HOLY COW: City of Chicago Salvages Two Consecutive Days of Mediocre Selling

This Wednesday afternoon. I had grown hungry and anxious, not knowing what I was going to do for lunch. I knew I would think of something, but the weight of ambiguity weighed ever heavier. There is a phone call for me while I am ringing a customer. I answer, mid-scan, "Thanks for holding, this is Tim." A mysterious yet familiar voice speaks on the other end says, "Tim, we went to that place. Yours is here waiting." The voice, my friend from the shoeshine stand. That place, friends, is Harold's Chicken Shack, a bastion of fried chicken on Chicago's South Side for the last fifty years. My standing order: 1/4 chicken with mixed-mild sauce. The stuff dreams are made of.


I'll opt out of paraphrasing Wikipedia's article on Harold's and just say this is seriously the best mother-finger-licking good fried chicken anyone should ever hope to consume. A South Side institution and pillar in the Black community, Harold's is a favorite among many members of my shoe department. On a semi-regular basis, a member of the shoeshine duo will take orders and pick up 7-8 helpings of God's gift to taste buds, curse to arteries. The tangy aroma of mixed bbq sauce and beef tallow (read the article) is intoxicating and pervasive. When the man arrives with the chicken it is very difficult to get anyone to help you with shoes.

Now that I no longer work in the shoe department, the fact that my old colleagues in the shoe shine stand still think to include me in this most delicious and coveted of lunches is touching and remarkable. Hearing I had chicken waiting turned what had been a ho-hum morning of scratching and clawing for single shirt and tie gifts purchased by confused women for inevitably disappointed men bound to return the merchandise at a different store and never give me the opportunity to recoup the commission losses into just a damn fine day to be alive.

Thursday: Once or twice a year our store hosts a night of super rewards for store card-carrying customers. There are free appetizers, booze, and more reward points than anyone knows what to do with. It's a slam-dunk. You would think the liquid courage ought to always have a profound effect on loosening people's money purses. In my experience it doesn't. At least when clothes are involved. Who wants to worry about sizes, colors and accessories when it's completely free to pound back another white wine and salmon bite and shmooze with your friends in front of live music? Tonight? Apparently a lot of people.

I guess the word got out that 10 rewards points on the dollar instead of the normal 2 is a HUGE DEAL, as the turnout between the hours of 6 and 9 made it seem as if it was Barack and the Obamas themselves were the ones performing live covers. And people seemed to be buying too. A fellow salesperson happened to intercept an entire FAMILY, arms full of garments, that had received no help to that point. $1800 and about 30 gift boxes later, he was feeling pretty good about himself. In the same time span I netted about 2 or $300 after greeting dozens of customers. That's just the kind of night it was. It's the kind of day I had, in fact, and that is unfortunately the nature of our business. You can be professional and a great salesperson but without luck and fortunate positioning you could have nothing to show for it. It's frustrating and exciting that your sales can come fast and easy or not at all.

It is cold and windy coming home from work. Finally, winter decides to show up. It's good weather for brooding and stewing over the unfairness of the retail world. I knew I would pick myself up somehow once I got home and prepare to start fresh tomorrow morning. I was not prepared for how to accomplish this. Once again, Chicago institutions bailed me out (sounds cliche, I think): A letter from the department of revenue referenced a parking ticket issued to me back in July for not properly displaying my city sticker. Long story short I contested the $120 ticket with rightful cause and upon further review the city of Chicago ruled IN MY FAVOR and dropped the fine! The system works! Another damn fine day to be alive.