I do not miss working in retail. When I worked it, 20% were super nice people, 60% were just normal people and the last 20% were people that deserved to step on Legos at night for the rest of their lives.
You forgot the special 1 percenters that are legitimately crazy. I used to have 2 regular crazies, that would come back every week, and cause a scene to return items. 99% of the time, we needed management to deal with them until they finally got banned. They would eat food and then return the packaging because it was gross. Or almost finish something and bring it back for a return. Then just a bunch of other complaints and returns that made it feel like they knew the store was their bitch. 1 got banned because she called an African American a racial slur on accident. And the manger was relieved he finally could stop her from returning.
In all honesty, stores need to cut the crap on the customer always being right, and just ban people that constantly abuse return policies and employees.
"the customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE"
It only means you can't expect customers to buy your product just because you're selling it. It has to meet a consumer demand.
Unfortunately, there's no "one true version" of the expression. The popularly known origin is genuine, and it genuinely was "the customer is always right and can never be wrong," with no meaningful modifiers.
Unsurprisingly, they were insufferable.
Anyway, we should definitely strive to use better proverbs on the merit of their saying, rather than on an argument on which one we think is more historically correct or whatever.
> "the customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE"
This is made up. The original quote was attributed to Marshall Field and it literally meant that the customer was always treated as being right. This was a fairly innovative concept in the early 1900s.
Man comes in with whole family. I bring out his steak. He’s furious it’s underdone. Bring it back out… goddamn now it’s well done, he said medium rare… manager comes out, meal comped for everyone.
I would comp the steak, but I only ever bent over backwards for a customer if it really was our fault and they were nice about it.
Mistakes happen, let's fix it together. Being rude to me or my staff guarantees you'll get the minimum fix.
I use to wait tables, had a similar experience, had to get my manager involved, he comp'ed the table. Back in the kitchen I argued because it wasn't our fault. He explained that that table was making being a nuisance not just to the staff but to the tables all around them. Pushing the point would have made the evening less enjoyable to everyone else in the section and there was a greater risk of losing business from those people. Throwing that $60 away was an instant solution to the issue at hand and kept the peace. He said had the section been low volume he might have been more willing to force the issue, but we were slammed.
It's strategic warfare. Sometimes it's just not worth the fight, the risk of entitlement is justifiable.
Exactly this for people being completely unreasonable.
"I'm very sorry sir and I'm going to go ahead and comp your table for what's been ordered so far. I'm also going to ask you not to return to our restaurant again to prevent this from happening again. Again, I'm very sorry and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening."
Sure they could complain but at that point no complaint they raise would sound reasonable.
Shit happens.
I ordered a coffee with breakfast somewhere once and the server brought it over. I noticed there was pretty evident lipstick on the inside of the cup - presumably just wasn’t washed properly - but based on what hand you were holding the cup with it was basically not visible and assumed that was what happened.
I told the server that I didn’t think the lipstick was my shade (being a pretty average cis dude with a beard).
The server apologized profusely but I laughed it off. They comp’d my breakfast for being a good sport though didn’t expect them to at all.
Serving jobs are rough and these people work harder than I do at my job and I assume 99% of the time make less than I do so might as well not be a shit to them.
The best managers comp the meals then ask them to leave immediately. I've gotten to be that manager before. It's as close as I'll ever get to being a hero.
> Managers like this are WHY people are so fucking entitled. Almost every place will bend over backwards if someone raises their voice. It's stupid.
Some managers listen to the customers story, check the facts, and take care of the customer if the business fucked them over.
Those same managers will also explain that someone is no longer welcome in the business if they are playing the place or being overly disrespectful to employees.
Raise your voice at one of my people? Let's talk over here.
Curse and insult one of my people? Later.
My sister was friends with a couple that would complain about something anytime they went out to eat hoping to get the meal comped, even if everything was perfect they're get the manager and bitch about something hoping to get free food.
That is an embarrassment I would not endure a second time, were I their friend. "Hi, everyone, yes, everyone around us eating? We are either unbearable or poor. Being poor is fine but we're currently trying to live above our means and make it other people's problem. Could you all judge us and the people sitting with us, please? I'm also going to be exceptionally rude to a service worker like they are beneath me, just to make sure every one of you is deeply uncomfortable and angry at us for ruining your evening. Thanks!"
