A Christmas Story

Good morning... What can I get for you?

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we're looking forward to Hanukkah and Christmas, it's time to tell the tale of decorating the stores for Christmas... pre-Siren's Eye and pre-Happy-Non-Denominational-Holiday-Day...

Now I'm a big fan of Christmas... not the religious kind necessarily, but the "white snow, lit tree, caroling" kind. And yes... I like to decorate... tastefully. So, at each of the stores I managed we had the standard holiday posters and red and green stuff... but we also strung up lights and a few ornaments... and yes... even a holiday giving tree (artificial as per fire dept. guidelines).

One year... it was 1997... We went all out. The ASMs and I took our Shifts up to the snowy mountains for some snowball fights, a little snowshoeing and to talk about pumping the partners up for the upcoming holiday kickoff. We scheduled an after hours, Christmas decorating party for the store... including food and presents to kick off the season and decorate the store. Green garland with white lights entwined, tasteful glass balls, a tree with lights... it looked like a scene from A Christmas Story... and it brought pride to the partners at my store... and we had a phenomenal sales season... I still believe that the holiday attitude of my partners made it so great.

The partners started calling me "Ralphie" during that year... because I guess I look like Peter Billingsly or something...

I'm not sure what a Store Manager can glean from this story... I just thought it should be told.

See you tomorrow... Have a good day today... alright?

Pat Nerr...