My first retail job was in a liquor store. I liked it, a lot. But, I guarantee you, had the SDMB existed on my first New Year’s Eve there, you would have heard about it.
Dude, you are stronger than me for working there. That’s some work I’d love to take home. Better than a stupid Blackberry to be on call.
All right, I’ve been at work all day and this thread grew beyond my expectations (mostly because of someone lambasting me for being a whiny teen). Thanks to y’all that stuck up for me or empathized.
And to set some stuff straight that came up in the thread:
I am female.
I am 20 and a junior in college.
Not a priviledged teen, thank you very much, been working since three weeks after I turned 15 and was able to. Not piss poor and scratching for dimes either, but if I ever want ANYTHING besides a place to live and food for now, it’s from my pocket.
Didn’t want to wait tables because I am clumsy and don’t want to deal with dropping a dinner in someone’s lap my first day. Been doing food since I was 15 and am sick and tired of smelling like pizza.
Yeah maybe I can’t hack it, I am kind of a spaz and the throngs of people were hard to deal with. The real problem was just how insanely fucking ignorant and impatient and rude a lot of them were. I don’t make commission and I am used to, even on a busy day, being able to chat with customers and make an educated sale. A lot of people still ask my name and write it down even when I tell them I’m not on commission and me getting credit for the sale doesn’t matter. I am not used to twenty people at once all screaming at me “I WANT THE RED CAMERA IN THE AD NOW IVE BEEN WAITING.” People don’t act like that on a regular day. These people were not asking questions, they were rudely demanding answers. I knew it was gonnabe fucking busy, just underestimated it from a past experience at a Best Buy on Black Friday, but I didn’t expect a good 60% of the people to be fucking dicks! Our store was particularly busy because Columbia is in the middle of the state and there is not another major city for 100 miles all around us - a big number of our sales come from towns surrounding Columbia. It’s not like in a big city where there’s more than one Circuit City to go to. If the huge crowd of people would have been 90% nice (estimate of my past experience of what percentage of customers are mean or rude - about 1 in 10 suck ass on an average day) it wouldn’t have been bad, just busy. I put too much faith in the customers to actually try and be patient and understand we’re working our asses off for them. I like helping people learn about cameras and pick out one they like. I don’t give a shit about how much I sell. I just try to get people a camera they’ll like and understand how to use. I can’t do that when I can’t even fucking walk in my department without someone blindsiding me with a cart or get into the cases the cameras are in (by the floor). Customers should expect disgustingly long lines and stuff to run out quickly on Black Friday. My boss had to play suck up all these last two days and give customers that were severly bitching rainchecks for stuff (something we don’t do) just to get them to shut the fuck up. Even though the ad said ‘limited quantities available.’
My picture actually ended up in the Tribune today. I didn’t even know someone took my picture. It’s not a good one, but it’s of me kneeling on the floor with a huge crowd around me. My glasses were sliding off my nose because I was starting to sweat. Caption is something about “Circuit City associate ________ blah blah helping the huge crowd.” The Trib did a story about Black Friday. It’s not news, but this is a smallish town.
So pretty much, I was surprised we were that busy, but more surprised about how fucking mean everyone was. I didn’t go in expecting people to be falling to their knees and praising my superior camera knowledge, just some common fucking decency. I’ve worked busy days at my other jobs (day before Thanksgiving is busiest pizza day) but I’ve never had so many people treat me so crappy at once.
Question-for those saying myskepticsight should suck it up, because that’s how it is working on a day like Black Friday-what do you say to the customers who came in and were abusive? Shouldn’t they also “suck it up” because they, unlike she, CHOSE to go shopping on a day that’s notorious for being the worst day of the year to go shopping?
Shouldn’t they accept it that stores run out of items? That lines will be long, and that store employees are not gods?
It always amazes me how many people expect employees to solve their problems by magic. “What, you are out of that camera - well, go into the back room and get one!”
“Hey, lady, we don’t have little magic camera elves back there making cameras. Someone in corporate made a decision to have 200 of those cameras here today - and mentioned “limited quantities at this price” in their ad - they were all gone - even out of the magical back room - five hours ago.”
