Welcome back to Tales from the Service Industry.
Tonight I've got Mama Bear Ms. B.
Hey guys.
We've got our resident deviant Liz is on the mic.
Hi team.
And joining us for the first time Pat.
Hello, hello.
Welcome.
Thank you.
And I'm your host, I'm Bill.
Tonight Pat is joining us with a little different job history than we've got for all the listeners
you know, we've got a lot of hotel experience here, some recreation, but Pat's joining us
from retail.
Is that correct?
Retail primarily about 15 years, 10 years of retail management.
Most recently though, I'm in food and beverage.
So it's kind of a change of pace, but love it.
We don't have a lot of that.
Yeah.
Most of my background though comes from peril retail.
So I started in high school.
I was one of those.
It was either like, you know, fast food or something or work at a retail store.
Went down that path because I didn't want to be around, you know, oil and grease and
high school is already breaking out enough.
I wanted to avoid that and I loved it.
It got me out of my like shell a little bit and I was able to kind of, I don't know, it
just was a different atmosphere than I was ever used to talking to strangers.
So I'm like, you're learning those people skills.
Yeah, exactly.
So I stuck with it and moved into management really, really quickly.
By the time I was 18, I was already a store manager.
So fast.
That's awesome.
So it was really cool.
I think I've seen it all.
I've worked for quite a few different brands, mostly in like surf apparel and a lot of like,
you know, action sports brands.
So that would be like the, my specialty, I would say, you know, cause that's where I
know most about product knowledge and whatever.
But the industry is weird.
It's kind of brought me around different places and I definitely have experienced some really
interesting situations.
So you know, nothing, I don't know if it's too out of the norm from like every service
industry, but there are definitely like retail specific challenges that you face.
Well, you got a high bar to meet.
Our last retail guest had some crazy stories.
Okay.
Terrific.
Are you talking about Allie?
Yes.
Okay.
We'll see what I can.
So she was in, just to give you a background, she was in a lingerie store.
Okay.
Should we just say it like that?
Big box lingerie store.
So it's probably exactly what you're thinking.
And she had some crazy like fitting room stories.
Homeless stories.
I'm sure we all have a chalk phone.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Fitting room stories are like kind of our, you know, if you worked at like a bar, that's
like your drunk person story.
Like fitting rooms are kind of like horror stories constantly.
So or like in a hotel that jerk that's checking in or checking out.
Like we got a lot of those.
They're all one and same.
The staple.
I have one really, really great fitting room story that we'll bring up.
Are we going to dive right in?
We should.
Let's just go.
I'm dying.
Please.
So it's both like a customer story, but with an internal employee story.
Oh, those are my favorite.
I give references to the story a lot, like almost on a daily basis.
So I like it.
Had an impact.
Yeah, for sure.
So we all have those employees that are a little bit kind of troubling and showing up,
maybe if it's on time or if it's just at all, you know, kind of, you know, those people
had one that was regularly kind of late and they were kind of, uh, they're getting ride
ups and you know, kind of on their last leg.
They knew that they was, the hammer was about to drop.
Okay.
So they were previously coached on it.
Yeah.
No shock.
Yep.
Final documentation.
Oh, so they were there.
We had an instance where I was out of the store and I get a call and there's a fire alarm.
That's pretty common.
We get fire alarms and malls and stuff.
Really?
All the time.
When you work in retail, you get really dull to the fire alarm.
Like it kind of, it kind of ends up being like a, you know, it's a test.
You kind of like wait until you hear like more legitimate.
You see people move in and then you're like, all right.
Do I hear sirens?
I smell smoke.
Yeah.
I mean, how often would you say once a week, once a month?
Oh, weekly I would say is like fairly normal to experience.
Um, well our listeners know miss B's trouble with the fire alarms in a hotel.
I hate them.
So I could call a fire alarm.
Everyone exits.
Um, it was a legit like fire alarm at that point.
Nothing was burning down, but it was a pulled alarm.
So like it was an internal like, Hey, there's an emergency.
Oh, wasn't a test.
So you needed to investigate.
Yeah.
Nothing really came of it.
So the employees all came in.
I got word that that employee was late, but it was because of everyone being outside the
store and the fire alarm.
It was kind of like in a little bit of havoc.
Give it two weeks.
This occurs again.
And I didn't necessarily connect the dots initially, but are there cameras on like fire
alarms to see who pulled them?
There are, but on the external sides of the building, they're not like always like great
quality or they're just not like on camera.
Like there's ones that like, cause they're having to be like every hundred yards on the
building or something.
But okay.
So what's the code is for fire alarms on a building like that?
Sure.
They're everywhere kind of, and, um, this goes on for the next three or four weeks and
we're like every week correlation was really obvious at that point.
Oh, I'm like, Oh, this employee is like on their way in every time that employee would
be late.
So who's pulling the alarm?
And we were trying to figure this out a little bit.
So we kind of had an idea that it was two people working together.
Hey, I'm running late.
Can you yank this alarm?
Oh, that was like the concept basically.
So I don't get caught just because I'm late.
I don't want to lose my job and I'm running late and they can't, you know, get it together.
Obviously you don't want to be there and be on time.
Isn't that a felony?
It is.
It absolutely is rough.
Talk about the nuclear option for like covering for somebody's late shift start time.
These weren't minors.
They were like, you know, grown ass adults, late twenties adults.
Yeah.
Um, it moved up though and it stepped up a degree because about a week later.
This is a month and I'm trying to kind of figure it out.
It's really hard to, you know, work with the mall and try to get footage.
And it was kind of chaotic a little bit, try to iron it out, but.
And like run a store at the same time.
Yeah.
It wasn't the biggest deal initially too, cause it was like 30 minutes late and we weren't
really sure if that was actually occurring that they were pulling an alarm.
It just seemed outlandish.
It didn't make sense.
Yeah.
You're like, no.
And, uh, and then we get a bomb threat.
Oh God.
And the bomb threat was for our store.
They didn't call our store.
They called the mall and told them that it was in our store.
So we vacate clearly a whole mall vacates bomb squad show up at that point.
I also realized that employee is late.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I, I don't want to Jack the flow, but just a quick question.
Absolutely.
You're calling it a bomb threat.
You're calling pulling a fire alarm because you're late.
I mean, you still haven't punched in.
It's still late.
We would, you know, it was kind of like a fly by, like we kind of understand you're
late because they would say they're late because of this.
Hey, I was trying to get a parking light, going to find parking.
There was fire.
You know, they would, they would give it that.
Hey, what's going on?
I was here.
I can't clock in.
Oh my God.
And sometimes it was like 20 minutes.
We didn't have any sort of cushion.
So they're like two minutes.
They were late.
So they, they just knew that this was, this was like it basically.
So instead of setting an alarm clock, like maybe like, I don't know, 30 minutes earlier,
they would just be like, I'm calling a bomb threat today.
Yeah.
And this was after maybe like five months of employment.
That's they were avidly late from the very beginning.
Wow.
Like I'm going to get the whole fire department here.
Screw the actual emergencies that are going on in the city.
It was traceable.
Yeah.
They start 67.
That doesn't work with cops.
No.
So yeah.
TSA everyone.
So they, they, they caught them and it was, it was actually one of the employees that
was in the store that was doing it for their behalf.
So you're currently in the store.
They were afraid of getting caught for pulling the alarm again, cause they figured everyone
was like hot on their tail about it.
Cause there was like conversations like someone's alarm all the time, you know?
So they're in the store.
Their buddy calls them.
Hey, I'm going to be late on clock.
Yeah.
And they're like, Oh, instead of pulling the fire alarm, I'm just going to start 67, call
the mall and threaten that there's a bomb in the store.
Then I'm currently clocked in at, okay.
Sorry.
I just wanted to clarify.
It took about two hours for the cops to come into our store and go, hi, we have a, this
call originated from, uh, from your store.
Oh, by the way, store phone, not like their cell phone store phone, not even the cell
phone.
