Work in a store? Bitch about customers here!

The BBQ Pit
143

They used to have a system like this at my local Shop-Rites. They had this touch-screen computer thingie, where you could select what you wanted. When you were done inputting your order, it spat out a slip of paper with a number on it. The the deli people would fill your order, and put it in a little fridge with a matching slip of paper. It worked really well, except that a few times I just forgot to pick up what I had ordered. I wonder whether a lot of other people did that too. That could add up to a big problem.

But I really appreciate hearing the comments from you deli guys. I finally understand why the guys at my supermarket deli are so ridiculously conscientious about making sure my order is sliced exactly to my liking.
Me: A pound of provolone, please.
Deli guy: How would you like that sliced.
Me: Oh, I don’t care.
Deli guy: Thin, thick or medium.
Me: Uh…medium. I really don’t care.
Deli guy: (steps away and comes back with a slice) How’s this?
Me: That’s fine!
I guess they do that because of all the customers who say they don’t care when they really do care. And in all fairness, the deli guys are really nice, so it’s a minor complaint on my part.

One major customer complaint from my days in retail: Customers who let their kids run and climb all over the store. Some kid would be climbing the magazine rack, and I’d ask him to get down, and the parent would say “oh, he’s fine.” No, he’s not fine. He may be perfectly capable of climbing the rack, but I know damn well that the rack isn’t especially sturdy, and might well come crashing down on him. And frankly, I don’t even really care about your kid as much as I care about avoiding the hassle of filling out an incident report, and (Og forbid!) dealing with a lawsuit. So, really, get your kid off the damn magazine rack!

144

You know, as bad as customers have treated employees, the way they treat each other is truly evil. I’ve seen them race each other to get to the cashier so fast and recklessly that other people are actually in danger. I’ve seen customers shop from each others’ carts. It’s sort of funny but the angry customer who says we didn’t bag the item and demands a new one is not a laugh.

And the way some of them treat their kids can be awful too. I’ve seen the terror-kinder who rampage unchecked. I’ve also seen borderline abuse. A sort of funny incident was a mom who didn’t know that while she was looking at one side of the aisle, her toddler was taking stuff off the shelves on the other side and putting it in the cart. She was pissed about the size of the bill and why we were charging her for all sorts of things she didn’t want. We finally figured it out and when we were putting stuff back we noticed that it was all from the bottom three shelves.

145

So, deli people: Is it easier for me to just say “…medium, I don’t care” or say “Setting X, please?” Are there standardized slicing settings from machine to machine, like with electric hair trimmers (#3=whatever length, etc.)?

146

Medium and thin or fine. Thick is good too, but if you want it to slice for salads or for cubing let us know before we waste 4-6 slices on “a little thicker.”

I don’t know if slicers have universal settings, but you can ask. If you go to the store frequently it will help you there. If you go somewhere else, you can ask if the number you’ve given is the thickness you want.

One if our slicers is a bit off, so what is thin on one of our slicers is a fairly think cut on our other. I’ve told people a few times what their slice is going to look like, ususally on the thick side. They never listen. I slice it and show it. They give me this look :mad: like I did it on purpose, and tell me to make it thinner.

The point is, 9 out of 10 times we will not get mad if you ask first. :smiley:

147

Man, dwc1970, I feel your pain. Our store has the exact same policy. What I can’t stand is when there’s one customer moseying around until there’s just one register still open, and then going into the line with TWO or THREE CARTS FULL OF GROCERIES…

pant pant pant Sorry, had to deal with that the last two night shifts I worked. :frowning:

148

Another tale of bodily fluids: We have a little red fire engine where I work - it’s just the right size for little kids to sit in, ring the bell, unwind the hose, whatever. The kids are allowed to play with it, as it’s not for sale. Just for enjoyment.

So this woman comes in and puts her toddler in the fire engine. He’s ringing the bell, having a good time while Mommy shops. Then Mommy goes back to her toddler, and I hear a whispered conversation involving the words “Not again” and “Why didn’t you tell me you had to go?” Now, it sounds to me like the little kid just whizzed in the fire engine. At this point, Mommy can either come up to the counter, tell me what happened, ask to use my bathroom to clean up Junior, and let me take care of the mess. Or she can yell at him for a few minutes, then leave him to sit in the wet while she finds him a new pair of shorts. Guess which one she does?

