I am not responsible for your child! RetailHell rant -add your own!

The BBQ Pit
1

A rant aimed at (some) parents.

Do not let your child swing on the ropes we have for shepherding customers into orderly lines. Just don’t. Your child will hit the ground, collapse the ropes and metal stands onto itself and then SCREAM. And scream and scream, and scream, while you look at me like it’s my fault.

If your child swings on the ropes and hurts itself, it is in no way my fault. Don’t tell me that I should remove them and don’t you dare call me ‘pathetic’ when I explain that, in the grand scheme of things, I am vastly unimportant and NOT ALLOWED to alter the layout of the shop. Furthermore, we have signs! All over the place! ‘Please do not let your child play on the rope barriers. They are unstable.’

Don’t make me babysit your children either. I don’t mind talking to kids about Harry Potter vs. Artemis Fowl, or how their holidays are going, but don’t let your children wander around. I’m nineteen, and in no way equipped to deal with your child howling because it can’t find you.

Don’t laugh when your child pulls the children section apart. It is neither funny nor cute. Make them help me clean it up, or at least let them know that Messing Up A Shop Is A Very Bad Thing. When I tell them that, they cry. I don’t want your kid to cry.

I work in a bookshop in a smallish, slightly upscale shopping centre. Generally I like it. But today -my god! People just dropped young kids off in the children section and left to do their shopping. And so, once the kid had finished running round and round, it would start crying. These are young kids, as well. As the youngest staff member, and, as I’ve mentioned, the least important, I get to deal with them. Have I mentioned children scare me? They do.

Bah. When essays become more attractive then RetailHell, it’s definitely been a bad day…
And now, friendly dopers, add your own rant! Share with me your own experiences in RetailHell, so tomorrow I can think ‘it could be worse…’

2

If they’re abandoning their children, call mall security.

3

I did suggest that to that manager once. She said that it wasn’t worth the shit we get when the mother returns to the shop to find herself kidless. It also makes security hate us, aparently.

It’s not normally too bad, and I’d rather read Where the Wild Things Are then beon the tills, but today was just madness where screaming and/or abandoned kids were concerned.

4

Such a person deserves to be screamed at through eternity.

The mother, not the mananger.

5

Your manager is an asshole.

Parents who abandon their children in public places need a friggin’ lesson to the effect of: DO NOT ABANDON YOUR CHILDREN IN PUBLIC PLACES.

Perhaps a sign would be useful: NUMBER OF DAYS WITHOUT A CHILD ABDUCTED BY DROOLING PEDOPHILES: (blank, with a single-digit number hanging on it)

6

Ghod, this thread has really got my mean streak to running.

“I’m sorry, little girl. Perhaps your mother has simply abandoned you, because she didn’t want you any more. But don’t worry. We’ll put you up at the front of the store, and sell you to someone who WANTS a little girl.”

(Little girl goes totally freakin’ psychotic, right there on the spot.)

HOURS LATER:

MANAGER: How DARE you tell a little girl that her mother has abandoned her! Are you INSANE?

EMPLOYEE: No, but I’m not a babysitter, either. If you don’t like it, fire me and replace me with a &%# babysitter. If I wanted to work in a day care center, I wouldn't have applied for a job at a #%& bookstore. And now that this little girl is clinically insane and has developed abandonment issues that may take years of therapy to get over, perhaps her &%$# mother will think twice before abandoning the poor child with strangers. Plus, the scene that little girl made when she realized she’d been abandoned was quite loud. I’m sure our other customers heard it, and will certainly not want to abandon THEIR children here.

So, ultimately, I have done a GOOD thing, here. Can I have a raise?

7

I will add my own, thanks :slight_smile:

Until very recently I worked behind the counter in a pharmacy. For ages there were two of us behind the counter which was fine. However, my co-worker’s decision to leave corrresponded with the management’s decision to expand and improve the shop, making it about twice as busy. So, working on my own, I was almost always rushed off my feet.

Being a pharmacy we got lots of mothers and children in. Fine. Almost all were well behaved and the parents were pleasant. Excellent. However there were also the parents who plonked their child on the chair by the counter (intended for people waiting for prescriptions, elderly people etc) and wandered off. More often than not the child would stand up on the chair and find themselves at a perfect height to destroy our counter display. Boxes of diabetic sweets, rolls of cough lozenges, and piles of leaflets about piles would go flying. The mother would return and smile benignly at the destruction wrought by their nasty little critter.

