incase anyone wonders about me... ive been around. *yawn* yep. i finally got a job somewhere. menards in moline hired me to work in plumbing. what possessed them to do that, i still dont know. i think i had a functional understanding of how to fix basic home plumbing, but the questions and crap people come up with is far from what ive ever done. ive done a couple toilets, several sinks, drains galore, and know my way around threads and soldering pretty well... but on that first day.... i wasnt prepared for it. at menards, plumbing is grouped with "housewares" which means all the random crap they buy. soap, garbage cans, mailboxes, gloves, candy, grills, water coolers. all of that stuff; PLUS plumbing pipes, fixtures, parts, etc. and dont forget sinks, cabinets, faucets, shower heads, mirrors, and the like. and the things you wouldnt think of as plumbing; like furnaces, heat pipe, exhaust vents, duct work, and some roofing supplies. and dont forget bathtubs, toilets, whirpools, sauna's and everything else that gets special ordered. i would guess we have approximately 25% of the footage of the sales floor. its simply a huge amount of crap. i also was shocked to learn that there usually is only 2 people covering it all. sometimes 1. not good. so that sets it up a bit for my first day....

some old farmer comes in. pushing a cart with something black in it. when he walks up to me, i notice two things.... 1) its dripping something funky 2) it smells something awfully funky. turns out it was something out of his septic system. and yes, it was leaking liquid poop. appearantly, i was not only supposed to know what he needed, but i was supposed to take it apart FOR him to do it. yikes. id been there all of 2 hours at that point. what a way to start.

i havent really made up my mind about it all. i will say that i miss staples. all else aside, menards has a terrible sense of stock/supply. staples inventory practices, and stock guarantees--- even if sometimes annoying to deal with as an employee --- were always noticed by customers. this place could have open pegs for months and not know it. they dont do yearly inventory. stuff is randomly shipped in, sometimes correlating to sales of items and orderpoints, but not always. planograms are awful. overstock is chaotic at best. and there just isnt much in the way of fall back options when youre out and people get pissed. staples would eat 20 bucks in shipping costs to get you a 3 dollar widget if you really wanted it. menards couldnt tell you if they had one... ever. but its a hardware store. crap comes in everyday by the truck loads, and my guess is the employees are generally immune to the idea of keeping up on it. it seems like there is always freight laying around. in piles. on pallets. in the aisles. on top of other products. in cases in the wrong places. just made me want to vomit coming from a system like staples. secondly, the cleanliness is a bit off. dust just cakes up in this place. shop-worn [ragged, yellow packaging] product is all over the place. things are dumped on end caps for no reason. products get 43 facings for 8 items; 2 facings for 8594 items. it just feels throw together at times. even during back to school times and christmas; staples .... errr ted... would see to it that the store could do a total tear down and reset before wed open for business the next day. around here, they have stock people working before 5am, and some not leaving till 10pm and it looks like hell. ofcourse, i found out the plumbing department also does more on average, in a day, than my staples store would do in a day. i guess its just a different environment altogether.

its also a place filled with "lifers" as we call it. my department manager, has 13 years in. the two assistant managers have 10 and 14. the full timer has 13. its just amazing. several other things make it amazing. the opening pay rate isnt bad for retail, but raises are pathetic... 10 cents. and to qualify you have to take paper exams. and thats a once a year thing. they do something called instant profit sharing; but require you to work 1,000 hours in a calendar year first. then you can earn 2.5% back of what you already made. in realworld math; it works out to about one extra pay check. before its hit with tax. which... the company considers a gift and hits it a 42%. *shakes head* im not sure how worth it that can be. the other thing which i didnt like... paying for purchases.... to get the 10% discount, you have to pay with your namebadge. the namebadge links to your payroll. post taxes. and you still will pay sales tax on top of that. its also capped at 70% of the previous week's earnings. so. you cant buy a skid of shingles to do your roof. no big purchases get discounts. but it encourages lots of little incidental purchases. soda, candy, small tools... hmm.. just like the ones they made me buy. not only did i have to pay for my gay vest [11 dollars], but i have to pay for any all all shirts id want , as well as "the tools to perform my job"... meaning, the old company store is back in business for the miners! i had to "buy" my box cutter, holster, pliers, holster, tape measure, and shop rag. before i knew it, my first days pay was wiped out on this stuff. all of which, i already owned. but the kicker is, i dont even like the box cutter, or the tape measure; and the shop towel is reduculous. sigh.

but. as sarah would remind me. its a job. it might suck. but its a job. so i drive 30 minutes or so to get there. because the one 3 blocks away wouldnt hire me. sigh. its a fantastic place alright. i just hope the "real job" comes along for me sooner than later.