After a prolonged, awkward pause, I finally just go over to her and ask if she needs to take him into the bathroom to clean him up. She says she doesn’t, tells me she’s buying him new shorts, gives me the tag, and promptly strips him stark naked and changes him in the middle of the store. Lady, come on! Junior could probably use a quick wipe-down, seeing as how he’s covered in piss, and frankly, the other customers don’t want to see your kid naked! I don’t mind having to clean up the mess, and I don’t mind letting you use the bathroom to clean your child. I do mind your trying to sneak the whole peeing incident under the radar, so the next kid in the fire engine can sit in your child’s puddle. I mind it very much.

I’m also not a fan of women who come in with diapered children. Actually, I don’t mind the diapers; I mind the diapers that reek, the ones I can smell from fifty feet away. We have a bathroom. We will let you use it. Change your child’s diaper, goddamnit!

149

When I was working for The Chain Superstore, they did not hire custodians. The cashiers were expected to do all the cleanup chores (and this is The Chain Superstore where male employees are required to wear a white shirt and tie every day, and female employees are required to wear go-to-church-type dressy clothing). I had to take one male and one female cashier off the line once an hour to go check the restrooms and mop up in there if necessary. I had to take two cashiers off the line every hour to go do cart runs in the parking lot. And if someone dropped something way back in one of the sales departments, I was supposed to take a cashier off the line and send them back to clean it up. And then, of course, deal with all the customer complaints about having to wait so doggone long in the checkout line because there weren’t enough cashiers.

150

Not exactly retail, but a “dumb” customer rant. I work in a gym as a shift manager. Our members are all on a computer system, and they use a little scan card to get into the gym.

Occasionally, a “flag” will pop up on the account, and the gate won’t open for them. We will read the flag, determine if it’s just a reminder for them to add information to their account or some such, and then, if they’re an active member, manually buzz them through the gate.

Today a gentleman came in, and after scanning his card, the gate wouldn’t open. The flag was that he needed to contact accounting. When I tried to tell him that that’s why he was stopped, he didn’t understand it.

He kept saying “what?” and pointing to the screen, to which I replied in every way I could think of, that he needed to contact the accounting department or he wouldn’t be able to use the gym the next time (yes, I let him through).

That wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was that about an hour after he left for the evening, his wife, who did speak a little more english, called us.

The conversation.

Client: yes, my husband try to use his card and it say something wrong with account, please fix.
me: yes ma’am, he needs to see the accountng department to fix it, they’re open from…
Client( interrupts), Nooo NOO, that not problem, problem that card not working, can you tell me what wrong?
Me: no ma’am, I can’t, my position isn’t authorized to view that part of the system, that is accounting only. You can contact them at…
Client: No, I only need to know what wrong with card, you look in system and tell me.
Me: I’m sorry ma’am, I don’t have access to that part of the system, only the accounting department can tell you why your car…
Client: No, no that not what wrong, it say card not working, you tell me what wrong with card, why it not working.
Me: ma’am, the part of the system that I can access says only for you to contact accounting, it does not say why else.
Client: You cannot look in system and tell me why card not working?
Me: no ma’am I don’t have access to why your card won’t work.
Client: I only need to know why card not working, you cannot tell me why?

It went on and on and on. Sigh. Now, I don’t think that this woman was really dumb. But she wasn’t using common sense.

First of all, I think that she really didn’t understand completely what I was saying. The first thing she should have done before calling was to get some sort of go betwen to translate.

Well, actually, that would have likely solved most of the problem.

I could from the tone of her voice when she finally let me go, that she never really understood the whole concept of departments, and who could access what part of a computer system within a company.

151

I’m a manager at Wendy’s. A few weeks ago, a guy came in and ordered 2 regular coffees. I gave him the cups, he left. He came back in a few minutes later, got some creamers from the condiment stand, and left again. About 5 minutes later, a woman came in demanding to speak with the manager.

Me: "I’m the manager, can I help you?
Woman:“My husband ordered 2 regular coffees, and you gave him black!”
Me:“I apologize Ma’am, but our store policy is to serve all hot drinks black, and provide cream and sugars on the side. We’re not really a coffee shop, and my idea of “regular” is probably different from yours.” (I actually view regular as “non decaf”. I even pointed out the condiment stand as I thanked him)
Woman: “Well if you’d told him that, he would have added the cream inside the building! He had to make another trip inside, and I had to fix my coffee in the car, and I got hot coffee all over my crotch!”
(At this point, she gestured to the big wet spots on her inner theighs. It really just looked like she wet herself)
Me:“I apologize for that Ma’am, would you like a wet cloth to clean up with?”
Woman:“DO YOU THINK I LIKE HAVING HOT COFFEE ALL OVER MY CROTCH??”
Me:“I’m sure you don’t. I apologize for that.”
Woman: “It’s really fucking hot! Here, smell it!” (Wiped her leg, and stuck her hand out in my direction.
Me: (not really sure what the appropriate response was…) “Ma’am, I’m not sure what smelling the hot coffee will accomplish, but I assure you that’s not necessary. Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?”