Brainiac4 works in corporate retail. Life around her sucks eggs from mid-October through mid-January. He’s been logged in working on Christmas Day - there isn’t a Thanksgiving that happens without the phone ringing and he never takes Black Friday off.
Abusive how? Was she assaulted? Was she insulted? Was she swore at? What kind of abuse?
That word is thrown around really lightly on this board.
Wasn’t physically assaulted but I was cursed at, insulted and mocked.
Is it only worth complaining about if someone beat me up?
I would count being blindsided with a cart as assholishness. Maybe it wasn’t exactly intentional battery, but they could have been more careful. Those things can make you limp for some time if they hit you right. As for them cursing you out, techinically if they didn’t do something that was also physically intimidating like ball their fists they did assault you, it’s battery if they cross the line and you feel threatened with harm.
You know, on more than one occassion a sales associate has offered to check the “back room” for me and on more than one occassion I’ve requested it.
However, back in 2001, shortly after 9/11 I I briefly hired on the early morning shift of the MMT at Zellers, a Canadian big box store. By the time the store opened at 9 am the stock room would be jam packed with pallets up to 8 feet high of opened and unopened boxes of merchandise. There’s no way you could find what you were looking for. Even if we knew the item was there, we had no choice but to tell the customer we were presently out of that particular item.
I’ve shared this before…
My mom, sis and I all “boycott” Christmas (except on occasion with big ticket items). We have dinner and a family get together on Christmas day, and we save our money (except for when the kids were little). The day after Christmas, we go to lunch, movies and sales, which from our experience have been fairly calm and fun.
I don’t think I’ve ever shopped on Black Friday, nor do I ever plan to start.
FTR, to you poor retail people, I do NOT allow other rude customers to steal or harass “my” salesperson. If someone comes up and interrupts while a salesperson is trying to assist me, they get a dirty look, if that doesn’t do the trick, they get a very cold “He/She is assisting ME at the moment, please wait your turn, and give him/her a break”.
(I have this thing about people treating service industry people rudely, and will go off on a fellow customer with no qualms and no holds barred, if it appears necessary, IOW, if the person appears to need to be taken down a peg or two).
From the OP:
So yes, from the start she stated that people were cursing her out and also were behaving rudely to the staff and to each other, to the point of grabbing away merchandise.
It’s one thing to realize that one has to learn to “take the heat” in this line of business, but OTOH believing that as a paying customer I can get away with being obnoxious to the shop staff that’s doing their work, or to my fellow customers, is a form of abusing my rights.
What we did for my department was bulk out all the sale items we had and put them on the floor. Cameras are small, so we jampacked the cases and laid stuff out that people would be going for. We had no more in the back at all. Today, when people were coming in looking for yesterday’s sale items, I still went in the back and looked in case there were returns hanging out back there. But yesterday everything we had in my department was on the floor. I checked our big warehouse and the online warehouse looking for ways to order stuff for people. Most of the sale items were completely out in both warehouses - no one could even get it from the CC website. The people today were much more understanding - a lot of them said they’d seen the parking lot yesterday and decided to wait. If our warehouses don’t have it, we can order it for you but cannot get it in your hands right now. I am not a magician. I like to keep the customers happy, but if you’re being a dick about it for no good reason, then fuck you. All I hoped for was the customers to act somewhat nicely despite the craziness. The ones that actually were nice got my help with a smile, and the others got my help with no frills. I tried apologizing to the people looking pissed off waiting in line when I had a sec, genuine as I could be, and got snide remarks in return. I gave up trying that at about 7:30 am or so.
I went to a boutique with my friend that day, but it wasn’t even close to being crowded. It’s nice for handmade gifts, home-baked goods and so on.
However, I will absolutely not take part in the ridiculous madness that is Black Friday, especially at the malls. Camping out the night before? What the blue fuck is so important that these people couldn’t order it on the phone? So what if it costs a bit more? It’s not worth freezing your ass off, being exhausted, and fighting your way through the zoo of human critters.
I have Christmas stuff that I ordered online now stashed away in my closet.
It’s so much easier.
