Jude’s Eclectic Resources

A while back I signed up with the Best Mark Mystery Shopping Company and I fully intended to do it because it sounds like fun to go to all those different shops and grade the service that consumers must deal with on a daily bases. I think it’s an excellent idea to keep employees on their toes. However younger people I noticed from my stint at Lowe’s really didn’t care.

Customer service is everything when you are running a business and it’s very important if you want repeat customers. You have to treat everyone special even the difficult ones and believe me I know how hard that is since I worked in people pleasing businesses all of my life except the past 5 years, which has been blissfully peaceful doing work from home.

When I worked at Lowe’s they were very strict with their policies and you have to continually learn things and take test. Basically I simply wanted a part time job so I could be around people again, so I decided cashier would be okay. My big career days are over and I definitely did not have the ambition to learn every department in the store.

It’s a great place with really good benefits and a young person could really grow with them, but dang I’m almost 55 now and when they ask me where do I see myself with them in 10 years, I answered retired. I kind of got use to being at home 5 years ago and being my own boss so the 5 months I worked at Lowe’s in 2006 was pure torture.

It was a new store with brand new employees all trying to prove they could do the jobs they had been assigned to. It actually felt like I was working under a Gestapo rule, it was a very horrible feeling. Smile at everyone, speak to everyone, stand here, do this, wipe here, straighten there, go help there, go climb that horrible high ladder and straighten light bulbs, etc., etc. oh and I loved that you couldn’t point.

Now, the Lowe’s that I worked at was a humongous store and you were suppose to know every aisle and what was on every aisle so you could tell the customer to go either left or right and which aisle, never, never, ever point in the direction, if caught you could get a spanking, well not really, but you could expect a very stern talking to. Like being called to the principle’s office.

Cashiers of course were not expected to leave their position in front of the aisle unless they were straightening something, but if you were working on the floor you never told a customer which aisle, you were expected to take them to what they were looking for. I felt like I was in the Army and there are always cameras on you and everyone else and you feel like you are being scrutinized every second.

I was used to the camera’s because I worked in Reno years ago so I simply ignored them and did my job as I normally would. The really fun part was the department meetings when everyone is expected to be there, even if it’s your day off, you do get paid for your time though and thank goodness it was usually only an hour unless someone had some really heavy grievances.

Back to the fun part of those meetings, the all seeing video, seemed they loved showing video’s especially of some forgetful employee doing some no no and breaking some rule. I really didn’t see them as funny to have someone totally humiliated in front of all their peers unless they had been hateful to me of course and thought they knew everything and could do no wrong. (Especially the new head cashiers that thought they were the boss.)

Needless to say 5 months was as long as I could take there and I’ve been happily at home ever since, but they had secret shoppers come there every month some times twice a month so they could make sure the customers were being treated the way they dictated and that’s a good thing. Most of the reports they told us about at the meetings were okay, but every now and then there were reports of someone not saying thanks for shopping Lowe’s or something else stupid.

This post got way out of line from the thought that I first started with and the point was I wanted to be a secret shopper, but the pay isn’t great and we sold our second car to my brother so until I decide I want to work on the outside again I’m happy to stay here and be a hermit. Sorry about the Lowe’s rant, but I sorta feel better now….Goodnight and have a nice weekend.

This is my second day of not smoking after over 40 years of nicotine and it’s very difficult even though I am using Chantix, which is expensive, but if it works for me then it’s well worth it. They recommend you use it for 12 weeks, but if these urges go away after the starter box is gone I may not go the full treatment. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this program though so it is worth a try.

I’ll be 55 this year so I’m ready to get rid of this habit finally and I have also for the time being cut out the cocktail hour. I started smoking when I was very young and it’s been my constant companion ever since. No one in Bill’s family smoke any more, but a few in mine do. I would like to enjoy a few smoke free years before I go to sleep permanently.

Bill and I want to do some traveling and check out the sights and eat some good food and just enjoy our retirement years. So now I can start saving all that cigarette money for retirement and fun. I was counting up all the money I have spent over the years just for cigarettes and I was shocked at the amount, but of course they were much cheaper in the 60’s.

We have decided that we will just live here instead of moving and taking on a mortgage since everything is paid for. We have to pay house taxes of course and utilities, but other than that not much more so I’m sure we’ll survive and I do not want to become disabled since strokes and heart attacks do run in my family so I guess It finally sank in about my old age health.

