As part of USA Today’s series on retail management, the newspaper shadows a Toys R Us manager for an hour on a Saturday morning during the holiday season. It’s a good opportunity to see the world of retail from the other side, including clueless customers, magically shifting inventory, and interruptions galore. Here’s just the first nine minutes:

• 10:30 a.m. — She finds the Mars Mission MT-101 Drilling Unit for a customer who describes but can’t name it.
• 10:32 — She leads a customer to the Star Wars Millennium Falcon Transformer, then explains how it works.
• 10:35 — She takes a customer to the High School Musical doll section.
• 10:36 — She says to two women: “Is everything OK? Let me know if you need anything.” One of the women suggests a couple of drinks might help.
• 10:37 — She brings Barbie Dream House to the customer service area to hold for a woman having trouble operating a shopping cart with it inside.
• 10:38:50 — She moves a stray Tickle Me Elmo back to the Elmo section.

“An hour in the life of a retail manager” [USA Today]
(Photo: Getty)

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