Also, due to the stupid layout of the shop, it’s very easy for a child to run behind the counter (where there are plenty of possibly harmful things for them to pick up) and even into the dispensary (where there are a lot of very deadly things to pick up). So I would find myself child chasing, while at the same time trying to ring up purchaes, give advice, bag up prescriptions etc

A couple of times a mother would come in, lean across the counter and, without warning, deposit her child in my arms. I am 18! I know nothing about children! And I have other things to do than hold your fat baby.

I remember one little gnome in particular. His mother just let him wander while she was shopping and he was literally running his hands along the shelves and flinging everything off. He got behind the counter, I shooed him out. Eventually his mum came and dumped all her shopping on the counter and turned to look for the kid. He had found and ripped open a little gift set of two metal trains (we sold a load of gifts and toys at Christmas). She swooped down, grabbed the torn up box, threw it on the counter with the rest of the stuff and said “I suppose you’re going to charge me for that now”.

She then proceeded to lecture me, shout at me and swear at me. She told me I was stupid for leaving those toys where a child could touch them, and why hadn’t I been watching her son and stopped him doing it. I was gobsmacked.

After she had gone I found a second ripped up box of trains on the floor.

These people weren’t the norm but they turned up often enough to make me cross.

Woah - that was long. Guess they make me really cross.
Sorry for hijacking your (excellent) rant, manx!

8

I dunno why more management types don’t take the attitude of the store manager at THIS SITE.

The guy who built this site apparently owns his own business, and therefore calls his own shots… and seems to have the attitude that if you’re an idiot, a crook, or a jerk, he doesn’t WANT your business. Furthermore, he will hold you responsible for what your children do to him or his business.

Why be polite with people who are going to walk all over you, cost you money, and irritate you and your staff? The only reason I can see is that you want their business.

Is their business worth it? Seems to me that the kind of moms who abandon their children in a bookstore are opening you and your bosses up to liability suits where the settlement could totally dwarf what Mom might spend on Dr. Seuss books over a friggin’ lifetime.

WHY be polite and foregoing with these jerks?

9

I’d quote all of Wang-Ka’s post, but why bother?

I’ve never understood why store managers go out of their way to keep these fools’ business. I HAVE three kids. Three YOUNG kids. And if I were so irresponsible as to let them wreak that kind of havoc in a store - ANY kind of havoc in a store - I wouldn’t want my repeat business EITHER.

Then again, if I were that kind of person, I wouldn’t even notice that havoc had been wreaked, would I?

Unfortunately, even other parents, who do NOT risk losing their jobs, are unable to help with matters like this. If I see a little kid pulling handsful of crap off of shelves and I say, “Hey…are you supposed to be doing that?” it’s even money that the parent will suddenly appear and hatefully spit, “Don’t you daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare talk to my child like that!!”

Can’t imagine plopping my baby in a pharmacist’s arms and wandering off, though. What the hell rocks are these people living under?

10

Oh man, now I want to open my own little shop, just so I can hang a huge sign in the doorway: “If you leave your child unattended, we will tag it and sell it.”

11

I have only one small thing to add: PLEASE, DEAR GOD, WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T BUY FRESH MEAT OR CEREAL FROM WAL-MART!!!

Hambugers for labor day - 15 people had the runs for days.

Turkey Brest - I had the shits for 2 days, husband for 7.

Cereal - opened a box of cheerios and bugs flew out. The rest of the box was infested with bugs and larva.

WAL-MART CHANGES THE EXPIRATION DATES ON MEAT, MILK, ETC… PLEASE, STAY FAR AWAY - BECOME A VEGETARIAN IF NEED BE.

Peace Lady

12

Thanks for sharing, Peace Lady. Care to come back when you’ve got something more relevant to add?

Robin

13

PL, what on earth did that have to do with the discussion at hand? furtively counts hours since last dose of Vicodin That was so far off topic as to be somewhat surreal.

14

E-yeah.

Hijack much?

Sign on a comic shop near my home:

UNATTENDED CHILDREN MUST HAVE VERY LARGE ALLOWANCES

:smiley:

15

I was always taught “you break it, you bought it”. I can’t imagine letting my son just wander off, there are freaks in the world. When we go to ediaPlay he goes to the computer games and I go to the books, but he is very well mannered, at least in public:D, and if he needs help he either comes and gets me or asks a salesclerk for help.

Some people though…

I have been known to answer “If YOU were supervising your child I wouldn’t HAVE to talk to him/her like that.” Oh I have been yelled at before but its no skin off my ego when they make fools of themselves.

Heymanx (cool name BTW) bet those kids grow up to be the ones who destroy dressing rooms and make that such an annoying experience for the rest of us.