Yeah.
This call originated from in here and we want to kind of know what happened and we want to
interview everyone that was here.
Wait, did they get the footage?
You have camera footage and see the person on the phone where they were at in the back
office?
No, they, they, you know, there's always those little blackout zones.
So yeah, they use the back of house phone.
That was their getaway.
That's insane.
So not only did they obviously lose their jobs, they were chosen.
So trying to keep apparently with very extreme circumstances, but they also ended up with
some like hefty fines and potential jail time.
But I think it was like racked up.
I was going to say for sure jail time.
Is that a felony?
That has to be a felony.
It is.
It's like up to like maybe a year or so, like in like a, I don't know, up to like a $10,000
fine per instance.
So I know that they settled and stuff, but they had like $20,000 in fines each and they
were able to get off without any jail time.
Cause first offender kind of stuff.
So when they're like, you know, thinking this through, hmm, do I want to lose my minimum
wage job or get a felony, have all the possibly of jail time, $20,000 in fines?
I'm going to go with the option B.
Yeah.
For my coworker who's just late.
Never go with option B.
I mean, he's really holding out for his buddy.
Always use option A.
Props for like really trying to take care of his bud, but you know, they weren't thinking
through it at all.
Like, not at all.
Wow.
Wait, so the bud, did he get in trouble too?
Both of them got the same exact fines and same punishments and stuff.
Equal share.
Yeah.
They deserved it.
Cause he was the, well, the one that was pulling the fire alarms was the friend, not even the
one that was being late.
So, but did they, he was there.
Did they trade off and do it for each other?
No, it was just the one that was, it was a one way street.
Wow.
Yeah.
They were buddy buddies.
So now when anybody's late, I just tell them, don't pull an alarm.
Like it's like a thing that is stuck in my head.
That's, you know, give me a call.
I'd rather communicate with people that versus deal with, you know, angry firemen that, you
know, are here for a pointless call.
So I mean, I'm kind of the same way as a department head.
Like, look, I get it.
Stuff runs late.
If, especially my students, if they're coming from school, if you get caught up, just shoot
me a text.
Hey, I'm going to be 10, 15, whatever late.
If we're covered, I don't really care.
You communicated with me.
So it's okay.
As a manager, I honestly really only start to crack down if it's a trend.
Yeah.
Like if it's okay every day, you can't get up on time.
Like I've literally had people coming in for their PM shift like 45 minutes.
I'm sorry I didn't wake up.
A PM?
It's three in the afternoon.
Yeah.
What do you mean?
Yeah, that's ridiculous.
The ones that bother me though are the ones that will punch in 30 minutes late and think
they can stay an extra 30 minutes to make up their hours.
No, no, no.
Your schedule says you're out at two.
You're out at two.
Oh, but I came in, I came in at six 30 and whose fault is that?
You know what's so funny though?
I have the exact opposite.
So I have this one associate who will sometimes come in like hours late and like, so are you
going to be staying till five or six?
Because I'll use the mid and they go, no, I have to leave at two.
But it depends on the day.
It depends on the employee and like the background of the situation.
Yeah, no, totally.
Because there are sometimes I'm like, no, I don't want to give you more hours.
GTFO.
And then sometimes if I'm desperate, I'm like, can you please stay?
It all depends.
But I love the employees that clock in late and just don't say anything.
And they go just go about their shift and I'm, I'm neurotic about checking timecards.
I'm checking timecards every single day.
So I'll wait for their entire shift.
Say they're scheduled eight to four 30 and they clocked in at eight 30.
I will wait until they're like, okay, do you need anything else for me today?
It's almost my time to go.
I go, oh no, no, no.
Take a seat.
Why were you 30 minutes late today?
Oh, well, oh, I'm like, look, next time.
Can you just let me know?
Just communicate with me.
Yeah.
I also get a lot of the people that show up on time and they punch in, but then it's another
15 ish 20 minutes until they walk through the door onto the floor.
Yeah.
And that still eating a snack and getting ready.
They're going to breakfast.
I would have an associate come in like in their sweats and like full out of uniform,
like be holding things.
Is this a person that has like hair and makeup to do?
Basically, she would come in and like sweats and all this and 30 minutes later come out
and be like, I'm sorry, when you punch in, you were on the clock.
I need to go to work.
That means you're ready to work.
I am not paying for you to get dressed, put on your hair and your makeup.
Punch in means you're on the floor.
I think I might have told you guys this story.
I had an associate that he punched in at 11 a.m., but then he turned in a manual punch form
stating that he had forgotten to punch in at 10 when he got there.
10?
Yeah, because he was scheduled to work 10 to 630.
And so he had punched at 11, but then turns in a paper saying he had arrived at 10, forgot
to punch.
So I'm looking, I mean, I'm thinking, OK, that could be kind of plausible had he not
punched at 11.
So what do I do?
I check the cameras.
Now, this guy is already on his second written warning.
He'd already been told, look, you're late again.
We're going to have problems, right?
So I check the cameras and I can see him ride in on his motorcycle.
Perfect at 11 o'clock or at like 1055.
I see him come through the front doors at like 1059.
Jacket on, helmet in hand, walks into the back office, punches in.
The day that this gets dropped on my desk was his day off.
So at this point, I'm like, OK, well, you've been written up twice for being late.
And now, yeah.
And now you're literally trying to steal money from me.
So I ordered his final check.
So a couple of days goes by, he comes in, I pull him in the office and I sit down, sit
him down and talk to him.
And I said, hey, you know, I got your your manual punch form.
This is yours, right?
He says, yeah.
I said, so can you explain to me why you punched in at 11 but then signed in at 10?
Oh, well, you know, I got here and I was, you know, I was in a hurry.
I jumped on the desk because it was busy and I just got to work.
Oh, OK.
I said, so, you know, here's your write up for being late to work.
I need you to please write that on the associate comments.
So as you're ready to present a final check.
Yeah.
So he writes that out, right.
So he writes down his whole excuse.
So at that point, I said, you know, I appreciate you sharing that further information with
me.
But unfortunately, this is the end of our relationship.
I said, you know, you are being dishonest with me.
You are not being straightforward and you're perpetuating it in writing.
So here's a photo of you riding in on your motorcycle.
Here's you coming through the doors at two minutes to 11.
Here's you punching in at the clock.
So here's your final check.
I wish you the best.
Thank you.
Or as Ms. B says, bye, Felicia.
Exactly.
But none of those are as good as a fire alarm.
No, I have never.
Ever.
I don't know the logic behind it.
It just seems such an extreme measure for something that really could have been just
communicated better.
Like you could have just been like, I am running late.
Like it's been an emergency.
I know I'm on my final write up.
Like, please.
But how many?
OK.
So we did two.
We changed his shifts to deal with like his late.
It was, you know, based on your you did.
You did your due diligence.
You made your memory.
Yeah.
How many times was a fire alarm pulled?
It was four individual times and then one one bomb threat.
So five in totality.
Yeah.
To prevent a final warning in term.
Yeah.
I mean, they were considering like charging him for loss of revenue in the mall because
the mall is vacated.
Yeah.
It could have been really bad for them.
They got kind of lucky for just hitting with the criminal side versus the civil side.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was because I think they should have because when you've done it that many times, you obviously
don't have any remorse.
You obviously don't care how it affects other people.
I think it's just they did it the first time out of will and then just were like, oh, we're
like, oh, we got away with it.
Yeah.
Socy pads.
Yeah.
So you know what?
Rather than getting here to work on time, let's just pull the fire alarm and evacuate
a mall.
Yeah.
And it gives me another 30 minutes of sleep.
I don't know where those people are now, like in their lives.
I'm just in debt.
That's where they're at.
Maybe in prison.
Or in the unemployment line.
Because I mean, if you're going to pull that maneuver for fire alarms and a bomb threat,
you're probably not changing your ways.
Exactly.
