Happy Halloween! + Shop Update

Well, it's the 31st of October, and you know what that means!
It's Halloween, and I'm sitting here in my PJs without a costume. That seems to be the pattern every year since senior year of high school ended... while during my super senior year, I hid behind a tree on Mischief Night with a garden hose, hell-bent on spraying anyone who came to egg our house with ice-cold water.
Yes, I'm a maniacal person.

BUT I'm also here to bring you another shop update!

Roma has been hard at work to bring you even more handknit hats and scarves, and I just finished posting all of the new items in the Etsy shop!

Yes, we finally have hats for BOYS!

In addition to some stuff for kids, I also posted some earrings last week.

Mario, anyone?

Check out the shop to see all of the new items! (Link is at the top of the page, can't miss it!)

Roma Joins the Team!

As you may have heard in the past, Hello Interloper isn't entirely my project alone... My boyfriend, Jon, occasionally writes a blog entry here, and my mother, Hanna, has donated a necklace to the April's Army collective charity shop on our behalf.
This time, we're directly featuring the handmade products of another person... My grandmother, Roma!

Roma is from Warsaw, Poland, and has a passion for knitting sweaters, hats, and scarves.
When she heard about my shop and Etsy, she decided to try her hand at selling as well!

Since the winter months are approaching fast, now's the perfect time to shop for some nice and warm clothing.
Sweater and Hat Sets and Hats have been added to the store, with scarves being added shortly.

Here's a couple photos of my personal favorites!

YOU'RE FIRED!

Sooo, yeah. I got fired yesterday.
BY TEXT.
(Technology, what have you done? People don't even have the decency to call anymore.)

I could rant about how bad the management was there, how they are technically breaking laws, and how that job was close to being slave labor... but I would end up ranting for ages.

Let's just sum up everything to some life lessons I have learned...

1) Ask more questions about a job before you sign anything.
If I had known that I would be mopping floors until 1am whenever I had the closing shift, I wouldn't have taken the job. Heck, I wish they would have at least told me I was going to be a janitor. Looking back now, I probably should have asked what exactly the job entailed before signing all the necessary papers. Because I didn't ask, I got stuck doing backbreaking work nearly nonstop for 7-9 hour shifts for minimum wage... I could have just been sitting on my butt and managing phone calls and appointments as a receptionist somewhere, to the sweet tune of $12 an hour. Instead I was on my feet all day, cleaning sticky yogurt and toppings.

2) Stupid people don't like it when you make them look stupid... especially when that person is your manager.
I'm going to be blunt... my manager was an idiot. The very first weekend I worked, he changed my shift without notifying me, and proceeded to blame me when I didn't show up. This led to him being scolded at our employee meeting by the owner himself. You see, the manager was supposed to email us the schedule every single time there was an edit made. He didn't do that, and the owner embarrassed him in front of all of us by telling us it was "his mistake" and to do that next time. I believe this was the beginning of his grudge against me. When I tried to take a sick day and he accused me of all these crazy things, like not working for two days the previous week, and calling "every day" to take a day off (neither of which were true at all), I emailed the owner to clear up any problems. That must have embarrassed him again, seeing that he probably was getting his own employees mixed up. Pointing out discrepancies between what he said about breaks and the Employee Handbook was probably the last straw. People just don't like being wrong, and I guess being upstaged by someone more than ten years younger than you AND someone lower on the employee ladder probably led to some anger.

3) Customer service is the key to success, and good tips.
During my short employment, I was astounded how much a good attitude could affect the behavior of your customers. If you took the time to explain how the shop worked to new customers, greet them as they approached the register, and told them to "have a nice day" after their transaction, they were a lot more likely to leave tips. They also were more likely to return, recognize you the next time, and even talk to you while you were getting them their change. Incredibly enough, neither the owner or manager cared about customer service. They were more focused on cleanliness and how much money they made. After a lot of observation though, it was easy to see the difference in behavior between the customers who interacted with a bored cashier, and those that I was tending to. Making the kids happy was the most important part. Kids are sometimes intimidated by people who are older than them. If you can break down that barrier by asking them what flavor they got, commenting on their stack of gummi worm toppings, or just being nice, they start gaining an attachment to the store. One kid whose family I had spoken to on a few occasions exclaimed to me that he was at the store 4 times already, and it was his favorite place. Customer service really is where the money lies, not in having the store spot-free.

At least I learned something from being fired, haha.

Back to looking for jobs... and hey, at least I have cashiering experience now. That'll hopefully open up some more avenues of employment.

In other news, I'm going to Delaware to visit Jon tomorrow!
Hey, it's not like I have to worry about a work schedule anymore, right?
This is exactly what I needed... a nice, relaxing break with my favorite person in the world! <3
Definitely looking forward to it.

Until next time!