Sorry, but I have to tell you that I hate your wife.
She’s a goddamned snobby selfish bitch who doesn’t care about inconveniencing (and possibly harming, as has been said) others. I HATE those people.
I agree with you. I have never worked retail myself, but I remember back in the day, I used to pick up my younger brother at his job, which was at a large hardware store. The last thing he had to do at night was run all over the parking lot, gathering up the carts (this was before cart corrals were common). It was a large lot in a strip mall, and people would take the carts clear to the other end of the lot & leave them there. It took a LONG TIME to get them all. I’m sure most people who had to do that for even a week would be a lot more understanding & less selfish in their own action.
I’m one of those people who has to pick up shit left all over by other people and let me tell you, it’s past aggravating. Every day (in my relatively low-volume store), we have at least 2 shopping carts full of stuff left in the wrong places around the store. If you don’t want it, put it back or leave it in your cart and HAND IT TO THE CASHIER. On top of that, none of you would believe how much stuff we find in the candy/gum/magazine racks on the front end, because as people change their minds on stuff, they just jam it into the magazines literally THREE FEET from the cashier. When I catch them, I put on my Sweet Voice and say, “Ma’am, can you just hand that to me please?” The looks on their faces make it clear that that had never occurred to them. It’s crazy.
The OP’s wife is (and I apologize to him for any offense) a irritating, snotty bitch – in this aspect of her. Also, while the clerk’s irritation is understandable, she shouldn’t really have said anything.
Having worked in a video store, I can say without reservation that I agree with the OP.
But at the risk of getting flamed, I’ll say that I have done this a few times at grocery stores. Not often, mind you, and only in cases where the store pissed me off beyond my normal grocery store pissiness.
The latest example was when I bought all the ingredients for a nice dinner. This included a package of baby back ribs. I went to the self-checkout, and the ribs wouldn’t scan. There was no bar code. I asked for help, and a clerk tried to scan them and failed. So he said he would investigate. He took the ribs and disappeared. For a loooong time. I finally saw him bagging groceries, apparently no longer concerned with my issue. I flagged down another clerk and asked her what the story was. She said she’d go and find out. And she disappeared, only to reappear later doing something unrelated. I then tracked down a third clerk to help me. Same story.
I had, at that point, been standing at the self-checkout for a good 20 minutes. A line was forming, and customers were giving me the Ninja Stare of Death. I finally said fuck it and walked out.
I did consider putting my other items back, but they were mostly salad bar items. You can’t really disassemble a salad.
Uncommon, I apologize in advance for this comment.
Your wife behaved like a bitch - a self absorbed, full of a sense of entitlement bitch.
I often found myself wishing that I could do more than gently admonish the children to put the books in designated areas if they were done with them when I worked as a Librarian’s helper who more often than not tidied up the Children’s section every single time children left the library. I found myself amazed at where books would turn up afterwards. I’d watch the children so I’d know what areas would need attention, yet I’d spot books out of place in sections I could swear they never stepped foot in! If I end up not wanting an item at the store, I either trek back to where I got it to put it back, or give it to the clerk with an explanation and apology. I put perishables back as a matter of course. Your wife needs some serious clues. At the least, lean on her to break her of the habit of leaving perishables out. (The reason I take food back is because I had a worker in a store confide to me that if the store was “busy” the food would be thawing/thawed before someone got around to taking it back, and that it was put back in the cooler. I also check the condition of the package to be sure it isn’t soggy due to this information.)
I simply would not believe the behaviour of some customers…until I got my part time job last week (to go right along with the full time job I have as well)…in our local store (name is very similar to my doper name).
On the other hand, if the store would hire someone to organize the warehouse or, better yet, make sure there is enough customer service people to assist the customers, they wouldn’t have as much waste as they do now.
My job, I think, is to stock the shelves (meaning go look in the warehouse to see if we have more), ‘face’ the shelves and help the customers. My question is: if I’m in the warehouse, who’s helping the customers? I firmly that, if a closer eye was kept on the customers, there wouldn’t be so many open boxes; empty boxes; garbage; theft; etc because there would be a customer service person right there helping the customer.
The only thing I can add is that my brother (who works in a grocery store) seems to have accepted this while I (who just shops there) have not. I stopped going to one grocery store partly because it seemed to be a way bigger problem there; ground round in the candy section, a cake in the cereal aisle, cans of stuff wherever the fuck… WTF people?
The clerk can totally deal with what you don’t want, just hand it over. The store where my brother works has a shelf with baskets on it marked for different departments, which they return occasionally. (Except for the frozen/etc. stuff, that gets a “Perishable return on 3” announcement.