I would love to be the hiring manager at their next job saying, so why did you leave company
X, Y, Z?
Tell me about that.
Well, I guess there's a big gap in their work history.
I'm assuming they didn't put that one down.
Oh, it was COVID.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Oh my God.
That's wild.
So is that your best?
It kind of leads into another, if we stay on the employee side.
Yeah, let's do it.
I'm excited.
So I was a district manager for a pretty well known like eyewear company.
And as I came in, I came into an area that was kind of difficult, right?
In the heat of COVID and they had a lot of challenges that they were kind of experiencing
and just growing traffic into their stores.
And they were like trying everything and they were still doing well.
Like, you know, in terms of other companies, they were really not in such a bad spot, but
they weren't growing.
In the full full company?
Yeah.
Or just stores?
Specifically in like my region.
Okay.
You know, so as we kind of look through each stores P&L and trying to look at like losses
and just where can we kind of cut things and where can we grow and invest?
And you know, if it's, they were very willing to invest lots of money and pour it into areas
where, you know, to help them grow even during COVID, which was awesome.
Nice.
Okay.
But I also wanted to see like where our weak areas were.
So I had about 11 stores.
It wasn't like a gnarly region.
As I started looking at it, there is five stores that are in our high profit loss, like
areas that were like difficulty with LP, lots of stolen goods and stuff like that.
Like the stores that were in our nicest areas had worse losses than our stores that were
in like the rough areas.
It didn't make sense.
Huh.
So we were like kind of trying to take a look at that.
It was surface level.
We kind of looked at staffing.
It was very surface level.
It was consistent.
It matched up over the past five years.
It wasn't anything that was like.
No spikes.
Okay.
Drove into it a little bit more over the next like six months because I started like checking
things and the big thing that I noticed was just weird inventory errors and the inventory
kind of errors that I was experiencing was like very complicated errors that like made
you kind of wrapped it up to like IT or software.
But did you have a manager doing inventory monthly?
Like in the stores themselves?
I mean they did like regular kind of uptick on inventory.
Okay.
And then you know big old overhauled inventories where you had like a third party company come
on every year.
Third party company.
They have a lot of product.
Yeah.
I'm just thinking of me like with my tally sheet in the golf shop taking inventory.
Yeah.
I think it's a little bit different.
Very, very different.
Okay.
It was like lots of product but also it's you know as a measure so like you get it more
accurate.
Yeah.
Well I wear it small too.
It's small but it was also not just I wear.
We had full apparel and other hard goods and stuff like that.
Okay.
So I think that's what you achieve for being in retail.
That sounds like my nightmare.
It's actually not as bad.
I feel like it's the easiest of the service industry in my opinion in a lot of ways.
But in other ways it's there's other complications to it.
Just the inventory aspect.
But typically people you deal with are usually kind of happy to like they're excited.
You know they get like that whole you know the buyer's high and they're kind of like
excited to go home with something new.
Usually that's like I think the most general experience.
But when people are upset they're really upset too.
Fair enough.
We get that.
Yeah.
So it's definitely like a big swing from like one customer that's super stoked and then
the next one is like I'm furious because of a certain return policy.
So it is it is challenging sometimes.
But in general as he's like as I took it like a deeper look and I'm a big numbers person
I love just diving through like Excel sheets.
There was like just like different flags that was thrown at me and I started looking at
a little bit more a little bit more and I was like we need to bring in like someone
who like focuses just on this because I think this is like a bigger loss.
I'm looking at like numbers that don't match up in the millions.
Oh whoa.
You know these are high profit stores that do you know millions a year.
I was thinking like I don't know 10k.
I was looking at like over over that couple year span over so like it's over a year spans
I was I was like seeing massive loss.
Not one other region was experiencing that.
And you're like this can't be right.
Let's bring someone in.
Yeah.
Call it you know LA if you want to call it LA.
But that's not like I don't think one area is going to have that much of a big difference.
Not that much.
So they like you know we have a loss prevention team and all that kind of stuff corporate
angles.
They start looking into it.
Find nothing.
They're like no that's just typical loss.
It's been like that way for a very years.
Tracking.
What?
There's nothing that is surprising.
Your store has been like that.
Historically.
They basically looked at it.
Yeah from a historical side like it hasn't upticked or you know it was consistent.
So if there was something funky going on it had been going on for a while.
They look they were wrapping it too like that is expected loss because it's tracking with
prior year.
It's trend.
Yeah exactly.
What did you do?
I had an idea of like what was taking place and it looked like a very complicated idea
and I was like I want to know if I could do it.
I want to see if I can I want to put to the test so I can then show them like this is
plausible look.
And it has to do with like our software and how we do our inventory.
You know but there's other complications like how would you actually move the product if
you were internal theft.
Like how do you how do you get rid of it if you're on camera.
Yeah.
Basically the stores that don't have a lot of security cameras are in the nice areas
that don't really require massive amounts.
They have them on the registers and cash wrap.
They have maybe in the office.
But not every single corner.
Not every square foot is covered and they don't invest as heavy as you would in other
stores that deal with lots of loss.
Okay.
And obviously because of that they did add some you know security measures to those stores
like sensors and other things because they their numbers did rise quite a bit.
But it still wasn't like never an area where it was like so high that they were like oh
my gosh.
I mean because it was like each store maybe 100k a year which is not really that crazy.
But when you're saying millions it obviously adds up.
In total from all these stores.
Yeah cumulative in over years too.
Anyways I was able to prove the method worked and I was like this is how I think they're
doing it.
And they're like okay.
Hypothetically you pseudo stole product.
Yeah I mean I just did it like in the system internally.
But you were like this you presented it and was like this is how I did it.
I showed them how it worked.
Like I was like this is my idea.
The product is in front of you but it's not in our inventory.
I stole it out of inventory.
And it tracked with like our highest resale items.
Not everyone steals things that like has any value.
People steal like most random stuff that doesn't necessarily have value.
So it tracked along with like what you would want to resell and make money off of.
Okay.
Eventually we were able to they did like investigative stuff.
You know they did their whole angle from the corporate side where they were like interviewing
people pulling you know massive amount of records.
And it was a month it was like took like another five six months before I heard anything back.
Like I was asking for updates and they're like we're in the midst of it.
You know you can get the vague response.
Yeah.
We can't discuss things that are under investigation.
Exactly.
Eventually I get hit up.
And they say we want to chat with you.
We want to we want to just give you a rundown give you give you an update on what's taking
place.
Okay.
So I'm just so excited because I was like thinking that there was really like a bunch
coming to it.
But I was blown away at what like they presented me.
So basically a really complicated ring of people that were not just internally like from
managers that were doing it internally in the system.
They had people that were moving the product that they were like selling it to that there
were resellers.
They had associates that were like lookouts corporate delivery guys that would kind of
kick the boxes off before they even came through the door.
So they were never on camera.
Oh my gosh.
And we're never.
Well you were I guess long term.
Anticipating inventory but it just never got on the shelf.
Yeah.
And they were checking it in like we had that product.
Wow.
Because then it would be a big flag if you missed shipping.
You were like hey you're missing three boxes.
So they received it but the box never really showed up.
Yeah.
So wow.
Ended up being like they assume they never like could really give a concrete answer on
how many people were actually involved but like upwards to like 30 employees.
Over how many stores.
I don't know maybe like six or seven stores.
Wow.
You uncovered it.
And over like a five year period.
It could have been longer some of those employees were there prior to five years but from our
understanding is it went really that's when the numbers picked up.
So it could have like been longer but it's amazing to me that that many people it slowly
grew like they like acquired this whole ring.
Well they're making like money on the side.
It's a mafia.
And I'm saying is Miss B you want some extra cash.
It's a paramafia.
Probably also had a little air of hey we'll cut you in if you don't say anything.
Right of course.
But like I don't know.
I knew some of those people.
I was blown away.
I was like I could never pin them for.
Not Jerry.
