Random Thoughts From A Video Store Clerk, Part 1

*Note: I have decided to cut this into more than one Part to make it easier for everyone to read.*

Part 1: The Other Side

Ever wondered what the video clerk at your local movie rental chain is thinking as he or she is ringing you up? Well, here’s what’s been going through my head lately.

First off, when I got off work last night around 11, I got on the /Filmcast with Jason. After it was over, we stayed around for a little bit and talked with some of the regulars of the chat room. We gave the YDKS link to them and, after viewing the site, they asked what our format was. I told them it was a mixture of movie news, lists, opinion pieces, and reviews. So, I’m not exactly where this article fits into all of that. I guess you could say it’s an opinion piece. Mostly, it’s just a personal stream of consciousness prose covering some random thoughts I had last night as I was working a very uneventful, yet stressful Monday night shift. What I like about YDKS is that our format is not completely defined. I feel like we have more freedom to post whatever we feel like, as long as it is somewhat related to film in some way. So, with all that in mind, here’s some stuff that was going through my head last night as I was working.

I’m starting to notice how my OCD is working to my advantage while I work. Every time a movie is brought back, I immediately check it in and then put it back on the wall. Most people that work at the Gallery will check them in and then let them pile up behind the counter for a few minutes before putting them back on the wall. One guy I work with lets them pile up his entire shift before putting them all back up in the last thirty minutes. I just can’t do that. After all, keeping the movies restocked on the wall is part of our job. When people come in, they should be able to see what films we have available for them to rent. If all the new releases are hidden behind the counter, then what’s the point? Therefore, I put them out as quickly as possible. I tend to run around the store throughout my shift because of this but I actually enjoy it. It just makes me feel good for some reason. Like I’m doing something. I know it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t tell you how happy it makes me when all the drop boxes are empty, the counter’s cleaned off, and the wall is filled with all the movies we have.

Last night, I realized that working at a video store can be way more complicated than it should be. I know it doesn’t seem like a hard job (and a lot of the time, it truly isn’t) but there are times when you encounter situations that seem to have no resolution. The main problem, as I am beginning to notice, is our computer system. There are so many codes, sub-sections, and tricks of the trade that you have to know in order to get through every situation you encounter. It doesn’t matter how long you work there, you are going to encounter a situation everyday that you will not know how to solve on the computer system. And you know what? They really don’t teach you how to solve most problems. Yeah, you get the basic run-down when you first start, but honestly, everyone that works there doesn’t know how to get through a lot of the cases that we encounter. It’s not that we’re stupid; it’s just that we were never taught. We can’t be, there’s just too much information that you’d have to know. For example, last night, I was renting a children’s movie to a couple that had for some reason been transferred out of our system. To fix this situation, I had to call my manager. She then instructed me to look up the film in question, find a copy that was in our inventory, write that number bar code down, get a new barcode, go into the Inventory Management, go to Transfer Film Data, write down the old bar code number, scan the new bar code number, and then maybe it would rent out. To do all of this, she had to direct me through codes, short cuts, system screens, and all kinds of other stuff on the computer. The whole process took about ten minutes. So the next time a clerk you have doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing or it’s taking a long time, try to be patient. The job can be more complicated than it should be sometimes.

Another thing that I noticed last night is that just when you think you’ll be fine working by yourself, you never are. It’s my second week working at the Gallery (although I worked there all last summer) and my manager is still a little hesitant to leave me by myself. It’s not that she doesn’t trust me; it’s just that I haven’t worked there in a while so I’m still a little rusty on how to do everything. However, my first week went great and I was a real machine last Saturday night when it came to card sells, play guard, and combos. When she left early, I told her I’d be just fine in the hour before my next co-worker would arrive. After all, the store was completely dead.

Well, of course I was wrong.

All it takes is just one customer and one situation that you cannot solve by yourself. An older lady and her kid came up to the counter with two video games they wanted to rent out. When I rang up their account, I saw that they had a 26-dollar late fee. Contrary to popular belief, video clerks hate late fees. We especially hate the larger number late fees (anything over 20 dollars really) because they are pretty much guaranteed to have the customer take out their frustration on the person ringing them up behind the counter. Personally, I don’t know why it’s so damn hard to get your movie back on time but that’s beside the point. Of course, she was pissed and said that her mother had cleared this matter up back in January and even had a receipt to prove it. However, she did not have the receipt with her and the computer was telling me otherwise. By this point, our empty store had somehow filled up and I now had a huge line behind this woman who obviously wasn’t going to leave until I took the late fee off her account: something that I could not do without a receipt. Over the next ten or so minutes, I talked to her equally as pissed mother over her cell phone, to my manager over the store phone who said that I couldn’t take the fee off without a receipt, and to the woman, trying to calmly tell her that there wasn’t anything that I could really do. After this going on for a few minutes more, she finally decided to leave, saying that she’d bring the receipt back the next day for the manager to see (update: she never did). Then I had to deal with the long line that had formed by myself, my nerves shot all to hell.

