The Economy, Jobs & the Things...

The economy now has me officially concerned. Generally speaking, I don't know that my job has a whole lot to offer, however, when it comes to being an accurate and timely measure of the country's financial health, it does keep me relatively in the know.

As you may or may not have heard, as of last week, Linens 'n Things (aka the poor man's Bed, Bath & Beyond) is kaput-skies. They are liquidating all their stores and selling their stock for up to 30% off (which sure doesn't sound like enough to me, but whatever...). It's one of my accounts, and certainly not my favorite one, so I didn't cry about it. I did say, though, that I wish it had happened to Mervyns instead. Today, it appears as though I got my wish. If I believed at all in the power of the mind-- or rather, the power of my mind-- I might think it was my fault, what with the timing and all. What's super weird is nobody knows what the deal is here! Not my boss-- who only knew what I just told her--, not Client Services, and not even my boss' boss. Hopefully they can figure out things by this afternoon.

My Mervyns contact herself left me a voicemail saying they were surprised I even sent them the last preview notice because they were packing up their desks as she spoke (or is it spaketh? I like when words end with "-eth"...) and expected to vacate the office by the end of this week. Anyway, I know I should be happy because that account is THE DEVIL. They have these wackadoodle standards that have so many conditions... Ex. Enter titles all in caps, even if not so on the pdf, except for when gender is included at the end of the title, which should be in lowercase and Don't use the Price Qualifier field but put what would normally go there in the Sales Description field separated by two hard returns (one white space), unless the Original Deal is not for the main product but for the Shown item, in which case it should immediately follow the Shown item in the Sales Description and Never enter listings during a full moon unless it's during the vernal equinox or a year of the chicken.

I really feel badly for them, as people. I do not at all envy their position and wish them the best. I'm sure they were so uniquely anal only because their bosses put pressure on them to be so.

I haven't told my bosses yet, but about a month ago I was told that American Signature/Value City Furniture was also leaving us (also my account) at the end of this month. Not to mention that I noticed while doing my daily site checks the other day that Pruitt's has started posting their own ads rather than have us process them! So all told, we're talking about my personally losing 5 accounts in the past month! That's about 3/5 of my accounts! Plus many of my other accounts have significantly reduced the number of planned promotions.

I was only planning on staying at this job until next September, at which point I want to go to nursing school. With the way things are going though, I'm not confident I will be able to get a school loan. Sometimes hospitals will finance your schooling on a condition similar to that of an indentured servant, but nothing like that seems to exist in my area. I'll have to keep looking, though, and maybe we'll be able to swing community college at least. If it came down to it, we would be willing to move in with Chris' parents, but did anything good ever come out of moving in with your in-laws? For anyone involved? Of course I realize that very shortly we probably won't have an option what with their declining health, but another story for another blog for another day...