finds the rest. It wasn’t in bags. It was just kinda thrown in the crate.

Now, Ross works retail for a living and this whole experience made him PISSED OFF. All he kept saying, when he got home, was that it was unacceptable. I’d be fired. Over and over again.

I guess there’s a place where you have to either check or uncheck a box approving substitutions. This is where someone…not you…goes through and if they don’t have something, they make the judgement call to replace it with something else. I don’t remember seeing this box but I clearly didn’t uncheck it. They made substitutions. One of them was for applesauce. I ordered the Simple Truth brand – which is a Kroger Brand by the way – and they didn’t have it. How do you not have your own brand! Soviet Safeway! Ross absolutely refused one of the substitutions because he knows that I don’t play with my coffee. So, now I have no coffee and I’m going to have to go the grocery store anyway.

He went through everything with a fine-toothed comb, crossing off as he put all of it away. Some of the substitutions they made were weird and I’m not sure I’m okay with them but I wasn’t sending him back. No way, no how. I didn’t have bail money on me.

#TheWorst We spent the weekend in Pittsburgh. We took Scarlett to Kennywood for the day and had a nice little weekend away.

[2017mdia4120-blog]

Kirsten Cupach

Part 1

1) My first memory of social media use is communicating with friends on AOL instant messenger, or AIM. My username was krazikay214. Everyday after school, I’d log onto AIM and begin chatting with friends about absolutely nothing, essentially. I can recall spending hours on my “buddy info”, an “about me” section that utilized different fonts, colors and gifs.

My first memory of social media use by a family member is my cousin’s MySpace. At that time, my dad forbid my sister and I from signing up for MySpace, so instead, we’d watch my cousin scroll through her own account for hours, organizing and reorganizing her “top friends list” and stalking her crush.

2)   The first blog I can remember following consistently was The Sartorialist, a fashion blog by photographer Scott Schuman. At that time, I had dreams of becoming a fashion journalist. Schuman’s job as a fashion blogger most closely mirrored my career goals at that time. His blog was my inspiration, and eventually, I began a blog similar to his. I’d photograph pictures of my friends and analyze eachs outfit, clothing piece by clothing piece. Eventually, my interest in fashion faded and my blog fell through. I still scroll through The Sartorialist on occasion, however.

In hindsight, I applaud my younger self for finding inspiration in such a modern way. While I did follow fashion magazines, The Sartorialist was my go-to for the latest trends, new designers and fashion do’s and don’t’s. To this day, I don’t follow any blogs as closely as I did The Sartorialist. The blogs I do read, however, are similar in that they are quite niche. Most of the blogs I read today are feminist blogs, like Bitch Media’s Bitch Blog and Everyday Feminism. The content specifically differs from that of The Sartorialist, but both empower women, just in different ways.

3) To prepare for a career in social media, I’ve enrolled in the social media certificate program, which has helped me understand the aspects of social media, social media techniques and so much more. I’ve also been lucky to be given two internships that had me running and analyzing each company’s social media presence. My first internship, I worked for Eversource Energy in New Hampshire working in the communication department. My second internship, I worked for Dominion East Ohio Natural Gas Company in Cleveland in the public affairs department. In addition, I’ve garnered a strong social media presence on Twitter with nearly 600 followers. Furthermore, I am connected on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit and Pinterest.

Part 2

1 )  

1 - Social media has completely changed the relationship between buyer and seller. Social media is becoming less and less of a “luxury” and more an absolute essential for companies. According to the website for The Consumerist, 70 percent of consumers rely on online reviews before making a purchase. According to the Wall Street Journal, 5,000 surveyed shoppers made 51 percent of their purchases online. This data suggests that a brand’s online presence is essential. Companies like Denny’s and Netflix, for example, have successfully garnered huge social media followings due to their humourous and consistent Twitter presence. Social media is a means of customer service, marketing opportunities and the opportunity to hear what their consumers have to say and make the proper adjustments to their products.

2 - Social media users have also changed the way money is shared, with apps such as Venmo and SquareCash making exchanging money incredibly easy. Both allow people to simply exchange money, but both incorporate social aspects, as well. Because your friends are able to follow your transactions, naming each transaction has become an art. These sorts of apps make it incredibly simple for people to exchange money. For my roommates and I, SquareCash has made paying our bills simple and stress-free.

3 - Social media users have completely changed the definition of the word “relationship” through their use of social media. Apps like Tinder and Grindr have given users the opportunity to essentially “shop” for hookups or significant others. Television shows like Catfish have cashed in on the growing presence of online romantic relationship.

2 )

1-  Kroger has recently incorporated something called Clicklist. Basically, shoppers are able to go online, order their groceries and pick them up without having to leave their car. It’s technologies like this and the data mentioned above surrounding the ways in which consumers shop that lead me to believe that the way people shop will completely change in the next few years. In my opinion, traditional methods of shopping will become obsolete as more and more people begin to take advantage of opportunities like Clicklist and the convenience of online shopping. The introduction of Cyber Monday in recent years is yet another example of the changing trends in shopping. Who wouldn’t prefer the comfort of his or her own home over the crowded parking lots on Black Friday? Social shopping is making shopping easier, as well. Facebook and  Instagram have both adopted “in-line buy buttons,” according to The New York Observer, that allow shoppers to make purchases within the social media app instead of being taken to the store’s website.

2 - Virtual reality will continue to become more mainstream. Facebook as already adopted a “VR-esque” feature that allows users to maneuver through panorama pictures. In my opinion, more and more apps will begin to adopt similar features. Social media users will soon be able to record their adventures and experiences, post them to his or her account and allow others to share in his or her adventure or experience through virtual reality. Virtual reality will also change the way gaming apps are played. In the same way video game companies are adopting virtual reality to enhance the gamers’ experience, app developers will begin incorporating means of virtual reality into games.

3 - Technologies like Apple Pay will take off and wallets will become a thing of the past. In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons it has yet to take off is because of security concerns. According to Richard Eldridge, CEO of Lenddo, “The biggest challenge is maintaining security standards and ensuring customers knowingly provide personal information. Banks will also have to implement sophisticated social media policies.” Even more impressive is Amazon’s “no checkout” grocery store. According to the website for USA Today, Amazon is testing a grocery store in downtown Seattle where customers walk in, shop, and walk out without having to wait in line. According to the USA Today article, “Customers tap their cellphones on a turnstile as they walk into the store, which logs them into the store’s network and connects to their Amazon account through an app.”

Sources

The Consumerist

https://consumerist.com/2015/06/03/nearly-70-of-consumers-rely-on-online-reviews-before-making-a-purchase/

The Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/survey-shows-rapid-growth-in-online-shopping-1465358582

Kroger, Clicklist

https://www.kroger.com/onlineshopping/signin?redirectUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kroger.com%2Fstorecatalog%2Fservlet%2FOnlineShoppingStoreSetup

The New York Observer

http://observer.com/2016/01/5-big-changes-coming-to-social-media-in-2016/

Richard Eldridge

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/how-social-media-is-shaping-financial-services

USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/12/05/amazon-go-supermarket-no-checkout-no-cashiers-artificial-intelligence-sensors/94991612/