Peace Lady yer off yer freakin rocker. But I wont hijack this thread to tell you. But maybe you shoulda put that meat in the FRIDGE when you got it home.

16

Usually, when a young child is lost in my store, I can get them to tell me Mommy or Daddy’s name, and then I page the parent. However just the other day there was a 3 or 4 year old wandering around. He didn’t seem scared, and wasn’t talking. I asked my manager what to do, and was told just make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. Which is fine, I’m not a babysitter or his parent.

However, this kid decides to play in the foyer and keeps trying to get out the door. Even worse, when I try to move him away, by gently holding out my hand and coaxing him along, he shrank away from me. So I was forced to talk this young child far enough away from the entry to be safe.

Oh, yeah, and I’m not quite sure he understood English. He looked Asian and he never spoke or seemed to recognize that I was saying anything. SO I couldn’t page for anyone, unless I tried “the parent who is missing their child, he is wandering near the door,” but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t have gone over well.

Fortunately, his dad found about 30-45 minutes later and took him back to his seat.

17

Hey,

The subject was about retail experienes, and I had an experience with Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer in the world.

Please tell me why I was off subject.

The original post invited everyone to add their own retail experience.

Peace Lady

18

So I used to work at a very large Barnes & Noble, which was adjacent to a cinema multiplex. For a time, we stayed open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Every once in a while, parents would drop their kid off at the store while they would go see a movie. This was annoying, at best.

At worst… Well, one Sunday night, it happens again. The parents have gone to see a late movie, followed by a drink or two, and their young (2nd grade?) boy is left in the children’s section. At least he was well behaved.

Did I mention that we closed early on Sunday nights?

I didn’t stay for the outcome, but if I recall correctly, whenever the parents came back from wherever they went, they found a) a darkened store, b) their frightened young child sitting in the entryway of said store (on a chair taken from the cafe – wasn’t the kids fault, after all), c) an extremely annoyed manager who should have been able to go home a lot earlier, and d) a police officer.

One of my (many) other pet peeves was when children such as these would destroy our copies of video game magazines. Even the polybagged ones. After a while, we moved these magazines to the rack directly in front of the information desk, but that didn’t stop these kids. They would actually walk over with a magazine that had been rendered unsellable and ask us if they could use our copy machine. (Um. NO.) Then they would ask if they could have pencil and paper.

It was at this point that I began telling kids, “You know, we are trying to SELL those magazines.” Some of them got it.

It’s to his credit that my manager let me get away with some of that stuff. He also allowed me to put up a display of some of the Y2K scare tactic books, as well as some of those newage prophecy books, the ones that had specific dates in the titles, with a sign that said, “Oops!”

One time:
10-year-old boy: “Can I have a copy of MAXIM, please?” (he was too short to reach its location on the rack)(he was also fairly nervous)

Me: “Aren’t you a little young to be readiing MAXIM?”

Boy: “Uhhh…well, it’s for my brother.”

Me: “How old is your brother?”

Boy: (without thinking) “Fourteen.”

Me: “No.”
Another occasion:
Teenager, stereotypical: "I want a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook. Is it in stock?

Me: “No, we don’t keep that in stock.”

Teen: “Can you special order it for me?”

Me: “Can I get your full name, address, and a phone number?”

Teen: “Uh…”

Me: “And I’d need to see an ID, too, please.”

Teen: “Can’t you just…order it?”

Me: “No.” (At this point I’m wondering if this kid had been grounded off of the internet by his parents.)

Other random conversations:

“Sir, we are trying to sell those books. We’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t sit on the shelves.”

“Excuse me, but that set of table and chairs are from the cafe. You really aren’t supposed to drag it out here to the opposite side of the store.”
“But there’s no place left to sit!”
“You could sit in the cafe.”
“That’s too noisy!”
“This isn’t a library, you know.”

I’d better stop now, else I could go on for pages…

19

Dear Crazy Cat Lady,

Just thought of something, and I mean no dis-respect when I say it. Maybe if you got off those vicodin’s, your head would clear-up. I know, because I was addicted to them for years. If ya think you have a problem, PM me and I will tell you what I did.

I now realize that instead of submitting retail stories, the title should have read “Share retail stories of book stores only”.

Peace Lady

20

Peace Lady –

Did you actually read any of the other posts in this thread?

Did you do your cooking/eating in the store?

Were you, perhaps, working at the Wal-Mart at the time?

Is your post similar to the ones talking about in-store experiences and behaviors observed by employees or others, or the other posts discussing these experiences?