I went into Mervyn’s (they are going out of business and having a great sale) and found a toaster oven I liked. I paid for it, got the receipt, and the sales lady looked puzzled saying, “I don’t think I have a bag large enough to fit that.”
I say, “That’s OK, I don’t need a bag.” I then reach over to try to pick up my toaster oven and leave the store. The sales lady becomes alarmed, holding on to the oven, and saying, “You can’t leave the store without having your merchandise in a bag!” and she starts frantically rooting around for a large enough bag.
I am starting to get annoyed. I don’t like plastic bags, and since there is only one thing, it won’t help me to carry it to put it in a bag. Besides, it’s now my toaster oven and she can’t tell me what to do with it.
I pick up the toaster oven and say, “I do not need a bag” and start to walk away. The sales lady gets upset saying firmly, “It’s our security policy. Stay here while I look at the other cashier stations for a large bag.”
I say “No” and walk out of the store.
Was I being a jerk to not cooperate with their policy and cause the sales lady distress?
She was probably taking the rules of her job too literally.
If you would have intercepted a manager or security person on the way out I’m sure they would have waved you on seeing you had the receipt in hand.
**TheMerchandise **and Hampshire, have you two never worked for a totally dickish, rules-lawyer boss? I’m not saying **autz **should have waited more than 20 seconds for the saleslady to find a bag, but she was just doing her job.
Fr the record, I don’t think you were being a jerk. I would have walked out with my receipt and purchase as well. If anything she was being a little jerky about the “Stay here”.
If they are going out of business she is probably already panicked about losing her job and then you came in and defied the bag rule. It is just too much for her to handle!
You were fine. She was probably just trying to do her job and had other stuff going on in her mind. Don’t worry about it.
Sears will put a piece of green tape on purchases too large for a bag. I haven’t been to a Mervyn’s since the early-'80s, but ISTR they used (orange?) tape for large items.
Yeah, you were fine. I go without bags all the time when I’m not getting much. I get strange looks though, but my view is if I carried the thing(s) to the register why do I need a bag to carry them to my car and then my house?
No, you weren’t rude. I was probably ruder when they did this to me (not at Mervyn’s), when I took the item back out of the bag and dropped the bag on the floor as I walked away from the register.
I don’t condone rude conduct toward service personnel, but they do have an obligation to listen to the customers.
That happens to me all the damn time at convenience stores or the big KMart/grocery style store. No, I don’t want a bag to carry my 3 items 20 feet to the car. Despite only having two hands, I’m sure I can manage to fit three things in them. Oh, so you’re going to put some tape on all of them? That’s cool, I guess. I’m not sure what it’s meant to prevent that a visual inspection of my person for the next 3 seconds while I exit your store wouldn’t, but I guess that’s what you have to do. Tell you what, I’ll bring my own tape next time and stick it on the rack of porn while I’m trying to leave, and then claim the whole thing is mine. When you tell me that my little joke is amusing, but you really can’t see how the entire rack of porn (yes, every convenience store in the entire country has a vast porn section, but then Japan still lists porn as something you need to declare when entering the country. Because your filthy gaijin porn is going to tarnish the reputable bukkake) is mine (at least, that’s what I’ll assume you’re saying, because you’re speaking Japanese and unless you’re saying “My favorite song is ____” or “Do you want your microwave pizza heated,” I really have no idea what’s coming out of your mouth. The only thing that distinguishes it from Finnish for me is the fact that I understand 1 word in 5 and sentences tend to end with “dess.”), I’ll just point to the tape, and say “tape!” loudly. Actually, I’ll say it in Japanese so that you can understand me, and thus will instead be pointing and yelling “tapu!” In your consternation over what to do about a porn-crazed gaijin doing something wacky in your store, you’ll head to the back room to get the manager (or rather call him, as I think I’ll attempt this at 2AM), and I’ll make my escape, taking my microwave pizza (which is sadly, the closest that Japan comes to actual pizza [and when I say actual here I am talking about American. Sometimes you just want some grease, y’know]) and leaving all the porn behind. Then maybe your manager, having been awakened at 2AM by a clerk frantic about some crazy foreigner who would never be able to wend his way through the vast labyrinth of your society’s levels of politesse beyond the simple changing of the endings of verbs when speaking to his boss (when he remembers in time, and actually happens to know how to conjugate that particular verb as opposed to using the dictionary form, which, while correct, is simply not as polite, but is probably better than conjugating incorrectly and speaking either gibberish or something unintended [as in saying that I’m going to change, when I actually want to go home, when either way would be impolite because I always have to leave work apologizing for leaving before everyone else-- don’t ask, it’s just Japan]), just might reconsider the policy of putting a piece of tape on the sandwich that I’m going to carry out the door not 15 feet from the counter.
Oh, and stop putting my change on top of my damn receipt.
Ah, bag Nazis. This happened to me at Burger King once with coffee. They had just implemented a new policy where they had to give you your hot coffee in a bag. I told the woman 3 times that I didn’t want the bag, but she made me take it in the bag! I just took the coffee out of the bag and tossed it back through the drive-through window. Hot coffee, in a bag?!
Like a clear plastic sandwich bag with a drawstring top…but then there is the time my housemate tried to take home a pitcher of beer in her black handbag (minus the pitcher)
