Yes, but that’s in part because I actually bought myself a small magnifying glass I can carry with me at work. I got tired of the eyestrain.
We do have some customers with vision problems, so yes, reading labels for people is something I do.
Don’t expect the customer to know who does or knows what at your job. You work there and are on the floor, probably wearing some sort of uniform. A customer expecting you to field their questions about items in the store is reasonable. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you directing them to the appropriate person to actually answer their question instead of answering it yourself, or with declining to give a personal opinion about a product, but the customer has not done anything wrong/dumb/bad by asking you (unless they are trying to show you their jock itch, asking you to measure their dick for condoms, or some other completely inappropriate request, of course).
The pharmacists wear white lab coats and have name tags with the word PHARMACIST on them.
I wear the exact same uniform as every other floor person in the store, meaning I am clothing-wise indistinguishable from the people in clothing or toys or produce.
I think the average person of average intelligence can grok the difference.
Yes, I do direct people to the appropriate person as needed, without snark. I snark here, though, because it’s an anonymous message board where no one will be hurt by my snarking.
And finally, yes, people DO ask me inappropriate things. That is, in fact, the entire point of the OP - I am not able to diagnose medical problems or prescribe treatment. That is just as inappropriate to ask me as is displaying festering rash encrusted testicles or something equally disgusting.
This thread reminds me of the scene in U.S. Marshalls with Tommy Lee Jones when he is ripping open all the pills to find the one that Wesley Snipes is using:
“Can I help you find anything?”
The idea that you might know something about the products in the department you work in is not preposterous. It’s fine that you don’t or don’t want to get involved in their choice, because that’s how things are at your particular store, but plenty of other stores use their supposedly well-informed employees as a selling point. Many customers don’t even actually know the name of the store they are standing in right at that moment, so expecting them to know what outfits each type of worker wears and what that signifies is overestimating the awareness of the general public. Identifying the well-labeled pharmacist may be easy, but most pharmacies are staffed with one pharmacist at a time and several pharmacy techs who could potentially point one to an OTC item. Maybe customers think you are a pharm tech of some sort.
And really, someone asking you which cough drops you recommend is “just as inappropriate” as displaying their festering testicles? :dubious:
I guess it just goes to show that the only way not to offend someone somewhere is to shut up and stay home. No, even then your neighbors could be put out that you aren’t socializing sufficiently or keeping your trees trimmed to their secret wishes or something.
I know quite a bit about what’s in my department. I know where to find the various items. I know what conditions a lot of them are used for. I know which diet bars have allergens like peanuts or soy, and which protein powders have dairy and which are vegan, and where the diabetics supplies are.
What IS preposterous is expecting me to diagnose a medical problem. The fact you don’t seem to understand this is yet another example of the problem. If you have a medical question go to a doctor, not some random stranger standing in the aisle of a big box store.
If those “well-informed employees” are attempting to diagnose and recommend medical treatment they are, in fact, breaking the law unless they have the letters of a medical degree after their name. As nearwildheaven pointed out in a post yesterday, the authorities do run sting operations from time to time to catch exactly that sort of shenanigans.
I can help them with their choices, I can not decide for them.
The pharm techs where blue lab coats and nametags with the word “PHARMACY TECHNICIAN” on them.
What’s the literacy rate in the US? Something like 99% for basic literacy? You’re suggesting my customers are so fracking stupid they can’t read a name tag? I’ve got some who can’t read English, being fresh off the boat so to speak, but even then they seem able to distinguish between “lab coat” and “polo shirt and pants”.
I can recommend cough drops - what’s most important to you? Flavor? Brand? Price? All natural ingredients? Do you have a favorite brand?
However, as I have previously said, I can not look at your rash and tell you what’s causing it or how to treat it. If you tell me it’s poison ivy I can point you to OTC medications for that, or if you tell me it’s eczema I can point you to OTC medications for that, but I can not tell you what is causing that rash or what to use on it. If you don’t know I can suggest cortisone or A&D ointment or one of the other general “itchy rash” medications and tell you to go see a doctor if it doesn’t get better in a couple days. That’s it. Sore on your lip? If you tell it’s a cold sore here’s the Abreva. If you don’t know what it is I can’t recommend jack - ask the pharmacist or see your doctor.
I thought she was saying they ask her and she tells them they don’t carry it, so they ask the pharmacist the same question, as if they don’t believe her.
“It is absolutely hilarious when I’m asked to locate something and say “I’m sorry, we do not carry Badger Hair and Shredded Wheat All Natural Bulk Forming Fiber Supplement and Stool Softener brand, but we do have other items in our digestive health section” and they go running to the pharmacist… who then turns and asks me if we carry it and if so where it might be?”
Yeah - they didn’t get the answer they wanted from me, so they look for it from someone else… who is also unable to give them the answer they want. Because we don’t carry that item.
Going to a doctor can be difficult and unaffordable, plus is completely unnecessary for something like poison ivy. If I had never had poison ivy before, asking another human being if they think my rash (that is not on an area of my body legally required to be kept covered up in public) looks like poison ivy is reasonable. No, I wouldn’t ask some random store employee, but there’s nothing unusual about someone doing so. Maybe you have had poison ivy before and would recognize it. Not telling them your amateur opinion to avoid liability is reasonable, but thinking it is preposterous that someone might ask your opinion is not.
People ask me random medical advice all the time, even though I’m not a doctor. They figure I will know if they should see a doctor, what type, etc., probably because I am a mom, so I am supposed to know these things and I do.
Do you think the general public has the slightest idea about what you are legally permitted to tell them? They don’t. Refraining from giving medical advice in your position doesn’t have to be coupled with indignance that anyone would even ask you what product you’d recommend for a rash.
How does that go?
Customer: what’s the best product to treat athlete’s foot?
You: the products we carry are right here, but I don’t know which one would be best for you… The pharmacist might be able to recommend one
Customer: no, YOU pick! Put the one I should get in my cart right now!
Does this actually happen with any frequency?
That’s all very well when you are lined up next to each other, but how are they supposed to know what outfits identify employee types you are not just by looking at you? Maybe the techs all wear dinosaur suits, but if they are not out and about, the rest of us wouldn’t know that.
Yes, many of your customers are probably quite stupid. What’s your explanation, they’re just trying to piss you off?
Oh, now you can prescribe my throat treatment? What if I have esophageal cancer and now I mask my symptoms with your recommended drops and then I die and it’s all your fault? Seems kind of risky, plus I’m probably just trying to entrap you into incriminating yourself as a bogus doctor.
What if I tell you it’s poison ivy but it’s really obviously a festering brown recluse bite? Are you going to heartlessly point me at the calamine lotion because you don’t have the right letters after your name?
This is, at best, a thread for MPSIMS. I’m going to relocate it there.
At the beer bar I hang out in (House of 1000 Beers) the bartender sometimes sees me walk in and pours me something new she knows I’ll like. Then again, we tip her very well and give her $50 each xmas.
Depends on how bad it is - my landlord is so reactive to poison ivy that he typically gets blood blisters and deep, oozing ulcers from it and usually winds up having to go to the doctor for steroids to help heal it up.
The problem is that when I’m on the clock I represent the store I work for, and some people are sue-happy. If I give bad advice as a random stranger that’s one thing, especially if you don’t know me from Adam and wouldn’t be able to relocate me later. If I’m a store employee and give you bad advice the store might wind up being liable. On the clock I am not, in fact, a random stranger.
Honestly, I don’t get your animosity. Are you trying to drive this into the Pit? I was trying for a slightly humorous vent, which apparently everyone else grokked, but you’re going off somewhere else.
Yep, usually once or twice a week, sometimes multiple times per day. And I patiently explain that I can’t make the choice from them and if they want that sort of advice they can ask the pharmacist.
Of course, I interact with hundreds, even thousands, of people over the course of a work week, the problem children are a very small percentage, they just stand out from the crowd.