Yeah Jerry.
Little Jerry.
What.
It was.
Jerry.
The most that was the biggest like that.
I mean I know people steal stuff all the time but internal theft is always very weird to
me because I'm like you're getting paid from this company and you're they're providing
you a you know livelihood and usually doing their best to take care of you might not like
your manager or something but typically like they're there to be there for you and what
in most ways modern day like companies are typically that's why I didn't use something
as much as you're doing providing them something.
Yeah.
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
I mean you're drawing a paycheck.
You're pulling benefits.
You know you're enjoying vacation time.
So you're going to go to prison.
They kept that all internal.
They process all internally.
But you know their names.
I've looked up people in jail.
Oh like nowadays I would.
I would imagine they now have a full tendency like that.
If they're if you're capable of like stealing even just like one thing you're capable of
stealing more in my mind.
Yeah.
A little bit like.
Was there a mass exodus of employees from stores?
In a one week period we lost all those.
Yeah.
They were gone.
So what was the gossip?
Like where'd they go?
Did people or was it pretty pretty covered up well being like oh they're just not with
us anymore.
After the interviewing of like a lot of staff there was a lot of rumors.
So like people just kind of had an idea that something was going down.
And now they're not here.
And then people are gone.
And then all of a sudden they have one day there wasn't half the staff has gone.
We never saw Jerry again.
Yeah.
Jerry was a punk anyway.
But some cool shades I guess.
But I mean like you like Pat was saying you know you've got 30 people spread over six
stores so it's it is an exodus from the company but it's not necessarily.
Each individual store is not huge.
Potentially.
Wow.
It's really crazy.
That's wild.
That's definitely like an experience I'll stick with me because I think you know it
wasn't like they're not giant big box stores where that stuff probably happens maybe more
frequently like a ring of people doing different sort of fraud and I don't know stealing and
stuff.
I don't.
Just you know especially for smaller retail when there's a you know store it has 10 to
20 employees or something.
It's just like it was it was definitely mind blowing for me.
The awesome part was just the the time frame because it was like I almost forgot about
it a little bit because it was months before I ever heard.
Did you get like a medal for that?
I felt like I should have.
I was like I want like a bonus.
You should have gotten a bonus.
They gave me some they gave me some time off and like some pay time off and like they gave
me like a vacation like they gave me like a credit to where like you know flyer mile
kind of hotel.
And where's my medal and keys to the company?
They were like you invested because I was doing this like kind of my own time for the
most part I wasn't just spending all my work hours like trying to investigate something
that they weren't really even behind.
It was just something like tinker around with like let me mess around.
It was on my mind constantly.
I was like this is a huge error in our P&L like we are losing so much money.
I was like where's it going?
Where's it going?
I guess.
I get a bonus on this on these plans like I want to figure I'm gonna find this loss
and fix it.
There it is.
Exactly.
You should have got the back pay for that.
You know yeah.
Shut up.
I needed you at my side to argue for me.
I would have been there.
When you figured out the million dollar theft ring did they give you like a DVD player or
monogrammed towels or something to say thank you?
Yeah they should have.
Hey thank you so much for saving us three million dollars in future inventory here.
Because we said there's nothing going on.
Here's a customized towel for you.
Yeah it's that company is under a very big umbrella company so they were kind of like
mm-hmm.
You're a number.
Yeah absolutely.
Like thank you but get back to work.
Yeah.
That's wild.
Make sure it doesn't happen again.
Dang.
And I was told initially to like stop looking into it kind of.
Oh.
Like because they were like I think you're I think you're just kind of you're running
down something.
Let it go.
Oh god no I hear that every day.
Please no.
Mark the time for that sound.
I'm really sorry.
Oh you better be.
I don't care.
Oh my god.
That's wild.
That is crazy.
See all I have are hobo stories right now.
Okay well that brings me that brings me on to my next question for you.
Oh no what?
Do you have Miss B's Bee of the Week?
Oh man I always do.
But this week my biggest bees have been homeless people man.
Like I really am not kidding.
Like just this morning I was at our bar area and I was talking to the food and beverage
manager and we see this person walking by that's coming from the event spaces which
were all unoccupied so nobody should have been walking that way.
Oh interesting.
And it's this guy holding a blanket with things in it and he kind of like goes like this to
us like waves and then keeps walking by.
And the food and beverage manager and I look at each other and we're like what the hell
where's that guy coming from?
And I'm like was he us?
She's like yeah he was.
And we're like where did he come from?
So we go over there it was a homeless guy with a blanket just waves as he's walking
out we're like where was he sleeping?
Super friendly.
Stairwell.
But there was none.
It was literally three meeting spaces right there.
I'm sorry that's a heated meeting space that's empty.
We went and checked every door and there were two that were unopened but there was a banquet
captain in there working in both of them.
And he just stepped out on break but we never seen him enter and we asked the banquet captain
like you've been working here?
They're like yeah.
They're like did you see a guy?
And he was like no.
So we think he was hiding under a table somewhere.
Under the linens under the table?
Yeah.
Storage room or something.
Because there was nowhere else he would have come from.
But so that's not even my B of the week.
So this guy.
That's an H of the week.
I know.
I got a lot of them.
Homeless?
Homeless.
Okay.
Seriously.
Good one.
Come on.
That's what you were going for?
I just.
Didn't land?
No.
Okay.
Fine.
You can do so much better.
So it's a A hole of the week is from last night.
And this guy.
So I just hired a new security guard because of all of our issues.
Wait I'm sorry you hire security guards?
Yes ma'am.
Are you kidding?
I run this place anyway.
You run security?
I run everything.
That is so cool.
I'm housekeeping this week.
I'm also the general manager because she's out and I'm running front office and the director
of engineering is gone.
And so I'm running the security team.
The hotel is mine.
I'm sorry.
Slay girl.
Way to go.
I'm so proud of you.
Thank you.
Bill are you proud of Miss B?
100%.
I am so glad she is no longer at the last place.
Oh me too.
So glad.
But for a myriad of reasons.
I know.
Yeah.
I'm so glad.
Okay.
Anyway, I'm sorry.
I'm starting to interrupt.
You're in charge.
You're a boss B.
Yeah.
So I just hired this new security guy.
Was that one better?
That was better.
And yesterday was his very first day.
So it's a paperwork kind of day.
So we do his paperwork.
You know, I request all of his logins, his emails, all that jazz, but I wanted to give
him a full shift because he was very eager and wanted to work, wanted to get a paycheck.
So I was like, I will give you a full eight hours.
So after we finished all his paperwork and stuff, I said, okay, just hang out at the
desk and just observe, you know, the traffic coming in and out, the kind of questions the
desk are asked.
Like, you know, kind of get a feel for the clientele, the hotel.
And, you know, by sitting there and listening to the front desk, you can learn about the
hotel a lot.
Like, because people come up and go, where are the restrooms?
And front desk tells you.
And I'm just to take things in and just observe.
And he notices a guy kind of like wandering around and like looking around.
And so he goes up to him.
He's like, can I help you find anything?
I'm just waiting for a friend.
And he's like, okay, do you got a name?
Like maybe I can give him a call and let him know that you're waiting.
By the way, no hospitality experience.
Love that.
And he's like, no, he's coming out.
He's coming out.
And he's like, okay.
And he said he sounded kind of like convincing.
And he's like, all right.
And he's like, I'll just go grab a drink of bar and grab something while I wait.
And so it's like, okay, that's like a reasonable thing to do.
Right.
So he goes over to the bar.
He orders a grilled cheese and a cocktail and he has it.
And then he goes to pay and his card won't go through.
And the guy's like, oh, there must be a mistake.
There must be something wrong.
I'll be right back.
So the bartender was getting PO'd because this guy's not paying his tab.
And then he's like walking around doing stuff.
And so the security guy goes up to him.
He's like, you got to pay your bill.
He's like, stop harassing me, man.
Stop harassing me.
And he's like, I'm not.
