Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 16

I started out the day tagging some clothes (a few of which got put out today). I did end up getting rid of a few, though After that, I hung up what I could in the back room and did a little straightening back there. (Mostly, I tried to get all the hangers off the ground.)

One of my colleagues had a birthday today. In honor of this, those of us on duty (her, myself, the manager, and one other person) had some cupcakes for a little while in the afternoon. I had less than an hour left on my shift after we did that, so I basically hung up a few more clothes and did some more straightening.

That's been my day today. The store will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day, so the next day I go in is Wednesday. We'll see what happens then.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Days 14 and 15

As some of you may have heard, a tornado hit Joplin, MO very hard this past Sunday. As of Monday, we at the Doggie Bag have set up totes just outside our door so that people could drop off animal supplies for Joplin's Humane Society. On Monday, we set aside some of the clothes that had been donated to us to go to Joplin as well. We may or may not send more at some point.

Today, I started off by tagging clothes in the middle room so that they'd be ready for the manager (who I saw today for a few minutes at best) to price whenever she got the chance. Unfortunately, I had also to get rid of some clothes that had stains, tears, snags, etc. After I finished doing that, I did some work in the back room.

A friend of the manager's (who helped us out at least once before) had stopped by for a few minutes. When she was in the back room, she asked if the "clothing fairy" had thrown up in there. (That's how much clothing we have right now. If we could donate a couple of bags or boxes worth of clothing to the people in Joplin and still have more than enough available to sell.)

That's what this week has been like so far. Who knows what Friday will bring?

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 13

I was kind of back and forth between tasks today. There were some clothes to tag and others to hang. I also went through bags, separating good clothes from bad. I also set aside some jackets and sweaters that would not work for this season but would maybe be worth putting on reserve for another season depending on the manager's inclination. One of the rounds of donations we had today was four to five bags of clothes, most of which were in pretty good shape. Included in there were two velvet outfits which will probably go on reserve for a while.

Later in the afternoon, the manager's boyfriend had come to collect our empty boxes to take to recycling. (He usually does that on Fridays.) There were a lot of them too. There will probably be even more by next week (provided that the earthquake and other stuff that has been predicted by Family Radio doesn't happen tomorrow).

From my understanding there wasn't a lot of business up front, probably because it had been raining. Rainy and snowy days tend to be our worst. (We did have a pair of rain pants come in today. Had they been put up for sale today, they maybe would've been bought right away.)

That's pretty much been my day. I look forward to what Monday will bring, provided that Judgement Day does NOT come tomorrow. (I've been blogging about that on Moderate Mouse's Musings. And no I will not shut up about it until May 21, which is tomorrow, has come and gone. I even have a poll there asking if visitors believe the May 21 business.)

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 12

This is what I can recall from yesterday.

There were times when I had tagged some clothes. Unfortunately, we ran out of the good plastic fasteners and the ones we had left weren't any good. (I have an idea in my head for how to approach the fastener problem, but I'm not sure how well it will go over.) There were also suspicions that some mistakes were made in separating good clothes from the bad. For instance, there were some blouses that were evidently put in recycle on the grounds that they were long-sleeved. The manager did not agree with this as said blouses were otherwise in good shape. Needless to say, I've become afraid to get rid of anything strictly on account of it being long-sleeved. I may have to reinspect every single item in every single bag in the recycle pile just to make sure that neither I nor anyone else made a bad judgement call.

There were also boxes to break down (which I and one other person did) and a couple of other boxes to go through. One of said boxes had a cannister set, a pet water bowl and some other things I don't recall right off. The set had a fruit pattern. The lids were chipped, but maybe we'll be able to look the other way on that since the cannisters are otherwise in good shape.

That was my day yesterday. I hope there aren't a lot of problems tomorrow.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 11

Ever since my return, we have had new people join the staff. We have had another person join today. One of the first things we did was move some clothes from the back room to the middle room. We checked said clothes for stains, holes, etc. Shortly after that, we cleared an area towards the back door per the manager's request. We were able to get some things in that area out of the back room altogether and out in the front, but there was only so much room for stuff in the latter. While I was at it, I moved bags and boxes of clothes into an area behind the backroom counter. Afterwards, I and the new person went through said clothes, separating good ones from bad ones. After that, we started hanging up the clothes. There are still a lot awaiting to be hung, but this might happen tomorrow.

While we were doing that, someone else on staff was in and out of the back room grabbing stuff. One of the boxes that had presumably come over the weekend had, among other things, two foam fingers. Said person asked if there'd be anyway the fingers would be sold but then noticed that one of them had the MIDDLE finger sticking out, so she didn't take that one to be priced. (This is not the first time we've had to dispense with something on account of the taste level associated with it.)

In closing, today's been a pretty busy day, and Wednesday probably will be as well.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 10

I know this is a day late. Don't ask me why.

Anyway, I had gone over on Thursday, but it turned out that the manager was able to make it in after all, so I went home. I did my full shift on Friday, though.

There was a while when I covered for the manager on the register, per her request, until the cashier for the afternoon came in. For the rest of the day, I believe I was mostly in the back. I mainly hung up some clothes, cleaned up the hanger area, and went through some bags and boxes. Yet, I don't feel like I accomplished a lot. Oh well. Maybe I'll have better luck next week.

