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Pablo Hidalgo @infinata.bsky.social ⋅ 6h
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Dr. Elle, Her Celestial Majesty 
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Jeremy Diamond
not me going and adjusting all the shelves not quite seated correctly bc I’m paranoid the things will fall out even though that has never happened once on my shift (which last ended many many years ago)
Me neither. To the point that I have to avoid toy sections in stores, let alone cosmetics. There’s not enough time in the day for that when I’m no longer doing it professionally.
I have twice been assumed to be working in a bookshop because I was alphabetising things. I’ve got out of the habit of setting them all flush with the shelves, something I was taught to do during my time as a trainee library assistant.
You! Stop doing that! I hate you specifically as someone who does work at a bookstore. If you really wanna help, apply to work or straighten the non-book related things -_-
As a fellow bookseller, why? I can barely get my coworkers to help me shelf read lol. If a trained customer wants to jump in, go for it
‘Trained’ and ‘knows your layout’ are two very different, necessary things. Idk I run the shop myself when it’s my hours so I’m used to doing everything. Having a big enough store where you have coworkers that don’t really help would probably change my mind on things.
I was offered a job once in the models dept. of the local craft store when one young lady was fronting the shelves and restocking mislaid items. I pointed to where a particular model was supposed to go, and she almost begged me to go apply. If I didn’t already have a day job, and didn’t want to deal with the overly religious aspect of the owners, I mightve been tempted.
My OCD-like reaction when eveything is everywhere and I don’t work there:
The best bit is when the manager or higher staff see you doing it and give you a discretionary voucher for money off as thanks. It’s like you get that release and are paid for it. Compulsion hooking, if you will.
they WHAT
all i ever get are funny looks
I need to know where you shop!
I need a friend like Amber.
Either that or to be her.
Either way, those Voyagers need to be lined up.
I do that same shit. It just feels gratifying.
right?!
autisma solidarity ^-^
That’s a nice way of viewing things, and I’m glad Ethan is showing some interest in something here. He isn’t going to suddenly be happy, and smiling again, but baby steps help.
Anyone else feel like he is doing better?
nothin like a stim to make you feel more like yourself, if that makes sense
so yes?
Stim?
like autistic stimming ^^
Ah, that makes sense; thank you for the info.
I was actually just thinking that. Like he’s still not looking great but if you jump back to how he was at the start of his depression he’s made some noticeable steps.
He’s out in public and everything!
A rare sighting of an Ethan Going Outside [TM]!
…
(it’s me. i’m the rare sighting of ethan going outside.)
Yeah, I certainly think so. He’s almost smiling in the last panel.
Not quite. But almost.
Yes, he is. Perhaps Asher was helpful to him (which reflects well more on Ethan than on Asher).
I had the same urge once with the DVD aisle. Next thing I know, a woman is asking me where she can find the playstation games and what her thirteen year old son might like, and as she left said she’d complement my boss. I was too surprised to explain I wasn’t an employee.
I imagine someone trying that with Ethan is going to come away knowing a lot more about Transformers and at least one Dinobot that has somehow appeared.
And there was a confused manager later that afternoon.
This strip is giving me a nice, simple, and sweet feeling.
This is like if I drop by the store I work at on my day off, and stuff’s not set up correctly. I have to remember I am not on the goddamn clock.
I do love Amber’s smile in the last panel, and the two being on the same page.
It’s not like the 70s and 80s, when every isle was jammed in every inch, all year round.
Ethan needs to get a job in this Target. He also needs to meet Duncan and get irrationally offended.
It can be like the Prequel Era of Shortpacked.
Except good like Clone Wars and not the actual prequels. With Kit Fisto and Ahsoka.
Or him and Duncan finally become friends (or boyfriends…?), which they could never do in the other universe.
Or Duncan walks up to Ethan but Ethan just says “Get away from me, Duncan.”
“I’ve got an idea: Monkey Master: BUCKETS OF BLOOD!”
I know it’s not a big storyline but I’m happy to see the Amber-Ethan friendship slowly being repaired and Ethan getting some colour back (on the inside.)
No but really, a toy aisle of Voyager-class transformers not where they should be will drive someone to drinking.
He then cleaned it so well he was offered a job at the store
For the 4th time.
