Working in retail for the past five years has taught me alot of lessons. Walk away when you are about to go bananas on an impossible customer, always sanitize your hands after kids with goopy eyes are near you, never come into work with less than a cup of coffee in your bloodstream... But mostly it has taught me to never let the good days go by unnoticed.
Today was one of those days.
It was a Sunday at Build-A-Bear and that meant kids were out of school, birthday parties were sure to be booked, and the day was going to be pretty busy.
One woman and her young daughter came in at about 3, when we were pretty busy. As the little girl was getting ready to stuff her Hello Kitty she told me, "Daddy isn't here anymore." (Another lesson I learned in retail....DONT EVER ASK CHILDREN ABOUT THE FAMILY DYNAMIC UNLESS YOU WANT TO HEAR MORE THAN YOU INTEND TO!) As I just nodded to her proclamation and helped the little girl around the store, her mother told me the little girl's father had just left for Afghanistian...yesterday. Poor little girl, it really broke my heart watching her mother scramble around the store to find things to keep her daughter's mind off her dad :(
On a more upbeat note, a very excited little girl came in with her father later on in the day. Her father was totally clueless (as most dads are in Build-A-Bear) to most of the requests the little girl was making and helpless asked me for assistance. As I was stuffing her bear the little girl said to me, with the biggest smile on her face, "Today is Daddy Daughter day!" So adorable! Melted my heart. Not to mention the dad was so appreciative he told me "Thank you" about twenty times.
It's so nice to leave the mall with good stories about customers, I wish there were more to share!
Til next time...
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