Posts tagged Quilting

So this past saturday we had our annual quilt sale. We sell old models that no longer have patterns/books available. It’s kind of amazing how many we accumulate after a year. One of these quilts for sale was our HUGE civil war quilt from the past year. It was very popular and many were interested in it.

Anyway, so we sent out cards to advertise and, of course, we get quite busy, quite fast. For a good 3 hours we had a steady stream of people. My coworker and I finally got a lunch break around 12:30. At one point she looks around and asks, “hey, did the civil war quilt get sold?” I, too, take a look around and don’t see it. I shrug and say that it must have.

A couple hours, and many customers, later my boss asks if I know where the civil war quilt is. I tell her that I hadn’t seen it since earlier that morning when a few people were looking at it and my coworker and I assumed it had been sold. She asks me if I remember selling it to someone and I shake my head, telling her that I thought maybe someone bought it while we were eating lunch. My boss says no, that hadn’t happened.

We search the entire store for a good 15 minutes (this is not a big store, so 15 mins=searching the store from top to bottom a good 4 times).

Finally my boss sighs and says, “I think it walked out the back door.”

Someone stole the quilt. We don’t have security cameras and there aren’t any outside on the surrounding stores.

Someone stole a $650 quilt and there’s nothing we can do about it.

So a week or so ago I was working alone. A woman came in and said that she had gotten a call that a book and some patterns she wanted had come in. She gave me her name and I looked behind the counter to see if they had been set aside for her. They hadn’t, so I asked her which book and patterns she had asked for. She tells me and I realize that they were part of a new order that had come in  and that I had priced them earlier that morning.

I walk over to the books and find the one she wanted. Without even looking at the book she tells me, “No. That isn’t it. It’s the one that has those (*points to models*) in it.”

I tell her that this is indeed the book that has those models, but she adamantly refuses that that is the book she wanted.

30 seconds later she looks at the book that I had been trying to show her and says, “Oh, here’s the book.”

Sigh.

I then ask which patterns she was looking for. I point to a basket and tell her that all the patterns she described should be in there.

She glances at the basket, never once goes through it, and says, “No, they aren’t in there.”

I tell her that they are indeed in there, but once again she refuses to believe me. And, once again, not even a minute later she starts rifling through the basket and finds the patterns.

After a couple minutes she asks, “Well, where’s the one with the sheep?”

I ask her to repeat her question and she gets angry. “The pattern with the sheep! It’s supposed to be with these other ones! That’s the one I really need!”

I tell her that those were the only patterns we got in with the last order, I had just priced them a few hours earlier, and I didn’t recall seeing one with sheep. She then demands that I look behind the counter again to make sure it wasn’t put aside for her (spoiler alert: it wasn’t. The pattern was not in the damn shop.)

When I tell her that we didn’t have the pattern she says, “Well that’s the one I really needed! Are you the only one working here today?! Where’s Cindy!?” (side note: Cindy is my boss and the owner of the shop)

I tell her I’m the only one in that day and tell her that I’ll leave a note for Cindy and make sure we call her as soon as the pattern comes in. To this she huffs at me and walks away.

Another customer comes in, once who is also known for being a bit of a problem. But, thankfully, she was relatively mild that day.

I help her, ring her up and am chatting with her when suddenly a book and some patterns are tossed at me across the counter. I jump and look up to see Miss Where Is My Pattern standing there looking annoyed. I ask her politely if she was ready to check out and she says, “I guess so, since you don’t have that pattern.”

The other customer asks her, “Couldn’t find something?” to which Lady Pissy-Pants answers, “Well, I got a call saying that it was in, but SHE can’t find it!”

I walk over to the register, breathing deep and mentally telling myself not to punch her in her fucking face.

She FINALLY leaves.

But the story doesn’t end there. Oh, no.

Everyday for the next week she either calls or comes in looking for that pattern. The same pattern we told her we would CALL HER ABOUT WHEN IT CAME IN.

One of those days I hear Cindy telling her that the pattern had been back-ordered and that we would call her when it came in.

But finally, FINALLY, her pattern came in this past Saturday.

I sincerely hope I never see that woman again.