And he's like, you got to pay.
Like where's this friend of yours?
And so the guy starts getting aggressive, like all up in his face.
At one point, the guy takes his hat off and he goes and smacks my security guard on the
top of the head.
Oh no.
He needs to lose his head, man.
And smacks him on the top of the head.
And the guy's just like, oh no.
Ow.
It's his first day.
He's kicking a guy out of the hotel.
He played right into the guy's trap though.
Good welcome party.
But he can't really like do anything, right?
The security guy?
The only thing he can do is be like, I'm going to call the cops.
That's literally it.
But good for him.
First day.
You're supposed to be just sitting there.
I was like applauding him.
No hospitality experience.
And he kicked, bought his first day and literally got this guy out.
He's like, I'm on your side.
But I mean, we did call the police.
Do you really want to go in with a squad car or why don't you go out on your own free will?
And I'm not leaving.
Okay, well let's, we'll sit outside together.
Let's talk about this.
And got him outside of the building.
He stood between him and other guests.
Like he was instinctually doing all the right things.
Huh.
Yeah.
But definitely still a hole.
Just to clarify, the hotel did not get paid for their grilled cheese and cocktail.
Of course not.
Right.
I believe it was a cactail.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Can I get a grilled cheese and a cactail please?
People listening did not hear my giggle fit.
Oh my God.
All right.
I need you guys have some fun stories like that.
Any hobo stories?
I have, you know, a lot of hope.
Okay.
Or whatever you want to call it.
Working in Santa Monica.
Yeah.
It was a daily occurrence.
My favorite one's kind of lighthearted though.
A little bit.
It would rain.
Okay.
Put out a wet floor sign.
Really basic, right?
Okay.
I had a specific homeless man that would, every time he saw that he would steal it.
Oh, no way.
Shut up.
He would come in and slip and do the most exaggerated flop you've ever seen.
Like he should have played for the NBA.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
He'd be great.
Oh, I like that.
That was a good one.
There's only one occurrence where he actually like.
Oh, it's not a joke.
It's a fact.
It's a whole sport now.
You have the hype.
But like he came in and actually hurt himself on one of those occasions though.
He came up to us and apologized and he was like, I actually do need like maybe you to
call someone.
So previously, previously it was all like a joke to him.
Like, oh, I'm just going to steal this sign.
He was trying to like get like a lawsuit.
He was trying to.
He was dead serious.
He wasn't, he wasn't there in the head, but like he was a goofy guy.
So this one time he was like, no, actually.
You get to know all your homeless people.
Oh, for sure.
You have your regular.
Your regulars, but also your regular homeless.
Yeah.
I got it.
And so a lot of them are cool.
They're either in poor situations and a lot of the ones that stayed right there in that
area were not really a nuisance.
It was the ones that would like kind of come and go that were typically problematic.
The ones that would steal your what floor signs?
No, this was a regular dude.
We knew him very well.
He was just like Jerry, stop taking the sign.
Yeah, it was.
Yeah, it was Jerry.
That was his second career.
That's how he ended up with their pulling alarms.
Oh my God.
No, I think like I don't know what his intention was because it's not like he had a lawyer
to call for, you know what I mean?
But that's kind of what he was getting at.
I'm not sure what the idea was, but it made me laugh all the time.
Free product.
Especially when we had like a winter, we get like three weeks of just like decent spotty
rain every day.
If it was raining at all, when that sign came out.
So funny.
No, wait, did you say what industry this was in?
Retail.
Okay, sorry.
I messed that part.
Nowadays, I have a different experience with the homeless because being in service and
you know, food and beverage network for a certain company.
There's a they hang out all day.
And you know, so there's not a whole lot we can do as long as they're kind of following
our rules and policies.
But they can be there from open to close.
And we offer a lot of things that are free.
If they need Wi Fi, they have Wi Fi, they have outlets, they have free water and hot
water.
You know, some of them are okay.
And some of them really abuse it.
And we've had some very interesting situations.
And I haven't been with this company for very long.
And I have had over a dozen massive incidents, you know, that required police involvement.
And there's typical stuff that kind of occurs, you know, bad interactions or like poor interactions
with staff or something like that.
But there's been some blowouts.
The most recent one, it was interesting to kind of to see how this person really dealt
with it.
But the typical like locked themselves in the bathroom, like occurs.
Apparently, that's typical.
No, no, no.
Apparently, that's normal.
It's normal.
What?
Yeah.
Company to have that occur.
Like they lock themselves like they don't want to come out.
Yeah.
Well, they probably just want somewhere like dry, warm to sit and chill.
I think it's a place of privacy.
Like they're away from.
They never get privacy.
Yeah, I think you're right.
And safety too.
I mean, sometimes they're drinking or they're like getting loaded in the bathroom.
This is an occurrence.
I was thinking like, you know, a good occurrence.
But there are bad ones too.
That would loop back to when Andy was here.
I was thinking about that.
Is there a homeless bathroom issue?
Yeah, the guy that would get drunk in one of the bathroom stalls.
We called him to come remove this gentleman and it went left pretty quickly.
No, no, no, no.
My favorite part of the story is, yes, he was drinking in this bathroom.
It was a handicapped stall, right?
On the railing.
He had all of his beer cans lined up.
All stacked up.
Oh yeah.
Like very methodically.
Did you do like a little pyramid thing?
No, they were lined up very methodically on the line.
Oh my God.
Stacked on the railing.
At least some of his life was organized.
Yeah.
Anyway, if you haven't listened to the episode titled The Number Will Surprise You, part one
and part two.
Part one is where you'll find the bathroom story.
And part two is just spicy things.
So anyways, your guy is in a bathroom.
It's a lady and she is typically very sweet, but incoherent at all times when you talk
to her.
It just doesn't make any sense.
And she'll take up a lot of your time if you kind of just engage with it.
So you cut it off real quick and go, I got to get this stuff.
That is what it is, right?
My staff informed me that she's locked herself in the bathroom.
I'm off site.
I come in.
Oh God.
So I come in kind of like right sort of in the heat of it.
We've already told her like, hey, you know, we need you to kind of evac basically.
And she just blows up with the typical.
It's sad that it's typical, but it's like, you know, you harass me, you're racist, you're
this and that.
Yeah.
And they were really polite.
Like our approach is like we all get trained on it.
They do a really elaborate training and the approach is smooth and like as best as you
can.
But she's giving you all the tag lines.
Oh, so much lip, such a big scene.
It was rough.
It didn't get any better from that point on to, you know, we had to call cops to come
get her and do the typical trespass and all that jazz.
But prior to that, though, I have even better two weeks prior to that, we had a bigger incident
that it didn't involve the bathroom.
But briefly, we had a young lady.
She's very young.
She's probably like 19.
She's a regular.
She comes in with like suitcases.
She's super nice.
Very funny.
Hangs out for a few hours.
She comes in and there's a guy that sometimes is there with her.
He's like in his forties, kind of a weird situation.
We're not super sure.
We're just trying to figure it out because they're there for so long.
Right.
She goes into the restroom and she we hear a big crash.
It was like surprisingly crash where everyone went.
What was that?
Did she have the suitcases?
They were in the lobby.
So she comes back out.
So she was solo.
She just went into the bathroom by herself.
They crash, comes out and she goes, I'm so sorry.
I just dropped a bottle.
But don't worry.
It's empty.
And we were kind of like, OK, like and she was like, I'm so sorry.
I made a mess.
So I send one of my staff to go in there to go like and check it out and see what it is.
And it's a full like big handle, leader, whatever.
I don't know what the size is of like a big bottle of absolute.
Oh, goodness.
Glass.
Yeah.
Oh, perfect.
We were like, oh, OK.
And within, we start sweeping up glass.
I don't know.
It was just kind of like maybe it was empty in her in her belongings.
It doesn't matter.
She doesn't seem to type in it.
So we're good.
Yeah, it seemed like a little bit easier of a mess.