The woman ended up leaving with about $20 in free food. I was trying too hard not to laugh at her to argue.

I really wonder what would have happened if I’d taken her up on the offer…

152

What the heck? What was the motivation for these little old ladies’ act? Did they want an extra bag? Why didn’t they just ask for one? Did they want you to carry it out for them?

Was it just some weird sick attempt to exert some sort of power in their otherwise powerless lives? I don’t get this.

153

Do these idiots have no concept of “drop by the deli, leave your meat order, then go do the rest of your shopping and pick it up last?” I mean, I hate being in the grocery store on NANO second longer than necessary, so I plan my shopping excursion with exquisite precision designed to get me in and out in the least amount of time. Deli first, frozen stuff last.

Standing in front of the deli case waiting for the poor guy to slice the meat is just wasting time you could be using to shop.

Oh, and as for the “is this fresh” thing. I think what these buffoons are trying to ask is “how fresh IS it”? I will ask that about my fave deli item “wing zings” (killingly spicy chicken wings). Something to the effect of “how long have these been out?” or “how fresh are these?”.

The deli person will answer specifically, “less than an hour” or “you know what, I just came on duty, those do look a little dried up, you want to finish your shopping and I’ll make more”. Convenient for both of us. I get out of her hair, all she has to do is start a new batch, and I don’t waste too much time.

154

bolding mine.

Well DUUUH, who do you think they’re talking about, intelligent normal customers?

Not one poster describing their experience regarding retail fits your description above. So why even insert this worthless little gem?

And, if you’ll note, that’s what others have been doing regarding the crap you posted.

155

Pammipoo, looks like someone just heard of the old McDonald’s scalding coffee lawsuit and was trying it out themselves. Or maybe that episode of Seinfeld was on last night. You should have offered a lifetime supply of free coffee (black, of course).

156

I will admit to occasionally doing this (although never with perishable food). The reason I do so is that stores are so disorganized. They move stuff around all the time, so I always have to search the store for something I want. Then, sometimes I’ll find another area where similar things are. I went looking for crackers at the store yesterday. I found a box and went on with my shopping. As I’m nearing the checkstand, I see another display of crackers that’s on sale. Now, if they’d just put the sale display near the rest of the crackers, I would have gotten them then. As it is, I’ll take the cheaper ones and probably not remember where the rest of the crackers are this week, so I’ll leave the old box there.

157

I just give it to the clerk, if I’ve changed my mind about something, that way he or she can put it with all the other things that need to get restocked, and they aren’t constantly finding oddball items on shelves where they don’t belong

And that “disorganized” thing? It’s actually organized very well, just not for the customer’s benefit. It’s to get a customer to walk through as much of the store as possible to try and sell them on more things than they’d planned on buying.

If they put all of the logical staples and normal stuff all together, we’d likely never go through their displays of “cool stuff at too high a price” the “impulse” stuff I think they call it.

For us though, yeah, it’s highly disorganized.

158

I wish grocery stores would do what my university library did: They had empty tables located near the stairs and reading areas on each floor marked ‘returns.’

Why couldn’t grocery stores have similar marked carriages, maybe at the end of every third aisle? Then you could stick things you changed your mind about there, and some clerk could be assigned to periodically reshelf everything from the carts.

Naw.

Too sensible.

159

I did sometimes tell the ladies that they could have extra bags for the asking. Especially the ones who insisted that I double-bag two pounds of stuff.

I suspect I’m projecting here, but some of the ladies just plain didn’t like being disobeyed or having their requests subverted by an uppity young’n. And they were determined to get their way. Even if it meant childishly lying. Using logic made it worse, because not only were you disagreeing with them, you were demonstrating that they were wrong.

BTW, if you don’t want to have to carry a guys groceries out, just ask if he needs help with it. I’ve seen men try to carry $200 worth of food rather than accept help. It’s one of the mildly evil acts I’ve committed.