Another semester has been completed...

Well. That's 3 semesters under my belt at Columbia. I'm really happy with all of the stuff that I accomplished through getting a transfer at work! It was a difficult transition at first since this was a transfer that I wanted, but at the same time, the new store was almost completely ignoring my availability. Things finally calmed down towards the end of the semester.

I also had some challenges present themselves throughout this last semester. I had to relearn how to get up very early most days. School wise, I had a class at 8:30. Work wise, weekends, I was starting around 8am.

It's going to feel nice to have a month off of school to get mentally prepped for my next semester of writing papers and doing lots of voice stuff.

It has also been a lot of fun working with the overnight stockers on Wednesday into Thursday hanging up sale tags. Next year, I will be able to do that without having to run to school almost immediately afterword. I can go home, rest and be ready for evening activities! (Including SMC Chicago and Lake County events!)

This past semester, I challenged myself with taking Production II and Music Radio Broadcasting. I also had to retake a class that I failed in the second semester. Production II and MRB were both very good classes! It felt nice to review some of the broadcasting stuff I already knew from being on the air and learn the caller system! :)

We will see what goes down in Spring 2011. I'm still waiting to hear from WCRX... :)

Holly Jolly Trolley

Many of you may have noticed that along the right hand side of my blog that I have a link to the Holly Jolly Trolley facebook page. I will be co-running the social media for the event on the day of with help from Matt Cunningham, who does some of the SM for the station. WCRX teamed up with the Greater Chicago Food Depository for this 8th annual event. WCRX DJ's will be broadcasting live from outside of their studios at 33 E. Congress on December 9 from 8a-5p. Please tune in or stop on by and help us fill the trolley that will be sitting outside the building all day! (Also for my twitter friends, I will be live tweeting the event!)

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

If you stop by Dominicks any time during the month of November, they are collecting BOTH non-perishables and monetary donations for ABC-7 Chicago and GCFD. ~~~~~~~~>

Time for a Change. (Wait. What?)

Figured since I have been a Cashier and Sales Specialist for just about 4 years now, that it was *finally(!)* time for a change. I will still be working at the Lincoln/Foster Dominick's, but in a different capacity. I have been in talks with FMC, aka the people who hang up the sale tags, to join their crew and help them out. One to two nights a week, I will be working overnights.

This will be a very nice change and I am very excited to be changing my position! My first day with my new position is actually...Tomorrow night! I will see what next week brings!

I will still be available to answer questions! You can still find me on twitter!

Ahhh... FAQ!

This is more of what I was hoping for my blog to be: A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for Dominick's Cashiers!

As I was on the train and bus heading into work, I had a nice conversation with Ramon DeLeon of Domino's Pizza in Chicago. He was asking me some really good questions until Tim McDonald chimed in with his two cents!

If you follow me on Twitter, then you may have already seen these questions and answers this morning!

Here are the questions that Ramon asked me on Twitter:

Q: what happens at check-out if you forgot your Dominicks card?
A: We allow customers to use their phone numbers to still get the discount.

Q: What if you don't have a card? 
 A: There are 2 different options. If you are visiting from a Safeway state, then use that number. If you have relatives in the area and DONT have a Safeway card, then try the relatives number. If neither option works, then we ask you if you want to sign up for a card and get the savings today!

I didn't catch this until after I got home from work, but HouseOnAHillOrg mentioned that she forgot her card at home and decided to sign up for a new card when she went into a store today. If that ever happens to you, you can always call up the 877 number that is on both the bottom of your receipt and the back of your new Dominick's Card and have the two cards merged. This way, you can use them both interchangeably the next time you go to Dominicks! 

If you have further questions that you would like for me to address on this blog, please let me know! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook!

Grand Opening Weekend is CRAZY!

Wait. You would think that I would know that already. Hee hee hee!

After traveling with Dominick's and doing Sales Specialist duties on and off since 2006 (!), I have seen different perspectives on Grand Re-Openings from a SS point of view. (Let me tell you it can be pretty wild!) Participating/Working the Grand Opening of the Dominick's at 5233 N. Lincoln is the second Grand Opening in my 4 years with the company. The last one was 3 years ago for the store on Chicago and Damen.

Seeing as I didn't have to serve up samples and wear my full work uniform with the burgundy apron and hat (cropped out is WTMX-FM (Chicago) afternoon personality Koz) for the Grand Opening this weekend and could wear the temporary work shirt promoting our Just For U program, I actually felt like a normal employee! :-)

I ended up not having anything to worry about with my new store. :) I did pretty well on my first day as Self Check Out attendant! Spent my second day on both regular register and an express register by Deli.

