mtntp: : moving the shop - the story of three shoppers

the place where i work is moving three doors down the road to a new location.
it's kind of funny to spend that much time packing and breaking down to move three store fronts but the new place is so much bigger it's very very worth it.
such a historic relocation required that the shop be closed for almost a week.
the day of the great trek down the boulevard it was very, very obvious in both locations that we were closed. you know... guys with moving co. shirts pushing dollies stacked with boxes and "closed" signs hanging on the doors should be a dead give away but apparently not everyone got the hint.

standing amid a sea of cardboard I look up to see someone walk in our door and ask to exchange something that we had ordered at her particular request.
we tell her "sorry, we're closed. we'll be open on tuesday and would love to help you then."
she doesn't leave and keeps on pushing for an exchange.
"sorry we're closed and all our stock is packed up."
"could you look for a tag-a-long".
we tell her the company doesn't even make that purse.
"well could you look it up on the computer".
the boss managed to tell her "sorry, we don't even have our phone hooked up right now. that's why we're closed." (boss lady must have just had a fresh cup of coffee because she managed to say it very nicely but firmly)
she finally leaves after trying to convince every employee that was swimming through waves of corrugated brown paper to look for the purse she saw on a bag website.
the whole story happened to be she changed her mind after the staff had jumped through hoops for her in the past in ordering her bag and they had already informed her of our special order policy and our moving dates...
but she decided to carpe diem in the door after a mover because it was that important to her (not sure why) and she thought if she could just talk to the owner she would get her way. (word to the wise. don't bother owners who have just demanded the office number of the c.e.o. of comcast. you're not going to get very far.)
if we would have been able to help her we would have but i am very serious when i say the windows were completely covered in brown paper, we had mountains of unopened boxes, there were no no shelves let alone stocked shelves, no running salon system, and no phone.

hour or so later another patroness opens the door looking to spend a gift certificate and exchange something.
now at least the door was propped open for lady tag-a-long but somehow this time the person missed the completely door covering "COMING SOON" decal when opening the door and the completely papered windows, ocean of boxes, and a group of employees wearing sweat pants still wasn't a tip off. "sorry, we're closed. we'll be open on tuesday."
it's our policy to try to always give amazing customer service even with the most rude and oblivious of people (not saying she was but just a general policy) but when you're unpacking boxes, your back hurts, you're covered with dirt, and lazy movers use you as an excuse to chit chat instead of working... patience can be rather thin (if you're me anyway) but fortunately the main receptionist was already standing (i was sitting on the floor) and waited on her as best as she could considering the mess and lady #2 decided to come back on tuesday.

two days later the same thing happened. on that occasion the oblivious to the obvious shopper walked in and started picking apart displays in progress and moving them around and completely ignoring our attempts to tell her:
"SORRY WE'RE CLOSED".
no, she had to have what she wanted then and there. fortunately the stock was more accessible and we were able to find most of her items but we stuck to our guns on the sale.
the compromise.
we held it til tuesday.

one would say that locking the door would have solved the problem but it would have also seriously hampered the necessary 'come and go' that comes with moving.
after all the work i can positively say the shop looks beautiful... and we were definitely able to handle customers...... starting on tuesday.
another up note: the son of the nail tech who walked in to say hi to his mother has fully recovered from the group of exhausted women who looked at him with terrified expressions of 'oh no not again' when he first walked in the door and said 'hey i'm looking for...'