Day 218 – Tuesday September 14, 2010
After two days in the van, we arrived in New Orleans late Sunday night. Our work week is Tuesday through Saturday so we got Monday off to rest and recover from our 20-hour drive. We went to WalMart late morning for grocery shopping (most of us have a strong dislike of the store but it’s MUCH cheaper for getting the basics and had other household items in its vast stretches) and I picked up a bike along with my groceries. It’s a mint green cruiser, a one-speed with reverse-pedal braking. It’s completely impractical and therefore lovely. Its fat tires were wonderful at not getting broken on the many shards of glass strewn about the streets and sidewalks on my later hour-long ride.
The ride itself was also lovely, my first venture into the city after our grocery trip. Most of the sights along the way back – we drove by United Saints so I could see the team’s last housing – were places at which the team had spent a significant number of nights drinking second round. When I had asked (on at least two occasions) what there is to do in New Orleans other than drink, I’d been met with long pauses, I-don’t-knows, and “nothing?”s. I was a bit nervous that this could be the truth, though more so overwhelmingly skeptical about the prospect of “nothing”, so was relieved to run across both the vibrant little French Market and the aquarium along a nice Riverwalk boulevard. I also biked up Bourbon Street, mostly just so I could have gone, albeit in the daylight. I might (might) make it again sometime. Even at night.
Today was our first day of service with Habitat Restore and Warehouse. It was great! I did have a headache all morning, which was less than fun, but I much enjoyed the service day, especially my work on the warehouse side. (The warehouse distributes donated new construction materials to Habitat build sites; the ReStore, like Baltimore’s Loading Dock, resells donated goods – from crèche scenes to sinks to doorframes and windows – as the money-making side of the establishment.) Buck and I began helping Paul, who runs the warehouse, load long pieces of metal into a trailer bed at Dr. Bob’s. Dr. Bob is an artist who works in a small building and yard a couple of blocks from the ReStore, which he shares with a miniature extension of the warehouse and sometimes a Habitat truck or two. The whole time we worked, Paul chatted with us about where we’re from and such. It turns out that he’s from Massachusetts and has been to Northampton on multiple occasions. I decided that I like him a lot. Jor had told me before I came that she loved working with him. I do too.
Later in the morning, after spending my only time on the ReStore side dusting off paint-protecting stuff and Christmas tree stands, Amanda and I went over to Dr. Bob’s and loaded up some insulation made out of recycled jeans (“none of the itchy stuff’, announced Paul). Amanda drove the box truck over to a build site ten minutes away, where we unloaded it into two neighboring houses. I had the fun job of handing the insulation out of the back of the truck to the build crew. I enjoyed it. My arms were covered in dirt by the time we made it back. I also knew how to latch up the back of the truck and operate the mechanical up-and-down back ramp controls.
We returned just in time to load up another order for a further-away build site. I learned where the shims and “1-bys” (1x4s, 1x12s, etc.) are in the warehouse as we refilled the truck. At the first drop-off, I’d met a girl named Katie who’s “from your neck of the woods” (Paul’s introduction). It turns out she’s dating Eoin, a guy I rowed with in high school. During our warehouse loading, I met a guy named Mike who went to school with Katie and knows Eoin. It seems half of the Habitat people I met have spent some time in Massachusetts, most of those not far from me.
This trend continued later in the afternoon, when I got to go on the delivery with John, one of the ReStore staff. As we drove across the Mississippi to drop off the boards and such which Amanda and I had loaded, I learned that he too had spent time in my neck of the woods. Kinda crazy. John and I had a good time, finally finding the site after Google Maps directed us to the wrong part of the street and eventually making it back across the Mississippi after an hour caught in traffic during which about four ambulances and three police cars raced by with lights flashing. The delivery took over two hours; I liked getting to see a bit more of the city and take our time unloading all the boards at the site. I ended up dirtier and more smudged than before.
I much enjoyed showering when we returned home. I felt super-clean. It made me happy.
Day 227 – Thursday September 23, 2010
I was involved in a world record today. Certified by the Guinness Book. It involved tons and tons of macaroni and cheese. Well, just over 1 ton. But that’s a lot of mac ‘n’ cheese.
