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I've graduated with a BA in Art, but don't have a portfolio, so I'm trying for retail and restaurant jobs. So far, Macy's is the only store that's even called me back, and it was a sales associate position. My interview was going really well, but when I asked what the pay was, the interviewer checked to see what positions were open and came back to inform me that no positions were available and to try in the holiday season. Anyone work at Macy's who can tell me why they bothered interviewing me? Also another upcoming Macy's position for "Beauty Adviser". Let's hope that the position is available this time!
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Sep 26, 2010 01:42
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baquerd posted:How could you possibly have done this? Did you ask anyone whatsoever at any point in time what the first thing artists need to get a "real" job is? Typically art students graduate with what is called a "shotgun" portfolio: lots of images but no specific concentration on any one thing due to the types of classes we need to take. For example, I want to do character design, but only have maybe 8 images that can work from classes. I guess I should have said "I don't have a complete portfolio."
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Sep 27, 2010 06:13
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I got the Macy's job! Doesn't pay much above minimum, but it's on call so I can choose when and how much I work, plus I get sales experience. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to contribute. 
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Sep 28, 2010 20:02
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:Oh god. The back, the loving back. Well don't you have "random thing I want" in the back. Yes actually I do, i'm just hiding it from you because you are too god damned fat to be eating it. Shut. The. gently caress. Up. We do want to make money off of our items. Which means that whatever we have is right in front of your loving face. Macy's has The Back (at least for cosmetics and fragrances), and I'm sorry we help to perpetuate this myth for other stores without them.  I haven't had any terrible experiences with customers yet. I keep getting moved to new areas to work in, so I have no idea where anything is or what it does each time I start, and the customers are surprisingly patient. Luckily the people I work with are specialized in whatever product I'm selling that day, so I can always ask them for help, but I'm pretty sure they were getting annoyed with me by the end. At least I've finally figured out the register. And my first One Day Sale is this Saturday. 
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Oct 18, 2010 17:31
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MaxDuo posted:Yes... I hate these. They happen almost EVERY TIME. The worst is if two people are together and are both paying separately. Both pay with a big bill I have to check and both make the joke. Ugh. At Macy's cosmetics, nothing has a price tag, so no one can make this joke. It's pretty great. So far, nothing crazy at retail except when I offered a perfume sample to a passing black lady who then went on a long-winded story about how her family is related to the Robinsons and they had a game where they swiped minstrel makeup from cosmetics back in the and now she's being harassed by French cosmetics companies and demands reparations from Michelle Obama Robinson because she won't buy cosmetics, but will buy fragrance, which is what I was offering in the first place. Also something about Bojangles Robinson. The rant went on for at least 10 minutes and luckily she wasn't angry at me, but I had no idea what to say the whole time except "Wow, I'm learning something today! *smile*". Megera fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Oct 26, 2010 |
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Oct 26, 2010 04:33
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So earlier today, my manager was giving me strong hints to get someone to open a Macy's account (it's not like I haven't been trying, it's just that people usually already have one or are really not interested). She had me talk to a co-worker who had just opened an account for someone. Co-worker was like, "I just asked, and they wanted one." An hour later, I was standing around waiting to help people when someone came up to me out of the blue to open an account. Take that, manager. 
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Nov 8, 2010 05:24
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My first day at Macy's, a person in a joystick-controlled wheelchair was coming through the fragrance department. Remembering the training video where they stressed DON'T IGNORE ANYONE, I offered him a fragrance card to be polite. I realized as he maneuvered over to me that he couldn't talk, didn't make eye contact, and had very poor control of his hands. I just stood there holding the card until my coworker realized he couldn't grab it, so she took the card from me and dropped it into his outstretched hand, where it bounced onto the foot rest of his chair. She said, "Oh, you got it! Have a nice day!" and he rolled off. I was very after that, but am still not sure why he was alone at a Macy's.More angry people: The drawers where we keep the cosmetics are horribly disorganized (unless there's a specific method to their madness and I haven't caught on): they're organized by type, but not by shade (numerical and alphabetical). A lady wanted a specific shade of lipstick and lipliner and knew the shade, but not the type (shimmer, all-day, etc.). It didn't even occur to me to check the display to see the type, I just decided to see if I could find it in the drawer. The lady was standing right next to me and could see just how much lipstick there is. After a minute, my coworker came over to help me look, and I went to go find the lipliner. Once I found it a minute later, I went to my coworker who said, "She got angry at the wait and said, 'I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO GO TO NORDSTROM INSTEAD.'" Obviously the lady was impatient, but with the holidays coming up, I'd like to ask my manager, if things aren't in fact organized in a specific way, if I could have a shift where they just let me organize things in the drawers because goddamn nothing makes sense. Also a friend and I were eating at Del Taco. A family that took forever to order (there were 6 of them) got their food, looked at the receipt, and before any employees said anything, they started yelling that they didn't get the right number of things on the receipt. Now, you'd think since they had proof of what they ordered that they wouldn't need to yell. Nope, the dad decided that screaming from his seat (still eating) in the eating area was the best way to handle this as his wife meekly went to the counter to show them the receipt. Of course it ended with the staff giving them their food. And my friend had a story. It's not retail, but there are still lovely people at the gym. She's a yoga instructor, and she ends every session with 10 minutes of relaxation, a final breath, and calmly says that the session is over. Some people stay on the ground for awhile afterward, just relaxing some more, which is fine since she's the last class of the day. People can still come in and use that room afterward, but there's nothing official. After her class, a woman came up to her and said that she wished the relaxation part lasted longer, and that my friend should go to each person one by one to tell them to leave quietly (and somehow psychically know not to disturb the woman herself because dammit she needs to relax on a disgusting gym floor). My friend pointed out that going up to 30 people one by one wastes everyone's time. The woman of course went to complain to management, but they backed up my friend. I told her she should go to that lady during the next session and quietly let her know, "Just so you know, I'm waking everybody up now. Please leave quietly," (maybe accidentally keeping her microphone turned on) and then right after she should announce it to everyone else over the mic.