When my co-worker finally arrived after an hour, the store was dead again. After she opened up a drawer, I asked her if I could take a break and return a phone call I got from my friend Zach during the big rush. I stepped outside to make the call and was surprised at just how hot it was. It felt like I was standing in a desert. Even the air I was breathing felt hot going up my nostrils. People that work at the Gallery usually go outside to smoke when taking a break. Everyone that works at Movie Gallery smokes. They smoked last summer and they smoke this summer. I never take breaks. On the rare occasion that I do, it will be to quickly return a phone call outside. However, it was so hot when I was returning this phone call that I had to go back inside. Also, as I was returning back inside the Gallery, I noticed that the sidewalk that I had been standing on was covered in ants. For the next half hour, I keep imagining ants crawling all over my legs, biting me. Of course, there weren’t any on me, but my obsessive brain keep telling me otherwise.

During this time, I start restocking the wall again. Every time I walk back to the counter to get more movies, I check my shoes and legs for ants.

Monday nights are incredibly slow. When they’re not slow, they get really stressful with random spurts of droves of customers and unsolvable problems. Therefore, you’re never really comfortable or completely bored. By the time the night’s over, you usually just feel bad and want to go home, watch TV, and fall asleep. However, it was in my many moments of down time last night that I found a lot of time to think and examine my job and how I view it and the things that happen around me.

The first thing I really began to examine was my position on customers, how I interact with them, and how I view them in general. I didn’t realize it until now but I actually tense up when a customer begins to come to the counter. It’s almost like preparing for battle or a fight. I really have always just viewed them as antagonistic or the enemy. I’m always waiting for something to go wrong and for them to chew me out. I’m always trying to stay on my toes and not make a mistake or inconvenience them. I’m always trying to look like I know everything about what I’m doing. I spend most of the time feeling like they’re looking down on me, like I’m stupid or something for having a job at a movie rental store. Like that’s a bad thing. I’m not stupid, slow or dumb. I have a 4.0 at Mississippi College (which is a pretty damn hard college) and I graduated from my equally as difficult high school with highest honors and Advanced Placement credit. The other people that work at Movie Gallery aren’t stupid either. My co-worker and friend Wes (yeah, we have the same name) works full time at the Veterinarian Clinic down road. He works at the Gallery in his spare time because he just enjoys it and it helps pay the bills. But still, every now and then, I always get the feeling that I’m being looked down upon and being judged for just being there. It’s almost like I get the feeling that they are automatically putting a label on me and I don’t have a chance to prove myself as different.

It was last night when I finally let go of this feeling. It was a strange moment when I felt it happen. It was like gaining a focus I didn’t previously have. It was like seeing things in a different light. A customer came to the counter and I just felt it happen. All that tension and apprehension just went away. When you’re behind the counter long enough, you forget about things on the other side. You get this notion of everyone on the other side being against you; wanting to actually hurt you in some way (some people really do get off on starting shit up… it’s a power thing I guess) and you just forget what it’s like. They just want their movie and want to get home. They don’t know about your deals and they don’t really care. They don’t know your job depends on units per transactions, the amount of play guard you sell, and how many Discount Rental Card purchases you can obtain. They don’t understand you, your overly complicated computer system, and need to push deals and, for a while, you don’t understand them.

But, like I said, this all went away last night. This older lady came up to the counter with some movies. I usually avoid as much eye contact as possible with customers. I don’t like eye contact in general. I’m really not much of a social bug. However, when she came up, I just made eye contact. Well, I looked at her face as she went through her bag, struggling to find her Membership Card. It’s what everyone does when they come to the counter… and no one can ever seem to find the thing. As she was doing this, I looked at her face. Her mascara was put on just a tad thicker than necessary, lines and wrinkles cutting through her face. She just looked… normal. In way, she kind of looked like my mom. In that moment, everything changed. All the apprehension went away. She was nothing special. It’s like that scene in Swingers when Vince Vaughn is telling John Favreau to imagine the women he’s after as little, defenseless bunny rabbits. It was kind of like that. She was just a little, defenseless rabbit.

As the night would continue to go on, I started to make more and more eye contact with my customers. I started to study their faces more. Each was normal, though distantly different in his or her own special way. As the time continued to go by, I began to get more social and outgoing with them. When in the past I would hold a comment back, I would let that comment out here. This all leads to the most important moment of that night… but I’m getting a head of myself. There are other things I need to talk about before I get to that.

Stay tuned for a much more personal Parts 2-4 where I discuss painful reminders, distractions, female customers, finding semen on DVDs, eating in front of others, Mighty Ducks 2, and much more.