Excuse me Mam I mean Miss... errr... Sir?

Okay; So it has been a few years since I last worked retail and now that I am back in retail, at the holiday season no less, I have noticed a few things.

1)When shopping the vast majority of individuals could care less what state they leave things in. Examples are: A woman wants a sweater that is at the bottom of a pile of smaller sizes, rather than lift the other ones up so she can take the one she wants out she will violently pull her selection out scattering the other sweaters everywhere (including the floor) and not think twice about it as she walks away. A mother will watch as her child walks through the intimates section pulling dozens of pairs of underwear off the racks and simply laugh and then tell her child to come back... will she care enough to pick up after her child? If you thought the answer was anything other than no, then you have too much faith in mankind. A third example, a customer will break a glass they are looking at and walk away as if nothing happened without saying a word to anyone of what just took place.

2)People are generally unreasonable when shopping. I work at Kohls and during the holiday season Kohls creates a system where all the registers at the front of the store feed off of one single line. The logic here is that rather than having the customers guessing at which register will open up soonest and then find themselves screwed because the customer in front of them decided to open a Kohls Card or needed something checked on they can go directly to the next open register with no guess work. This concept seems to be completely lost on customers however as they like to proclaim that the system is a poor one and they can not believe how long the line is. Some things that have been said about the line include: I can not stand in that line because I have Cancer, and I'm sorry I do not want these anymore because I will have to wait in line to buy them.

Another example of the unreasonable nature of consumers comes in the form of Senior Day. Kolhs offers a Senior discount every Wednesday which equates to 10% off all of their purchases for no other reason then their age. On select occasions the senior discount is 15% rather than 10%; this is a rarity however. Over the past 3 months Kohls has offered several of these 15% off days in lieu of the holiday season. Seniors have taken this to mean that their discount is a permanent 15% and when they find out that it is actually only 10% they will become irate and argumentative. One example of this comes from an elderly couple that proclaimed that their discount has always been 15% and if they did not get it then they would never shop at Kolhs again. Just answer me one question; how many retailers do you know that offer senior discounts? I bet you come up with none other than Kolhs; so what then gives anyone the nerve to make threats when they are getting a discount for no real reason?

3) People do not hesitate to think they know everything and can offer you pointers on how things should be done. For this third point I only wish to mention one short story. A woman when she managed to make it through the line (which at the time was rather short) asked me after I directed her to the fastest register why all 14 registers were not open (at the time only 7 were open) I told her that even though we have 14 registers we do not have enough people here at the moment to operate all of them. Her response was that "that is just poor customer service" and she asked me why we did not hire more people. Being in a rather frank mood I decided to be honest with her and tell her that for some strange reason there are not that many people who want to work in retail during the holiday season. Her response was that she would not be returning to Kohls again and then she asked me which register she could go to again.

Overall I would say most people are pretty much oblivious of the world around them and the work their laziness causes others. For example (I know I have been saying that a lot but I do not care to figure out a better way of transitioning into an example at the moment) Kolhs closes at 12 (midnight) during the holiday season and what most people do not really think about is that when the store closes at 12 it does not mean the employees can leave. Last Wednesday night we had a particularly high business day and the store was in pretty bad shape (see the reasons listed above) when the last customer left at 12:15AM (I am guessing that they did not hear the closing messages because they had to be "escorted" to the registers) we were still in the store working for another hour and a half; meaning I left at around 1:45 in the morning.

Okay; I have complained an awful lot about my job so far but do not get me wrong I like working retail for the most part and I do not mind being at Kohls at all; customers just seem to be worse then normal around the holiday season.

At this point you might be wondering how my subject relates to my post and the truth is that it does not at all till now. As you might have gathered my job for most of the day is to monitor and direct traffic in that single line that I had mentioned. While directing people too and fro I have begun to wonder how and why I choose certain words to gain the attention of the next customer. The general vocab selection includes sir, mam, miss, and whoever is next. Mam and miss I use pretty interchangeably with one another which sometimes causes rude looks in my direction; this only seems to be a problem with the 30something women who are trying to look particularly young when I call them mam instead of miss. Ideally I would address everyone accurately; but sometimes I just end up picking a title based on a whim. For example I said mam to that 30something on purpose knowing full well what would happen. Just so you do not think poorly of me I will share that I have also addressed the slightly older woman as miss to brighten her day a little; if you are reading this thinking that it does not really matter that much what they are called I would just like to let you know that to some people it really does matter and they really do care quite a bit. Sir has no particularly negative connections associated with it except that I have been told once or twice not to call someone sir because they work for a living. The fall back, whom ever is next or next customer, only comes out when I am not really sure. You might be asking right now, what do you mean you are not really sure, but you would be surprised at how many people are really that ambiguous or in many cases just transgendered and you don't really feel comfortable saying one or the other.

Well there it is; the holidays at Kohls. Have a Merry Christmas!

I work hard for my money, so hard for my money.

