GETTING MORE TALE #599: Tagged
Let’s say you’re in a store and you need help. Who do you ask?
There are usually three good answers to this question:
- Look for the checkout counter and ask the person there.
- Find a person wearing obvious store uniform/gear.
- See if someone is wearing a “STAFF” tag.
We had “STAFF” tags in the Record Store days, as well as store shirts and hats. Fortunately they didn’t have our names on them. Wearing one of these was compulsory, but lots of people hated wearing the tags. They were printed on card stock paper, laminated and punched with a hole for a lanyard. Ugly and cheap. They were quite large – about 5” x 7”. They bent, frayed and ripped quite easily.
“See, they look like a backstage pass,” the boss used to say to assuage us. They did not look like a backstage pass, except maybe for some crappy highschool band.
People hated wearing them because they made us feel like walking billboards. The boss used to say he’d walk in the store and see the staff immediately put their tags on, because they hadn’t been wearing them. It was true! And some stuff refused to wear the T-shirts or hats too. Presumably for fashion-conscious reasons. One higher-up in particular always got a free pass on wearing tags and shirts. I wore mine all the time, because there was nothing wrong with our staff shirts.
In fact I still have one. My blue store sweatshirt was amazing, and it has come with me on many adventures since. I slightly modified it after I quit the store. I sewed on a patch for the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology (which I visited in Drumheller, Alberta), over where the store logo was embroidered in. That didn’t fool guys like Tom, who immediately recognized the shirt from the store. It did fool lots of other people! “Where did you get the cool Tyrrell sweatshirt?” I donated the rest of my old staff shirts and hats to Goodwill, but I will always keep my old “Tyrell” sweater from the Record Store. It has a hole in it and I do not care. I have always loved that shirt.
Regardless of comfort or style, I think there was one overwhelming reason why staff hated wearing those tags. It’s because you’d be out working on the floor, when some goof asks, “Do you work here?”
Once I answered, “Nah, I just wear this for fun.” Fortunately the guy got the joke.
I will say this. Wearing a staff tag is still a hell of a lot better than an apron for flipping burgers.
mikeladano.com 
Better than a hairnet too. I like your modifications.
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As soon as you said “hairnet” I pictured Wayne and Garth!
I did have to wear a hairnet at one job which was a temp position at a pharmaceutical company. I had a lab coat and shoe covers and everything.
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Or…just ask Sarca. I don’t know what it is, but people ask me where stuff is, or for advice all the time…and I am a customer too! Walmart, Metro, garden centres, Value Village, Crappy Tire…
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Next time I’m at Value Village, if I see a STAFF shirt sitting there, I’m buying it for you. It’ll save people time finding you!
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I’m heading to Sobeys this morning.
Can you tell me where the water jugs and tinfoil cooking trays are?
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Cooking trays would be in baking with the spices and muffin mixes. Water jugs will be 4 rows down from that. If you find the row with laundry detergent, you’ve gone too far.
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You deserve an employee of the month plaque.
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People always ask where stuff is at the Licbo! hahaha….
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Hey Deke.
Where is the Iron Maiden beer?
Also, why is there no more AC/DC beer?
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Never tried the AC/DC beer…The Trooper I don’t mind now and than!
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I was just asked this week where something was at a grocery store by an idiot that barely looked up from his phone.
I was wearing shorts and a concert shirt.
I just gave buddy the wtf look.
Really???? I just think people are stupid.
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I get asked constantly where things are. I am at Metro every week, so I do know where things are.
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Maybe you do not have the “employee look” so much as the “smart, savvy shopper look”
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😊
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I should come up wirh an app, that will automatically download a store layout with price comparisons, item locations and competitor coupons for price matching.
Bammmm. Dragon’s Den time.
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Most grocery stores follow a similar layout. Produce by the door, followed by deli – bakery – meat – dairy on the peripehery. Then the stacks. The stacks might vary a tad, but usually categorized the same. It’s a formula.
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SEAAAAAAFOOOOOD
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Royall Tyrell Museum FTW! We loved that place, visited more than once. So awesome.
I have to wear a lanyard with a square pouch on it at my work. My name tag, swipe card, and the tagging codes go in there. It gets caught on stuff all the time.
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I bet it looks like a backstage pass.
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It totally does. I’m with the band.
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I have one today that clips to my shirt pocket. If I wear a shirt without a pocket, it never feels like it’s in the right spot.
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(Looks at nametag)
Nice to meet you Lebrain.
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back in the days when I still went to festivals a lot of people though i was staff too.
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You just look like one I guess?
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Don’t look any further folks! I am a Dinosaur according to my eldest daughter! haha
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Dinosaurs are the biggest and baddest on the block!
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Man, I used to hate wearing a badge. Only had to do it in two jobs, right enough (retail – I guess they’re considered essential in such jobs). Closest I’ve come to wearing them in recent years has been on courses and such where they ask you to write your name on a sticker!
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