# What I learned working on retail **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466 "2003-01-03T19:15:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/41 "2003-01-06T17:52:21Z")
**Skijumper** : :smack: I didn’t think to check your location field. And cashcards sound a good idea, I’d never heard of them. **Wang-Ka** Dazzle-factor sounds exactly right. You get the same effect with instructions on filling in a form (on paper or on a computer). It’s too much info, and people just switch off. Even if you’re careful it can be a pain to find what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/42 "2003-01-06T18:34:55Z")
> [@](#): > > The odd thing I noticed while working there was that the folks who had the most obivous reasons to be cranky were usually the most polite. The guy who’d come in for the pain medication for his literally shattered arm was one of our nicest customers. Most of the others who were in bad shape would just wait quietly or browse around while their scripts were being filled. > \*\* It’s kind of obvious to me why that is. People who suffer from serious recent physical injury, yet are able to drag themselves to the phamacy to have a prescription filled, are most likely _already_ doped up on some kind of pain medication. They probably received it at the emergency room (or wherever they just came from), and it hasn’t quite worn off yet. That’s what makes them so mellow. Call it chemically induced Inner Peace. On the other hand, I can perfectly understand why the cigarette addicts throw a fit when they can’t get their hands on their brand. They _must_ satisfy their craving _right now_, or they will _die_. Same goes for the gambling addicts when they can’t get their lottery tickets. Poor saps. Have some compassion already. ---
**Author:** ![carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/43 "2003-01-06T18:38:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skijumper \* > **There was once a fellow who harrassed and verbally abused our staff because we didn’t have any copies of the book he wanted, to the point of insisting that we buy an extra copy from the Borders next door, just so he could borrow it. The title in question - Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Make Friends & Influence People’.** Well, he obviously needed it. Badly. ---
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/44 "2003-01-06T18:54:53Z")
Oh, btw. Do any of you retail people here work at WalMart? I sincerely hope so, because there is a question I’ve been dying to ask, but it seems to miniscule to start a new topic for. \*I’ve read somewhere that WalMart employees are not allowed to take their aprons or whatever those things are off _until they leave the building_. Even if they are already signed out and “officially” off duty. That way they often end up working for nothing, because they are not allowed to tell customers that they are off the clock and refer them to a collegue. \* Now, there is a whole lot wrong with this, too much to get into here (the words barbarian and slavery come to mind; I will probably get further into this topic at some future point when I have more time to fool with it). My small question right now: What happens in winter when you would normally put on your coat before you leave the building? \*Are WalMart people prohibited from putting on their coats until they are literally out of the building (in addition to being forced to leave their smock-things on)? \*Because if you just put a coat over it, how do customers know that you work there? That would take care of being accosted after you are off the clock, yes? ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/45 "2003-01-06T19:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > \*\*Oh, btw. Do any of you retail people here work at WalMart? I sincerely hope so, because there is a question I’ve been dying to ask, but it seems to miniscule to start a new topic for. \*I’ve read somewhere that WalMart employees are not allowed to take their aprons or whatever those things are off _until they leave the building_. Even if they are already signed out and “officially” off duty. That way they often end up working for nothing, because they are not allowed to tell customers that they are off the clock and refer them to a collegue. \* > \*\* I can’t speak for Wal-Mart, but where I used to work we wore uniforms. Company policy at every place I’ve ever worked where a uniform was worn was that while you are wearing the uniform, you represent the company, whether you’re on the clock or not. Now, we were never barred from bringing clothing to change into after we clocked out, but if you are stopped on your way to the restroom to change by a customer, even if you’re clocked out, it’s still your job to help them. It happens all the time. I’d rather edit a timecard and end up with a happy customer than have someone call to complain about a rude employee who brushed a customer off because they ‘weren’t on the clock’. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/46 "2003-01-06T19:33:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > \*\*Oh, btw. Do any of you retail people here work at WalMart? I sincerely hope so, because there is a question I’ve been dying to ask, but it seems to miniscule to start a new topic for. \*I’ve read somewhere that WalMart employees are not allowed to take their aprons or whatever those things are off _until they leave the building_. Even if they are already signed out and “officially” off duty. That way they often end up working for nothing, because they are not allowed to tell customers that they are off the clock and refer them to a collegue. \*\*\* I don’t work at wal-mart but a funny thing happened to me recently. [hi-jack] I went on lunch during the christmas season. I left my back room for 10 minutes to check something out, and TWO customers came up to me, and asked me to help them, after I explained that yes, I work here, but I’m on lunch. Not that I minded, but it amusedf me that I apparently give off an “I work here” vibe. [/hi-jack] Morelin ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/47 "2003-01-06T19:43:20Z")
