Register death match

Yes, FPL (Florida Power & Light) must die a slow and horrible death! We were doing so well for a Saturday morning during tourist season when the lights flickered this morning. OK, the registers have battery backups. Then the power shut off completely.

Now, the batteries prevent critical data from being lost, but whatever failsafes were supposed to take over didn't. Every single register on the front end that was ringing someone up died in the middle of that transaction. Sweet mother! All 23 of them plus the self-checkouts. And Customer Service. And then all the other registers in the store started calling for help.

And worst of all, some of the stupid cashiers started blinking their lights, which they're supposed to do when they need help. UM, YES, WE KNOW THERE IS A PROBLEM YOU IDIOTS!

We had to shut everything down for 15 minutes while the entire system rebooted. It takes about 6 minutes for each register to reset itself, because the software is not nearly as smart as it thinks it is. Then, we discovered we'd done it wrong and none of the scan guns worked. We had to shut them down again, wait until the register went dark, then reboot it again. Just restarting it wasn't enough, apparently. My word!

As we're in the process of fixing 20-something registers, we're trying to figure out which ones are recovering first. We're yelling out status updates. 15 is working! 22 is working! Anyway.

I'm on 21, trying to see if it is working, because the power cut also locked some cashiers out of the system. The timeclock won't let them sign on to a register if they're not clocked in. I'm working at the keyboard, testing the gun and trying to log on. These fools roll up with a huge buggy of groceries and get all agitated. "Are you working?"

"I'm testing the register right now, sir." I call out that 21 seems to be working and move over to 19 to test it. This greatly upsets the man and woman with the groceries. "WELL WHY CAN'T YOU CHECK US OUT!"

I try to explain that 1) I don't have a till and a cash drawer, and 2) it's slightly more imperative that I get more registers operational. I send them over to 22. And I call again that 21 is working. What do they do? They roll back to 21. "WHY CAN'T YOU CHECK US OUT?"

OK, it is mass chaos in the place, and they seem to think they've gotten lucky finding a fixed register and someone who doesn't look like they're doing anything. Not like trying to fix 23 broken register is "not doing anything." I finally just say "I'll try to get someone over, sir" and walk away.

We only have 8 wheelchair carts for the entire store, although we have a huge old-people population who use them even when they shouldn't. Some man came up to the service desk, called a door greeter a "bast**d," said the other one didn't speak English and then told me that there was a "400-pound-woman" that had been waiting an hour for a cart. I tried to explain that it was a Saturday morning and we did have a limited supply of carts. He proceeded to scream at me and call the store a "disgrace." Stupid f*****!

Some lady gave me grief because she wanted me to dismantle a flagple just so she could buy the flag - and not the pole and mounting bracket. "Why don't you sell replacement flags?" Good Lord, I don't know. She kept complaining that she would have to buy a flag, buy some sewing stuff and "make something up" to have a flag fit her pole. "And why can't you just sell me the flag and then sell the pole and mount?" UM, because it is PART OF A SET, YOU DIMBOT? I would not break up the set. We get in trouble if we do that. That is not something you do in the name of customer satisfaction. You can't break up a set just to give something to someone. because they don't want to pay full price for part of it.

And the lady trying to return an OLD phone without a receipt and exchange it for a cheap phone and get the cash back on the exchange. UM, NO!

It was just one of those day. And more fun tomorrow.