Oh, I’m not blaming the drones! It just so happens I’m a 2, so my size should be right up front. But it never is. There are 5 or 6 items in front of mine all the time. All. The. Fucking. Time. I’ve never done retail. I’d be beating the crap out of the shoppers all the time.
I, too, am one who never understood why people hand you change on top of the bills. Having been a cashier myself, at several different places, I know that it’s not only awkward to receive change that way, it’s also awkward to give it that way. The change falls all over the place when you’re handing it to them. The way I always did it was count the cash money, keep it in my left hand while I count the coins with my right hand (easy to do one handed b/c the change is organized), then hand each form of money to the customer seperately, bills first, then change. They can take it however they want, without dropping money all over the place. This whole process actually only takes a few seconds once you get the hang of it, too.
I also hate other shoppers. This is sad, because I actually really do like going shopping, for anything - clothes, gifts, food, etc. There is this natural grocery store I go to in order to get some stuff that Star Market doesn’t sell. I do believe that all of the shoppers there are high, because they stare at items for hours before they pick them up, take up whole sections of the store with one cart, and walk soooooo slooooooowly, even if they’re not looking at anything in that particular section.
I’m sure I’ll have more to say later, as I actually have to go get food at this store later today. :dubious:
Huh. I’m a retail drone and I think I always hand change over first. And I’m in Canada, so there’s a lot more change. Nine-fifty four in change only involves one bill, and the rest is coin.
In the other retail job I’ve just started we’re required to count the change back to the customer to make sure it’s right. It helps, because the registers don’t calculate change, so it’s easier to catch mistakes.
At first job all the folded things have visible size stickers on the fold lines. That doesn’t stop people from opening up all of them to look for their size. What I really wish customers would do is move the folded things without shaking them all out. Once they’re folded it’s pretty easy to pick them up without disturbing the folding too much. I know you have to shake out at least one if you’re unfamiliar with the sizing, but please not all. And not three minutes to closing.
Since I’ve been working retail I’ve become a lot more aware of how terrible most retail workers are. It’s too bad. I rather enjoy my job most of the time and I’m good at it, and you don’t see a lot of people like me- reasonably happy and reasonably competent.
What drives me nuts (and Wal-mart is notorious for this, but I’ve encountered it in other stores as well) is the habit of designing the aisles so that the support beams fall not-quite-in-the-center of the aisle. Too narrow to pass on the one side, barely wide enough on the other, and always the bulkiest merchandise on the shelves, just begging to be knocked off. What really bugs me about Wal-mart is, the column is almost always in the same spot that the “Seasonal” (Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, etc) merchandise is, thereby, one of the most crowded spaces in the store. I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe that once the building is laid down (and most of them are cookie cutter designs anyway) someone can’t lay out the shelving accordingly, so that, oh I don’t know, the shelves could be built AROUND the post.
And this I blame on myself, but what is it about Target’s carts that make them so unwieldy for me? I have never had a problem navigating a cart before - but there’s just something in the design of the Target ones that ensure I’ll catch the bottom of a display, or the corner of a shelf, or something. Drive myself nuts.
Please tell me this really doesn’t happen. Anglos in Las Cruces would often tell me stories about “Wal-Mart family reunions”, where an entire extended family of 15 or 20 people would shop together at Wal-Mart, blocking the aisles for other customers. Living in Cruces for several years, I seldom shopped at Wal-Mart, but I have seen groups of six or eight slowly making their way through the aisles, often stopping to closely examine a product and have a long family meeting to discuss it in greater detail. It’s a phenomenon I’ve seen noplace else.
Can I mention debit card peeves? How about sliding a debit card when you arrive at the register, only to find that you’ve got to slide it through again after your purchases are totalled, because the computer somehow forgot about the first time you swiped your card? Irritates me to no end.
I think there’s a rule stating that, in the electronics department of every Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart, there must be a boombox blaring with the volume set to 11, tuned in to the most whitey-killing gangsta rap station in the region.
The Giant Eagle near me has two different types of shopping carts. There’s the regular cart that you use when you’re shopping, but the bagger will transfer your purchased items to some vertical-oriented buggy, which you use to take everything out to the parking lot. It has an axle at ankle height, and you’ll constantly hit your foot unless you hold the buggy far from your body. What’s the point of the second cart?
Why can’t Wal-Mart in the US have inventory like this?
Oh, one more thing … quit marking shit “2 for $2” when you really mean something is just a dollar.
Oh what’s worse is telling me I can have 2 for $2, but I can NOT have 1 for $1. Grocery stores around here love to do this - if you don’t buy the specified quantity, you don’t get the deal. I’m sure there are reasons behind it, deals made with vendors, etc, but really. When I shop, it’s generally for 1 person, maybe for 2. I don’t NEED 3 bags of lettuce.
Once, I was “wise” and bought the 3 bags, and then returned the other two, thereby garnering the discount. But the second time I tried to do it (months later, different product), the cashier was wise to me and told me she’d have to refund all 3 and charge me the normal one-bag price. Sigh.
The Safeway where I shop will let you get one at the “Two for $2” price, as long as you use the Club card. I know the grocery store club cards have been dicussed to death on here, and a lot of dopers hate them, but if I can use it to buy one at the special price, I’m going to keep using it.
Actually, I don’t get what makes handing bills/change together so bad. 
If I get change on top of bills, I slip the change into my pocket and put the bills in my wallet. Presto!
Does anyone else find themselves running into one specific obnoxious customer over and over again while grocery shopping?
