What's My Role? CEP #17

Now that I'm properly settled into a routine here (or as routine as it gets with schedules coming out weekly and hours always being erratic and unpredictable!), I thought I'd wrote a post explaining what my role is working at Hollywood Studios in Theater District merchandise.

As I discussed in my training post, my area is comprised of a number of stores, but within that there are also various roles. The standard assignment will be register, but this does not mean simply standing behind the till and waiting for guests to check out. We must also act as greeters, playing with the merchandise (in what is called merchantainment), and constantly engaging with guests. This also involves processing packages for pickup at the front of the park and other resorts.

In the Star Wars shop 'Tatooine Traders', we may also be assigned to the Build Your Own Droid or Lightsaber stations where we guide guests through the process one on one. This store also has one cast member specifically assigned to be Jedi Guest Assist to engage with guests without having to worry about making sure the register is also manned. If you are on register though, and you are not checking anyone out but standing waiting there, you are in the red zone - which must be avoided!

On our Indiana Jones truck, another part of the regular register shift is personalising the various leather bracelets we offer and so working the special machine we have.

Another potential assignment, if you are not on register, is stocking. If you are in Tatooine Traders or Stage One, this is simply filling the shelves with what's needed. However if you are stocking the Loop stores, there's far more to get done than replenishing merchandise.

This involves getting water and Powerade for the two hub carts in front of the chinese theatre, and so filling these coolers up with the products as well as ice. However, it's Florida...so ice melts! Therefore, before filling them, every hour or so we have to drain these coolers which is hot and heavy work! The ice we use to fill them also comes from an Operations building a 5 minute walk away, which adds to the tiring nature of this 9 hour shift - in which I once walked 9 miles!

There's one other type of shift I haven't been assigned yet fortunately, which is Heart of House. This involves coming in at 4am to completely restock the store and unbox the packages of merchandise. This is the only shift pretty much that, if you receive it, you won't be able to trade - all locations have trading pages on Facebook to swap with people for a shift that is longer/shorter/different location.

Other than that, we always wear our pin lanyards onstage so engage in pin trading with guests pretty regularly. The big emphasis in Merchandise is guest interaction, and the leaders stress that we should always be talking to someone!

I definitely feel we do that, as the break room is typically pretty quiet with people taking some downtime before they're back out there again asking guests anything and everything about their vacation but also their lives back home!

So far I absolutely love my role, and I can't believe my first month living and working in Orlando is complete!