(he keeps turning it down, not because of crappy pay, which he’s used to, but because they don’t give employee discounts)
Sometimes, your brain just snaps into work mode when you’re doing random off-the-clock shit (for example, I can’t NOT push in the chairs when I’m at people’s houses, and I can’t hear certain words without snapping into work mode).
It’s a little funny when he’s never worked in a toy store in THIS ‘verse, though XD
I have more than once ended a phone call with my mom or dad dad (calling me for computer or phone help) with ‘is there anything else I can help you with today?’ because 15 years in a tech-support call center has made certain rhythms automatic.
I’ve absolutely done similar things (probably because I rarely talk on the phone *outside* of work). Luckily, parents tend to find it hilarious
Eyyyyy! Thanks, Willis! Followed. ^_^
Mastodonians, PixelFederationists, Friendicans! Willis did the thing so now you can follow his BlueSky directly from your accounts!
Paste this into search and hit enter:
@damnyouwillis.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy
The profile will come up with a Follow button next to it, and if you click it, it’ll work. Yay!
(If you want to reply to anything, though, you need to give the bridge permission from our side. Paste this into your search:
@bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy
…and hit Follow on the profile that shows up.)
don’t bother, someone will come around after and mess the aisle up all over again.
its a lost cause.
not sure if this is sarcasm or a meme or somethin but
like, whenever I hike I make an effort to pick up trash on the trail for more or less the same reason Ethan wants to tidy up the aisle
i ain’t paid for it, i know it may get trashed again in the future anyway,
nor do i expect a reward for it by gods or humans in the future, or even need it
if only because seeing the result of the action, a place you love being prettier, is the reward itself if that makes sense?
Cleaning up the environment is a good thing, of course. But in a capitalist society, doing work that you’re not getting paid to do just hurts other workers.
so if I cook my own food to save money am I hurting other workers?
@-@ I’m just tired of this unstable and unsustainable bullshit, the sooner we all move towards democratic socialism the better
I don’t see how cooking your own food to save money hurts other workers. You’re not doing the work of restaurant or food service workers for free by doing that.
I would love to live long enough to see a world after capitalism, preferably socialism moving towards an ideal communist utopia.
the first steps are much easier to take than you think!
many a socialism including market socialism and democratic socialism posit a huge role for worker cooperatives, a model proven more than viable, heck I think I’m already part of one myself ^^
how does it hurt workers to give them less work to do? there’s an impossible amount of work all the time at these jobs, so if someone wants to tidy up just let them. this just sounds like the “voting is bad actually” and “don’t recycle it doesn’t make a difference” attitude of the Online Left where they tell everyone not to do anything, ever, and somehow that will lead to socialism.
Ok but never touch my fucking bookstore. I like working and organizing and having too much to do. Not only does having less to do stress me out, taking away my right to be annoyed at you for putting Jurassic Park in the fiction instead of the Sci Fi section you got it from because that is what says on the back of the book is one of my life’s many joys damn it. I know I’m not ‘the norm’ but I’m physically incapable of taking a break when I’m at work. I have to practically be forced.
But, if nobody was allowed to cook his own food at home, we’d all have to eat out all the time, and there’d be more work for hospitality workers. Everything you do for yourself is taking bread out of the mouth of someone who could be paid to do it for you.
So if I had a paid staff of servants, that would be a good thing?
Yes. Assuming you pay well and treat them well of course. Creating jobs is good.
The idea that socialism could ever lead to communism was probably Marx’s second biggest mistake, right behind the idea that communism could ever be more than a pipe dream.
Marxist Historical Analysis proves itself useful even to this day, however when it comes to suggested programme to make socialism actually happen, Marx was much more of a scientist than an engineer in that regard, in that scientists figure out what CAN be done, and engineers figure out how to actually make it happen.
His suggested socialist programme revealed a bit of naivity about economics, but let’s be real here the same goes for literally EVERY economist before 1900 XD
heck even Martin Luther King Jr., himself a democratic socialist, acknowledged that Marx wasn’t always right
King, Martin Luther. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story. 1958. PP 92-95 (pp.4-5 pdf). “in so far as [Marx] pointed to a weakness of traditional capitalism, contributed to the growth of a definite self-consciousness in the masses, and challenged the social conscience of the Christian churches, I responded with a definite “yes”.
Are you trying to imply that post 1900 economists are not naive? Modern economists are either incompetent or evil, judging from the results of their and their followers’ behaviour.
