Don’t be surprised, however, if this has poor results.
I used to work in a chain hotel as a desk clerk. My co-worker, whom I mentioned previously, was the nastiest human being I have ever had the misfortune to come across. She was rude to the customers on a regular basis, and would go massively out of her way to be cruel to her subordinants.
The manager knew how she was, but was a passive person. He did “damage control” whenever issues involving her behavior came up. Customers would call the 1-800 number to complain, but my manager was very good at smoothing it over. Many times, he flat-out lied in order to protect her (and himself) from repercussions. Since the 1-800 reps knew that customers will often lie in order to get something free, he could usually wiggle out of any trouble. The guy would have made a great lawyer-- he’d find a tiny hole in their story, and use that to destroy their credibility.
Worse yet, we always knew the names of the people who had lodged the complaint. Should they ever return, her revenge was subtle, but effective.
I may be missing something here. When you are trying to give her your discount card, do you speak? Suggestion: Before she starts ringing up your items, get her attention (you did say she had a name tag?), then hand her the card and say something like, “Oh, before I forget – Here’s my card.” Look her in the eye and continue to smile.
Besides that, I second the advice to be super-nice.
I don’t know anything about the drugstore business, but as a small-business owner I’ve got more important things to be doing, constantly, than stocking merchandise. If I’m doing something that can be done for $10/hour, then business is way too slow and I need to be doing something else to get it back up. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to manage the business and take care of things I can pay very little money to have done for me.
If being supernice fails, 7 up yours, I suggest “accidentally” knocking a few shelving units on top of the whore while she’s stocking things. And then when she’s cut and bleeding, “accidentally” kick away the Band-Aids and spill some rubbing alcohol on her. That’ll teach her.
Years ago, my girlfriend (then about 23 or so) stopped in to a local antique/second hand store to buy the comforter that was in the window. The woman at the store just looked at her and said “It’s $20.”
Chance said, “I know.”
The woman said, “Show me your money.”
Chance said, “WHAT?”
The woman said, “Show me that you have the money for it.”
She did, dumbfounded, and the woman turned around and fished it out of the window (right behind her.) We never went back there again.
There’s some satisfaction to be had in the “shop elsewhere” response, unless shopping elsewhere is really inconvenient to you, or will cost you more.
Several years ago I wanted to buy some diamond earrings for my daughter’s 21st birthday. I was not wearing especially swanky clothes on my shopping trip, but I had a wallet full o’ plastic and the means to back them up. Some of the stores were disdainful, some ignored me, and a few were actually rude. A couple were helpful and acted with respect. Guess who got my money? Guess where I returned when daughter #2 hit 21?
I’m a long-time veteran of the drugstore trade (>5 years, three chains in various management capacities), and all of my managers had an active part in shelf-stocking. Since managers (store and/or assistant) are usually the only salaried personnel, they are more likely to handle some grunt work than other people. My current store takes in ~$15 M a year, and the manager makes over $100,000, but still helps put away a good deal of merchandise.
Observation: The store is “cheaper” than the nearest rival.
Assumption: This is indeed an owner-operator situation.
Conclusion: The store is operating on a very tight margin. Maybe the owner cannot afford to hire stockers due to the tight margin situation. (incidentally, I know successful owners who occasionally do things with about that much of a payoff, rather than hire someone, not in a retail situation, but still.)
And it wouldnt do much good to try to get more business if
– She already is the cheapest in town, and
– She is too rude to keep customers!
No, they were sort of friends . . . not that she wouldn’t stab him in the back if she had the chance. My boss was just the kind of fellow that tried have as little conflict as possible-- an uber pacifist. I guess it was just his nature to try to keep things as calm as possible. If that meant making sacrifices to avoid firing anyone, then so be it. She also did all of the crap that he’d rather not deal with, and firing her would have meant he had to, well, * work. * Apparently, he felt he’d rather just deal with all of the headaches of crying employees and pissed off customers than have a ton of paperwork on his desk.
Some years ago, I was in a drugstore – you know, the American kind, where you can get everything from lawn fertilizer to hallowe’en candy – and drugs, too! I was buying some briefs. I was kind of embarrassed – I was young at the time – and there wasn’t any price on the package. I asked the clerk, “Please don’t ask for a price check over the loudspeaker. Rather than that, I’d prefer just to not buy them.”
The clerk did exactly that.
Sigh… So I went to the manager, and said, “I’d like to complain about the behavior of one of your clerks.”
The manager said, “Fine. You’ve complained.”
So… I wrote a letter to their nearest corporate headquarters.
Both the clerk and the manager were gone within five days.
Great advice everyone, but I’d like to point out once again that I was nice. I was nice to a point until I couldn’t take it anymore and turned mean. I’m still nice to the other cashiers but really, no matter how nice I was, that lady is just… evil.
Granted, this drug store is not the only drug store in town, but the nearest one that offers the same range of prices are twenty minutes away while this store is three. This is walking distance due to the fact that I don’t have a car and will most likely not get one soon.
Trinopus, I’d like to ask you what steps you followed to write a complaint to the nearest corporate headquarters. This is a franchise store I’m talking about, but it seems to be a smaller franchise. So, where abouts would I go to dig up the big secret headquarters?
If I wanted, or needed, to continue doing my shopping there, I would NOT unload my items for the clerk. I would stand there with my basket until she was ready for me, then hand her my card and say “Here’s my card…would you like me to unload my basket, or would you prefer to do it yourself?”
I do agree that you should write a letter to the owners. Or the corporate owners of the chain if she IS the local owner.
No one should be allowed to spread that kind of negativity about the world without being given the opportunity to recognize their mistake and correct it. You never know…it might make her realize that she needs to look at other areas of her life where she needs to correct her behaviour as well. One can only hope.
If you wanted the comforter, and don’t like to fight…WHY?
I would buy the comforter, and if I felt it was warranted, I would write a letter to the owner of the shop. Which, of course, in your case it WAS. Warranted, I mean.
7 up yours, I disagree with the “killing with kindness” method. I’ve been trying that on a particularly bitchy co-worker for over a year, and she just takes her bad mood out on me just the same. In fact, I think she does it more because she knows she can get away with it. I think both of us (you and I) need to just grow a pair and do exactly like sat on cookie suggests - very un-confrontationally confront these kinds of people. And go to the manager (I’ve been talking to our supervisor about how this woman snaps at me for doing my job) . Adults have no excuses for acting like this to other adults on a continuing basis.
