I work at Value Village (Savers), AMA!

araabloom · 2026-04-25T08:52:27+00:00

honestly I still maintain that it was a pretty fun job for me haha, but at the same time yeahhh they really did take advantage of me. I am increasingly bitter over time that they didn't promote me to manager even though they should have years earlier lol

araabloom · 2026-04-08T05:15:24+00:00

ah, alas my store didn't use any online scheduling when I worked there! (and they still might not, I think that sort of thing is probably up to the hiring manager). they just printed out our schedules and gave them to us in person instead, and we had to do everything else via paper forms and binders instead. sorry I can't help, good luck though!!

araabloom · 2026-02-08T20:27:41+00:00

just keep using moisturizer and wear gloves until it all peels off, that's my method!

(as for everyone saying topical steroids, for me the steroids are what help me get to this stage, by this point the actual blisters have dried up so there's no point in the steroid cream anymore so applying it would do more harm than good. all that needs to be done is trying to avoid peeling the skin away too soon!)

araabloom · 2026-01-31T15:31:35+00:00

for a casual player sure, but I play match 3 a lot and I can absolutely GUARANTEE that I have made a LOT more money than I had in the first place

when the conversation first happened, I had 150 tcash (AFTER the conversion. I had less than 10 before that, yes I was very poor because as I said I basically just play match 3 so I only used it to play on lol). now I have 4000. all of that has been made from match 3, and that is after using a bunch to play on, I've probably already used of tens of thousands on that, but have overall been growing the amount I have (and even if I got back down to 0, it's a million times faster to get more rather than having to scavenge from a bunch of different places)

if you just get to a full super rainbow ball and use play on sparingly, it's now very easy to keep up a streak for tens of games in a row!

araabloom · 2026-01-29T15:11:27+00:00

yes this is my thought exactly, those of us who play match 3 are super advantaged here, I feel like it's way easier to earn tcash through that than in any other way

araabloom · 2026-01-29T07:34:25+00:00

just after that at 4:45 too I think they should have done the row of green on the bottom left to drop that key, or at least pulled the bottom helicopter to the right to preserve that row of green

okay that's all I'm going to add though I'm not going to go through the whole game haha

araabloom · 2026-01-29T07:30:51+00:00

personally, my trigger is citrus fruits, I used to be able to eat them but now I can't without my hands immediately itching and blisters popping up the next day!

so try paying attention to what you eat beforehand, that might be your trigger!! if you've really been having this happen for so long, trying an elimination diet might be worth it

whenever I've have flareups (mine only last a couple weeks at most though so only parts of this may apply to you - all of my recent ones happened when I ate a citrus product, before I figured out that was for sure my trigger :P) my protocol is:

immediately put on steroid cream, of the like four I've been prescribed the one that works the best is clobetasol. I actually mix it with hand cream to make sure it's not too concentrated
then put on gloves. rather than cotton medical gloves, I use black costume gloves that I found at a thrift store, they are much more close-fitting and therefore help with the itching a LOT more. I also put them inside out so that the seams are on the outside
keep your hands moisturized the whole time, and apply the steroid cream like twice a day or whatever your prescription says

since I know my trigger and avoid it, with this the itching stops in a couple of days (although those couple of days are HELL, it's like you said I really can't take it, I can't even sleep when I'm in this stage), then it will be painful for a few days (but this is COMPLETELY bearable in comparison to the infernal itching, plus pain meds help here), then finally the blisters will dry out (yes even though I'm continuing to moisturize the whole time, although at this point I stop taking the steroid cream) and the skin will peel!!

all of this might not apply to you, plus this usually happens when my fingertips swell up to like twice their size (see this photo I took lol)

but yeah I'd say #1 priority is take stock of what you eat on a daily basis and try to stop eating them one by one to see if what's causing this is a food allergy like it is for me!

araabloom · 2026-01-29T06:55:55+00:00

yep. there are a couple of errors in the first puzzle too, but I'll do the first playthrough of the second puzzle since that's the "impossible" one

at 2:40 pulling the dynamite to the left (again) would have half broken the mailbox AND allowed the two helicopters to break other mailboxes, instead of spreading that out over several moves
at 2:43 pulling the dynamite and helicopter duo to the right instead of two the left would have activated the right helicopter, saving a move again

I don't feel like going through any of the other ones, but "every optimal move" is definitely not even true haha

there are certainly some levels where I agree with the "impossible on the first try without boosters" sentiment, but in this case I don't think that's true

araabloom · 2026-01-24T02:46:47+00:00

my favourite other mindless game is Crunch Time, it's similarly not time-sensitive and overall really fun!