Cabot paired up with Habitat, somehow, to make an event out of creating the world’s largest macaroni and cheese. The final dish weighed in at 2,469 pounds. It was stirred in a cauldron, itself weighing 1,900 pounds, dating from the late 1700s. Traci and I, after being the lucky ones to have our names drawn by Melissa (of the five available, herself included, since Buck is in Michigan this week for a friend’s wedding), got to join Wolf 3 at the mac ‘n’ cheese event. Once it was officially weighed and the woman who served as the Guinness Book of World Records official witness presented a formal certificate to the chef in charge, we helped distribute bowls to thousands (close to three, to be precise) of people who came to help consume all that mac ‘n’ cheese. There was a line over a hundred people long for part of the morning. I was busybusybusy, which I loved. After we did the distributing, we got to eat some of the tasty record-setting dish ourselves. The noodles, having been stirred up in the cauldron, shoveled into bins (with a literal shovel), ladeled into our bowls, and spooned into our mouths (by us) were delicious. Very flavorful. Bread crumbs, pepper, and everything. A world record has never before tasted so good to me.
Life at the ReStore is also good. Aisle 1, my pet project, is looking fantastic. I continue to enjoy getting out of the building on deliveries and pick-ups. The Tuesday to Saturday work week still feels quite strange. In the evenings, my team watches lots of movies. I’ve been reading lots of books, especially during the horror movies. I took a break, of course, to watch Pirates of the Caribbean the other night. So much fun. New Orleans is still big, dangerous, and not all that pretty; I’m continuing to take adjustment time.
Day 230 – Sunday September 26, 2010
Gwyn gave me a hug yesterday. This made me happy.
She had asked me a couple of days ago to do a store directory and I finally set aside the day to do so yesterday. We had discussed it briefly – a list stating “Doors…aisle 8” and the like which I could paint on one of the recently repainted hollow doors set aside for just such projects. When I went to make the directory, my first task was to map out what it should even include. I drew myself a map-like directory, a style I thought might be easier than “Lighting…aisle 27” since aisle 27 (along with about eight other aisles) is hidden in the back behind the employee-only loading dock. I showed Gwyn the map for what to include, mentioned how this version was just like in department stores, and got approval to go ahead – map, not list! I grabbed a door, painted the lovely shade of French Market Blue, and got to work. I used masking tape to make all the aisle lines for the store then busted out the purple paint and made it pretty. The end result was surprisingly artistic-looking after I painted “Welcome to the ReStore” next to the paint-and-sharpie map (sharpie, I figured, would be easier for changes in the event that some new item gets a permanent aisle). I waited for the paint to dry then took it to show Gwyn. She was thrilled, declared it better than she could imagine, and asked if she could give me a hug. All in all, a productive Saturday at the ReStore.
The other productivity I’ve had at the ReStore is the shining success of Aisle 1. I had thought it’d be great to make a small display of items for sale then realized multiple displays might be needed to cover the range of items in the store. Wandering around looking for things I’d want to display, I found that Aisle 1, right by the entrance ramp into the store, had fairly little in it and looked rather scattered. Gwyn said the idea of a display sounded great – they had had great success displaying children’s schooldesks, which didn’t sell when stacked but immediately did when set out classroom-style – and I should ask Bob. Bob gave me the go-ahead and even allowed me all of Aisle 1 for my plans. Gwyn fully endorsed this free reign, glad to have the rather scattered aisle off her hands. A week ago, three volunteers helped me clear out the aisle and collect up items from around the store to fill it. My original idea was to showcase the second- or third-best desk, stove, etc. with small markers directing people to the desk, appliance, or other section where they could find their own best item. As items came in off the loading dock and the space filled in, it became clear that it would become more of a showcase for best items, mixing decent with almost-new.
Friday was the first busy day Aisle 1 experienced, Tuesday through Thursday being understandably quieter shopping days. The result? Seven – seven – items sold from “my” section. I had been on the warehouse side all day and came over at the end to find missing a futon sofa, a small bookcase, a taller wicker bookcase, a sewing machine, a small picture frame, and the small lamp perched on a cabinet. Needless to say, I spent the first hour of Saturday (pre-directory) filling in all that was gone. One of the new items I added was a wooden mantle for around a fireplace from Neil’s mantles-and-door-frames section. One customer asked me in the morning how much it cost and Gwyn told me later that she’d fielded multiple questions about mantles, an oft-overlooked item, during the day. Pretty cool.
I’ve learned some solid retail sales lessons in my time at the ReStore, most sparked by my own intuition and simple observations about customer behavior. It all comes down to this: 1) customers are lazy and 2) the more you can do to make things easier for customers (e.g. subtly spotlight one good-quality item of each type, put good stuff in a display section), the happier both you and your customers will be. Simplify it for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment