Visiting area mall software store that rhymes with “Shmelectronics Outique”, I had the following encounter just now:
Jpeg: Picks up The Sims Hot Date box from front display, brings to counter to purchase.
Jerkoff Sales Assistant: “Say, could you do me a favor and go ahead and put that back on the display? I’ve got a big box full of these right behind the counter.”
Jpeg Current Universe: Notices there are lots of people milling about, blocking any attempt to return box to display, puts box on top of counter and says politely “I’ll just leave this here for you” and seeths inwardly for half an hour.
Jpeg Alternate Universe: “Excuse me? You work in a fucking retail store. It’s YOUR fucking job to keep your displays looking however you want them. If you put a big pile of software RIGHT OUT FUCKING FRONT BY THE ENTRANCE, you should know that people are going to pick them up and bring them to the counter, ASSHOLE! PUT IT BACK YOURSELF!”
lol game store employees are the most narcissistic shits on the planet. I went in today to pick up the very same game from the same damn store. The dude (who looked to be maybe nineteen or twenty, was talking adamantly on the phone to one of his cohorts in another store.
“Well yeah you guys have that big shelf, I’d go ahead and put 'em out if I were you. I don’t have the room for 'em yet so I haven’t opened 'em up.”
And so on and so forth. Of course, he didn’t stop talking on the phone when I walked up with the game. The only words he said to me was “$32.95” (or whatever the price was).
After I signed the receipt I gave him a friendly “Thanks!” He looked at me and kind of nodded, then went back to his engrossing conversation on the phone.
No offense to anyone here who may work in a video game store - but lets be honest with ourselves here. YOU SELL GAMES FOR A LIVING! IT AIN’T WALL STREET! WHEN I COME INTO THE STORE HANG UP THE DAMN PHONE AND START EARNING YOUR 5.50 PER HOUR!
Well- how is the game???
(I’m buying it after work today, but not from Shelptronics…if it makes you feel any better, I’ll tell the clerk at the store I DO buy it from to go take a flying fuck through a rolling doughnut.)
Fuck the clerk! Play the game and report back! (Open an IMHO or MPSIMS, thread, though)
(Oh, prepare for the thousand retail people who will tell you that you are a jackass for not returning the box to the display. For what it’s worth, I read the whole OP and agree. It’s not like they were right behind you and you could have easily put it back. It’s their job to do it)
Zette
Slacker, I must’ve passed you on my way out of the store.
I agree, I don’t necessarily want to disparage all retail workers in general, but doesn’t anyone believe in due diligence anymore, no matter what the job?
I think these software store guys have such a high Self-Important Dorkwad ranking because of their ability to get to level 2,476 in Doom or whatever.
Thanks for offering to yell at the next software sales clerk you see on my behalf. It might open up a time-space wormhole through to my alternate universe (see OP).
Oh no, may I postulate another alternate universe?
Jpeg: “Oh, sure, I’ll go do that right now”
<carefully begins to place the box back on the display when suddenly a [mysterious force] levels the display so that one box does not remain atop another>
Jpeg: “Oh my God, I don’t know what could have happened!!”
Jpeg: “Hey, you know, I think they have this at Best Buy. Could you do me a big favor and stack this stuff back? Thanks ever so much–bye”
That’s STUPID. I mean, that’s so incredibly moronic! Unless, of course, you rifled through the ones on the shelf, knocking them all to the floor in an attempt to get one.
I kind of prefer customers give me stuff rather than just leave it any old place, though. If they’re nice about it, I don’t mind. I usually notice if people don’t want something, they toss it aside-I say, “Here, could you just hand that to me-we’ll take care of it.”
And don’t EVEN get me started on people who leave perishable food items lying out any old place-milk, meat, etc etc. I used to find spoiled dairy products in the canned goods aisle when I worked at a grocery store.
So you did nothing wrong-that person makes us retail pee-ons look bad.
Better still, do it up right Peter Sellers-style and stumble around trying to pick up the games, knocking over every display in the store in the process and apologizing repeatedly, then walk out like nothing happened.
Hee hee; self-important dorkwad ranking. Actually, to get an accurate SIDR, you have to multiply the highest level ever achieved in Doom by number of girls asked out, and divide by number of girls actually kissed (sisters and cousins don’t count).
(Cool name, BTW, Jpeg.)
First I want to emphasize that I agree with JPG 100%. It is the store clerk’s job to maintain the display, not the customer’s.
Speaking as a former software store clerk (I worked at the store that rhymed with “Cabbages” about 10 years ago) I would like to mention that it really is irritating when customers go out of their way to grab items from the display to look them over (or even to buy) when there are a whole bunch more on the shelf or behind the counter. Store clerks put a lot of time and effort into their displays to make then look nice, then some customer comes along and essentially destroys it.
Being a store clerk is not necessarily a fun job and during the busy holiday season, it can be a real pain. Store clerks have a million things they have to do during the course of the day and having someone take apart the display just adds to the work, so I can understand why he would want a customer to put something back from the display it was grabbed from. I think your original response was perfect for the situation.
Again, I agree with you that store clerks are responsible for keeping up their displays, but as customers, we should be a little more conciencious toward them.
Wow. What an asshole. And by that, I mean you, Jpeg. Jesus, the guy politely asks you to do a little favor for him, to make his life easier, and you get into a fuckin huff about it? What’s the big fucking deal about putting that one box back?
People these days can’t go 10 seconds out of their way to help some one else. What a jerk.
WHOA! Are you kidding??? Since it’s on the shelf, it’s safe for JPEG to think he can buy that item. Since when is it his job to plow through a crowd to put it back? If there was no crowd, I’d say, fine, just go ahead and do it, although really it’s not his responsibility. Why does he have to feel like an asshole and reach and be all like “excuse me, pardon me please”. It’s not like he actually was rude to the clerk.
Since the display is right by the door (again, his own words) he’s got to “plough through the crowd” and walk right past it to get out of the store, right? He couldn’t say “Tell you what, ring it up for me, bag it, and I’ll put one on the display for you on my way out.”?
Sure, it’s not his job to stock the display. But it would have been the nice thing to do, wouldn’t it? By his own admission, the clerks got 20 million people to deal with in the store already. Jpeg, in his big important life, couldn’t spare a second of time or effort to help the guy out.
I still think it was assholish. If the clerk himself had been an asshole (like saying “Why’d you take that off the display?? I’ve got a friggin box of 'em right here”) then I’d be all in agreement. But it looks to me like the guy made a simple, polite, request for a little help, and Jpeg just decided he was too good to help the guy, even though it required minimal effort on his part.
