Yeah, when there’s a error, it takes just as long as going thru the line, usually.
Some genius at AH (a supermarket chain here) decreed workers drop everything when a customer asks where something is, go with them and physically TOUCH the item when pointing out where it is. It has caught on with other retailers and my shopping experience has greatly improved. No more “on the left in ail 6, next to the cereal” bullshit.
.
Fortunately, most of our managers are OK with the waiting cashiers speaking to the next person over. Occasionally, I surreptitiously read the magazines in the checklane. I hate having nothing to do, so when I moved over to cashiering I asked to be put on the busy shifts.
Our local store director has surprisingly limited say in how people-hours are apportioned. We tell people to call the corporate headquarters. Of course, half the time they sneer “that never works!” Well, not always, but it certainly won’t change if you don’t tell them you’re unhappy. They sure as hell don’t listen to us peons!
Eh. While it’s nice to keep a positive attitude, having a few pet peeves doesn’t necessarily make one a hopelessly miserable misanthrope. I don’t work in retail per se, but I often conduct financial transactions with the general public, and there are things I see on a daily basis that cause me to roll my eyes.
For instance, people will wait in a very long line of customers, surrounded by large and numerous signs indicating products and services, clearly marked prices, descriptions, etc., and when they finally reach the front of the line, they will have absolutely no idea what they want to purchase and how much it will cost. And only after that’s settled will they realize they might need some form of payment, and begin the process of fishing out a wallet-within-a-purse-within-a-backback-stuffed-underneath-a-stroller.
And yes, I know you remember when it only cost $X. So do I. It costs more now. A loaf of bread used to cost a quarter; what’s your point? I can’t haggle. Go to a flea market if that’s what you want to do.
I genuinely like my job, and I like dealing with most of the people I encounter. That doesn’t mean I can’t think that some of them are idiots.
My store had three rules about when to call the second cashier:
When there are three people on the line
When someone has a full cart
When someone says “Can’t you open another register?”
I added a fourth, which got approved:
When dealing with a crazy customer (mostly to get the other customers away from crazy, and also so the first cashier can concentrate on dealing with said crazy. If I ask the second cashier to take the next customer, please, someone is going to call one of the (male) aisle workers to the front for backup and/or protection.)
This morning work opened up with a customer rising out of a motorized scooter to engage one of the managers in actual physical combat. Personally, I consider the chosen manager a poor choice of opponent given her size and strength but whatever. Then the alleged customer is inspired to deploy the n-word, the c-word, and a reference to sexual intercourse in a juxtaposition of maximum emotional impact. It took not one, not two, but THREE men to pull the enraged manager off the alleged customer, and two more people to prevent the alleged customer from following the trio dragging the manager off her to continue the conflict. The police were called and the “customer” was removed in handcuffs as one of our security guys was prying unpaid-for-merchandise out of one of her fists and the police were reading her the Miranda rights.
And there was muttering to the effect of “well, at least it wasn’t a shooter”.
Hate my job? Sometimes I hate reality.
Friday afternoon. Very busy time for us, and we have to get the customers out of the store two hours before sundown. I’m doing “last cash” running the only register that still has cash in it.
Customer pays in cash and when the drawer opens, comes to my side of the register. I mean, could yoube any more obvious?
I put my right hand into a fist, give the customer a long, hard stare, take out her change and slam the drawer shut. If she had moved one inch closer to the open drawer, her nose would have been punched out by my fist.
That’s the fourth time I’ve seen a customer very obviously trying to get into a cash drawer.
Do you have security, or are you security?
She is the cashier. She is not “security” as her main job, but she is security as one of her tasks. I’m not security at my job either, but if I see someone other than Fred moving our servers away without prior warning I’m not gonna just look and think “uh, wonder what those guys are doing with the big computers”.
I am a cashier, but I know a lot about security, self-defense, and punching someone out. Had I made any type of commotion, two of the male aisle workers would have immediately rushed to the registers.
A bit of an update on this:
It seems the scooter driver ran over the foot of the manager, then fisted her in the face as an opening gambit. THEN the manager went ballistic. Manager had been approaching the person in question to ask if she needed assistance and discovered the hard way the “customer” was a belligerent would-be shoplifter.
