Empire Records - Open 'til Midnight!
Jul. 2nd, 2007 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hiddenmuseThis isn't really about the film Empire Records - it's about my tenure in Retail Hell - Music Store division.
I'd gotten into working at music stores in early 1996. The first store was Camelot Music (now FYE Stores) - and I was there for about 4-5 months.
Since the company was on a slow and steady decline, I never got the shirt part of the "store uniform" - instead, I got to wear Dockers-style pants with polo or button-down shirts, and my name tag. Our employee discount of about 15% extended to immediate family - the five-finger discount applied to anyone we wanted, especially ourselves.
I was neutral towards my co-workers - never said anything when one would go into the back and spark up, took part in the five-finger employee discount with a couple of them, even flashed a male co-worker while I was hopped up on Paxil.
Sometimes, I got to do the displays - ones that weren't "company sanctioned", too. My personal favorite was a shrine of sorts I'd made for the release of Metallica's LOAD -- box set, CDs, t-shirts. All that was missing were the candles.
Even though there was no intent of making it my life's work, I still read the music industry magazines to keep on top of things. Which is how I found out that the company was going bankrupt, and would be closing a lot of their stores. So, when the manager at our competition (Musicland / Sam Goody) offered me a job at the store, I jumped ship as soon as I could! And yes, a few co-workers were blindsided by that closing/laying off.
Then, I went onto Musicland for several months. I was an assistant manager-type, which meant that I got to open and/or close the store. Near the end of my tenure there - when I was demoted to sales, I discovered how "valuable" I was, when I heard a manager say, "oh, we like Carly because she can work days."
No five-finger discounting here. They checked our bags when we left, to make sure that we weren't making off with stolen goods. A few of my co-workers were dumber than a box of rocks - but, what was I to expect? The manager was married to a dentist who decided that he'd rather work at Wild Oats grocery, so yeah, she was just a total ray of sunshine.
One of the few good things was one morning, for a few of us that were opening the store, we'd gotten there early - so we got breakfast at McDonald's, and sat in the back room, watching Mallrats. That was quite fun.
In terms of the crap, well, there was the music. If it wasn't Celine Dion, it was the rap. And don't even get me started on the Christmas music that started in early November and didn't end until January. Then, there was the assistant manager that decided to come up with a quiz for us sales people. Mostly asinine questions like - "What section is R.E.M. located in?" or "Where would you find 'Ghost In The Shell' videocassettes?" I came up with more "intelligent" questions like, "Why is it Ben Folds Five, when there's only 3 members" (I didn't know the answer, so it was mainly a rhetorical question.) and "Are Cliff Chenier and C.J. Chenier related?" (They're not.)
Needless to say, those questions were shot down, as being "too hard". Ah yes, I forgot. I'm working with people whose musical horizons are either "rap, rap and rap" or "Celine Dion and other (un)Easy Listening". Pardon me for wanting to play the Charlie Watts jazz CD, or maybe some Green Day.
When I left, it was because I'd gotten work as a temp. They probably didn't deserve it, but I gave my written notice, so I wouldn't have anything bite me in the ass in the future.
And that, my friends, was my tenure in Retail Hell.
I'd gotten into working at music stores in early 1996. The first store was Camelot Music (now FYE Stores) - and I was there for about 4-5 months.
Since the company was on a slow and steady decline, I never got the shirt part of the "store uniform" - instead, I got to wear Dockers-style pants with polo or button-down shirts, and my name tag. Our employee discount of about 15% extended to immediate family - the five-finger discount applied to anyone we wanted, especially ourselves.
I was neutral towards my co-workers - never said anything when one would go into the back and spark up, took part in the five-finger employee discount with a couple of them, even flashed a male co-worker while I was hopped up on Paxil.
Sometimes, I got to do the displays - ones that weren't "company sanctioned", too. My personal favorite was a shrine of sorts I'd made for the release of Metallica's LOAD -- box set, CDs, t-shirts. All that was missing were the candles.
Even though there was no intent of making it my life's work, I still read the music industry magazines to keep on top of things. Which is how I found out that the company was going bankrupt, and would be closing a lot of their stores. So, when the manager at our competition (Musicland / Sam Goody) offered me a job at the store, I jumped ship as soon as I could! And yes, a few co-workers were blindsided by that closing/laying off.
Then, I went onto Musicland for several months. I was an assistant manager-type, which meant that I got to open and/or close the store. Near the end of my tenure there - when I was demoted to sales, I discovered how "valuable" I was, when I heard a manager say, "oh, we like Carly because she can work days."
No five-finger discounting here. They checked our bags when we left, to make sure that we weren't making off with stolen goods. A few of my co-workers were dumber than a box of rocks - but, what was I to expect? The manager was married to a dentist who decided that he'd rather work at Wild Oats grocery, so yeah, she was just a total ray of sunshine.
One of the few good things was one morning, for a few of us that were opening the store, we'd gotten there early - so we got breakfast at McDonald's, and sat in the back room, watching Mallrats. That was quite fun.
In terms of the crap, well, there was the music. If it wasn't Celine Dion, it was the rap. And don't even get me started on the Christmas music that started in early November and didn't end until January. Then, there was the assistant manager that decided to come up with a quiz for us sales people. Mostly asinine questions like - "What section is R.E.M. located in?" or "Where would you find 'Ghost In The Shell' videocassettes?" I came up with more "intelligent" questions like, "Why is it Ben Folds Five, when there's only 3 members" (I didn't know the answer, so it was mainly a rhetorical question.) and "Are Cliff Chenier and C.J. Chenier related?" (They're not.)
Needless to say, those questions were shot down, as being "too hard". Ah yes, I forgot. I'm working with people whose musical horizons are either "rap, rap and rap" or "Celine Dion and other (un)Easy Listening". Pardon me for wanting to play the Charlie Watts jazz CD, or maybe some Green Day.
When I left, it was because I'd gotten work as a temp. They probably didn't deserve it, but I gave my written notice, so I wouldn't have anything bite me in the ass in the future.
And that, my friends, was my tenure in Retail Hell.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-03 01:58 am (UTC)I got fired for not saying I was taking a break. Eh... You know, I used to really like it though when I said to them that I couldn't come to their rinky dink little store meetings because I was a Montessori Teacher by day. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-03 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-03 03:48 am (UTC)A year after, I put in a good word for a friend of mine looking for work, and they made her a cashier. Two days later (when I went back to school and wasn't working there anymore), she quit because they insisted on checking her bag and pantlegs (which they did to everybody)... I never got called back to work there.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-03 02:35 pm (UTC)But checking pants legs? They really must've had problems with five-finger discounts.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-03 07:45 am (UTC)Damn the man! Save the Empire!
Date: 2007-07-03 02:38 pm (UTC)And I loved "Empire Records" - that was such an awesome film! "It's Rex Manning Day!"