29 DAYS. That is how long it takes to pack up and ship out an entire store. No more, no less.

Before our inventory could be shipped out, it had to be scanned and transferred out in the RF gun. We had one gun. To make things worse, we could only scan a certain amount before the office computer would get overloaded and freeze. Despite the massive bottle-neck, somehow we managed to stay on schedule. 

Once the frames had been scanned, they were wrapped. Each associate had their own method, varying from, only a natural disaster will break this frame, to a more casual, just get in the box approach. After the frames were wrapped they were put in boxes and placed on the pallets.

Corporate had supplied us with two box sizes. The small boxes worked out just fine for the photo frames and smaller wall frames, but once we moved on to the 11x14 and 16x20 frames, we quickly found that the small boxes were too small and the large ones too big. Using the large boxes meant either filling them up to capacity and making them extremely heavy or packing a reasonable amount of frames but using an excessive amount of packaging paper (which we did not have much of). 

I’m afraid that most of the boxes ended up being in the former rather then the latter category (sorry San Jose).

Every other Wednesday the RDC truck came by to pick up the pallets. Usually we ended up shipping out seven to eight, sometimes more in each shipment. Fortunately the San Jose store had a large back room.

During those 29 days we ran out of bubble wrap, packaging paper, and pallets. Dozens of rolls of tape were used. Many boxes were filled. Several backs were strained. Surprisingly, very few frames were broken.

ABOVE. TIME TO MOVE ON. Packed boxes ready to be sent to the San Jose Aaron Brothers. Shot with 35mm lens at f2, 1/750s, ISO 1600. 

CAUTION BEYOND THIS POINT. Main sales floor after all the wall frames had been entered into the RF gun. Shot with 23mm lens at f1.4, 1/1400s, ISO 1600.

TOP. Every piece of inventory had to be scanned before it could be packed. There was only one RF gun and every so often the gun needed to be cleared otherwise the computer in the back with its 2mb of ram would freeze up. BOTTOM. Close up shot of packed boxes going to the San Jose store.

CAUTION ZONE. Endcaps and wall frame aisles with caution tape. Shot with 23mm lens at f1.4, 1/1600s, ISO 1600.

TOP. The wall frame aisles were taped off to prevent customers from buying frames that were already transferred out. BOTTOM LEFT. Wall frame aisles after frames were removed. BOTTOM RIGHT. Wall frames packaged and ready to be boxed.

ONE LAST TIME. Taken after the last truck shipment at store 52. Shot with 23mm lens at f5.6, 1/80s, ISO 6400.