{ Tuesday, February 20, 2007 } 2:47 PM

(I can't think of any title)

The last day of work before Fairprice closed for CNY was kinda funny. Weird. There was a lot of people and quite hectic, but because there weren't much fresh produce left for people to buy, thus the counters were quite clean, haha.

I had no counter and was assigned the role of a packer. That was because the temporary counter (made up of a wooden table and is damn lousy) was closed. Finally! I had worked at the temporary counter for 3 consecutive days! Why me??? It's so unfair.

Ok, I shall stop digressing. What I wanted to say was that there was this customer who bought a 1.89 litre of premium orange juice at $6.42 and he said that the label was $4.55. That's a whole lot of difference! So I checked out the price.

When I was at the juice section, the label did say $4.55 but the product name was not premium orange juice and it was 2 litres instead of 1.89 litres. Just then, the customer came up behind me.

Customer: There is the label.
Me: Uh-huh.
Customer: It says $4.55
Me: Er... Yeah...
Customer: Then how?
Me: Erm... Erm... It says 2 litres, not 1.89 litres and it doesn't contain the word premium.
Customer: But the label was there. It's misleading you know.
Me: (thinking, shit la.) Er, yeah.

Then the atmosphere was kinda uncomfortable. I didn't know what to do next and the customer didn't seem to like my explanation and so we stood there looking at each other. For quite some time.

I'm only a cashier la! I'm not under the frozen department. What am I supposed to do?

So the customer was like, show me the product. Suddenly, I remembered that I should push the blame to the Team Leaders. So I told him to wait while I took off the label and looked for a TL.

I went to the office and saw Han Loong. Ok, I decided. As long as Sandy and Esther doesn't label me as slacking from work, I'll just look for anyone.

Me: Erm, do you know where this product is? (waving the label)
Han Loong: Yeah, I'll take you there.

So I started telling him what was wrong. I don't think he listened. 'Cos he didn't reply me and couldn't find the product himself. I was like, what a lousy TL. (oops.)

So Han Loong met the customer and told him to wait. Han Loong said he will look for A-Li, the TL in charge of the frozen department. So I'm left with the customer again. I was fidgeting. What am I supposed to do? Apologise? So I started looking everywhere.

Very late after, Han Loong came back with A-Li. I was cursing silently for the long time they took. A-Li was like, the label isn't supposed to be there. Someone must have placed it anyhow. The product is somewhere below...

I rolled my eyes. Wow, he could just blame someone just like that without apologising to the customer for the misleading mistake and that's all? Man, I can't believe it. Is that a skill you must have in order to be a TL? To push the blame?

Seeing that my presence was kind of redundant, I returned to my senior's counter. The customer came shortly after.

Me: Er, so do you still want the orange juice?
Customer: Yeah, I'll take it.

I was like, PHEW! I apologised for the mistake (and wondered, why me when it should be the TLs) and continued with my work.

I feel so bad right now. I know Fairprice is trying hard to keep up with looking professional but the way they do things is simply unbelievable. I don't know if one has to be an employee to see it or whatever I am typing here will affect them but seriously, that's not the way to do things.

But then again, why should I care? I'm only a temporary employee and not the manager anyway.