New Store Excitement

I am *finally* starting at my new store tomorrow morning. There is both excitement and freaking out going on. I have to keep telling myself that this is NOT a temporary assignment and that I am beginning a new journey of being an employee in the city of Chicago. As I have mentioned before, this is not my first time working in a city store, but the previous two stores, I was doing tastings for their Grand Re-Opening/Grand Opening. I will not be sampling at this store.

The freaking out is because I just got trained for a new spot on the front end and may be nervous on my first LIVE experience with actual customers and not just other people who were training with me. Also, it will be interesting to work with new co-workers again. It's been 3 years since I have joined a new store!

If you want to join me for the Grand Opening of the Dominick's in Lincoln Square on Thursday, I will be there from 8am to 2:30 PM.

Countdown Has Begun...

The countdown to my final day at Buffalo Grove is two working days. I leave Buffalo Grove in the safe hands of those who are currently there and those who arrive at that store after me. I *officially* start at my new store on Thursday for their Grand Opening! The store is opening at 8am in the morning All of their ceremonies will be held either that day or on Friday.

I joined my new co-workers at the kick-off meeting/party/celebration just a few days ago (Thursday). They moved their main parking lot to being on the roof. (*Very* similar to the Dominick's on Chicago and Damen!)

From the few co-workers that I was able to chat with, it seems like I will be working with a great group of people at Lincoln and Foster!

I will re-iterate. I am happy to be moving to a city store so that I am closer to home, but I will miss my crew at Half Day and Buffalo Grove! They were an awesome bunch to work with over the 3 years that I worked there. I was there from their Grand Re-Opening in September of 07! That store got the award for the longest period that I was at ONE store (minus various grand re-openings going on elsewhere).

(Major side note: Before I arrived at Half Day, I had actually been traveling with the Sales Specialists to a majority of the Grand Re-Openings from Merrionette Park (FAR South Side) to Gurnee and Aurora to downtown Chicago. All in all, I have been at over 12 stores in just under 4 years! All but 4 were "Temporary Assignments," meaning Sales Specialists Tasting Duties. ;) )

Disconnection Experiment

As many of you know, I'm at Columbia College and just started my second year here. One of the classes that I am taking this semester is New Millenium Studies, also called "First Year Seminar." (Due to issues last semester, I am taking it again.)

One of our first big assignments was to disconnect from all forms of media including: Internet, Phone/cell phone, TV/movies, radio, music, etc for at least 6 hours (preferably the whole day). It was hard this morning to start that as I have a 4 hour class where we listen to music and segue between different music, commercials and promos. After I got home, I got in touch with one of my friends who was in the process of moving in the city. Considering I had moved last year from the suburbs to the city, I knew the procrastination attempts that are made when it comes to the moving process.

After I left to head to my friend's place I sent one final tweet saying starting disconnection process. That was between 2:40 and 2:45 pm. I ended up helping her pack up some last minute stuff (i.e. clothes/shoes). We moved a few *needed* items over to her new place so that she wouldn't have to wait for them. I got home from there, ate dinner with my folks, then it was time for Sadie's Obedient school classes.

It was hard leaving my phone on silent all afternoon/evening considering it's very hard to know if/when I will get called into work. (Luckily with my soon-to-be base store, if I get called in, I will be able to get there faster!) I was also expecting a call from one of my co-workers regarding a schedule switcheroo for the end of the week.

Those who know me know that I receive upwords of 300-500 texts a day because of my twitter usage. I enjoy my use of social media very much and it's hard to not check my phone for tweets for extended periods of time. I did check my phone a few times to see if any work-related calls had come in. Any questions? (At the end of it all, I was antsy for 8:45 to roll around so that way I could answer the questions my teacher provided and write this blog entry.

Life of a complete multitasker

As I begin my sophomore year at Columbia, I have enjoyed the way my classes and job are keeping me busy. On a typical Monday through Friday, my day starts at 8:30 in the morning with school and, depending on the day, goes until about 5 at night. One thing I am looking forward to is my job transfer. I have worked for Dominick's in various stores in the Chicago suburbs for almost 4 years. I'm going to become a city Dominick's employee after being a Lake County employee since I first started in October of 2006.

Now to clear up that last statement. I have worked in a few city stores, but they were very brief. I worked at the Nagle and Devon location as well as Chicago and Damen. I am looking forward to my new work location, which will be in Lincoln Square.

Back to school. One of my classes that I'm taking is Production II which is a pre-requisite for working at WCRX-88.1 FM. I'll be looking forward to working there next January.

I can't wait to see what Blog number 2 & 3 are. They will probably be copied over from my blog on Facebook. You can also find me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djshelly or @djshelly.