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Nov 14, 2010 17:51
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BeardedFerret posted:Be prepared for disappointment when your coworkers gently caress up your hard work within a week. So far I haven't thought of any of my coworkers as stupid yet, but I know what you mean. It's just really sad that Wal-Mart is more organized than we are.
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Nov 14, 2010 23:19
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I've never worked or experienced Black Friday before. I have a 5PM-9PM shift and another person has a 5AM-9AM shift and she said she would trade me for it since she hates waking up early. Which time is more likely to help me keep my sanity?
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Nov 19, 2010 19:52
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We're at the bottom of the sales totem pole, so they like to screw us on hours. I do wish I had a longer shift so I could get more commission. Our department never has sales as far as I've been told, and I don't think Black Friday is an exception. Coworkers are helpful, manager can be depending on how she feels. I think I'll just take her hours so I can be done with it early on and not have to sleep on it.
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Nov 19, 2010 20:09
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Nah, my coworkers have said it definitely gets crazy busy. The rest of Macy's has sales, just not Cosmetics, so we do get people buying clothes coming into our lines, or I'm also guessing people who see our gift sets on display decide "Oh yeah!" and decide to buy it. We are attached to a mall, but people usually take the closer entrances.
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Nov 19, 2010 21:37
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For whatever reason, the rest of the store is on a speaker system, but the cosmetics area isn't. We have nothing, so we have radios to play whatever we want. But someone was playing Christmas music last Sunday anyway. 
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Nov 23, 2010 19:05
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It's really telling that I've never experienced Black Friday ever, like even as a customer. I'm really excited to work. 
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Nov 26, 2010 13:15
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Well, the mall was just busy, not chaotic. And I was in men's fragrances, which was super slow, and I heard the women's side was busy. All the customers were super nice, one guy was super patient as he waited about 20 minutes for me to figure out why his new Macy's account wouldn't work. The only thing that pissed me off was Macy's policies. First, they tripled our sales goal. In an always low-traffic area. I only made 62% of my sales goal (which means less commission and more chance of management reviewing that and seeing it as grounds to fire me). And also because I'm not full-time, I don't get the seasonal people to do the register for me, and any fragrance vendors who sell something have to go through the full-time people. So basically there were 3 vendors and a seasonal person who were ringing up for the one full-time person, so the full-timer got a bunch of commission and actually went over her sales goal, while I was left to fend for myself. But the full-time person was there longer than I was, and considering she had four people helping her out all day and only had 110% sales goal by the time I left, I'd say I did better. Also I lost a lot of sales because all but one of the people I was working with(against?) could speak Spanish. So when I'd ask Spanish speakers if they needed help, they'd say "No, just looking" and I'd leave them alone to browse, but then one of my coworkers would ask them immediately afterward in Spanish if they needed help, and the customer would immediately start telling them what they wanted right away because "Hey, we speak the same language and this must mean you are better", and, because the vendor gets the sale, it goes to the full-time person. gently caress, I hate that bullshit policy. Megera fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Nov 27, 2010 |
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Nov 27, 2010 00:15
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The General posted:I hope you're not seriously suggesting that the bi-lingual person shouldn't get the sale? You couldn't help that woman, why do you get the sale? No, it's just that it all goes to the full-time person by default. And usually they actually say the name of whatever product they're looking for, which I'm able to get to them. vvvvv Sorry, I fixed it a bit to hopefully make it read better. It's the first time in a long while that I've bad day-typed.
