Hee. Nothing new about a big ol’ sense of entitlement, but even around here, not everyone would brag about being their local liquor store’s most valued customer. :dubious:
I don’t recall saying I was their “most valued customer”, I don’t believe I am. It’s not a crappy hole-in-the-wall store, and they carry some pretty pricey stuff, and I rarely buy that stuff (unless I get my hubby a good bottle of single malt Scotch for Christmas).
But I don’t think expecting to be treated with some basic courtesy and respect in any retail environment equals a “big ol’ sense of entitlement”.
Thanks for the input though. :rolleyes:
If the Tarantula is more than 2 years old, it’s most likely female, female tarantulas can live for up to 20 years if cared for properly (Insert Crickets to Continue…), males have a much shorter lifespan, are dramatically more active, females just sort of sit there waiting for food…
the easiest way to determine a tarantula’s gender though, is to look at the first pair of walking legs at the front of the spider, a male tarantula has a set of Tibial Hooks on the second (or is it third) leg segment, they’re used during mating, when the female rears up and bares her fangs, the male restrains the fangs in his tibial hooks so he doesn’t prematurely end up as dinner…
The food-handling legs (palps) on females look like undersized walking legs, on males, they are more club-shaped, and used to deliver the sperm packets to the female (how romantic 
)
Thanks for the tips. Given all that, I’m pretty sure it’s a girl.
Yeah, we do feed crickets. However, said 8YO is interested in Madagascar giant hissing cockroaches this Christmas (no Barbie or Hannah Montana for her, thanks very much!), and the set we’re thinking about ordering her is guaranteed to have at least one female (four ‘hissers’ total). We’ve agreed that if she gets the hissers, we can stop feeding Fred crickets and start feeding her baby hissers. 
Only half an hour? I can’t imagine hanging out in a liquor store, or a store of any kind, for more than the couple of minutes necessary to make an informed decision about what I’m purchasing (if I haven’t already made it before entering the store), purchase it, and leave.
runs screaming from thread
Yes except there was a wine tasting, which means a longer linger time. I have worked at a liquor store that had tastings and the reps would always talk up the product, and from her post there was 5 different wines. That is a lot to go through for someone trying to sell their product. I don’t think half an hour is excessive for that in the least.
It seems you’ve not been to a wine-tasting, then. Events can range from casual to swank, and it’s not unreasonable to be there for a few hours. This sounds like it was a pretty low-key affair, but in my experience you do hang out for a bit regardless of how fancy it may or may not be–as it is a business-party sort of thing, like a tupperware party–only making your purchases when you’re done with the party aspect of it.
The clerk was quite a dick, and seems to fail to understand the nature of a wine-tasting, which is unfortunate, given his occupation.
Meh, it’s all grape juice to me. I’d try the samples, figure out which one (or ones) I found most pleasant (a mental process that takes me ~10-20 seconds) and then go with it. To each their own though.
Of course the clerk was a dick and his comment out of line, but I can see how he could get annoyed at someone hanging in the shop for half an hour.
I see. I don’t usually associate liquor stores with fancy affairs. I’m just picturing something kind of like the sample booths they set up in grocery stores, but with wine as the product.
Basic courtesy? I thought you’d worked your way up to expecting a discount.
But you’re welcome. Comic hyperbole and all that. 
I agree that he was quite a dick and I was there. I’m very pleased that Mom said something to day guy!
Sincerely, no snarkiness intended, I didn’t ‘work my way up’ to expecting anything, really. The very, very most I expected was that ‘day guy’ says something to manager, and manager says something harsh to dickhead about why it’s a bad idea to treat customers that way.
Tonight, I had occasion to be in there again (I was already at the supermarket next door, and we were running low on vanilla vodka, hubby’s fave) and who was working? Well, the guy who was originally conducting the wine tasting, and said asswipe. I walked into the store (with my 8YO daughter in tow, since she went to the grocery with me) and Wine Tasting Guy (WTG) asked how I was doing, was I looking for something particular, could he help me with something? The usual ‘salesman’ patter, which I’m totally cool with, as long as it’s delivered in a respectful manner. I told him, no thank you, I know exactly what I need, I’m fine, thankyewverymuch. Asswipe said nothing until he rang up my bottle of Vanilla, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of ~20 bucks (meaning I could pay with a 20 and have a bit of change back).
So, asswipe himself said nothing. I’ve no idea whether any sanctions were taken or not.
