Talk about selfish. A lot of kids come into the store and steal balloons, which baffles me because when I was a kid I was always too terrified of the store associates to even think of stealing a balloon, and this KID had the guts to walk out of the store with at least TEN balloons!

So, you're thinking, it's just balloons. Big deal. But when you've spent countless hours blowing up these balloons in a dark, gloomy room, accumulating more and more blisters on your fingers with each balloon you blow up, and slowly suffocating from the helium in the room (which I like to call 'Balloon Fart') it becomes a big deal to you. (So I might have exaggerated a bit ...) These balloons become the symbol of someone's pain and agony and blood and sweat. A symbol of their victory in managing to snag a few extra hours, however painful it might be. 

Consequently, this is what happened: The kid's mom goes to the washroom and the kids are standing around trying to look innocent, talking about how much balloons they've managed to pilfer. My blood starts boiling and I ask them what they're doing with those balloons. Then I save the day by confiscating the balloons from them, explaining that these are for DISPLAY, and that they can only have one each. 

So these poor kids, thinking I'm sort of balloon police monster, look terrified. Their mom comes back from the washroom and asks "What happened to all your balloons!?!"

They answer: "She took them!" 

Now I'm terrified that the ballon thief's mom is going to yell at me. Instead she says, "What's the f****** big deal! It's just balloons! How rude, stealing a kid's balloon!" Then she goes over to a stand in front of me, grabs a balloon and say "Ok let's go! Let's get out of here!"

And they make a dash out of the exit.

I'm left standing there feeling victorious. No I'm kidding, actually, I was really amused because of the way the mom acted. In her vain attempt to prove to me that she can one up me, she takes a balloon and rushes out of the store. Isn't this just bad parenting skills? Letting your kids over indulge, letting them think that they can have as much as they want of something. Also, she's teaching these kids that you can one up sales associates and piss them off, modeling them into future, very annoying customers. Grr. 

That is the story of the day. 

Also a lot of customers are making a lot of noise over the HST. They're like "I bought this item before the HST and now I want to exchange it for something else, why do I have to pay an extra $1.90 just because I want to make an exchange for the same item but in a different size!" (before she only had to pay GST and not PST but now she has to pay both because it's HARMONIZED) 

How about instead of yelling at us you go protest at Queens Park and ask them to give you back your $1.90 because we can't not charge you tax. 

I think I've been at retail for too long :/