I hope to never become fanatical about not smoking and have the urge to preach the evils to those that do because I know for a fact that everyone already knows the damage we do to our bodies. Smokers really don’t have rights any more, but as far as I see it everyone has the right to choose for themselves, when they are of age, of course and can make an informed opinion. If you have quit smoking I would love to hear from you.

Gulf oysters are yummy and the first time I tried a raw oyster was 20 years ago at an oyster feed. The only reason I went was to gamble and drink beer, of course back then you didn’t want to give me a dare because I would have to do it just to prove something to myself.

The first time I saw an oyster I thought, Oh Yuck, how in the world can someone swallow that slimy thing. When I tended bar they would do oyster shots and I would gag so you know I didn’t care much for raw oysters, however my boyfriend knew about my aversion and dared me, so I put some Tobasco on it, loosened it from the shell, picked it up, threw it in my mouth, swallowed and drank lots of beer.

After a bit and I’m still not sure if it was all the beer or I simply liked the combination I sat down and ate 2 dozen and I’ve liked them ever since. Today when I decided to type this up I visited the Be Oyster Aware website and was surprised at the information that I found there. According to their site you could be at risk for a serious illness from a bacteria called “Vibrio vulnificus” this occurs more often in summer months than winter and you can get it 2 ways. First by eating raw or undercooked seafood that is contaminated or by an open wound in contaminated seawater.

A healthy person can tolerate this and will not have any diverse effects, but according to their site if you have any of the following health problems which I do you should only eat fully cooked seafood. “Liver Disease (from hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcoholism, or cancer), Iron overload disease (hemochromatosis), Diabetes, Cancer (including lymphoma, leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease), Stomach Disorders, Or any illness or medical condition that weakens the body’s immune system.”

Since I have the taste for raw oysters I didn’t like reading that, but then I read about the 3 post-harvest processes that the Gulf Coast oyster processors have developed so I can still eat my oysters raw I was very excited and found that to be interesting reading because I had never been aware of any of this before. It’s an interesting site that I recommend and they even have a recipe book that you can download. If your an oyster lover then you might want to check them out.

I downloaded Windows Live One Care and so far it has done a very good job for me. I will probably end up getting a yearly subscription after the 3 month trial period is over. I blocked McAfee and have tried to even delete it, but there is no uninstall program so I have blocked it for the time being and my computer has been noiseless ever since.

I was complaining about the whirring noise awhile back and thought it was getting ready to blow up, so I took it apart and cleaned it and it was okay for awhile then started again so I got rid of Zone Alarm and it was okay again, but started back. Then I started deleting programs left and right and every time I would get rid of some unnecessary program it would be good then start again.

It was driving me nuts or if I’m honest nuttier and I was getting ready to pitch it. I then decided to try the one care and got rid of all those virus protecting programs except the one I mentioned above and I have not had one peep out of this machine since, so now I guess I need to get in touch with McAfee and let them explain how to get rid of this stupid program of theirs. As I’ve mentioned before I’m not very technical.

Every day someone somewhere starts a new business, whether it’s on the Internet or a brick and mortar business. If we are selling a new product then something that may be overlooked or not even thought about are product labels. I even at one point thought about buying generic champagne to supply for wedding parties with advance notice I could then have special labels for the couple printed and applied.

I wasn’t sure of all the legal aspects so I just let that idea slide right on by. I know over the years I have come up with a lot of ideas, but for whatever reason they just weren’t feasible. Regardless of the type of business whether it’s Health and Beauty, Food and Beverage, Industrial, Medical, Promotional or Commercial your probably going to need your own label branding.

I know just the place that has more than 20 years of experience that can help you, it’s called Label World and they are located in Rochester, NY and they specialize in the above named fields. They don’t print small quantities though, like 20 special wine labels for your wedding this company is for larger orders for your business and they would be more than happy to discuss anything with you. ( 1-800-836-8186 )

Have you ever considered starting a winery? When I lived in California I had a friend that was going to try starting one up, he and his family even had a special grape that they were planning to use, but I never once heard them speak of the Wine Label they were going to use for their wines because we all know if you have a business a label needs to catch the eye and look appealing. So whatever you do be sure and don’t overlook this very important part of your business.