(This is almost a pit thread, but it’s relatively clean and may have some useful advice for those able to see it. Please feel free to comment.)
I work at Wal-Mart. I currently fill the post of “door-greeter”. This means I greet people when they come in the store, check their reciepts when they are leaving with large and/or un-bagged items, put those little pink stickers on items people bring in for returns, etc. I am not the manager of the store. I do not set policy. I have no minions to command, Heck, I’m not even conveniently close to an in-store phone. Why the heck does everybody think that I ought to immediately recognize that they are MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYBODY ELSE and should therefore deviate from store policy on their behalf?
Specifically:
You just bought something at a register near where I am doing my duty. You say “You just saw me buy it! You don’t need to see my reciept!”
Probably not, or I would’ve waved you through. :rolleyes:
You just bought a bunch of stuff and you’re in a hurry to get home and put it away. The exit alarm goes off when you pass through. I am required to check your reciept and deactivate (or remove) the sensor tag that set the alarm off. I am also (unfortunately) required to put up with your insane babbling about how "This is Bullsht!"
If you’d just be calm and cooperate we’d both get it over with quicker. If you really think that it’s stupid for me to do what my boss tells me to, then call the manager and tell them you don’t like the policy. I have no power to deviate from the formula without his blessing. I like my job a hll of a lot more than I like you right now. If you’re really cheesed off, call 1-800-Wal-Mart and gripe to them. Griping at me is about as helpful as kicking the dog when you get home.
I’m just a guy who works for (barely) more than minimum wage. I’m not on welfare. I am not a burden to society. What is it about you that compels you to treat people like me as if I were something the dog did, and you just stepped in me?
(Now I feel better)
I realize that to a lot of people, I am the face of the store so every problem they have with W-Mart is MY FAULT (in their eyes). Really, working at a store can be a real pain in the posterior.
–SSgtBaloo
P.S.: Not everyone is like the folks mentionied above, but only one of those ought to be allowed each workday. “Sorry, sir, but I’ve met my @ssh*le quota for today. Move along, please.”
I used to be alot nicer, but after almost three years of customer abuse, I hate everyone.
I think instead of jail, the sentence should be working retail.
I offer you some of my Caramel Turle Fudge icecream. its’ nummy.
But… but… in the WalMart commercials, the greeters get hugs and they’re on first-name basis with the customers and kids love 'em and bluebirds sing to them and vicious dogs lie at their feet in docile submission…
I have to note that when the alarms go off at exits, I rarely see associates going over to check things out, and generally the customers don’t bother stopping anyway. I never entirely understood that. Is that sort of thing at the discretion of the manager or is it just a bad attitude that I’ve witnessed?
Please. Send me some of whatever you’re using. It sounds like fun!
One of the door greeters is supposed to go check it out. They’re right next to the door and can call the customer back. We are neither authorized nor inclined to chase down people who will not cooperate, but most folks respond in a helpful manner when we ask them to please come back so we can deactivate the tag. We also have to write down the register number and cashier number (they’re both on the reciept) in a log book, and record the alarm indication (a counter that increments with every trip of the alarm).
I have the impression that checking the reciepts and deactivating the sensor tags is not just store policy, but corporate policy (or at least Regional Manager policy). I can see where a store manager might be inclined to run the place as if it were his own fiefdom, but he’d have to have the cooperation (or benign neglect) of his regional manager to get away with it. Of course, since they put in the self-serve registers, a more-than-usual amount of merchandise seems to be “evaporating” without the customary cash-for-goods transaction taking place.
Checking for reciepts might annoy honest folks, but it truly irks the dishonest ones. A couple weeks ago, a woman tried to get out the door with a VCR, a CD player and a home theater system, by just walking out with them in a basket. There were no bags and there was no reciept in her hand. As she started past me I asked: “May I see your reciept, please?” She actually hunched her shoulders and sped up a little so I said:
“Maam?”
“Maam?”
“MAAM!” (Spoken in Command Voice – most veterans will know what I mean .;))
She stopped on the third “maam”, just a few inches from the door. I asked her if I could see her reciept. She said “He’s paying for it now. I don’t have the reciept. I’ll go get him.” With that, she strode off into the store and I presume she left via the auto service center. I don’t have a phone at my location, so I put the basket where I could keep an eye on it. When I got the chance, I flagged down an assistant manager & told him about it. I got an “atta-boy” (He tol’ me I done good – but the warm feeling I got from it was all the bonus I’m likely to see from it).
