a trip to the future

Emporium Update

Working at the Emporium has been SO MUCH FUN! Laura, Scott, Marty and I lucked out to be working at such a fun place. To give an overview of what we do- here are some of the jobs CDS (the Cast computer program that tells us our assignments) might give us:

Stocking- going into the store rooms, depending on which room of the emporium we are 'stocking' that day. ie. 2008 souvenirs, children's clothing, princess dresses, adult clothing, stationary, scrapbooks and photo albums, cash wraps (candy around the registers and lollipop duty), mugs and breakables. My favorite room to stock is the princess room. I usually just go upstairs and get the dresses, hang them if they're not already, and put them in order on stage. Since I'm right there, moms usually ask me if I can help them find different sizes for their daughters and I get to wait for the girls to come out of the dressing rooms and tell them how beautiful they look! Sometimes, if I have any pixie dust in my pockets, I'll sprinkle it over them and teach them how to curtsy like a princess. Getting completely covered in glitter is inevitable.


Merchentaining- a mixture of Merchandise and Entertaining. Theatre and retail. It goes along one of the Disney Basics: "I stay in character and play the part"- meaning that when we are "on stage" we are from the early 1900s and know nothing of the new millennium or it's new-fangled ideas. We walk around holding Minnie and Mickey dolls, sometimes I like to carry the baby Dumbo dolls because I can tell the little girls that I am babysitting. We pet invisible dogs on leashes and sprinkle pixie dust on guests. But my ALL TIME favorite merchentaining thing to do is to find kids that are asleep in strollers and cover them in Mickey stickers. I ask their parents, of course: "May I decorate your child?" and they always say yes. Moms and dads love it and when the kid wakes up, he has no idea how 20 stickers landed on his shirt!

Registers- pretty much just that. lines before and after the parades are VERY long and sometimes it will be 45 minutes until there is even a short break in the line. It is very hectic and nerve wracking sometimes- I'm always scared my math will be wrong and I will give back too much or too little money- even though the registers tell us how much change.. the first time I had to break a 100$ bill my hands were shaking as I counted the money back to them. now it's not really even a big deal at all!

Door Greeting- we wear very large white Mickey gloves and wave at passerby. Depending on what time you get there, you have the opportunity to see the 3:00, 9:00 or 11:00 parades. Once at work, I saw ALL THREE parades in the same shift. Some of the Emporium kids are tired of the parades, but they never get old to me. I could watch Spectra-Magic until my face turns blue and my hair lights up in all the colors of the rainbow. Apparently, that has actually happened before.

Put-Backs- go to each register and gather what guests have put in the wrong place or decided that they didn't want. This is probably my least favorite job, except for the fact that you get to cover the whole store and not be stuck in one area- and also because at every group of registers, I get to say hey to my co-workers and ask how they're doing. Everyone at the Emporium is such like a family that we talk ALL the time. And since we're there for so long, we always know when there's someone new and we immediately go introduce ourselves and try to help them feel welcomed. We have a very warm community.



More on the Emporium later- this one is long enough. I do need to tell you about breaks and my new friends though. That is probably the most exciting part yet.