But for your employees, it's like, OK, this is what we're doing today.
We put one and one together really fast and we figured that she just slammed that bottle
or whatever was remaining in it.
The whole bottle.
I don't know if it was the whole thing, but like whatever was remaining in it.
And within a minute or two minutes, she became so inebriated in our store.
And initially it was almost humorous because she was like humming on to the staff, like
really aggressively.
And there wasn't a lot of people in there in the back of it.
So it was kind of and she was being low key.
She still wasn't maintaining it, but she was very like, you know, it was a hit in her and
she was very just in kind of the happy stage at that point.
Right.
This whole interaction occurs within five minutes.
Wow.
It goes so from like one to one hundred.
She's talking.
She's vulgar, but she is talking about like, you know, she wants a few of our of our staff
members.
It became a much when she was trying to reach over and trying to grab some of them.
OK, that could be a song.
Which one was a minor and I had to like, I was like, you know, head to the back.
Like let me handle this one.
Let me take care of it.
And I know her name.
She knows my name.
And her voice is picking up higher and higher and higher and starts getting kind of yelly.
And oh, no.
But like still like kind of nice.
But she's like, do you think I'm crazy?
Do you think I'm crazy?
And she's starting to go really ham.
Right now?
Yes, ma'am.
I'm just at this point.
I'm like, you could tell me like all about your life.
Let's like go out the side of the store because there's another 20 people in the cafe.
And I'm like, just let me let me get her out and she can, you know, we can chat it all
up.
Get her away from the store, basically, and other people and the guy she's with.
We ended up finding out she he was bringing her to rehab.
That was the goal.
She was getting in her like one last drink for the before, you know, hitting a 30 day,
60 day, whatever it was.
And she just got crazy in the store and yelling at all.
And this was, you know, six p.m.
A lot of people are so calm like people are studying, people are having like little meetings
and it's quiet.
It's very chill.
Enjoying their chamomile tea in the evening.
Absolutely.
It was very mellow.
And this is a polar.
And she's just getting ready to get checked into rehab.
And this is the most polar opposite of the energy levels.
Her vulgarity really bothered one of our guests who proceeded to try to intervene to push
her out to the store.
Oh, no, no, no.
I'm already with her, like kind of at the door.
I had it.
I was almost like so close, dude.
As soon as he stood up, she saw it and like threw her things down and went to just swing
at him.
They had a scuffle swing.
Yeah, she's doing it.
Him had a scuffle.
We've both of us.
And you're like in the middle of this.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Smack in the middle of it.
She's a tiny thing.
It wasn't hard to get out the door, but we got her out the door.
And as soon as we like closed the door, she proceeds to like one of those boots that all
the girls are wearing now.
Those little yellow little tag.
Doc Barton.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
Hello, tag.
It's got the yellow skirt.
Look at you stylish boys.
Nah, you just aged yourself.
Like over here like, oh, you converse.
Nah, he just aged himself.
I did.
Yeah.
Docs are not new.
They didn't run for it.
No, no, no, no.
They came back though hard.
Yeah.
And you had a big pair of those on.
Thanks, Liz.
Like a ledge.
Sorry.
Platform style, right?
OK.
So she's kicking down our door and the glass is coming and the panels are pushed in.
There's little metal pieces falling off.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
She's slamming the shoes?
She's kicking the door with all her might.
And she's so inebriated.
But you said she's tiny.
She's tiny, but it was doing damage.
The door was coming in.
So we had to like push all the employees and all the customers to the back.
Oh my God.
Which is like very typical.
And the doors are locked.
We have to keep them locked down.
That's very typical.
Well, like, you know, you want to get people away from the.
Of course, from danger.
Yeah.
I didn't really think she'd make her way through, but there was a possibility as like.
OK, pause.
Keep going.
Have the cops been called?
Already called.
Yeah, I already pushed off an employee.
Like give them a call.
This was like early on as soon as she started getting like kind of touchy.
Yeah.
We knew where it was going.
Is this the time to call them back?
Like, yo, where you at?
I did do a follow up call a couple of minutes later after I made sure like all of our doors
were locked.
Right.
We had a couple that we had to get it make rounds to, but it did not stop for the next
15 minutes.
And I guess her interpretation was that she had like her cell phone in the store and that
was what she was trying to get.
Just all her belongings before it was with the dude that was he already picked up the
stuff she threw down before she scuffled with the guy.
But is he still inside the store?
No, he bounced.
He bounced right away.
As soon as she started kicking down the glass, like he was gone.
She's trouble.
I'm out.
The best part is like when the cops came up, they knew her name.
Like this was not the first occurrence, but every interaction I've had with her since
or before that were was wonderful.
Like she was so sweet.
She was funny.
She was probably drunk.
I don't even know.
I think she just had, you know, dependency issues and I think had like swings.
She was always well kept, super, super young, like very young and just very, very nice,
very nice deal until that whole bottle of absolute tea was whatever that was.
Have you seen her since?
No, she's still in jail.
Yeah.
They said that she had like quite the rap sheet already and they're like, you won't
see her for a while.
Well, like they were just waiting for one more thing.
I think.
Yeah.
I think that's why that dude was trying so hard to get her to rehab.
But it was crazy though.
It was the most intense thing because we had like minors and children in the store as guests,
right?
Like, like little study groups and stuff of like eight year old.
It was like, I felt terrible.
It was such a mellow night.
I don't know, but that occurs, right?
Stuff occurs and like it's great training for our staff to just kind of be ready at
it and call.
But it was, uh, it was a quick one.
So this is how you make a latte and this is how you deal with a homeless person attacking
your store with their Doc Martens.
The timeframe though of how it kicked off was what I think caught me off guard the most.
It was within a couple of minutes.
It was so fast.
You know, especially with someone you previously know.
Yeah.
That I was comfortable with.
Yeah.
Someone I knew.
Yeah.
Somewhat well, we knew like I knew her name.
I knew some of her story a little bit.
Like, yeah, crazy.
Wild.
Young, troubled and crazy sounds like just my type.
You could probably pen pal or shit.
Probably could.
Yeah.
Oh, that's normal.
You still do the like, I think that's online now too.
The prison thing.
Yeah.
Prison pen pal.
I'm pretty sure it's a thing.
They have like profiles.
Yeah.
Shut up.
Is that a thing?
Yes.
No.
There are like websites for prison pen pals.
Do you know this from experience?
No, I heard it on another podcast.
Actually, I heard that.
I heard it on the radio like a week and a half, two weeks ago.
Yeah, one of the drive time shows we're talking about it.
Well, there's like so many people that like are that's their kink.
They love the fact that like.
There's a foot for everyone.
That's wild.
Thank you guys.
Thank you.
Had to reel you back into your own norm there.
I don't know what my norm is, but apparently we're here.
Welcome.
Says the girl with the foot for everyone.
In the Chowinnie mom sweatshirt.
Oh man, that's wild.
Also hi mom.
I just got a lighthearted note.
This is my favorite customer interaction I've ever had.
It's really like basically how my staff dealt with the situation more.
So I had to deal with it, but on like a exterior level, I just got to observe it more, which
was really awesome.
I had a lot of managers that day.
I can just kind of sit back and really just laugh because it was amazing.
So regular VIP customer comes in.
This is a weekly woman that spends tons of money with us.
Like daily weekly.
She'd come in every week and she would spend like four or $500 at least.
Wait, what?
Okay.
So this is retail.
Retail.
So I was like, loves to just buy food and beverage.
She's a real bully.
Sorry.
I had to cut back.
Yeah.
So she was retail.
No, not a famous person, but just a boozy lady, right?
You know, she was awesome to deal with because we knew that we were closing out a big ticket
every time she was in.
Right.
And she was sweet and she was fun in and out.
Didn't waste a lot of time.
Didn't talk her ears off.
She was cool.
She was awesome.
She was like, I want this, this, this.
Always.
