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MISSION: Black Friday at Borders
Raise your hand if you’ve worked retail.
*raises hand*
Raise your hand if you’ve worked retail on Black Friday.
*raises hand*
Raise your hand if you like brownies.
*raises hand*
These are all components of the mission I completed today. And my heart feels good. (Not to mention my belly!)
DATE:
Friday, 26 November 2010
OPERATIVE:
Secret Agent L
LOCATION:
Borders Book Store
East Side Shopping Plaza
Pittsburgh, PA
TIME:
1:26 p.m.
I’ve worked a lot of retail in my life. During high school and college, retail jobs helped me learn responsibility, pay some bills, and gain some skills. I worked mainly in clothing stores or beauty product shops. After college, when I was out in the Chicago area trying to make it as a model with the Ford Modeling Agency, I had to work retail to make ends meet. I’m not going to lie. I hated it. With all my heart. Sure, the employee discounts were nice, but the customers? Not so much. Once, when I was working at JCrew, I went back to the fitting room area to check on a client. I politely knocked on her dressing room door and asked if there was anything I could get for her or take out of her room. Much to my surprise, she opened the door and proceeded to throw a wad of clothing at me.
Right at me.
And she didn’t say a word when she closed the door.
Since today is Black Friday, I’m taking back to those many memories I have of working retail. And my heart aches for the retail employees who have to work today. Because I’ve seen how horrible customers can be on this day. So, I wanted to do something for those employees.
I decided to make them some brownies.
I live right down the street from a Borders Bookstore. I decided that I’d try to avoid the high-traffic areas (for the sake of my own nerves) and stick close to Command Central. I thought it might be nice to hop on over to the store and deliver a plate of freshly baked brownies, which I made at 9:30 a.m. today. I also thought it’d be nice to include a note indicating why I wanted the employees to have my delicious treats.
After I let the brownies cool, I tasted one–you know, just to make sure they were okay. *wink* They met my taste test and immediately went onto a foil-covered plate. I wrapped them up with some plastic wrap to keep them fresh and proceeded to prepare the outer wrapping.
I included a beautiful white ribbon with silver trim, so as to look festive for the now holiday season, and also added the Secret Agent L business card. I put my personalized note right on top so it couldn’t be missed.
I made my way over to the store, walked inside, and immediately looked for an employee. There was a gentleman standing at one of the computer information kiosks, so I made a beeline towards him.
When I finally got up next to him, I said, “Hello! These are for you and the entire staff. I hope you enjoy them.” He looked a bit confused, and then he said, “Thank you. Who are they from?” I pointed to the Secret Agent L business card, flashed him a smile, told him to have a nice day, turned around, and walked away.
Mission complete.
I hope you all have a wonderful Black Friday today, score some nice deals, and are kind to everyone–employees and fellow customers alike. If you’ve decided to stay home, I hope you’re having a wonderful day, too. Who knows? Maybe you’re even enjoying some brownies.
5 Comments to “MISSION: Black Friday at Borders”
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Great mission! I am at work right now, tho’ I work in the service department of a Chevy dealership, not in retail. I know how much we always appreciate it when one of our customers brings us a treat. I just gave our cashier/switchboard operator her lunch break, and only helped 2 customers, but they were both very pleasant – lucky me!
Personally, I’m hoping to avoid all the retail stores today, but I do try to smile more & be sure to thank any of the people who do help me when I am shopping at this time of the year.
I’ll bet those Borders employees enjoyed their brownies!
First off.. LOVE the new look! I have not been able to sit down and check it out yet but I love it! You can tell you worked hard on it! xx
Second, I have worked retail .. and been a waitress and I have to tell you, people get nastier at the holidays and seem to take it out on service workers. I did stay snuggly with the kids today and did a full day of old movies while I am nursing a cold.. but Kudos to you for venturing out to distribute warmth, kindness and chocolaty goodness!
Hugs!
That is such a cool idea I think I should do something like that soon.
What would the world do with out out help.
Thank you!!!
This is a great idea. I was thinking of passing along some Safeway brownies and leaving them on the picnic table at a busy beach.
[...] Now, to Agent L. Go easy on us men. You have clearly mastered empathy in ways that 99% of men aren’t even capable of. You and most of your female super agents are masters of 19th century English literature and we read at a 5th grade level when it comes to empathy. How can you break it down for us? What if you come up with the “what” for one of your missions and challenged us to come up with the “where” and “when”? What if you challenged us to come up with ways to apply our own unique skills within the confines of the project? For example, I could print out note cards with how to virus-proof a computer and hand them out randomly (as someone in technology, I am always being asked to solve that more systematic / less empathetic problem). What if (as able bodied young men) we anonymously shoveled the walks of people in our neighborhood who can’t do it as easily and left one of your cards instead of having to craft a fancy gift? These kinds of baby steps would help us systematic 5th graders work our way up to the empathetic masterpieces like this one. [...]