I’ve seen economists claim that wage increases could trigger an expanding inflation spiral, but simple math shows that’s only true if wages are more than 100% of the cost of a product, in which case all economic activity is a net negative so we should do as little as possible. Now, are these economists bad at math or do they truly believe that their entire field be replaced by just saying “do less” but for some reason they’re being coy about it? Or is there another reason, would they perhaps personally benefit from convincing people of this? Those are the three possible explanations.
And that’s just one example, there are many. Do yourself a favour and the next time an economist or one of their followers makes a claim, check their math.
I was referring more to trends among economists back before 1900 such as the Labor Theory of Value, the discrediting of which forms the basis for much of the modern economic critique of Marxism, despite being nowhere NEAR unique to Marxism, as it was indulged in by even the father of capitalism himself, Adam Smith.
My point being that Marx’s contributions as a historian and pioneering work in the then-embryonic field of sociology shouldn’t be overlooked or understated despite the widespread relative ignorance of economics back then
and yes, very true many economists today are bumbling bourgeois idiots trying to pose as thought leaders (-_-)
What you said is too much like someone knocking a bunch of stuff onto the floor saying it’s job security for the cleaning staff.
That’s assuming that if you don’t do something then someone else will be paid to. In many cases it only means it won’t get done at all.
False. Society sets up a situation where doing good hurts people, but that doesn’t make the act bad, it just makes society bad. If a bully grabs your hand and starts punching you with your own hand, do you blame your hand?
I concur, the ultimate problem lays in the fact that our oh-so “free” society is allowed to be a capitalist one where people by default have to earn their right to live via wages from corpos who are essentially modern day feudal lords.
hell, even conservative economists like Schumpeter ADMITTED that the social order resulting from post-industrial capitalism is “the nearest approach to medieval lordship possible to people of the modern world”. (he said he thought that was a good thing BTW
)
Hey, it’s our outdoors too, and if we like it tidy we’ve got a right to do our bit to keep it so.
I mean, cleaning aisles. We just do it before the shift is over so no one can mess it up again.
As a retail worker trying to do constant full aisle sorting on the clock is like trying to push a boulder up a hill.
I dunno why people bother breathing in. You just breathe out again anyways.
I can understand cleaning up the aisles in the toys area of a store if you work there and are getting paid to do it, even though it’ll likely get messed up soon after. But nobody should clean up aisles in a store they don’t even work at. Greedy companies will see people willing to work for free and decide that means they can pay their existing workers less, or give them a heavier work-load for the same low pay.
the company doesn’t see that. the store manager might, and they probably won’t care. they also have very little control over our pay and workload, if any.
I’m actually not taking work away from anyone if I sort the Power Rangers by color, actually. Let’s not be ridiculous here.
If you want to have the Power Rangers sorted and you don’t hire someone to do it, then logically you are taking away the job of the person you otherwise would have hired to sort them. Being accurate doesn’t make the argument any less ridiculous, but it is accurate.
XD Oh Ethan. Some habits die hard across universes.
I don’t dine out much anymore, but since it would be bad form for me to take my dirty dishes to a restaurant’s kitchen I scratch the itch by getting everything in a tidy pile with cutlery on the topmost plate before I leave.
That’s just the courteous thing to do. Any time I see someone not stacking the dishes, I get itchy.
This is called pre-bussing and as someone who used to bus tables as a kid I do this at every restaurant I go to. It’s just the courteous thing to do. My boomer aunt gets annoyed at me about it because boomers don’t see food service or retail workers as people, whereas I try to make friends with the wait staff anywhere I go. (Not to brag but I’ve been told I’m a delight to serve. A couple weeks ago I bumped into a bartender who served me lunch on Christmas Day and he asked me to come back to his bar. I must be doing something right.)
I’ve seen a lot of wait staff online telling people not to do that because they have a specific system at the restaurant
Fuck the system. Orderly stacking is now an act of rebellion.
I worked on the stockroom crew at a big retail store for most of a year a couple of decades ago and I can confirm that it takes a while to get out of the habit of “this shelf is sloppy; I should tidy up the merchandise and front-face and see if there’s anything in topstock to fill the gaps WAIT NO I’M A CUSTOMER NOW DAMMIT THIS IS NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY”
Same here – I can’t take a couple of bottles of fizzy stuff from a shelf without re-blocking that item, and maybe the ones to either side
. . . and the ones above and below
Actually had Security pull me aside on the way out of a store once asking what game I was playing
Jealous their Target is actually stocked. Even the one step changers are never in stock I the stores in my area
Don’t voyagers belong in the delta quadrant??