Megera fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Nov 27, 2010 |
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Nov 27, 2010 03:18
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Kaninrail posted:This. gently caress managers who demand you be able to sell something to someone on the spot. We're human beings, not magical sales wizards. Human beings making closer to minimum wage than is comfortable, at that. My day yesterday: WHY CAN'T YOU GET PEOPLE TO BUY FRAGRANCES AT THIS SPECIAL EVENT THAT IS ALL ABOUT COSMETICS?  and WHY CAN'T YOU GET PEOPLE TO OPEN MACY'S ACCOUNTS AT THIS SPECIAL EVENT THAT WAS PRIMARILY ADVERTISED TO MACY'S CARDHOLDERS.
Megera fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Dec 5, 2010 |
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Dec 5, 2010 17:39
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Today, a coworker and I were talking, when we suddenly heard screaming at the escalator. A two-year-old girl's shoe'd foot was caught in the escalator, and the mom and like all five other members of the family were trying to yank the kid out fast (I think the shoe might have stopped the escalator because they were already at the bottom of the steps before I even went over). The next part is kind of surreal because I remember kind of calmly walking over and looking for the stop button (that none of us knew was even there before), and pressing it (maybe not panicking was good in the long run). They dislodged her foot from her shoe, paramedics came and left without her, and I'm not sure if she was severely injured, but last I saw, the family exited the store with the girl holding a Smurf doll. So yeah, dumb parents, watch your kids when you're on an escalator. Megera fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Dec 13, 2010 |
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Dec 13, 2010 03:02
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It's been super busy in the past week, and I can't believe that the customers aren't my problem (I've only had three rude people that I can think of (one made me cry because I suck at free giftwrapping)), but that my coworkers are. Yesterday, before I started working, I was shopping in the cosmetics area where I work and bought my mom an $80 gift from a girl named A, who has been there for four years. I've heard bad things about her before, but she has always been nice to me and even taught me how to do lots of things. After making my purchase, I clocked in to work. After maybe an hour, I saw a couple and went to go help them. They said someone else had been helping them, and pointed at A, who was walking away toward another customer, and they shrugged and let me help them. After five minutes, A came back (after being unsuccessful with the other customer), said "I was helping them earlier", and took over the sale (if you leave your customer and someone else helps them instead, it's no longer your sale anymore). But I didn't want to make the customers feel awkward, so I didn't mention anything and just went away (and made a good sale with the customer she had been unsuccessful with). One of my coworkers witnessed the whole thing and later said that was a pathetic move she made, especially considering her sales weren't hurting at all. So after A left for the day, I returned my purchase and let the other coworker ring me up for it, so she'd get the commission and A wouldn't. Yes, I'm a little bit catty.
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Dec 20, 2010 21:51
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In mid November, I returned some Macy's boots I had worn for two weeks that started falling apart. I had thrown away the box and receipt (the thought of them falling apart didn't occur to me, I was just really happy I had found sexy flat-heeled boots  ), but had purchased them on my Macy's card so the shoes should have still been able to show up. The employee helping me scanned the wrong boots ($70 instead of $60) and I hadn't remembered the price, so I didn't know anything was wrong.Then I got called in last Tuesday about it and was suspended for it. Then I met with HR the day before Christmas Eve and got an automatic termination for it because it was "stated explicitly in the contract" that I should always be checking my card statement (I checked: no it wasn't). The official reason for being fired was: "Receiving amount other than what you paid for returned merchandise." Yeah, I'm still pretty  about it all.vvvvv They even asked me at the beginning of it all if I was willing to pay Macy's what I owed them, and I said I was.
Megera fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Dec 30, 2010 |
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Dec 30, 2010 01:53
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The General posted:I once went on vacation. In those two weeks, an oven broke, the roof started to leak and our extension cord was hosed. I think it's pretty clear that I hold the bakery together I had a week off and a woman gathered Michael Kors bags (over $200 each) on her arms and ran out the door into a van before Loss Prevention could catch them. Obviously I was fired because of not being there and the boots thing was a cover up. 
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Dec 31, 2010 19:54
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Pretend every person you help is a customer from the stories in this thread. They can return it if they realize it's lovely.
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Mar 9, 2011 08:59
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No one's even given me a response for retail applications. I think it's because I went to university for five years, but I absolutely have to include that in my resumé or otherwise I have to explain away why I wasn't working for 3 years.
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Mar 12, 2011 06:09
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elf pr0n posted:No, they're just really expensive. Expensive skin creams are basically Hummers for insecure women. Luckily when I worked at Macy's I never saw anyone purchase Shiseido's $280 cream and I never worked the Chanel counter. I dealt with sane people. Except for when I was in fragrances. Someone got an Angel gift set (around $400) for her boss (she didn't know what kind of perfume her boss wore in the first place) even though I told her Angel is one of the most polarizing perfumes because of how unique (and amazingly strong) the scent is: people either love it or hate it and 1/10 people I had sniff it hated it. Now I'll never know how that turned out.
