My retail therapy!

As promised, i shall attempt to give you a little insight into my "Retail" career and its short comings.
I left school at 17, i had no intention of ever stepping foot into a college or University again. For me, my school days were over...yipppeeeeeeeeeee.
Unfortunately for me, i was not blessed with a mother that was maternal like in her personality. Even worse, my father appeared to be straight out of a Dickens novel..."children should be seen and not heard till theage of 25". So with this in mind, it is understandable that my parents threatened me to "find a job" otherwise i was not welcome living under their roof.
I was able to recieve a welfare benefit every 2 weeks whilst looking for work. My mother insisted i pay board out of this cheque. There didn't appear too much around so out of desperation and fear i'd be kicked out of home, i went to work at a printing firm. This was no ordinary print shop, no, this was where my mother weilded her stick. Yes folks "mommy dearest" was the print shops manager...............my boss.
As you can imagine, my time with "mommy dearest" was short lived and if anything was going to motivate me into seeking employment elsewhere, it was the the thought of spending an extra 9 hours under "mommy dearests" thumb.
It was not long and i found my first retail job. I worked as a "checkout chick" in a small independant supermarket. At first i loathed it, but after a while i grew to enjoy my time there. I became quite friendly with a sales rep, who inadvertantly asked if i'd consider working for the same company as she, building display's in supermarkets, filling the shelves with the company's particualr lines etc..........YES!!!! I said.
I did this for about 18 months, worked hard and became well known in the stores i visited. The manager of a Safeway supermarket asked me one day if i'd consider taking up a position as "order writer". I would be responsible for ordering all the stock in the supermarket, and be paid handsomely. YES!!! i said. This was to be the start of 10 years in retail. From then on i worked in 4 other Safeway/Woolworths Stores, mainly as a dept manager of some sort. Whilst working, i eventually decided to go to college at night to obtain my degrees.
In my time i saw some things that not even i can find concievable, and for you my friends i will give you an insight ~~~~~~
I found a woman oneday deliberately breaking packets of biscuits so one of my staffwould mark it down.
Another woman i caught with her fingers in a tub of ice cream.
Another, sticking her babies dummy (pacifier) in a jar of honey
Another," " of peanut paste.
An old man with a trench coat full of tuna fish!
A young woman who took all her clothes off, layed out all the kitchen cloths on the floor in the aisle and proceeded to walk all over them!!!
I spent an afternoon running up a highway chasing a guy who decided to take the inside of a cornflakes packet out and fill the box with cigarettes, when the checkout girl picked the box up to pack it....they all fell out and he did a runner!!! I caught him, called the cops, where the guy claimed he could not speak english!!
I've seen a few cars drive through the doors!
Once, i went to over see a new store opening with a few other managers, there were displays in the aisles, and we caught men "dropping a load" behind them!!!
I have had customers bring back juice "thats been sitting in my car and now its all hot i want a refund".
I have had customers bring back meat that has never been bought in our store demanding a refund.
I have had the power go out and customers have taken off with shopping trolleys loaded......myself and a few staff chasing them.
Another peeling lids off of yougurts and demanding a reduction in price.
A store manager was due to retire after 40 years of service, with a huge pay out. He decided to steal a bottle of scotch to celebrate, he didn't cout on security catching him, he forfitted his payout!
Another of my managers was caught nicking flowers, he was caught by a security guy and was given a demotion to a very small store in the country.


This, is only a small insight into what i saw and dealt with, there is more..another time perhaps.