The Humane Society had its garage sale today, and whatever items they had leftover went to us. I wonder what lovely things will await me on Monday.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 9

The manager is still out recovering from surgery. According to our morning cashier, she probably won't be in for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is when the recycling center is supposed to come and pick up the rejected clothing. From my understanding, the manager is usually around to oversee that, but since she's out this week, I will likely go in and do that. I'll do that maybe after I have dropped off an application, or I can do the application thing after I've been around long enough to oversee the recycling thing.

For most of the day, I priced and put out clothes per the morning cashier's request. (We're trying to get on top of things in the manager's absence.) After I did that, I moved some clothes from the back room to the middle room for when and if more tags were freed up. It's still pretty crowded in the back though. (You could practically swipe one or two things out of there, and nobody would notice.)

That's been my day today. I don't know how long I'll be in tomorrow, but it'll be long enough to help get the recycling truck loaded up.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 8

The manager had originally expected to return today, but evidently, she needed more time to recover from her surgery than she thought. So, per her request, I filled in for her on register today. I managed to sell over thirty dollars worth of stuff. In the slower periods, I ran white-out on the used tags and removed tape on the hangers.

We're currently selling our colored hangers. (I sold three bundles today.) One of staff members who normally works in the back said that even when we do sell hangers, they keep coming back as people use them for the clothes they donate. Someone else on the staff said that oh well, we'll just sell them again.

After someone else came in and started their shift on the register, I went to the back to see what I could do there. I went through some clothes and put some dirty dishes in the sink. At one point, someone brought over some pet-related  stuff, including some dog sweaters. They weren't sure if we'd sell them there. I told her that if we didn't sell them there, we might send them to the Humane Society. (After all, some of those dogs might need sweaters in the winter.) The latter is most probable.

That's been my day today. I'm hoping the manager will get better this week.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 7

Today, I mostly put clothes on hangers for as long as I could find proper hangers for said clothes. (There are some pants, especially kids' pants that are waiting to be hung up on account of the hanger shortage.) A friend of the manager's (who also happens to know my sister) came in to help today. She went through some of the clothes, tagging ones that were good and putting ones that were not-so-good in the recycle bag. Said friend also said that if I just absolutely ran out of stuff to do, I could take the colored tape off of the hangers that had it. (The tape was part of a system established by a previous manager who left this past summer for reasons I'm not fully clear on.)

We did have a couple of donations today but not so much clothing. At one point, the manager's boyfriend came in to pick up the empty boxes. When he was asked how the manager was doing, he said she was doing fine and was ready to go home. (If you will recall, the manager had to have some surgery done today and was out today in order to recover.)

After I had gotten as caught up as I could on the clothes on the backroom counter, I went through some clothes that one of my colleagues had, on a previous day, taken out of a box that had been sitting around for a while. Some of the clothes were better than others. I had wondered what there would be for said colleague (whose schedule does not include Fridays) when she came in on Monday, but the cashier on duty said that there'd be a church donating whatever happens to be left over from their rummage sale over the weekend.

On my way out, I bought some paperbacks. I'm going to register them with bookcrossing as well as list them on my reading blog.

That's been my day today. I'm hoping the manager will be able to tell that I had gotten stuff done in her absence.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 6

I decided to go in today after all. Granted, I didn't go in until it was afternoon, but I went in nonetheless. Shortly after I had come in, someone brought in multiple clear bags of clothes. I went through putting whatever could be kept (as far as I knew) in one pile and putting the rest in a bag for recycling. I did the same with a bag of socks. Whatever remained of the socks I generally attempted to match up, and the ones I couldn't find matches to were put in the recycle bag. I had worked a few hours there, ending with checking the pants out in the front to make sure they were zipped up and buttoned.

Like I said I was only there for a few hours. I will likely accomplish more when I go in tomorrow.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 5

I was in the back room almost all day. I was usually either going through clothes, putting up hangers, or moving stuff around. I took my lunch later than I normally do as someone was busy taking care of stuff in the "kitchen" area.

I hadn't seen the manager until sometime in the afternoon, and even then it was for a shorter time than normal. I think one or two other people had come to speak with her as well. Tomorrow night is the monthly "work night" where whoever wishes to, staff or not, can come in and help out in the evening, but because the manager will be going in for surgery tomorrow, someone else will have to oversee it.(I probably won't go to the "work night" but I might go in tomorrow for a little bit in light of the manager going into surgery.)

 One of the people that had come in had come to see about some shirts that were supposed to be reserved for her to take over to the Humane Society to be used for making dog toys. Unfortunately, I had mistaken the bag allegedly set aside for her for shirts that simply had yet to be gone through. We were able to retrieve some of the shirts, but I felt terrible about the situation. Said person said she'll check to see if she needs any more shirts. Just in case that should happen, I started another bag of shirts that were not acceptable (due to condition or otherwise) and wrote an emphatic note (which I taped to the bag) to reserve the shirts or else.

That's been my day. I will let you all know if I do decide to go in tomorrow or not.

Doggie Bag Days Season 3: Day 4

Today started out with straightening up the recycle section of the back room. I also hung up clothes, tagged other clothes, and put ones that got priced out on the sales floor. I also whited out some tags that had been taken off of some of the clothes. We're no longer keeping winter stuff, so a lot of long-sleeved shirts have been set aside to be recycled. I also managed to empty out some bags of clothes. However, we eventually got some more, including a few bags a baby clothes. I think they're for a girl. I may have to buy a few to send to my sister as she has a baby coming in August. (It will likely be a girl.)

That has pretty much been my day. I wonder what Wednesday will bring.