I feel a need to defend stupid customers (or maybe just sound off about another pet peeve … but hey, this is the pit!) I am vegetarian, and wherever I have travelled outside of Canada and England, eating out invariably required an interrogation: Me: ‘Is this vegetarian?’ Waitress: ‘Yes.’ Me: ‘It has no meat in it?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ Me: ‘No beef?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ Me: ‘Chicken?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ Me: ‘Pork?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ Me: ‘Ham?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ Me: ‘Bacon?’ Waitress: ‘No.’ … and so on, and so on, ad nauseum. Because too often something turns up with a big piece of meat in it (skin, tripe, and spam (!!) have all turned up in things labelled ‘vegetarian’; lord knows what meat i’ve eaten that was chopped up too small to see!) that you hadn’t specified, and that the waitress doesn’t consider ‘meat’. This happens even in Canada sometimes. So sometimes the customer really does have a clue, even if it’s not immediately apparent … … but it’s true, most of the time, they don’t. For example, not once but twice, while i was working, a customer said this at the checkout, in the front of a long line of people and after receiving their change: ‘Excuse me. I gave you a nice new twenty dollar bill. I’m not going to put this grubby old $5 back in my purse. Could I have a fresh one, please.’ Yes I hate customers. I even hate me, sometimes, when I’m a customer. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/48 "2003-01-06T19:47:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Morelin \* > \*\*I don’t work at wal-mart but a funny thing happened to me recently. > [hi-jack] I went on lunch during the christmas season. I left my back room for 10 minutes to check something out, and TWO customers came up to me, and asked me to help them, after I explained that yes, I work here, but I’m on lunch. Not that I minded, but it amusedf me that I apparently give off an “I work here” vibe. [/hi-jack] > > Morelin \*\* (Sorry to jump on the hijack wagon) I used to have to leave the store to run errands, office supplies and whatnot, and would _always_ get stopped by other shoppers to ask questions. Not so strange (but you’d think they would notice that while the store’s motif is red and white, my shir t is blue and yellow and sports a clearly different logo). A little stranger though, when I’m out in public now. I seem to get accosted at lease once a month or so when I’m at the grocery store (but mostly at Office Depot – weird) by people looking for such and such an item. They seem genuinely puzzled when I try to explain that I have no idea and politely inform them that they might try checking up at the front counter. (end of hijack hijack) ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/49 "2003-01-06T20:48:42Z")
The only places I’ve worked at that required uniforms were resteraunts (the retail places just had nametags). We were required to cover them up when we weren’t on the clock (on breaks) as to not taint the oh-so-sensitive eyes of our customers by the sight of _gasp!_ employees _eating_. You know, because we’re not people, and therefore, have no need for food or water. If we didn’t have anything to cover them up with (i.e. a coat) or a change of clothes, we had to eat in the “breakroom” (translation: nasty, grungy converted closet that smelled of urine). I mean, comon,’ you couldn’t expect the almighty customer to have to witness the lowly servents engaging in human behavior could you? That was only the corporate places of course. Yet another reason to go privately owned 😉 All the small resteraunts didn’t really give a rats ass. I sat up at the counter in full uniform eating all the time, usually chatting it up with the owner. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/50 "2003-01-06T20:49:55Z")
Another hyjack … First, let me state that this isn’t a rant, but something that happened to me I found amusing. Many years ago I worked in a supermarket (actually several) in the Philadelphia area and I was several hours into a shift, standing atop a latter straightening out some cans or whatever. I hear someone behind me and turn around and a couple who look like they are about mid-50s or so. Gent: Excuse me? Me: Yes? Gent: Where do you keep the pop? Mind reeling, I think my eyes glazed over as I scoursed my brain through the 75,000+ products we carried. Me numb: What? Gent: Pop. I sag where I stand as the effort of drilling up this information from the depths of my burned-out psyche threatens to overloed my senses. _What is this? Yogurt? Popsicles? A candybar?_ I’m thinking at warp speed. Suddenly the woman taps him on the shoulder and says quietly: Woman: They call it _soda_ here. **AHA!** Mission accomplished. I felt silly, of course, but man, just too much in there. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/51 "2003-01-07T00:20:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \* > \*\*Same in my deli. “Half-pound of that.” Mind you, not only is their finger at the least two feet away, there’s _a fucking caseful of food between me and your finger!_ If only I were able to see through large pieces of meat and metal and plastic and refrigeration parts and such… > > And of course, I ask, “Can you give me the name, please?” > > Their response? Say it with me folks, “That one.” \* So, I huff and puff, and make the thirty foot walk out of the deli (taking my sweet ass time) and back around to where the putz is, and ask them, “The one labelled ‘Mortadella’?” “Yeah.” > > Sigh… > > \*- This really deserves a smartass reply. Anyone want to give me ideas? \*\* Well, I WOULD sympathize with you, except that our local deli has the lovely habit of having the labels turned at slants at which they can’t be seen clearly, or a label between two similar dishes, or misspelled labels or teensy tiny print (look I am not going to creep out some grade-schooler by asking him to read a deli label in size 4 font for me because my reading glasses are at home!!!). So… maybe some of your “dumb” customers just forgot their reading glasses? Of course they could at least describe the food to you. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/52 "2003-01-07T00:54:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cowgirl \* > \*\*I am vegetarian, and wherever I have travelled outside of Canada and England, eating out invariably required an interrogation: > \*\* Yeah, what’s up with this? I once had a waitress at Applebee’s that wholeheartedly insisted that bacon was not a meat. I got quesadillas, specifically asked for “without meat”. It came sans chicken, but with bacon. She at first refused to take it back! ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/53 "2003-01-07T00:55:10Z")
