Your tips for getting great service in a retail store?
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Whats sort of business does a business like this do? Old wives? Teachers paying for supplies out of pocket? Businesses looking to zazz up the lunch room?
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The Golden Rule.
And sincere compliments.
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All of the above, and…
Students, floral designers, wedding planners, brides, grooms, friends of the bride and/or groom, artists, church groups, and just plain folks.
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Last minute call for questions for @Lucy_Gothro!
(humming, “it’s closing time”)
That reminds me - what craft have you learned about that you didn’t know was a thing?
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Pull bows.
https://shop.bowartcanada.com/pages/whats-a-pull-bow
Ha! And of course, I choose the Canadian explanation (humble, cheery, and polite)!
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Do you have one of those bow making machines? Those look like so much fun!!!
I like craft supplies but do not have the patience for the actual crafting part.
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No, we don’t carry that.
Yes, they are fun to look at. I have the patience, but not the…mood? I mean, I wonder how all those artists who suffer from depression managed to get anything done - I simply can’t seem to find that…push, for want of a better word, for myself.
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Do any weird people do weird things there?
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Define “weird”.
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Not quite the same question, but what’s the most unusual and/or interesting project you’ve ever assisted a customer gather materials for (assuming the customer stated the purpose)?
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Well, we’re not supposed to help the customers design things. Some of the staff is better at this than others…oh wait, she’s leaving for an office job, lol.
Hmmm…helping a pair of African-American ladies find what they need to in order to decorate a baby girl’s high chair. Not unusual, but it was very rewarding, as they took my ideas seriously and respectfully, after admitting they weren’t all that crafty themselves.
I, as much as I express my inability to contain my contempt for the contemptible, do sincerely believe that most people are nice and good, if not especially smart; having said that, I do sincerely like to help others who ask me for help. I mean, isn’t that kind of what we’re here for, to help each other through whatever this is?
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Y’know. Men in trench coats asking about the glue and bubble wrap in a sweaty way.
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When I first started there this past July, there was this guy who looked like Hunter S. Thompson wanna-be without the shades, smelling of Salem Lights (my dad smoked those for the last 20 years of his life, so I know the smell), all sweaty and…repulsive.
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True story: I had a co-worker who is also a musician. He does a lot of deep listening things and electric violin stuff - pretty out there. One Monday we were having lunch and I asked the usual, “What’d you do this weekend?” His response, “I was playing electric violin, naked except for being wrapped in bubble wrap, in a cage.”
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Thank you @Lucy_Gothro!
Now up at bat, @enso.
Enso, please answer these questions to kick it off:
- What is your job?
- What is one skill (other than the actual skill you get paid for) that is indispensable to your work?
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Not your AMA (or his) but I have to ask: was the bubble wrap considered a separate instrument?
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I’m a security program manager for Firefox and our engineering organization. I’m also the manager of a seven person team of engineers that engage in Software Fuzzing to find security and stability issues in Firefox and associated code.
I’m not sure of one skill as opposed to mindset. I work in security. An absolutely fatalistic view of software informed by many years of experience and of human nature is useful, along with a know going back a decade of our horrible historic security flaws.
My wife says that as a manager, the ability to wrangle toddlers is essential. I’m the adult in the room officially.
I’m going to get on a five or six hour plane flight shortly so I’ll check in later.
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What is software fuzzing? Is it as warm and cuddly as it sounds?
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https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Fuzzing
My non-managerial job, as security program manager, is taking security bug reports from external researchers and internal to Mozilla folks and shepherding them through being fixed. We triage them, give security ratings for severity, and I run our bug bounty program that pays bounties to researchers. I write Mozilla’s security advisories as well.
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