Because it is the closest liquor store, and it’s right next to the supermarket (doesn’t hurt that it supports the Neighborhood Association I’m associated with every chance they get), I’ll most likely continue to deal with them.
Still, be it the liquor store, the supermarket, Gabriel Bros. or Kohl’s, I expect to be treated with some modicum of respect. No matter what my goals are (obtaining a good price on my mineral makeup vs obtaining a good price on the Barefoot Pinot Grigio), I think I’m entitled to a minimum level of respectful treatment, as long as I, myself, am not being an asshole.
I work in liquor and we stopped doing regular wine tastings for the simple reasons that people were starting use them as a “Free Wine Bar/Social Catch-Up”. It wasn’t unusual to have 20 or 30 people trying all these wines, making small talk, gossiping, chatting, and then having maybe 3 of them actually buy a bottle of something they’d tasted.
Even so, I’d never actually say to a customer “Look, either buy a bottle of something or get out”, but there are tactful ways to make the same point.
Even so, liquor is a crappy job and there’s not a lot else out there at the moment, so I wouldn’t be complaining about this guy to his boss. You can live with a shop assistant being rude to you. He can’t live without a job.
Even so, with staff like that no one at the place will have a job if they keep annoying/ offsiding customers.
My money says that he won’t get any kind of a lashing…just a mild "hey, ol’ pal, let’s make the customers happy to shop here’ kind of thing.
If he get’s really low pay, the boss may not even say anything to him.
Could be wrong, though.
If this is what’s going on, I wouldn’t blame the store at all for stopping the tastings. It would be the smart thing to do. As it is, I didn’t buy any of the three I’d tasted. I was there to get some wines to go with Thanksgiving dinner, and they only had one white on the tasting menu, and it was distinctly not what I was looking for. I did buy two other bottles of wine, though.
However, the conditions you describe, I’ve never seen at a wine tasting at this store. At most there are maybe four of us at a time (one of them is usually the guy who works at the UPS next door, still in his work uniform, just scoffing down free wine and cheese, getting refill after refill. I’d never do that. If I taste one and feel very undecided, I may ask for a second tasting. That’s never happened to me, though. Either I like it right away, or not.)
Precisely. If he’d been tactful, it wouldn’t even have blipped my radar.
I wasn’t really thinking about going to his boss. In fact, for some reason, on that night, I thought he was the boss. But the fact that the guy actually conducting the sampling noticed it enough to mention it to another employee says something. And it’s the other employee who said he was going to say something to the manager.
Really, it’s not so much that I want him to get “in trouble” (in spite of the OP title), but I do hope his manager can make him understand that you have to be at least minimally polite to the customers. I mean, if his behavior alienates me enough for me to mention it to another employee of the store, how many people has he alienated enough to just say “screw it” and not shop there anymore?
So, the asswipe didn’t get fired, which is fine. I hope his boss had a talk with him about how it’s a bad idea to alienate the clientele!
But I was in the store this morning, and the day guy told me that the owner wanted me to have a free bottle of something. That lead me to him asking me about my wine preferences. I told him I like Riesling, Chardonnay, the occasional Shiraz, some from Australia, some from California, etc. Also, that my hubby and I both enjoy ice wine, but it’s pricey, so we don’t buy it often. He recommended an Argentinian Chardonnay that sells for $10.00 a bottle, and I was quite happy at the thought of getting a free bottle of Chardonnay! So then I also picked out a Pinot Grigio that was only $7.99, and would have been happy to get that for free instead. Then, he pulled out a bottle of ice wine (ice wine comes in half-bottles, actually, which is one of the things that makes them so expensive) that retails for $26.99, and said he was going to give me that for free!! Then, as if that weren’t enough, he rang both of my other bottles up at the price of the cheapest bottle! So, essentially, I got $45.00 worth of wine for about $15.00. Nice.
Not that you all were losing sleep over what was happening with this, but I figured I’d update you on the details!
Really? I just discovered a great liquor store that has wine tasting every Saturday from noon 'til whenever. People know each other, there are usually 4-6 wines to try and folks will spend anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour there. It’s a great way to spend part of a Saturday afternoon. Even if you only bought a bottle every other time, the store still comes out ahead. We actually bought a case Saturday (Christmas presents.)
Than he shouldn’t be rude! It’s not the customer’s job to figure out why an associate is rude and then to feel sorry for him. He should not be in customer service then. I have never/would never work at a job where people should put up with my douchery so I won’t lose my job. I really don’t understand your last paragraph. Can anyone help me out?