The people who stop their grocery carts in the middle of the aisle or where they are blocking the aisle bug me. If I stop to look at something I try to make sure my cart is next to the shelves and not by another cart. There’s a new grocery store near my house and the aisles there are large enough (amazingly) to let two carts park and a third one go between them, and I still have people blocking the aisles. One notable family managed to stretch themselves across the aisle with cart, mom, dad, stroller and kids.
The large retailer I worked at had focus groups to find out what consumers wanted in a store.
“Wider Aisles” was near the top of the list. So the new stores were designed with wider aisles. Not a year passed before corporate management decided these wide aisles would be a great place to put displays down the middle of!!
“Short waits and quick checkout process” also tops the list. So instead of having cashiers simply ask “Did you find everything allright today?” the phrase now consists of “Would you like to save 10% by signing up for our credit car, would you like to sign up for a year of Sports Illustrated, do you want a warranty on that, do you want to sign up for our frequent buyers program?” All of which completely slow up the checkout since if the customer says yes to any they now have to fill out their name/address/i.d./s.s./phone on some form!!
Although I think an employee shoud greet me when I enter into a store, I hate when they follow me around and constantly ask “Can I help you with anything?” The majority of the time I go somewhere, I’m just looking around. the first time they ask me this, I simply respond “No, I’m just looking.” But apparently some places are told that a customer must be asked once every minute whether or not they need help, otherwise the store will explode.
I was told a long time ago by a store owner/employer that saying this would mark you as a potential shoplifer. :rolleyes:
We’re told if we don’t ask it, we could be fired. Believe me, I hate it when it’s done to me and I hated doing it to people, but they made us.
You are obviously of the male persuasion, or at least a female who is fortunate enough that all her clothes have functional pockets. An awful lot of ladies’ clothes don’t.
Maybe it is just a New York thing but here the cashiers are always handing me the bills, the coins AND the receipt all at once. I leave a trail of coins in every store I enter and usually leave muttering under my breath. I think they believe it is more efficient - but not for the poor customer who is trying to juggle a wallet, a purse and the bag of goods while sorting the bills, coins and receipt.
Also, I have a big family and when I grocery shop my cart is full. Very full. Why does every person buying one or two items feel free to ask if they can go ahead of me? PICK ANOTHER LINE, YOU ENTITLED IDIOT! When I finally decide to draw the line at the fifth person to do this, they act like I’m being extremely unreasonable. :mad: There are six other lines but they might be third in line. Why won’t you just let me cut in front of you? I have a husband, three kids, two jobs and two cats. I don’t have time to let the world go ahead of me. Maybe I should just bring the kids with me every time. They are great people repellants!
I go to a ShopRite where you could drive a tank between the aisles, and people still block them. I especially like the “two old friends who having seen each other in 29 years catching up while block the aisle with shopping carts facing in opposite directions.” I mean, couldn’t you have this conversation somewhere else (like in the parking lot?).
It’s okay to use your cell phone in the aisles. It is NOT okay to use it while you’re in the front of the checkout line.
My pet peeve when shopping is other people’s lack of spatial awareness (actually this is a pet peeve in life, not just shopping). You know the kind of thing - two people with their trollies taking up 80% of the aisle, chatting away. You are walking down the aisle, they look and see you but do they move? Do they hell!!! Do they think I can squeeze past them without bothering them? (obviously they didn’t take in my child bearing hips when they were looking at me!). Do they think I can levitate myself over them? Or do they not just give a sh**?? More like answer C methinks.
This totally drives me nuts everywhere - in fact, its only people my age and older that seem to have an awareness of the others around them. I hate to sound like an old fuddy duddy (but I will) by saying that younger people these days either don’t have spatial awareness or just don’t care and have the attitude that life revolves around them. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH is all I can say!!! :mad:
Don’t even get me started on how people use roundabouts… :smack:
I don’t want to have to rely on a Global Positioning System to know where I am in a store. Several of the larger department stores here are organized into what can only be described as a giant, retail maze. I enter the store from the parking lot and then have to wind my way around, turning left, then right, past the lingerie (“I don’t think I’ve ever noticed nipples on a mannequin before.”), around the housewares, past the shoe corner (“Sorry, men’s shoes are over by the customer service center.”), only to find that I’m now back where I began. How on God’s earth did I walk through the men’s clothing section and not notice. I’m not a genius, but I recognize pants and shirts and suits when I see them.
I guess I better ask a salesperson.
“Hello…hellooo…anybody work here? Bueller…Bueller…Anyone?”
That’s usually when I throw up my hands and go to a specialty shop. I may spend a little more, but I know that if I go to Brooks Brothers I’m going to find exactly what I’m looking for and that the salesclerk is going to be with easy hailing distance. Maybe someday I’ll learn my lesson and skip the big retailers right off.
Do you ever answer ‘yes’, even though you want to say ‘no’? I always say ‘yes’, because I’m afraid of what the hell they would do if I said ‘no’.
Do they call someone up to go get whatever it is you said you didn’t find? Do all the other people behind you have to wait while they do this? Are those people legally allowed to kill you when you get outside?
What if they really don’t have what you didn’t find? Then what do they do? Order it right then? Say ‘too bad, I guess we’re out of that?’ Do you get to say ‘No shit’ when they say that, or is that pretty much assumed?
Good one. And I almost feel sorry for the cashier (who I assume is required to ask) because I’m sure that some people who have trouble finding what they wanted take it out on the poor cashier.
Another cashier pet peeve is don’t call me by my freaking name. You do not know me, we are not friends. And it’s a good probability that you’ll screw it up.
Although it was funny when the cashier called Bob Mr. “Zyada’s Lastname”