The City

One day, a customer said he was a manager of "The City" and was so freaking impressed with how awesome I am at my job that he wanted me to come in for an interview!

Umm... I helped the guy decide if he should buy a compilation CD.

Him: Hey, do you know anything about this Warped Tour Compilation? Should I buy it?
Me: What kind of music are you into?
Him: Everything
Me: Well... if you like every kind of music, you'll like it. Are you into modern punk? Song with a bit of screaming?
Him: I like all kinds of music.
Me: Some people are a bit put off by songs with lots of screaming but this CD has over 30 songs in it and a lot of the bands in here are your traditional/pop punk. Are you familiar with (list a few bands)? Do you like them?
Him: Oh I like pretty much everything.
Me:... Okay! If you like all kinds of music, you'll like this CD.
Him: Awesome! Thank you!

So yeah, I sold a CD to a guy that claimed to like every kind of music- takes skills I tell ya! He then proceeded to tell me about the awesome hipness of "The City".

The City is a hipper, younger Circuit City. If Circuit City was Barbie, The City would be Skipper. I asked him to explain the difference and he blah blah blahed about a few things but really, it just sounds like Circuit City with blacker interior and associates in black polos and jeans instead of... what ever it is they where now. As far as recruiters go, he was pretty polite about it, although, he did make the classic recruiter mistake of "I can pay you more!" Every time they say that to me I just want to be like, "How do you know how much I make?" I always get a little offended when they say that. Don't get me wrong, I like money, but it's not the main reason why I work where I work. I know I can make more working somewhere else. Every time they say that to me... just kind of makes me feel like they're implying I'm a soul-less drone who only cares about getting paid.

Maybe that's why I brought up the whole Blockbuster debacle. I wasn't rude about it, just asked what happened. You can't exactly resume talking about all the great opportunities at your company after having to explain why Blockbuster wants nothing to do with you (you know, 'cause you lost $164.8 million dollars in the first quarter). Hmm... yeah... I'm usually on my best behavior with recruiters 'cause... who knows, maybe one day I would like to work for Barney's Outlet or Anne Taylor... but there are certain companies that I know, with absolute certainty, that I would never work for. Circuit City is one of them. Oh, I'm sorry, I mean The City.

Oh, speaking of jobs and what not. I got an application from some guy who says he wants a position "stalking shelfs". And, when asked how he finds out about new music, he put down "Im a produser". Really dude, how does an 18 year old "produse" music? Then there was the management candidate who said one of his prior responsibility was "supervising the disposition of shipment". Oh, and then there was the girl who was saying to her friend, "Yeah... I guess I wouldn't mind working here... augh!... I guess I can get used to the music... if they pay me enough."

We are always surrounded by people who genuinely LOVE working here and we always get in so many kids who are "OMG! Dude, I want to work here so much!", kids who put in a new application like every freaking months in hopes that this will the month we hire someone new. Sometimes, we forget that others just see this as a retail position and, to them, working for us isn't any different than working at any other store in the mall.

I'm so glad we won't have to hire anyone for back to school.