Well summer is in full swing more or less and I am working. For the most part it is not too bad, except due to a conflict between res life and payroll I do not get to receive a raise this year... which means the same old rate as last year. On the same line as money I am a bit worried about it, strange I know, that’s normally Emily’s forte. I am just concerned that I am not going to be able to make car payments, get the one credit card I have paid off (I do not really have that much on there, just enough to be a pain in the butt), and money put away for new car insurance/rent payments for the first few months of school. Plus I am becoming increasingly stressed out about finding work for the school year; I am not returning to any of my prior jobs which means I need to find all new employment that will pay the bills for Emily and I... Needless to say I am a bit concerned.

Off of that note and onto happier things the wedding is getting closer and closer now. Emily and I are starting to get more things done for it and I am really looking forward to August 18th and the wedding quite a bit. We got the appartment that we wanted as well, which is a really good thing because both Emily and I really wanted it. It is cool to think that we have a place that is "ours".

Anyway that is life mostly for me right now; I am sure I have left some things out, but for the most part it is just work during the week and see Emily on weekends. Life is busy but it’s moving along.

Gosh darn apartment!

So Emily and I applied to an apartment and we are hoping to hear back about whether or not our application was accepted. We were hoping to know today so we could sign a lease today as well because Em is moving home today. Well I called the guy and he said that he would not know till tonight, but he was leaving his office soon because he was going out of town for the weekend; meaning we will not know till Monday, and then we will both be working and need to try and figure out when we can both go sign a lease... AHHH such a head ache! I will deal with signing a lease next week but I just want to know if we got it or not.

Also I am done with finals, so that is good I guess.

The end is near.

So the year is wrapping up and soon it will be time to move into my summer housing; that is going to be a TON of work with the mess I have made of my room in Cretin this year... there are holes galore in the walls, and all of the original furniture is missing... yeah... that day is going to suck. Emily and I went and looked at a few apartments today, most of them nice, each with their own charms and each with their draw backs. One of them we need to decide about almost this minute because another young person is also interested in it and if they leap on it then we will have missed our chance, but we need to decide if we even want to leap in the first place. I think this process has caused me more stress today than I have had all semester up till now combined... I just want to pick one and get it over with.

Our [my] only concern with getting an apartment is the "proof" of employment that these places want you to have... I can prove that I work, but that does not mean it is going to show me making a whole heck of a lot; I just hope they understand that we are paying for the apartment with student loans and not our nearly non-existent income.

6 days till the "start" of summer, 2 tests till I am done with classes, 25 residents till I am done being an RA, 96 days till my wedding, 1 big headache till we find an apartment.

Really...? part 2

Bulletin update

For faculty, staff and students

Allina, St. Thomas boards authorize feasibility study of new medical school

The executive committee of Allina Hospitals & Clinics and the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas have authorized the two institutions to study the feasibility of creating a new medical school to train primary care physicians for Minnesota.

Authorization to proceed with the feasibility study came this morning at St. Thomas and on Wednesday at Allina.

“Our board realized that, while complex, this could be an extraordinary opportunity to forge a bold and innovative new model of medical education,” said Dick Pettingill, president and chief executive officer of Allina. “Few health care leaders dispute that there is a looming physician shortage, and Allina and St. Thomas are uniquely positioned to address this dire need.”

“St. Thomas has always been a leader in developing ground-breaking programs to meet the needs of our students and our communities,” said the Rev. Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas. “Our board understands the need for more primary care physicians to serve Minnesota and has authorized this study to better understand whether St. Thomas can play a meaningful role in addressing it.”

Penny Wheeler, M.D., Allina’s chief clinical officer, said the vision for a new medical school is to complement – and not compete with – existing programs at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Health System.

“We have exceptional programs in Minnesota that emphasize research and specialty care. We’re not envisioning trying to replicate that expertise but, rather, to build a new educational model that emphasizes clinical practice,” said Wheeler.

The number of medical school students in Minnesota has remained steady for the past decade. Only about half of medical school graduates establish practices in the state.

Shortages in primary care are particularly acute. From 2000 to 2004 the number of primary care physicians in Minnesota grew by only 20, while the supply of other specialty care physicians rose by 129. Currently, Minnesota graduates cannot fill the existing primary care residency slots in the Twin Cities. Two-thirds of primary care residents in the Twin Cities are from other states, and that is why many do not stay in Minnesota to practice.

Wheeler says a new model of medical school could help address this problem through both its selection process and creating financial or other incentives to practice in Minnesota.

“We’d envision focusing on admitting students with a close connection to Minnesota – those who want to stay here and serve this community,” she said. While we would recruit the best and brightest, we also would seek to admit students who have a strong commitment to primary care practice in this state. Selection, combined with other incentives, could dramatically increase the number of students staying to practice in Minnesota.”

The feasibility study is expected to take three to four months. It will analyze key issues such as the market need, finances, governance, staging, facility needs and potential philanthropic and community support for a new medical school. When the study is completed, it will be shared with the respective boards at Allina and St. Thomas. At that time, next steps will be identified.

Allina, a not-for-profit system, owns and operates 11 hospitals, 65 clinics, hospice services, pharmacies and emergency medical transportation services in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with more than 2.5 million patient visits a year. For more information, see www.allina.com.