It was so simple.
Love that.
You know, cause she saw things the previous time.
So she would just come in and grab them.
She was cool.
She was great.
She tried things on though, every time and it would take a little bit of time and she
could be a little needy, like needing sizes or whatever.
Can you check inventory on this or that?
But if you knew.
But that's like our job.
Not a big deal.
But if you knew like, this bee is about to spend money.
Big spender.
Won't do anything.
Yeah.
So awesome.
We didn't care.
She comes out of the fitting room and she goes, it smells terrible in there.
And we're like, oh, okay.
Like we're, this is high end.
We clear out the fitting room.
There's nothing laid in there.
There's no like previous clothes.
This is no, we're thinking like feet, like maybe like someone that was in there before
like took off their shoes and feet.
I don't know.
We weren't really sure what she meant.
And she was like, yeah, it's just, it's really, you know, really bad.
Someone should take care of that.
And we're like, okay, we'll do that.
Like absolutely.
Like 100%.
So sorry about that.
Ring her up at the cash wrap.
And she goes like, I'm not sure what it was, but it was really bad.
Like you guys, like whoever was in there before me, she's the first customer of our day.
This was like right when we opened.
So awkward.
There was nobody else in there, but we were like, okay.
I'm so afraid.
Yeah.
I know.
And she's, she's so funny and she's sweet.
She's witty.
And she was like kind of a little off.
We were like, what is this?
Like she seemed a little different, but you know, we ring her up and kind of go, you know,
do the whole thing.
And we, we see her on her way.
Like we're just like, yeah, have a good one.
You know, and typically they'll leave the stuff in the fitting room.
Some people are really nice.
They bring it out.
We love those people, right?
Right.
But if they leave it in there and it's expected.
Okay, wait, these are like great clarifying questions for us as customers.
Do you want us to hang stuff up?
The people that try to hang things back up and just like, if they hang it in there, that's
awesome.
Like that they already went 50% the effort.
We're going to have to rehang it all because you probably don't do it right.
But that's okay because you just made the effort.
But do you want it like folded on the chair or bench?
But in this kind of scenario, it doesn't really matter.
We're going to go in there and clear it out anyways.
But if there's someone standing there at the dressing room, if they bring it all out to
you, it's super nice.
We're like, we're very thankful if someone brings it out.
So listeners take note.
If you have a designated rack for your tried on product or something, if you hang it up
on there, that's always appreciated.
So I think scope it out before you enter the dressing room.
Yeah, I think so.
Wait, wait, so I'm dying.
I don't know where the smell's coming from.
Okay, I'm sorry.
I'm dying.
So the woman leaves.
I'm like, I'm just overhearing.
I'm sitting on my computer, but I'm out on the floor.
And so I'm kind of just observing the thing.
It didn't seem like a big deal at all.
My manager sends one of our associates to go clear the fitting room, check it out.
And I hear her scream and she just comes out and she comes out shaking her hands in the
air and she's like, I'm not doing this.
I'm not doing this.
And we're like, what?
It didn't make, you know, it was a non thing.
This is like not something we would ever experience.
And she goes, there's like a huge diarrhea in this fitting room, like up on the wall
and from this bougie is woman.
That's a lot of money at your store weekly.
She's so sweet.
She's awesome.
She did kind of like give us a fair warning a little bit, but nothing like what we expected.
And it was a really rough, it's carpeted, you know, with like, yeah.
It's like she went to aim in the corner and then where we would have a bench usually and
she dragged it away and it's like she intended to bring me pulled a bench back with them
just gave up on that idea entirely.
Oh my God.
And it's like, yeah, up on the baseboards and up in the wall.
Like a foot up the wall.
Like, you know, it was a definitely like an emergent issue.
She might not have been able to make it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we kind of like, we were all shocked.
I don't even know how to deal with that.
Like, I mean, I did go through like a hazmat training, like a couple of months prior and
I was like, we could, we have the equipment for it.
Did you pull straws?
But we had to like, that carpet was done.
So it was more of like, but it also needed to be dealt with right then and there.
We had actually closed shop.
It's like, they're like open, the fitting rooms, like, yeah, you can close the door,
but it's like a restroom where you could like close it, put a sign and it's kind of contained.
You know, they're, they're open.
Is there an opening like at the bottom?
Correct.
There's an open at the bottom and at the top.
Weren't you worried about like people smelling?
Absolutely.
You're ruining the experience of other customers like in the fitting rooms.
Yeah.
My God.
It was terrifying though.
The visual is burning my head and the absolute best part of the story is that she did not
skip a beat and didn't she was there like the next Thursday acted like nothing was wrong.
I'm sorry.
You try, you try on like, let's just hypothetical here.
You try on clothes, you have an accident, you put on your clothes and then you'd like
check out, get rung up, leave the store.
Like I'm sorry.
You're like, you're dirty.
Emotionally.
She was like a little off and like, yeah, oh yeah.
Oh, she was disgusting.
She had to have been.
That's so messy.
She also was trying to pass off like someone else.
She was like, it smells super bad there.
You guys need to check that out.
She was in there for 30 minutes.
Like you wouldn't observe the, you know what I mean?
The mess that was already in there.
Like I don't believe that.
Oh no.
It was her for sure.
Yeah, it was her.
No doubt.
We didn't have any else in that day.
Yeah.
It was the beginning of our day.
Oh my God.
You know, just morning, morning time.
Bill is horrified over there.
But the best part is that she came back the very next week and just bought more stuff.
She was a loyal customer.
I wonder why she wouldn't like change stores.
I would have never returned.
I would have never shown my face ever again.
In that city?
No way.
Oh my God.
Was this a store where there was another location within, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes?
Yeah, absolutely.
Oh my God.
Why wouldn't you just like switch loyalty to another store?
She loved our customer service, I guess.
I don't know.
I guess you were good at your job.
Oh my God.
She must have loved your fitting rooms.
We like...
It all works out in the end.
Well she got new carpet in her favorite dressing room.
That's right.
Oh my God.
But it was very expensive to find that specific carpet.
It was very like, I don't know.
To replace that one room versus all of them.
Yeah.
They wanted to like just suction match it and they had some trouble, but whatever.
That reminds me, have I told the poop on the treadmill story here?
No, but you now need to.
I haven't?
No.
Okay, so...
Oh my God.
I'm already like jumping forward in the story about how this occurred.
I'm so shocked of how this hasn't come up before.
I am too.
So at a previous property, I actually got the pleasure to build a fitness center from
start to finish.
Like completely new building, new build, new equipment, everything.
So it was a great learning experience for me in my profession.
So we attempted to open this fitness center in May of 2020, if we all remember where we
were in May of 2020.
It was not in fitness centers.
Let's just say that.
So we had this big fancy ribbon cutting on this beautiful multi-million dollar building
and couldn't really do anything with it.
We couldn't open.
So anyway, a couple of months later, we allow so many people in per hour.
Reservations are required and we started getting a following.
We even expand our hours.
We're open at 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
We'll do anything for the members, whatever you want.
And let me tell you that 5 a.m. slot was fully booked.
So we had 10 or 12 members per hour in the facility.
So a few months go by, this is probably fall of 2020 or early winter, spring 2021.
We have a regular following.
We're open.
We know the policies.
We know the procedure.
My staff has been trained.
It's great.
Everyone knows the drill.
New department is a success.
Liz is everybody's favorite on property and I am loving life.
Love it.
So we have this regular member who has had issues with staff in the past sharing his
political affiliation and kind of like berating the staff on where they're voting, blah, blah,
blah, and like wanting to know their opinion and very, very harshly share his opinion.
And one day I'm sitting in my office, which is like right behind the front desk.
So I can kind of see everything here, everything, but I'm not involved.
I can still focus on my work, my job and the department is basically running itself.
This gentleman comes up to the front desk.
It's a young female at the time.
She's 20, let's say.
And this gentleman comes up to her and it goes, Hey, there's kind of a mess on the treadmill.
