So I spent a few days in Minnesota last week. Tuesday morning I woke up about 4 am and I picked up a coworker and headed off to our corporate headquarters for three days worth of meetings. Like I mentioned last time I was here, I am going to take over in pricing in the store. On Tuesday of next week our new computer and new program will be installed and I will pretty much be the only person in the store that knows it.
The ride to the cities wasn’t bad; traffic was what traffic is in Minnesota of course. When we were almost there we ran into a shitload of rain. Rain and slow moving vehicles which makes me wonder why they call it rush hour… certainly no one here seems in a rush. Once we get to the corporate office, then the fun begins. Everyone else that was training for this new program from the stores were old timers in the pricing department; some in the area of doing it for 10 years. Of course as they go around the table on the first day asking us to introduce ourselves and tell them how long we’ve been doing pricing. I of course say I’m Dave and this is my first day. The one lady had to put me through 20 questions then asking why I was here and why someone so fresh would be in pricing etc…
When day one was finally done it was great because I had already picked up the ins and outs of the program, even finding a few glitches in it. After that we went back to the hotel and I got up to my room and flipped the TV on to check out the weather. Well I see on the news that there is a supposed tornado on the ground back in my hometown and they are basically yelling at people in the area to take shelter immediately. Wow, that’s fucked up, so now I gotta make a few phone calls. I decide to use my cell phone because even though I’m roaming, it’s still cheaper than using the room phone. I make a few calls and find out that my family is fine so then it’s time to go out for dinner. We end up going to the Macaroni Grill. That place was pretty good, especially if you like Italian Food. I’m not used to being in restaurants that don’t have paper napkins, that’s for sure. The size of the place was huge compared to places in my town and the food I had was great. Now it was time to go back to the hotel and most likely fall asleep. Around three in the morning I was woke up to the sound of thunder in the distance. Actually the thunder was right outside, but with the air conditioner going full blast I couldn’t hear it. I flipped on the TV and watched the live coverage as they were talking about all this high winds and hail, but I decided as long as they weren’t saying the T word I would just go back to sleep.
Ahh, day two. By the start of day two I am beginning to notice that the person that is supposed to be training us really doesn’t know the program that well. Later that day she lets us know that they still have the old program at their store. Well what the fuck is with that? That’s like asking a blind person to teach me how to play horseshoes. Well I was there to learn and I think I found about 4 shortcuts to the stuff we were being taught mostly because the new program is a Windows based and I’m very familiar with that. After another very long boring day it was time to get out of there again. Wednesday’s weather was much better than Tuesday’s. This time we went out to The Cheesecake Factory for supper. I had a double bacon barbeque burger and fries because all the really cool stuff didn’t really appeal to me. Even though I was stuffed, I was at the Cheesecake Factory and it’s a felony to not have some cheesecake while you’re there. So I ordered some peanut butter chocolate cookie dough thing. It was damn good. It was worth it being up most of the night somewhat sick because it tasted damn good. I can’t believe a piece of cheesecake costs almost $8 but then again I wasn’t paying for it… my company was.
Day three was supposed to be a short day for us. I was learning pricing and next Tuesday I was supposed to come back down for a day long meeting to learn DSD. Well they suddenly decided that we were going to be going live with our new system on Tuesday so that put me in a predicament. I can’t really go to Minneapolis and learn DSD when I am going to be the only one that works at the store that knows the new system… I’m thinking I should probably be there. They decided that I should be there as well and thought that I could just learn the DSD stuff in a few hours on Thursday. The morning classes we had were basically just showing us how to use the email program at work so which we already have and I actually showed my former manager how to use when we got it at the store. So we get to skip that stuff and go learn the DSD stuff. Apparently I learn this computer stuff rather fast because after being kind of squawked at on my first day and getting 20 questions, the main trainer lady (not the one that didn’t know her stuff) asked me if I wanted to be a trainer. I THINK she was just kidding because I laughed her off, but I think I knew the program better than the one that is supposed to be teaching us.
We got out of there around 3 on Thursday and I was home right around 5 so it wasn’t so bad. Friday was a different story though, because I got to come to work and everyone wants to know about the new system and how is this going to work and all this other whiny shit which I don’t really have time for since it’s fucking inventory time. I managed to get my entire inventory counted on Friday and I was able to label it all so that tomorrow I won’t have to do much. Besides, I’m already doing books tomorrow and I don’t want to be interrupted by those fucking inventory people. My next day off isn’t until next Saturday either. I work at 7 am every day this week and then apparently starting in July our prices are going to automatically update at 6am every day and the tags will have to be hung by that time. We open at 7 so the tags will need to be up by then. That means that I will be getting a front door key and a pass code to the security system so I can come in every morning around 4 or so and get stuff done before the store opens. Ahh, imagine that, working in aisles and not being bothered by customers. It sounds like a dream come true.