No, it’s assault if you’re threatened, battery if you’re touched. A swing and a miss is assault, a punch that connects is battery. Cite.
I worked yesterday, but we were open regular hours, so I didn’t have to get there until nine. We were busy, but not swamped, and I didn’t run into a bad customer all day. At least not rude or angry bad. I still had the ones who don’t listen and the ones who talk over the answers you give them and the ones who can’t find their heads, but oh, well. We did hear stories from people who had been at the electronics stores, and one of our customers was on her phone with somebody, reporting on her progress with shopping. Of course, I work in a fabric store, so it’s not like we have the “gotta have it” deals of the year or anything.
I was just glad all day that I don’t work somewhere like Best Buy. My daughter’s boyfriend works at Circuit City and had to be at work at 4:00. I haven’t heard anything about how his day went, though. I do feel for the OP. No matter how good a job is, or how much you might like it, there are days when you just wonder if it’s worth it.
Just keep in mind, the month will go by fast, and most of your customers won’t be so bad.
Swore at? It’s sworn at. [/nitpick]
I am so glad that I don’t live in your world. Where is it ever ok to be verbally abusive to anyone who is trying to help you? Or verbally abusive at all? Where is it all right to yell at someone for not getting you something quickly enough? Perhaps in a trauma OR…and even then the surgeon is apt to get a post-op talking to.
Why is it ok to treat other people badly? Lord knows I dislike greeters inquiring into my personal health and all, but can’t one be civil in return? If you can’t eke out the words, a simple half smile and nod should cover it.
I’ve never understood why people think it’s ok to treat staff badly. You make yourself look that much more of an ass when you do so.
myskepticsight, I think you’ll do good. We all need an occasional reminder to step back and change the perspective:
You made it through Friday, and Saturday was an improvement.
Keep up the good work, and don’t take any shit from anybody. 
Basically, having people scream at you, throw things, throw tantrums, and treat you like garbage. If that’s not abuse, well, then what is?
I used to go home and cry when I worked at KrapMart and I STILL have nightmares working there, even though it’s been over four years since I quit that shithole.
Hyperbole or truth? Do you really have nightmares about working at KMart?
I don’t even have nightmares about the Navy and I think I have some reasons to.
May I join in?
I work the internal help desk for a largish retailer. They chose to open their doors Thursday night to get more sales. I would like to pit:
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The hundred or so store general managers who didn’t review the ringing instructions with their cashiers. Five minutes in, I’d already told three yelly callers that yes, the deal was good, yes, it worked on the register system, but no, they weren’t doing it right. Get the frickin’ vouchers and scan them in. Whaddaya mean you didn’t print up the vouchers?
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The cashiers who didn’t bother going to the main internal website to read the promo details and ringing instructions and yelled at me because the super special incredible deals weren’t ringing up correctly. One of my coworkers actually got a cashier to pull up the instructions and read it back to him line by line until she went “…oh…”
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The bosses who decided we only needed one register system specialist on hand for what was probably our busiest twenty-four hours of the year. One guy. Any register problem that we could fix with the standard turn off, reseat cables, turn back on would have gone to him.
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The twenty year old inventory management system that fracked up nearly 80 different stores on close. Guess who had to trouble shoot all 80 store servers and then close them out remotely? The one register system guy. We were throwing tickets at him like zealots stoning an adulteress. When I got to work today, the queue wasn’t half cleared out.
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The people who decided that as the inventory system was FUBARed and real time numbers weren’t reflected at the store - leading customers to drive fifty miles to one store to pick up an item they were told was there only to learn that they’d been out since seven a.m. the previous day - we at the help desk weren’t allowed to a) tell the store managers what was actually going on, b) set any expectations for an ETA, because they were going to wait until tonight to upload the corrected numbers, and c) suggest that maybe they ought to pull the “check the website for local store inventory” function of our retail website.
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The customers who yelled and screamed and piled up against the store workers. I was tempted a couple of times to tell the poor cashier I had on the phone to put the customer on so I could use my scary voice, but I figured that would be a career limiting move.
The only shopping I did on Friday was online. If I can manage it, I won’t go in a retail establishment at all in December.