Life in Retail

Freefall

It's weird, not seeing Mom. I mean, she's home, but she's still sleeping. When I started to help out more around the house by cooking breakfast, I didn't think it was because I'd be alone in the morning.

I stop myself from telling her I'm leaving so she can rest and I head out to work.

I suppose it's not so bad. She's definitely a lot happier. And the tips are coming in, like she said they would. She spends them on sexier clothes the next day, but I'm sure that'll slow down eventually when her closet's full. I hope so anyway.

*Ding-a-ling*

A young woman peeks over from the register. "Hey~ You must be Nagisa." She holds out a hand and I firmly shake it. "Name's Bailey. Heard you're second in command after Yukito. That true?" She sizes me up, letting go of my hand. "Although you seem kinda young."

"Uh, second in command?" I ask, confused.

She waves a hand between us as though chasing away a smell. "What I mean is that aside from Yukito, you've been here the longest. Like, no one wants to work here." She crosses her arms. "Kinda see why. This place is pathetic."

My face falls and I glance around at the store. The shelves may be a little empty, but it doesn't exactly look bad. I belatedly realize what she just said. "I've been here the longest??" I exclaim.

She blinks at me a few times. "What, you didn't know that? Turnover rate's like two months."

My shoulders slump over and a lot of things start to make a bit more sense. We're always understaffed. Taki really appreciates me. I was given manager responsibilities. He's heavily relying on Yukito and I. We're the only ones?

"Anyway," Bailey points towards the back, "Taki told me to just let you do your thing, so I guess that's what I'll do. Let me know if you need anything though."

"Oh, um, right."

I clock in really quick and go to the locker room to pick up an order form, passing through the cooler aisle and grabbing the lone container of sushi on my way to the back. Rather it not get wasted today and what Felt did last week was rotten. I take a breath and calm myself, focusing on the task at hand.

After scanning a few items and throwing what's necessary into the cart to stock, I notice something weird with some of the numbers. There will be 68 in the store and only 30 in back, meaning the shelf must be overstocked. I take a mental note to check the item on the shelf when I head out to the floor. It happens a lot though. Nearly all the numbers are messed up.

I barely get halfway through the storage aisle when I decide to just stock what I've already accumulated in the cart and see what's going on. I check the first item and while there is some on the shelf, it isn't full. What? I double check the number in the PDA and do a little math to see what's missing. 25? How do 25 apple juices get stolen?

I do the same for some of the other items and start writing down how much is unaccounted for in my notebook. I got to be missing something. I put away the rest of the items and head up front to ask Bailey about it. I catch her on her phone.

"What's up?" She asks, her eyes still on her phone.

"Oh, um..." Maybe it's important? I wait for her to stop, not wanting to be rude if it has something to do with another store.

She stops and pointedly stares at me. "Well? Go on, you can say it."

"Uh, right." I show her my notebook. "I'm not sure where these items are. It seems a little weird that so much is missing."