Good rant, and great followups. I think my favorite was the 501 jeans guys (shaking head). And to reiterate what another poster said: “this is why I’d never make it in retail”. But I have to say, to the poster who recounted the “personal shopper” story. I DO do that, but only when looking for one certain item, not a whole list of them. The reason being that I’ve spent way too many hours of my life searching a store for an item they swore was there (and after you ask them they disappear) and never finding it, and then finally finding another employee who says “oh no, we’ve never carried _those_”. So, I finally started calling and “making” the clerk check to see if they actually had the item _in stock_!! and if they’d pull it for me before wasting my time. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/54 "2003-01-07T03:11:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*So, I finally started calling and “making” the clerk check to see if they actually had the item _in stock_!! and if they’d pull it for me before wasting my time. \*\* Actually, my store’s policy is to check the computer, phsyically walk to the section and find the item, walk back to the phone, with the item, assure the customer we have it and then offer to hold it for them. Si it pisses me off when all they want to know is the price … which shows up on my computer. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/55 "2003-01-07T03:34:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > Oh, btw. Do any of you retail people here work at WalMart? I sincerely hope so, because there is a question I’ve been dying to ask, but it seems to miniscule to start a new topic for. \*I’ve read somewhere that WalMart employees are not allowed to take their aprons or whatever those things are off _until they leave the building_. Even if they are already signed out and “officially” off duty. That way they often end up working for nothing, because they are not allowed to tell customers that they are off the clock and refer them to a collegue. \* I don’t currently work for Wal-Mart, but I did about 10 years ago. Whatever they may do _now_, they didn’t have any such policy back then. You could always drop by your friendly neighborhood Wally World\* and ask an employee. \*_Wow, I said that with a straight face!_ ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/56 "2003-01-07T03:44:24Z")
See, if it’s just one item, I don’t really mind. But people - plural - expect me to do _everything_ for them so that all they have to do is walk in, say their name and get their stuff handed to them neatly packaged and ready to go - for free except for the cost of the items - which is not, I’m afraid, what I’m paid for. Of course, sometimes, even if it’s just one item, I get annoyed - such as when people MAKE me go make sure we have something obvious in stock, like paperclips. NO, we’re an office supply store that doesn’t carry paperclips. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/57 "2003-01-07T04:30:42Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t currently work for Wal-Mart, but I did about 10 years ago. Whatever they may do now, they didn’t have any such policy back then. When I worked at a place I’ll call J-Mart, they allowed us to take off our smocks after we punched out, but if we got stopped by a customer while on break, we had to help them out on our time. As a cashier, a break was a precious commodity, because it required summoning a back-up cashier to take over for you, and these were always in low supply. Many a time, suffering from an overly-full bladder, I considered wearing Depends, as the Jack Daniels line workers do. I once actually passed out while waiting for a break from low-blood sugar. (I had a doctor’s excuse to allow me to sip a drink while at the register, but was only allowed if a customer was not in sight . . . they didn’t want a customer to see us ingeting anything, and ruin the Robot Facade.) I grew mysteriously deaf to the calls of “Miss? Miss!?” as I scurried toward the bathroom or breakroom. You could count on the walk to the back of the store taking about two minutes, and they started the fifteen minute countdown the moment you left the registers, which left about 11 minutes to hurry back, punch out, answer nature’s calls, wolf down a snack, and guzzle a drink. If you stayed the whole fifteen minutes according to the time clock, you could expect dirty looks from your fellow cashiers. When I started working there, I was only sixteen years old. After reading the federal worker’s rules, we realized that we young’uns were being screwed out of our manditory breaks. (If you’re not going to follow the rules, don’t post 'em!) It took a fellow cashier’s threat of a lawsuit before they would comply with the law. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466/58 "2003-01-07T05:02:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > \*\*It’s kind of obvious to me why that is. People who suffer from serious recent physical injury, yet are able to drag themselves to the phamacy to have a prescription filled, are most likely _already_ doped up on some kind of pain medication. They probably received it at the emergency room (or wherever they just came from), and it hasn’t quite worn off yet. That’s what makes them so mellow. Call it chemically induced Inner Peace. > \*\* Sorry, I respectfully disagree. Still wearing my upper body clamshell brace and using a walker, I was able to wait patiently, and was never nasty to the pharmacist, or other customers. My scrips were not pain meds-I never had them filled. Rudeness is an acquired trait, one that most of our parents never wanted us to have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-i-learned-working-on-retail/146466.md?page=2)