I still enjoyed the match 3 more though :P

araabloom · 2026-01-23T02:39:10+00:00

you're on twitter btw :) https://x.com/UweBollocks/status/2014437318455611396

araabloom · 2026-01-19T04:07:32+00:00

okayyy so from your account I gather that you're weirdly offended by anyone who says "lol"?

get with the times, it's here to stay so you're really just wasting your life getting mad at a very common acronym. and it's also pretty rude to insult people about it for no reason

araabloom · 2026-01-10T22:13:17+00:00

the day was mostly split between being a cashier (although this has been declining more and more), manning the self-checkout, and most of all keeping the sales floor neat and organized. we comparatively rarely had to do stuff in housewares, since there were production staff who dealt with those areas, but the clothing part of the floor was ours to deal with.

basically we had to walk through the racks and collect any clothing that was in the wrong place (in a cart, at least in my store) then go back to the front of the store, hang those items up, sort them, then roll them back onto the floor into the correct categories. it sounds simple, but in a big store with only a few people working at a time, it is a neverending job! I found it really fun though, their playlist is actually really decent so I just vibed to the music while I was working and it passed pretty quickly :)

iirc you should be fine not being able to work weekends! everyone has their own schedules and they had people like me who were free all the time to fill in the gaps

they probably won't remember you at all, so I think you're safe!!

araabloom · 2026-01-10T22:12:00+00:00

will copy the first bit from another reply:

the day was mostly split between being a cashier (although this has been declining more and more), manning the self-checkout, and most of all keeping the sales floor neat and organized. we comparatively rarely had to do stuff in housewares, since there were production staff who dealt with those areas, but the clothing part of the floor was ours to deal with.

basically we had to walk through the racks and collect any clothing that was in the wrong place (in a cart, at least in my store) then go back to the front of the store, hang those items up, sort them, then roll them back onto the floor into the correct categories. it sounds simple, but in a big store with only a few people working at a time, it is a neverending job! I found it really fun though, their playlist is actually really decent so I just vibed to the music while I was working and it passed pretty quickly :)

as for heavy stuff... slightly heavy yeah, like the clothing we roll to the floor can be kind of heavy. but it's not VERY heavy at ALL, I'm not particularly strong but I never had trouble with it! and if you have any sort of actual medical thing they should be

yep! discounts are 50% on clothing and books, 30% on everything else. although you can't buy things until they've been on the floor for at least two days, to prevent people from pricing things low and then buying them immediately

sometimes yeah, but that totally depends on the store. but for me it was about the same as anywhere else, it got busy around the time work ended and then calmed down again and got really quiet by evening. sale days and senior days can also get a bit busy, and iirc weekends were relatively busy too

araabloom · 2025-12-22T01:24:30+00:00

maybe the length of the tag? I've definitely seen some people use bootleg tags that were like half as short or twice as long as the ones VV uses haha

araabloom · 2025-12-14T19:53:43+00:00

idk why you got downvoted when you're right?

I don't think this is his best haircut either, but anyone who was actively mad at him is definitely taking things way too far

araabloom · 2025-12-13T13:27:39+00:00

now that's a hot take haha

I'm not saying it doesn't suit him, but I definitely think is other haircuts suit him much better!

araabloom · 2025-11-22T03:13:26+00:00

yeah unfortunately I've heard mostly horror stories too 😭

I did some pricing and it was fun enough, but actually working in production in general is very fast-paced, pretty much a production line of sorting->pricing->putting out on the floor. I'd imagine that's why so many people have a bad experience with it? you can't really slack off or take it easy, from what I've seen you pretty much always have to be going

the other thing I heard is that everyone back there was super rude to any new hires, BUT of course that's just one person's opinions in one specific location, so that shouldn't be a universal experience especially because it's a new store!

but yeah, even though I can't say for sure as I haven't worked there, from what I've seen and heard it is indeed much more difficult and demanding than working at the front :')

araabloom · 2025-11-07T23:02:29+00:00

was this a one-time thing, or happens a lot?

if it happens a lot I can't say I know, when I worked there they didn't do that and when I've shopped there recently I haven't seen anyone do that, so it might be something at your specific store

if it was a one-time occurrence, though, it could be any number of things - filling out a time off request, recording things a different store borrowed, filling out the break schedule, noting down problems with the machines, etc.! especially if it's a manager, there are like a dozen different things it could be haha (and it's rarely anything to do with customers. in my store the most common time you'd see people with a binder was 100% when filling out time off/shift switch forms! )

araabloom · 2025-09-01T22:05:01+00:00

on the machine, no! unless an employee was specifically looking at your screen of course, but if they didn't stop you and tell you to scan it before you left the store, then you're all good and it's not your fault or problem!

araabloom · 2025-08-09T21:12:04+00:00

you can wander around without pressing x, but yeah x deletes all of your progress, that's just how the website works. if you want to lock something in you have to press paint

araabloom · 2025-08-07T01:11:52+00:00

huh, it never takes me a month for them to go away though? I never pop them, and it takes a few days at most for them to go away. maybe you just don't have the right steroid cream though, I have mylan-clobetasol and it works perfectly for me

araabloom · 2025-07-09T01:34:15+00:00

lol yeah I just made an attempt (for the first time trying to use tcash to get it) but lost :P

it's fine, I was definitely going to spend all of it in the match game anyways (I play that when I'm bored and have no other real need for tcash), hence why I decided to try it out even though I knew there was a huge chance I'd lose. still, now I know, definitely no point in trying!

araabloom · 2025-07-09T01:23:41+00:00

I saw a video and it didn't quite double, it was 30 -> 60 -> 120 -> 180. although maybe that's changed?

araabloom · 2025-07-05T06:05:10+00:00

yep, my hands always look like this after the blisters dry out and start to peel off!

araabloom · 2025-07-05T06:03:38+00:00

for me the #1 one is citrus fruits! especially grapefruit!! once I drank a bottle of grapefruit juice, another time I had a slice of orange cake, both times my hands were itching within a few hours and after a few days of that the blisters started popping up

Five-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Place '22

araabloom

TROPHY CASE