i don’t have too, too much going on this week, so the timing is good for me to be nice!
yesterday, i had much fun completing r.a.o.k.#6…
wayyyy back when i was brainstorming potential possibilities for random acts of kindness, one idea i had was to go outside with a garbage bag (and rubber gloves) and pick up trash. this plan did not hold much appeal, really – it’s kinda gross to walk about and clean up other people’s tossed refuse [i bet you are wrinkling your nose right now at the very thought, too]. plus, i really do have to give credit to the city of waterloo and to the private commercial developments in my ‘hood – everyone keeps the parks and green areas remarkably tidy and litter-free.
the garbage idea morphed into something much better and right up my alley! -> i could go to a store and tidy an area in the women’s clothing department! why not put my professional skillz to use?! oh, now this idea jazzed me!
(source)
all the pieces of r.a.o.k.#6 fell into place perfectly: i needed to go up to conestoga mall (you will see why at the end of this post), so i decided that zellers women’s clothing could probably use a hand. the thought of cleaning up at old navy did cross my mind (have you ever seen their sale racks??) but i thought that i would likely attract more attention from *real staff* in old navy than in zellers – i wanted to fly under the radar as much as possible.
so, yesterday afternoon, i ventured into zellers. the store was very quiet, and there was barely a soul in women’s clothing.
i headed straight for the clearance racks:
oh, alfred sung, you deserve much better treatment!!…
[**please note that all of the following photos are un-retouched. i did not rearrange, stage or recreate any of the scenes, below**].
ohhh, my fingers started itching to get going when i saw this rack!
before…
…and after! i grouped items by colour!
that did not take long! i moved around to the other side of the rack…
before…
..and after! it is a challenge to create clean lines with so many different fabrics and styles!
here was a problem: empty hangers! (i created a neat stack at the end of a row of summer tops, one aisle over)
a haphazard waterfall of pants caught my eye…
before…
and after! hung in size order (4-16), smallest to largest!
i really would have liked to clip the pants like we do at the store (it looks neater to clip the insides of the material and do a bit of a wrap around the clips), but i thought i better keep the hanging system consistent with the rest of the pants section…
my goodness, but i could have spent hours more straightening and re-hanging! and it wasn’t just women’s clothing that was crying for some attention:
girls’ socks and undies – oh my!
i had to stop, though. i was excited to move on to the other purpose of my zellers trip!
somebody has a birthday coming up…
…and aunti needed to take advantage of the barbie sale!
i really can’t blame zellers for the state of disarray of the store: when you offer low prices and large quantities, you have to cut costs somewhere, and obviously organizing clothing is a task that does not get high priority (compared to merchandising new inventory, restocking, putting up sale notices, etc).
i left the store, content with having completed my r.a.o.k., but i could not help thinking, in the words of jerry seinfeld…
Comments
What a great idea, Cathy! It’s so frustrating to go into a store and find things all in tatters. I sometimes will change my mind about trying to find something to buy when it’s like that. They need more concientious employees, like You!
gran, i agree that messy displays turn me off. i LOVE when merchandise is in precise rows, in size order, for example!
I think that what you did TOTALLY qualifies as a RAOK! Who was helped? Goodness, the salespeople were helped the most since they should have been doing that and not you. I think that customers were helped also. As you said, a tidy and organized store is much more appealing! Zellers is one of the worst offenders when it comes to tidyness and presentation! You went above and beyond being kind! Good for you!
I had a little giggle wondering if you were seen on any security cameras in the store! I’m imagining someone saying something like, “Oh look, there’s one of our employees tidying up the women’s department. Wait a minute…..”
That is awesome!
tricia, thank you so much for your supportive comment! i agree with you that zellers…could use a lot of help! glad you got a chuckle out of this r.a.o.k! btw, i saw by fb that you were at conestoga mall yesterday, too! hope you enjoyed your outing!
Is this really an act of kindness? Who was helped? Did it honestly make anyone’s day? I don’t think it helped people – no one really minds if a rack at Sellers is messy. Not sure this qualifies as an act of kindness. You enjoyed it which is nice but did anyone else really? http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas
thank you for sharing your opinion. i do beg to differ with you: a more pleasing store environment encourages customers to spend more time perusing the merchandise, and hopefully they will then make a purchase (which is the purpose of retail). the beauty of random acts of kindness is that we can interpret them to be anything we wish!
What a neat idea!!! (pun intended) There are several stores in our local mall that could use your attention. Maybe you could plan a vacation with that thought in mind and come see me.
haha, i like puns, johanna – nice work! now you’ve given me an idea – i could simply be a “fixer,” hire myself out to stores to CLEAN UP! and i love the u.s., so i would love to visit down your way!
Wow. I have put fallen clothing back on the racks, but what you did is incredible. Part of me is thinking that if the store was so quiet, perhaps someone could have been back there organizing…but anyway, as someone who can’t always summon up the patience to deal with the clearance racks at Kohl’s, I very much appreciate this r.a.o.k.
zo, that is a great point – yes, the sales associate standing by the empty change room COULD have done some tidying since there was no one trying on clothes??! really, i was itching to do a FULL reorganizing!!
What a fun idea! You are awesome and please please PLEASE come organize my house. Please? Weren’t you dying to see if anyone noticed?
haha! stacie, i would LOVE to come and play organizer at your place – as long as i can have a dip in the pool after?! i was curious to see if anyone would notice…but i just acted like it was perfectly normal to be rehanging things, item by item! (same philosophy as building the baby tower of food in valumart!).