As the “customer” was clearly the aggressor (it is on more than one security camera tape so they have multiple angles on this) and the manager acted in self defense she apparently still has her job and, aside from some bruising, is uninjured.
I am actually pleasantly surprised the corporation did NOT summarily fire the manager for getting physical with someone when it was a matter of self-defense.
If they had fired the manager, a good lawsuit would have resulted. Self-defense defends and supersedes everything.
Had the person in my previous post made any move, all I’d have to say in my defense is “I thought my right (only good) hand was being threatened.” Since she was on my right side, nobody would have questioned it.
So does the customer get banned from the store for this sort of thing?
No, because I didn’t make a fuss, it being Friday closing time and last cash. But we have the video of the incident with the person being clearly on tape.
If she pulls that stunt again, the manager will be called and she will be banned.
Not stupidity, just carelessness. I caught the woman at the deli counter rolling her eyes at me. I was waiting my turn behind a woman and her brats, so couldn’t see the types of ham that were in the deli case. When my turn came up, the counter person, who has been there for years and knows my face, asked what I wanted. I told her ‘some ham’, but had to look at what they had on hand. I spotted what I wanted, and when I looked up to tell her, she was rolling her eyes impatiently. At least she had the decency to look sheepish. I don’t really blame her much, as I’m sure she gets people all the time who dither endlessly over what they want. Working retail is a royal pain in the ass.
I had one incident where a customer went to write a check and when I said “Sorry, we don’t take checks,” told me “I always write checks in your store.”
After I finished the transaction, I went and told thing exchange to the manager, who responded “That’s a fucking lie.” The customer who was walking out of the store heard her, came back and made a complaint about her use of “inappropriate language.”
And just yesterday when I told someone we don’t take American Express, she responded “Are you sure about that?” No, I’ve only worked here going on six years, but I don’t know what forms of payment we take.
Yesterday I also answered a phone from someone who asked if we had our Christmas items out yet. I stifled my first response, which was to ask “What month are we in anyway?” I just said “Sorry, no.”
Wow…
I see nothing wrong with this. Perhaps it’s something you usually carry, but you’re out of stock. Do you not have an opinion as to where I might go to get that product? You know, just to be helpful, and nice?
I see nothing wrong with this. Do you not have an opinion as to which product is better? You know, just to be helpful, and nice? Is it that much of a problem to just say: "I’m sorry, I don’t really know anything about that product.
Are you an employee of the store? Because I’m thinking that you, as an employee would have a better chance of finding out a price of a product than I would. When someone is asking the price, I don’t think anyone is actually asking for you to come up with the price off the top of your head. What they’re asking is HELP determining the price. You know, just to be helpful and nice.
It seems reasonable to me that at one point you had more product than what would fit on a shelf; therefore necessitating the need to have some of that stock in the back. It doesn’t seem unreasonable. Again, I don’t think that’s retail stupidity; it’s more like you just don’t want to be talked to.
I’ll give you this one to a small degree. But I get it, if something was off… like all of the checkout lines had 10 people in queue, but yours had only the peron currently being checked out. I’d definitely ask if your lane is open.
I’m not sure I understand this one. People come up to a register with no intention of buying a product; but just want to drop them at the register? Or are you talking about someone who decides not to purchase something? In that case, what am I supposed to do? Put it back? If that’s your thought, I’m sorry, but that’s part of the retail lifecycle.
Annie-Xmas,
I take it all back. After reading some of your other posts; I don’t think I’d want to work where you work. Sounds like you should get combat pay. (I worked for a convenience store chain; if you were assigned a store in a rough neighborhood, you’d get ‘combat pay’. It was a nice little bump in pay for the extra danger. You know you’re in a rough neighborhood when they raise the floor up behind the counter to give you a height advantage, and the place convex mirrors in a convenience store with only 1 or aisles.
I actually know the answer to this one.
Reason 1)If you have to come into the store to price check, there’s a higher chance you’ll buy something; even if it’s not the item you wanted the price check on.
Reason 2)Some stores have this policy on exact items that can be sold at other stores, and it’s to curb another store from undercutting you. When I worked at a huge chain of convenience stores, this was especially important with fuel prices. If someone was going to undercut us on fuel prices, they were going to have to at least drive by and look at the pump.