If I’d have seen that, I’d have mentioned something if the clerk hadn’t. Karma dictates you should now put the ice cream in her sock drawer, and car keys in the medicine cabinet.
I only do this kind of thing when the item isn’t something perishable, and I can’t remember where I got the item from. At least I’d have the decency to be ashamed if I were called on it. I’m sorry, but your wife acted like a shameless jerk.
Some people joke with each other in that sort of way. I joke with my parents like that all the time. It’s not passive-aggression, because it’s not about anything serious, and both parties are in on the joke.
Thanks for the responses so far, it seems that I’m now even more justified in my effort to curb this problem. (No need to apologise for your disgust, after all you don’t know her and if this is the worst thing she ever does it ain’t that bad in the big scheme).
Just so you guys know the perishable item was not meat, it was some fresh bakery that would have (probably) not been purchased that day (since it was no longer in the bakery area) as the bakery at this store rarely sells day-old anything (as far as I know). She would never leave meat or something dangerous out where it could spoil.
As far as her working in retail. She actually did, for several years before we met, and she thought that it was her duty at the time to go out of her way to please the costumer and to her that included picking up after them and not talking about them while in ear-shot. She must be projecting her previous work ethics onto other clerks who may not share in her exhuberance to pick up after sloppy costumers.
Another note;
She rarely goes shopping without me so the chances she may have to mis-shelf an item or two are cut down to nearly nothing. It is still frustrating to me though since I’ll have to be the one who hikes across the store to re-stock the item.
Any ideas other than the verbal lashings I give her that could help me convince her to STOP?
How 'bout some impenetrable logic without any vitriol? That seems to work best in a husband/wife relationship.
I’m pretty sure I’m the one Mama Tiger mentioned, and yes, it is unbelievably aggravating to have to deal with this shit.
Though the watermelon I found on the floor in lingerie once was pretty funny, I admit. I don’t know why, it just was.
I treat customers with respect. It’s nice to get respect back, but it seems to be a rare thing. Leaving shit all over the store in the wrong place is incredibly disrespectful and rude.
I firmly believe that :smack:
Perhaps this should be the direction you take. The clerk in the OP was out of line, however, they felt they (and the store) were not being treated with respect. So they felt justified in returning the favor.
I had to quit shopping trips with my favorite SIL because on one trip, she was looking through a rack of clothes, pulling some out, and then purposely dropping them on the floor! When I asked her if she was going to pick them up and put them back on the rack she replied with, “They pay people here to do that.” :eek: :eek: :eek: :mad: :mad: :mad:
I’ve been one of those people almost my entire working career. I was embarrassed by her behavior, even if she wasn’t.
Your wife needs to apply for a job RIGHT NOW in retail. One Christmas season will cure her of that kind of attitude.
I’m with you there. The only time I’ve ever seen my store (I still do a lot of shopping there) really busy is New Year’s Eve, that’s when people wait in line for carts!
I think clothing should be exempt from the rule, though. Stores always have their own patented “pentafold-multituck-customhang” scheme for their unique hangars and displays (size labels easily accessible, promo stickers showing, pattern presented flatteringly, etc) that, unless you worked there and practiced a lot, is nearly impossible for the average shopper to refold without getting roly-eyes from the staff.
If you have the kind of asshole friends that I have, you could invite one of them over to your house for dinner one night and have them casually pick things up and observe them while walking around the house, then have them set them back down in a totally unrelated place. This might be good for knick knacks, DVDs, or just have them go wild with their imagination.
Of course, that would probably just get you killed. I hope you know me well enough to know you might not want to take any relationship advice from me. 
They shouldn’t be exempt. Take them to the register, or find a clerk (granted - easier said that done sometimes) and say “I’m sorry - none of these suit me - could you please return them to the racks?” That’s really all you need to do. Heck- even leave them in the dressing room. Don’t try to put them back on the racks yourself. I honestly don’t mind replacing things like this - what I hate is finding that one sweater you knew was on Rack A hidden on Rack Z - turned inside out and hung backwards - when I could have sold it 4 times had I been able to find it.
VCNJ~
Some people do joke with each other in that sort of way, and both people are in on the joke.
However, this joke was not told to each other – it was dropped here, to a bunch of other people who aren’t in on the joke.
When you make that joke about your wife to your wife, that’s one thing. Making that joke about your wife to people who don’t know your wife? snotty.
Great idea. Though I’d get killed just for inviting them over, they’d never get in the door to even catch a glimpse of a knick-knack…actually, what’s a knick-knack? - we’ve got three kids under 7 in the house.
One of your biggest fans, for sure. 
Speaking of the kids, my oldest daughter is anal like me and she must put anything she grabs in the store back in the same spot it came from. Like father like daughter.