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Mar 14, 2011 00:21
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Chicken Doodle posted:When asked why, he said he was trying to watch the World Cup but all he could hear was this horrible buzzing noise. What I love about this is that it means he never tried another channel. 
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Mar 21, 2011 20:06
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miscellaneous14 posted:My friend says I'm pretty much guaranteed an interview where he works, so despite having to drive four hours to get there (I'd move if I got the job), I'm super-jazzed about this opportunity. Though I'd feel like an rear end in a top hat if I got a job this easily after all the work TShields has been putting towards getting one. I'm in the same boat, but it's for an art studio, and the bad thing about art studios is it's all about knowing someone.
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Mar 22, 2011 02:24
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After completing four tests for art studios, the first two companies stopped hiring when they realized they couldn't take on any more artists, and the most recent two are looking like a no. I applied for some retail jobs today. 
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Apr 23, 2011 03:22
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I just wanna say for work shoes that Shape Ups are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn, and only $50 at Costco. If your legs or feet start to get tired, you can rock back and forth in them. 
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Apr 26, 2011 20:12
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SpartanIV posted:e: also gently caress the "Do you want it all on the card?" screen. That. loving. question. What state are you in? I'm in California and have never been asked this even though I pay with credit card all the time. I started a job at an animation studio this week, but the starting wage is about the same pay as retail. I know I'm being severely underpaid, especially with a 2/3-hour commute, but the benefits of just getting into the industry and working with awesome people outweigh working retail. On a related note, I had sent in 7 applications for cosmetics sales at Nordstrom, including seasonal, and over the course of this week they all got rejected. I have experience from Macy's for the same job, so I'm not sure just how much experience they're looking for!
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May 28, 2011 18:12
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marsattacks posted:Also, re: some stuff people were saying earlier about places withholding breaks illegally, at my theater, I guess we're technically in the "entertainment industry," they don't have to give us breaks? So about eight months ago they stopped giving us a fifteen minute paid break every shift. Now it's no breaks, or one half-hour unpaid break, no matter how long the shift is (and they can be 9-10 hours, or longer). I desperately want this to be illegal, but I bet it isn't. Uh, I and plenty of friends work at animation studios which are way more "entertainment industry" than movie theaters and we get two 15-minute breaks and a 1-hour lunch for an 8-hour day. That poo poo has to be illegal. What state are you in?
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Jun 7, 2011 08:05
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Ace944 posted:Had two team members cleaning up a spill in an aisle and a guest walked right where they were cleaning,slipped and fell and her boyfriend gave the team members grief for not having a yellow cone set up yet. I guess the two team members on their knees cleaning is not a good enough warning sign. I was eating at an empty Subway today and the girl at the table in front of me spilled her full cup of Coke all over the table, chairs, and on the floor. The manager came out to mop it up, and a guy that had just gotten his sandwich walked twenty feet to the table, walked into the Coke, and started to set his stuff down until the manager had to tell him he was cleaning.
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Jun 28, 2011 06:26
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uptown posted:I work with a guy who buses for about two hours each way to work. I have absolutely no idea why he doesn't find a job closer to his house; At Disneyland, one of my coworkers lived up by Six Flags, which is a 1.5 hour commute one way assuming no traffic. I hope she utilized the gently caress out of the free entry because otherwise I don't see how it's worth it.
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Jul 24, 2011 19:59
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Disneyland is open for every holiday, and I loved working there so I didn't have to spend time with my insane grandma, I didn't want to deal with the bullshit of trying to get a day off, and we got holiday pay. Now my grandma's cool, and I would be so grumpy if I had a huge dinner and then had to go into work that night instead of sleeping off the food coma.
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Nov 23, 2011 23:25
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Testro posted:^^ I once had a customer berate me for working in the 'worst fish and chip shop in the land' because we didn't sell fish, sausages, pies etc. I don't understand this. He'd have to read the menu to figure out there weren't fish and sausages and stuff, but he didn't notice a trend in the food items listed? My friend and I went out at 9AM Black Friday to do all our shopping at a fairly big mall, (then later at 2PM at another medium sized mall). Plenty of parking, not many people (and the Target somehow didn't look like a tornado blew through it), there weren't any deals that we missed out on, and we got about 90% of our Christmas shopping done. We only saw one altercation between two people (guy ran into a lady and scraped her shin with his package, she said, "Watch where you're going", and he yelled, "gently caress you" as he walked on). I had a tame Black Friday last year too. I think I'm doing it wrong.
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Nov 28, 2011 01:34
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cobalt impurity posted:My first ever raise was 14 cents. Disneyland gives 5 cent raises. Mine never went through in the computer system, and I never cared enough to fix it.
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Jan 11, 2012 02:01
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