Graduating Baruch College in 1982, I went straight into management training with Toys-R-Us. Which also means, I was an Assistant Manager as the Cabbage Patch Kids craze was beginning to happen and lived through the madness of nothing that I ever saw in retailing again! I was even interviewed a few times at my Yonkers, New York, location. Assistant Managers at Toys-R-Us were basically assigned different departments to oversee. Even though I wasn't in charge of the doll aisles, I was selected to set up a nursery and invite parents in to a backroom to select their dolls.
I didn't know what I was about to experience at the time but it wasn't long before I realized I was basically being prepared for anything. Eventually, future parents of these baby powder smelling ugly dolls with adoption papers had to sign up for a waiting list. One of these mature adults actually smacked one of my customer service employees over a dispute of our rules. Other very respectable adults harassed a truck driver as he got out of his cab to bring us the paperwork for his delivery.
Cabbage Patch Kids definitely brought out the worst in people. And before I forget, let me not fail to mention the introduction of Preemies and eventually the pets, Koozas. The store manager armed me with a baseball bat and had me begin my mornings lining up people that came with the intention of picking up their dolls. I soon learned that a strong authoritative tone was needed to get them to listen.
Employees didn't get discounts for purchases at the store because Toys-R-Us considered themselves a discount store. Thee dolls originally sold for $19.99. These same dolls were found in Pennsylvania and New Jersey at $60.00. Needless to say, before the sign up list came into play, some employees were able to make a profit by buying and reselling. Also, the baseball bat that was given to me was aluminum and ended up with plenty of scuff marks from me banging it into the side of the building.
I eventually got promoted to store manager at another location but nothing ever came close to this experience.
