Advice to the retail public from the other side of the counter.

1. Please stop trying to leave your credit card with me while you "run over next door." I won't rip you off and others on staff won't rip you off, but I can't guarantee that every establishment will be that honest. Credit card fraud. Have you heard of it? Yes, well, know that you are putting yourself at big risk.

2. Please stop leaving your very big, expensive bag on the counter while you roam off to other places. I realize that the size of bag to carry these days competes with a diaper bag designed for 4, but really I don't want to have the responsibility of having to watch it or being accused of dipping in. Take your big ole bag with you, please. Those are the times that I'm extra thankful that we have cameras and one pointed right down to the counter.

3. When your credit card isn't signed, I am going to ID you. When your credit card says "Please ID or See ID," I am going to ID you. Please don't be surprised. When I ask for your ID, please be kind and pull it out of your wallet. Showing it to me in the little window isn't helpful. Just so you know, I do compare your face to the one on the ID and I look at names, too. That means that I need to have the ID held up to compare. Oh, and the little window isn't big enough to show all of the type on the Ohio drivers license. I don't want to touch your wallet. I don't want to be accused of being all handsies with your money. Please just pull the ID out.

4. I realize that the little eraser is far too large and heavy for you to carry, but know that our counter is only so large. Not only are we trying to help other customers, but to keep track of your little items is sometimes difficult. When you just deposit them on the counter, people shop through them and I have to tell them that they are someone else's things. Just carry them with you. We have baskets. I promise that they are very nice and you'll look really cool carrying one.

5. If your total is $39.00, please don't hand me just $35.00 and try to trip me up and hope that I don't catch that you still owe me more money. That isn't nice no matter where you shop or how regular of a customer you are.

6. We use a marker to check all of the bills $20.00 and up. This is not to offend you. I was unknowingly given a counterfeit bill by a previous employee who had just picked it up from the local bank. It looked legitimate. It marked wrong. Know that it can even come from the bank counterfeit. Don't worry. I don't think that you have a press in your basement. Do you? ;)

7. Please stop sending your children in with your credit card. I will catch it and I will decline it. If you really want them to use your credit card from time to time, please have your credit card company make them one with their name embossed on it. It will make everyones lives easier. Sending a permission slip doesn't work. You know, they could have written that themselves. Just FYI.

8. Wives, please get a credit card in YOUR name. I know that your husband is the head of the house and I get that, but you get ticked at me for asking and I'm only doing my job.

9. We cannot take Canadian coins. I know that some of their money looks like ours and as I was told recently, "I got it here in the states," but I cannot take it. It is not our currency and we do not get money for it. Like my coworker said, it is like trying to spend the Euro here. That doesn't work, either.

Happily, we were busy with holiday retail traffic today. We had a lot of out of staters, out of the country folk and new area visitors. Busy is a good thing.

Smiles in my day:
- The fact that K- has been calling the blimp the "Best Day Blimp." A good accidental substitution for Goodyear, yes? :)
- I have 5 days off in a row. Oh how I'm looking forward to it! (No rest, though.)
- Walking up to the call of "peter-peter-peter-peter." (A Tufted Titmouse.) Hubs reports that when he does a program for the kids, they always laugh at the poor Tufted Titmouse's name. Perhaps at the time of the birds naming, half of the name didn't carry the meaning that it does in modern day society.
- We have a ton of Ground Cherries on and K- is constantly on the look for the ripe ones. She loves them!

Have a great day!