You might want to get to it.
Oh my God.
This is the member.
Political affiliation guy.
Yeah.
But lacking any detail for the.
No detail.
The loud mouth.
Got it.
This team member, this female has had issues with him in the past.
And she goes, Mr. So-and-so, what do you mean?
She's not giving him anything because he's a dick.
Yeah.
He's been a jerk to her in the past.
Like trying to figure out her entire life story, her political affiliation.
I'm very proud of her to this day.
She put her foot down and was like, this is not an appropriate work conversation.
I am an employee here.
I am doing my job.
Well, if I can make you a reservation for the fitness center, let me know if there is
anything else beyond that.
I am not of assistance to you.
Love it.
So I was like, go off.
I love you.
But this is before or after the treadmill incident?
Before.
Okay.
So she's had all of this previous experience with this dude and he comes in, just goes,
Hey, there's a mess in there.
You might want to like go take care of it.
And she goes, Mr. So-and-so, what do you mean?
He goes, well, there's an accident in there.
Oh my God.
And she's like, um, okay, like I'll go take a look, I guess.
And she goes into the main cardio room and discovers this and it's, she literally screams
to the whole fitness center.
Oh my God.
Liz.
Oh my God.
Mind you, there are, there are members like working out like in the fitness center.
And I'm like, what do you want?
Like I am busy.
She goes, dude, I need help here.
What?
And she goes, Mr. So-and-so, shit on the treadmill.
Oh my God.
I can only imagine this is like when your dog craps on the carpet and your Roomba happens
to go ride around the room.
Yeah.
Did it like trajectile anywhere?
So come to find out the gentleman leaves property very, very abruptly.
So would I.
It never would turn.
And again, that's why I asked like, was this woman like a mess?
Like I can't imagine him getting in his car.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
So poor guy.
He was on the treadmill and like, lost it.
He trusted a two that he shouldn't have on a treadmill.
I don't know how fast he was going or how long he was going.
Well, yeah.
So long story short, we had to close the fitness center.
Cause I'm like, I don't know what to do.
Like I wasn't trained in that moment.
How far did this go?
I can like pull apart that whole treadmill.
Yeah.
I got very versed in that treadmill.
Like let's just say that there were only, again, it was COVID times.
We only had so many people in the fitness center at one time.
So I had to look at all these members that I know very well with this like shit on the
treadmill behind me, be like, yo, you gotta go.
Can I close the fitness center?
Like, do you really want to keep working out here?
Like there is a, where they just like, no, let me get a few more miles in and like the
smell.
There are literally skid marks on the treadmill behind me and you want to be at like the squat
machine next to it and like keep working out, sir.
Oh my God.
GTFO.
So everyone was like, what do you mean?
So I had to explain to everybody.
Somebody had an accident.
Somebody had an accident and there was like defecation in the fitness center.
Speaking of a fitness center and accidents, have you seen those videos of like the women,
like heavy weight lifters that completely just urinate as they're doing it?
It's like a weird Instagram kink where every video they just all in an open public gym.
My foot for everyone.
It is super interesting.
That's not the goal of it.
They're just weight lifters.
I personally cannot say I've never seen that in my professional workplace.
Thank goodness.
I mean, only shit.
I don't think that's their, their goal isn't to make videos of that content.
It's all about lifting.
Yeah.
It's all about lifting.
They like push so hard they pee.
Yeah.
That's just like a subsequent thing that just happens during going heavy.
I have not seen that in my professional workplace.
It's extreme, but it's like public gym and other, there's people around that don't seem
to mind.
Blows me away.
No, no, no.
If I was in a gym, I would be super disturbed.
But are they urinating?
So it just like kind of goes down their leg or are they, or is it like pushing out a baby?
It's puddling.
Anyway.
Okay.
Back to my poop on the treadmill.
Did you clean it by the way?
Was that you that had to?
I hoped.
Wow.
Props.
I was booked.
That takes a lot.
I would have thrown the treadmill away.
Just order a new one.
Did you not hear the part where I said multi-million dollar brand new fitness center?
Yeah, I know.
It's a sound way they can afford another one.
No, no.
I would at least try to charge the guy or something.
So, so okay.
Let me finish.
Sorry.
We're jumping ahead.
The members that are in the fitness center are very, very understanding.
Be like, yeah, you got a mess to clean up.
I'm going to leave.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Can you put me down for a reservation?
I'm like, do you really want to come back tomorrow?
And do you really want to use this treadmill tomorrow?
Can you, can you just take a break?
Was it really bad or was it just like?
No, honestly, I'm talking enough.
It wasn't that bad.
It was, it was a two he shouldn't have trusted.
And but still you have to take all your precautions.
So I'm like, I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
So I call my GM at the time and they're like, uh, I don't know, call housekeeping.
Mind you, this is a very small property with two housekeepers.
It's a country, it's a country club.
There's a clubhouse, there's a fitness center and like golf course restrooms.
That's all it is.
So two housekeeper, two full-time housekeepers can get it done.
They refuse to help me.
Oh yeah.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
I'm convinced they just claimed that they didn't understand what I was asking them in
that time.
So me and this team member like shove on glove, like multiple layers of gloves.
I'm like taking my jacket off.
I'm like, I don't want to touch anything.
I have this, I have like strength bleach, like ready.
So, and then eventually we have to, we clean everything, like put the incline up, clean
everything.
And you just turn it on and just like spray it down and hold a towel.
Eventually, eventually.
Yeah.
When it was like clean enough to do that.
So we just turned it up.
I was going to get a face full.
Oh my God.
Slow speed.
No, no.
Yeah.
But it was, it was high.
Don't start in sprint.
It was high inclined so it didn't impact like any like motor or the bottom, like underneath
the belt or anything.
It's just on the mat side of it.
Yeah.
Like with plenty of towels and like straight bleach.
I'm telling you.
I mean think how much sweat and other things that's on there.
I mean it's pretty.
Damn.
I guess those, I wouldn't want to touch those mats.
So we regularly, well COVID times, we regularly had to clean and sanitize the whole entire
facility.
Did you have a lot of treadmill?
I did.
It was new.
I wanted to keep it nice.
Did you have a lot of treadmills?
Uh, four or five.
Which number was this?
Two.
So we're thinking like this guy is going to quit.
He's going to quit.
He's not going to be a member.
He's going to go to whatever other big box gym and he's going to quit.
We're never going to see him again.
Next day.
Yep.
No.
Yep.
Next day.
Yep.
Could even wait two days.
Nope.
I'm still, by this time, like the group chat is going off with my employees.
Like so and so shit on a treadmill today.
Like me and Liz had to clean it.
And yeah, he called the next morning and make a reservation for the same afternoon.
Same treadmill?
I don't know because I couldn't look at the man in the face.
I couldn't look at that guy in the eye.
I could, you know, it was the same.
You go to a gym a lot.
You use the same like treadmill.
I could, I could, you know, I was, I was like, I'm going to go to the gym.
I could, you know, I was probably at that property another five months after it happened.
I don't think I spoke to him.
I had to, sir, I had to clean up your poop.
I kind of have like a lot of poop stories.
I have a lot of code Browns and pools.
Oh yeah.
On that note, thank you for listening.
Thank you to our hosts, Ms. B. Thank you for being here again.
Thank you everybody for tuning in.
Thank you for having me, Bill.
Always.
Pat, it was a pleasure having you.
Thank you very much.
Glad you joined us.
Nice to meet you.
And, Grace, you're welcome to come back anytime.
I'd love to.
I'm filled with them.
Liz, thank you again.
Love having you here.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's always a pleasure.
For those listening, if you would like to contribute a story, please feel free to reach
out to us via email.
You can reach us at tales from the service industry at gmail.com.
Tales from the service industry at gmail.com.
In sync with me.
I don't even know what to do with that.
Thank you everybody.
And we will see you again in two weeks.
Bye.