Anyone that works in retail knows that the holiday's are incredibly stressful.
Not including family, working in service during the holiday's in general sucks, we all want it to be over.
Sales are great, tips get better, treats are delivered DAILY, and these are the upsides to "the holiday's", the downsides are just the same for the consumer as they are for the service workers; long lines, over crowded shops, waiting lists for items on back order, and of course, there is always the never ending stream of bad Christmas music. Don't get me wrong, I adore Christmas music, but there are only so many renditions of Jingle Bells out there!
Working in coffee is great during the holidays for multiple reasons, but tonight I am focusing on one - EXPOSURE!!!!
The endless battle of finding the "perfect gift" is the biggest challenge that most people face when shopping for their friends and loved ones.
(I have my own opinions on the consumerism of Christmas, but nonetheless, I have found myself amongst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Rushing from store to store, ordering gifts online, stressing out on what to get my boss (who has everything), and I am currently on hold with UPS because apparently they've never delivered to my work address through amazon.com - which is a total load of crap because I sign for packages from amazon.com EVERY DAY!!!)
So.. when folks wander into our shop during this season, it seems obvious to buy some coffee for gifts! Yay! However, there is no such thing as a Christmas Coffee! Sorry to let you down out there, but it's all going to taste like coffee, not Christmas, and whomever said that Christmas has a particular "taste" I'd like to sock them in the jaw. I envision Christmas tasting like Rosemary and Lindgon Berry in an herbal tonic, or like gingerbread, or eggnog, but that's all subjective and none of them are tasting profiles that I would find in coffee, even if it is call "Holiday Blend".
We also get folks that come in on a budget and want to purchase brewing equipment as a gift! Even better, I would love to have people learning and experiencing manual brewing at home! The downside is then having to explain to every customer why purchasing just a V60 is not going to work with a tea pot at home, so we refer them to a brewing workshop gift card and the cycle continues while the line (which is never ending) grows at a frightening rate!!! Nonetheless, it's exposure and we are getting specialty coffee and quality brewing into the homes of our customers, it's an amazing feeling to see that happening and that our craft is being appreciated and attempting to be duplicated on the home front.
Awesome..... work is always my highlight this time of year! People are excited about giving gifts and happy to have the help in picking them out.
I am a gift giver, I absolutely love gifting, even when it's not the "season" to do so. Most of the time I am squirreling away gifts that I find for folk all year. I am a terrible gift giver in the sense that I can not wait for you to open it!!! I never make it to Christmas.
The holiday's are also a time for reflection for me and my life as a whole. Even though I don't celebrate most holidays, I always have a list a mile long of invites and people to spend the days with. I am truly blessed, although, I don't usually feel that way. I do at work.. I feel blessed all the time their, and I think it's because I am simply doing what I love to do. So why wouldn't that seep over into my personal life, right?
After some deep thought on the issue, I have come to this conclusion. I am just lonely, but I am choosing to feel that way. Like many of us, I compare my life to my peers around me, and most people I know my age are married, with children and have "a plan". As of right now, my "plan" is about 4 months long and involves winning a regional barista competition! Big plans in my mind, but not so much in the minds of my non coffee peers. I am around so many people, I have many good friends and a ton of family, so why am I the one that feels completely alone in a room filled with people that love me?
This will be my 4th Christmas/Holiday Season as a divorcee, the first 3 were all about getting reconnected to my immediate family here on the west coast, or finding somewhere to go where I wouldn't be alone. Now, this year, it's more about being where I want to be, which may very well end up being alone. Thus we grow. It's not until now that I realized, I was letting myself feel lonely, because deep inside, I thought I needed a man to make myself feel good about the holidays, that spending it with someone would make it that much better, and in turn would make me feel better, in short I was having a pity party, party of one.
Now, as I sit in the center of my bedroom floor, with gifts and wrappings strewn about, happy that all my shopping is done, I feel complete and excited for the first time in a long time about the holidays, I am not dreading them, cursing them, or hoping that they go away. Why the change in attitude? I changed my mind about it and realized what this time of year is all about ... Sucking it up!
Besides, I needed some positive thinking to keep getting all this rad exposure.
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