Not if it’s the start or the end of the series.
Or in the Heliopause shelf section. Either is good.
the (luminiferous) ether was largely disproven about a hundred years ago.
And then came back in a new form. We just call it space-time now.
The last two panels just remind me that Amber thought they were going to get married… Their body language… The level of comfortable with each other.
And it’s kinda heartbreaking because they’ve spent most of the comic not having that… Amber needing space at first, then the post-Mike apocalyptic levels of “how could you not know?! How could you not tell me?” rage and pain and grief… But you can see how they just used to fit together, and that familiarity, and mutual comfort now, in the midst of their grief. I hope their friendship recovers.
The word for the day is “sappy” apparently, brought to you by the letter me and the number it’s early
+1
awww
Target has Voyager toys? But that show ended over 20 years ago!
What’s your point?
I worked in retail for years and I relate to wanting to tidy up shelves at stores I shop at, but I won’t do work that I’m not getting paid to do. I’m autistic and I like things neat and tidy, but nobody should do work at a place they don’t work at, that they’re not getting paid to do.
Unless you enjoy it.
Or it’s unpleasant if you don’t. If I’m using a particular display anyway (because I want to buy something hanging there) and I had to search and search because someone put stuff back wrong or someone just filled the hooks randomly, I’m gonna straighten it up a bit so the next person doesn’t have to rummage. All the 5oz. packages of pepperoni are hidden behind 2.5oz. packages because someone didn’t care? not anymore!
Re: alt text: I’ve convinced myself that most stores (or just the employees) intentionally clutter or un-sort shelves to mask items being out of stock. Rather than have an empty space on the shelves, they just put something else adjacent there and hope nobody bothers them about restocking or reordering the right product.
I also am convinced of this, and I’ll definitely fix that.
Well, when you work(ed) at at least ToysRUs, I know we were directed to pull carded toys to the front of the peg hangers and boxed toys to the front of the shelf, so as to simulate full stockness.
Galasso is a genius!
Boston’s favorite grocery store does the same thing. Hell, I’ve seen customers fronting stock so the shelves look nice.
Difference there is, Market Basket usually is fully stocked. The only time I ever saw empty shelves there was during the ownership dispute and strike.
all I read was Boston Market. RIP
Market Basket is a grocery store chain around here, known for their cheap prices, 1970s interior design, family-owned business drama, and this news report:
https://x.com/oneunderscore__/status/1536773418699341825?mx=2
when someone decides to revive the the ToysRUs store experience in some way, really hoping it’ll be a worker cooperative doing so :.)
We could have toy stores back if someone would ever get around to demolishing those eyesore warehouses Amazon has.
Someday people will be nostalgic for Amazon warehouses.
That day is not this year.
Well sometimes it is just customers being too lazy to put things they put out back in the right place.
Thanks to the sliding timescale of most every webcomic now all I can think about is how younger Willis (and more webcomics creators) used to have to go to a Bradlee’s or W. T. Grant to see which Transformers were on the shelf.
Man I miss these two’s interactions. I wish they’d stop moping alone and start actively friending again. Moping together is one of my favorite activities.
Me, in bookstores, occasionally. From an ancient habit, back in the library worker days. I can relax the impulse most times.
I see we are unpacking this short Shortpacked! reunion.
I see what you did there ;P
damn you willis
The feels?
Sometime a random “Damn you Willis” is appropriate just to provide a sense of continuity.
Toys aren’t the only things being sorted here. Affection by light touching.
Once a toy store employee, ALWAYS a toy store employee.
the arm grabbing 🫂
🥲
My mom used to work for Hallmark and would often conscript me into tidying up greeting card aisles. To this day when I’m in greeting card areas I feel the urge to tidy everything up. Old habits, they die hard.
Amazi-Girl
Amazi-Girl Returns
Amazi-Girl Forever
Amazi-Girl Begins
Cleanup on Aisle Grief, or is it Aisle Stopgap Solutions
Amazi-Girl Beyond (for PC maybe)
This is a heartwarming strip. I think they are friends again.