Somehow, in all other retail jobs, I missed out on the January tradition for small businesses. Most of my retail jobs came from major corporations, and my factory experience came from summer jobs. Reporters let someone else handle the number-crunching.
At a small wine store, however, someone has to count the Italian reds and Scotch whiskeys.
Prior to my jump back into retail last summer, it had been a decade since I used "Can I help you with anything?" to address someone not staring at me like I just walked from a Martian spacecraft. Even now, I struggle with those words sometimes, never wasting them on customers glued to their phones. I don't know when paying no attention became socially acceptable, but if they're going to chat, I'm going to radiate the same level of courtesy.
Once we breezed through all the beer, it turned into a minor ordeal -Scotch employees had squirreled away for future purchase, nero d'avolas entered into the system twice under various names. The bottle logos all bear similar crests and fonts, bogging down a simple count into deep morass.
Italian wines don't have a simple naming system. One word from the bottle might appear as its computer ID. It might get introduced into the system under two different names by two different people, as several did. My partner in counting couldn't grasp that concept.
Inventory on the small scale can be an eye-opener. Since I started the pear-flavored cognac has been a target for jokes. But we have a lot of immobile stock - the expensive Italians, $200 California cabs no one touches, the pomegranate ale which they never sold to me as a customer and I cannot sell to save my life. The barrel select Scotches are neat, but lack a shred of practicality. Luckily, that means little to me.
If it gets to a point where staff must be shed, I'm relatively safe, having picked up a decent library of wine knowledge and able to sell someone on fancy beer before you're done reading this.
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