Are you sure you work here?

So here's the thing: I go to the shops quite a bit so I do know my stores pretty well. I do have my favorites. Something you're supposedly not encouraged  to do with your children (having favourites, that is) - as if that ever happens...

At my favourite stores I know exactly what's where and if something was moved in the store since my last visit. Even if things were moved around I would still find something I saw a few weeks ago or be able to describe to the shop assistant exactly where I saw it, what hanged next to the thing I am now looking for and can't find all of a sudden (and how dare they move it without asking /phoning me, I almost ask out loud?).

Then there is the item you want to buy since the store is advertising that specific item on TV, newspapers, flyers, you name it, but as soon as you ask about such item after making the trip specifically for that purpose, the reaction of the shop assistant is the same as when I ask the questions mentioned in the previous paragraph: "I don't know exactly what you're looking for (although I am armed with a clip-out of said item from their brochure - I come prepared, people) or " I don't think we have that yet". This reply stays the same for a few weeks until a month later when it changes to "I think it's sold out/you must have just missed it" or something similar which makes you regret that you did not put that shot of bourbon in your morning coffee - you mistakenly thought you would not be needing it today but you were so wrong about how this day was going to turn out. Worst than this though is when they tell you that item is NOT in the store and then you find that thing not even two shelves further!!! I know you think I should get a life, but until that happens, this is my life and I'm trying to deal with it. So stay with me, will you?

It just does not make any sense to me that if your job is being an assistant in shop A, and you spend about 7 hours, give or take, EVERY day (or at least 5 of the 7 days in a week) in shop A, how come you still don't know what that store has to offer, offered in the past month or so, or will offer in the next week or two - it's already in the flyer, isn't it? If I had to spend that many hours in one place, I would surely know every square inch of the place - who am I kidding, I know it without even working there - and I'm not even talking just about my favourite stores here. I will tell you what you can find where in a town in Mexico I visited 4 years ago or a village in Europe I passed through a decade ago...Does this count as a "talent" as such? Maybe, 'cause I still need to find a passionate an assistant as I am a customer.

Am I expecting too much from my shopping experience? Do I set the bar too high? And don't say it like it's a bad thing! Does this happen because people nowadays view their jobs as just being a job and somehow forget that if you can't find the joy in what you're doing, then don't do it. But I know times are tough and one does not always find the job of your dreams or your workplace does not exactly make you jump for joy, but try and make the most of the one you have at least. I'd also rather be a stylist to the Hollywood stars (do they even look in the mirror when they go out the way they do? I can dress better from the Mr Price catalogue than they do with all that money) but that's not gonna happen as long as I live where I do. Some days I feel as if I will do any job other than tending ever so lovingly to the laundry, but then I realise that I might as well do it with excellence while I'm at it, because it makes it a whole lot more bearable than doing it grumpy.