Sprout

Chapter 2

     The following morning my alarm woke me up at 7:00 am sharp. The piercing sound caused me to jump up. "Shit," I mumbled as I reached for my phone and turned the alarm off. With my phone in my hands, I quickly looked through my notifications. There were a couple of texts from Rachel and my mom.

     "Alexa- good morning," I yawned as I walked into the kitchen with my fuzzy gray slippers on my feet.

     "Good morning, Adeline, today is July 5th, 2019. The weather is a high of 85 degrees and sunny," Alexa spoke.

     The weather is perfect for a day filled with training and prep. If it were to rain, the windows would get splotches all over them and I would have to clean them all, again. Plus, good weather means that people will be out shopping and walking past my storefront. The more people walk past, hopefully, the more will want to come to the opening day tomorrow. The opening soon sign has been up for the past month to increase anticipation.

     The store is located in a suburb, just outside of the city. Within a 25 mile radius, there are only big box stores like Lowes and outdoor plant stores. There are zero stores that are solely dedicated to house plants. That is the main reason I chose the location, plus it's close to where I live. I just hoped that people were in the market for house plants.

     For about an hour, I lazily got ready for the day. This meant showering, braiding my hair, putting makeup on, getting dressed, and going through two cups of coffee. I had to be at the shop around 9:45 am in order to get there before 10:00 am. That is when my associates are coming for their training. 

     Since I am 23, newly into owning a business, and burning through money, I only hired three associates. The store really only needs one person working at a time. Since my life is now going to be dedicated to the store, I will be there just about every day making sure things are running smoothly and taking care of the plants. Plus, I can't afford to pay more than three people at the moment. I have a decent-sized loan I am in need of paying back for opening this place.

     As my phone time changed to 9:30 am, I started my walk to the store. My apartment complex was only a ten-minute walk to the strip that the store was located. As long as the weather was good, I planned to save gas money by walking. Plus, I was helping save the environment. 

     Good luck today, girl! Read a text message Rachel sent me. I quickly sent her a thank you text back. Luck was going to be needed for training people today. I am an awkward person who can barely make small talk. I have no idea how I am going to be normal while training three human beings.

     As I walked down the street, I thought back to June when I first met and hired my associates. A fair amount of people applied for the jobs. Yet, most had no idea that plants took so much care or had horrible references. This blew my mind. . . why would you write down someone for a reference if they are going to tell me you stole from their store? The three I picked seemed like they would be personable and ready to learn. 

     I passed by the familiar other stores in the strip. There was the local hair salon, the bar, an ice cream parlor, then the giant windows of Sprout. The storefront looked different from the others. Most of them had windows that were just big enough to see into the stores. Plus, they had decorations in the windows. Sprout looks like it could be a greenhouse. It is just the way I dreamed it would look like. 

     10:00 rolled around quickly. I had just enough time to put my things into the office and layout the associate's things. I couldn't help but try to make it look cute. On the register stand lay three white shirts. Across the chest read Sprout in black with a Pothos leaf next to the text. Folded across the shirts lay a tan waist apron. This would come in handy for things they needed to carry like scissors, pens, and anything they needed. 

     As I was sitting on the stool the door opened. I noticed the younger girl's face from the June interviews. Her name is Lauren, sixteen years old, getting her first job. Following behind her were the other two associates who seemed to already have met, their names are Jack and Caroline. 

     "Good morning, everyone," I greeted as humanly normal as possible "Welcome to Sprout! I bet it looks a little different since when you all interviewed here".

     "Before it looked like a concrete jungle. . .now it just looks like a jungle," Lauren laughed.

    "That is a fantastic compliment" I grinned. 

     I handed each associate their shirt and apron. I explained that they could wear whatever bottoms they wanted, as long as it was appropriate and they wore the shirt. I am a lover of leggings and believe that everyone should be able to be comfortable while working. If it is one thing I can do that will make my associates happier, then why not. 

     Next, I had them quickly introduce themselves to each other. Such a teacher move, I know, but they would be working together- why not have them start getting to know each other early on. 

     "I'm Jack. I'm going to college for accounting. I needed a part-time job to help pay for food," He laughed.

     "I'm Caroline. I'm also going to the same college as Jack, but for nutrition. Honestly, I just need to add some work to my resume," she explained truthfully.

     "Wow, well I'm the youngest. I'm in high school. Newly licensed driver, so watch out. I love making TikToks and making money" Lauren said.

     The three of us laughed at Lauren's introduction. She really is the youngest and it shows. I feel like the four of us working together in Sprout is going to be a good thing. It's the kind of feeling where you just know good things are coming. A good group of associates can do so much for a store.

     "Alright, first things," I began "The register".

    I brought all three of them to the register. I explained how it works, what all the buttons were for, and so on. I also showed them where gift cards were located and business cards. The training today is about three hours. The register training took about an hour because I had each of them practice using the machine. This way they would already be familiar and feel comfortable.

     Next, I took them around the store showing them where things are placed. "Here are the low light plants. These are mainly your ZZ plants and Snake plants" I explained while touching some of the beautiful plants. There were a mixture of tall plants and newly rooted baby plants. Each of them are so unique in their own ways. I handed each associate a card that explained what each type of light means. This is something they can easily pull out to help explain to a customer.

     After showing them the low light plants, I moved on to the medium, and then high light. "These are some of my favorite plants. Here we have some Monsteras and Hoyas" I explained. All three of them were observant as I talked. They would get up and close with the plants and touch them. 

     "Not going to lie, some of these plants are expensive," Caroline said shyly while rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

     "I'm not going to lie either. Some of the plants are expensive and for good reasons. Some of these are hard to get and some are more expensive because of their variegation. For example, this guy is like the Channing Tatum of plants, if you will. The Thai Constellation has beautiful white variegation on its leaves. They are hard to come by and in high demand, which is why we have it priced at $200 here".

     Caroline nodded still in shock. I laughed a bit. Most people don't realize that plants can range from on clearance at Lowe's for $1.00 to $300 for a rare plant at a store. That is another reason I wanted to open my plant store, to teach the public about plants.

     The last hour of training consisted of watering plants, treating them for diseases and pests. Sadly, you can't just let a plant sit there and take care of itself. The more my associates knew about how to take care of these babies, the more they could help teach the public.