That is why we politely explain “I am not the pharmacist, I’m the stocking clerk. The pharmacist is over there, she can give you a much better answer than I can.” “I am the pharmacist, Broomstick here actually stocks the shelves and knows where everything is located. Broomstick, can you take this person to the neti pots?”
How did you think we handled this?
What we say in front of the customers is always polite and respectful. What we say in private is another matter.
I do my best to help the mentally handicapped as well as the mentally normal (if I may be free with the term “normal”). They don’t have to be trying to piss me off to be frustrating. I find it frustrating to try to help someone with little to no English, too, but I still try to help them.
If you tell me you’re looking for cough drops I’ll take you to the cough drops. Honestly, this isn’t rocket science. If your real problem is esophageal cancer but you don’t tell me that I’m off the hook. If your self-diagnosis is wrong or you’re in denial that’s not my fault.
If you DO tell me you have esophageal cancer and ask me what supplements can help I’ll tell you point black that’s something that should be addressed by a cancer specialist. If you still want cough drops I’ll sell them to you, but no way are you getting me to say it’s some sort of “treatment” or will help your cancer.
Really, this isn’t rocket science. Are you trying to start an argument for some reason? If I wanted that I would have put this in the Pit. I didn’t. Why do you want to take it there?
No, I’m going to say that looks really, really serious and you should have a doctor look at it. Yes, I know, docs can be expensive and difficult to access, I’ve been without insurance myself (there’s a thread on the Dope about my difficulties in getting a tetanus vaccination while uninsured, which was surprisingly difficult). Among other things, our pharmacy has a discount program for people without insurance and a list of local urgent care clinics that charge according income. We’ve also called 911 for people obviously having an emergency.
If you still want to buy calamine I won’t stop you, it’s legal for you to buy it and I not going to stop you, but I can say that looks infected or really bad and you should see a doctor for it. That’s not doctoring, that’s common sense.
My diagnosis is you have a mild case of employee-itis. Symptoms include irritation with the public for not knowing store procedures and a general sense of frustration and put-uponness. Unfortunately, there is no treatment or cure besides termination, so the sooner you stomp in and scream “I don’t need this shit” the better.
Side effects include being broke and possible starvation/insanity/death. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, and accept no responsibility for anything anywhere ever. Ask your doctor if quitting may be right for you!
This is starting to sound/get a bit personal/harsh for this forum. Dial back the hostility a notch or take it to the Pit.
Sorry, did not realize humor was not appropriate for this forum.
First off, kudos to OP for presenting such an eloquent cri de coeur. (And you thought it was merely a mundane pointless thing you were sharing.)
As for this:
My most severe and humorous encounter with this was a few years ago when I started smoking cigars. It’s cost-efficient to buy the dehydrant crystals for the humidor(s) in bulk and secrete them around the box in ladies stockings. "You mean ‘ladies hosiery’'–I did?–and proceeded to enter the unknown parts of the store and be educated by another shopper on the whole shebang.
Oh, yeah, moving stuff around…
I’m halfway convinced they have someone secretly follow me around, or watch me on security cameras, and every so often the watcher reports back to home base “OK, she’s got the layout memorized now, time to change it!”
What they’re really up to with varying locations is to force you to hunt for things, making you spend more time in the store where you will hopefully impulse-buy stuff.
Humor is fine. Personal attacks, which I think your post was along the lines more of, are not.
However, if you wish to discuss it further, let’s not hijack this topic about it. Start a thread in ATMB if you want and we can discuss the differences between your post and humor if you wish. I can/will give my opinion more there if you do. If you don’t want to, that’s fine too.
I have heard that before and maybe it is a good plan overall but it makes me so mad that I have fits of supporting the local merchants and higher prices until my bank account says I have to to go back.
I don’t have nuff $$$$ to impulse buy but they can run me off.
I am sure they worry about that a lot… :rolleyes:
I buy “ladies’ hosiery” all the time. Wal-mart sells knee-high nylons in little plastic bubbles that make excellent hop bags for home brewing. I buy them a dozen at a time.