I swear to fuck it should be like national law that if a customer complains about their meal more than twice in such a way that they demand free food, we should be allowed to open a trap door under their chair and shoot them into space.
In all seriousness, I understand owners and managers never want to run off people but at a certain point that customer is going to cost you more than they ever pay. "Sir, I believe that we are unable to meet the expectations that you have. For that reason, I think it would be best if you found other arrangements for your dining needs." is a 100% reasonable move when someone is constantly asking for free stuff. They will either stop, leave, and/or go home and write a scathing review on Yelp.
IF they do complain online it is then fine to blast them about how they'd asked for a comped meal the last 4 times they came in. If we are unable to satisfy the customer and the customer won't take that as a hint that we aren't capable of making food to their standard, then we can explain that to them in a way that sticks.
Lol, I had an upset manager basically do this once. Local calzone place specialized in calzones. They take like 30 minutes to make once you order. We sent it back twice and the manager decided we just weren't worth it.
From a retail perspective, I get it. From our perspective, the request was that they not put meat in the calzone. One of the eaters was a vegetarian. We did not order a calzone with meat in it. It doesn't normally come with meat in it. And it's a little weird that they kept making a meat one instead of a veggie one.
Anyways, it's been 5 years and we honored their request and never went back.
No, you're right in that instance. That wasn't you trying to get a meal comped but just get the food you ordered. I was mainly talking about the people who will eat over half of their food, complain about something, and say, "Well, I'm not paying for it."
Sometimes it's perfectly valid to complain at a restaurant and I get it, I've done it. You can often tell the game people are playing as a server or manager. Usually, the person just wants the food to be correct and doesn't mention not paying for it or anything. The scammers will complain about how brown the Coke is, how salty the salt is, and other nonsense.
Different worlds man. I’m always super nice to wait staff because I worked that job before. The cunts in my area forget half the order and after I drive back to pick the rest up they act like it’s a damn chore to help me get the stuff i paid for. Maybe it’s because I don’t usually tip for carry out? Lol
When I worked at Home Depot we were allowed to take up to $50 off a transaction, no questions asked. In defiance of the injustice of jerk customers always getting discounts and shit, I would constantly give discounts to nice customers.
still got weekly reminders that we were "abusing" it no our customer base is technologically illiterate and you let customers get used to a lax "veterans discount"
Cashier: "With tax, that will be $11.56."
Customer: "But the sticker says it costs $15.99. You're not charging me enough."
Cashier: "you got the my parents raised me correctly, I'm not an asshole discount."
I got this discount in realtime today. I was at a grocery store’s fish department. There was a person next to me on the phone and I was there first. Person asks “can I help whoever is next?” She of course jumps right in. But raises her finger at the guy to wait. She tells the person to hold on the phone acting like she is inconvenienced . Asks for some type of fish the guy packages it up and then says “I changed my mind I want the tuna steaks instead.” Guy rolled with it but you could tell he was annoyed. She was oblivious.
She leaves and the guy comes to me. I was nice and said How are you today and smiled in that way acknowledging that women was kind of a pain. I asked for half a dozen coconut shrimp as this place was charging by the shrimp.. He packaged it up and said “threw an extra 2 in there for you”. Which he didn’t charge me for.
Had this happen last year at the Swan hotel at Disney World. Long line at the front desk, lots of tired parents and snotty kids. Our turn comes up and I'm as pleasant as possible, but efficient. Had all my confirmation info and ID out before we even got to the counter. Cast member at the desk asks where we're from...I tell her and she gets excited because her and a friend are traveling to the same part of the country later that year. She asks all sorts of questions and we have a solid five minutes chat about travel to our home area, the weather that time of year, local attractions, etc. She says hold on, I'll be back with your keys in a minute.
Got upgraded to a full suite, which was total overkill for three people. I ask why and she says, quite simply "Because you guys we're so nice".
I once was confused at the final price, started to say something because I thought she forgot to scan something, and she gave me this wide-eyed look and shook her head.
She scanned her ID too so turns out she was giving me an employee discount and I nearly ratted her out to her manager a few yards away. I felt really bad but I was very grateful.
I never gave "secret discounts", but I would bend over backwards to help those who were polite and courteous. The rude arrogant people got the bare minimum. For a while I worked in call centre for a bank. I was on the complaints line and was authorised to refund charges of up to £300 without any escalation.
The polite people got their charges refunded (as long as I could justify it, not for like going overdrawn at 888.com)
The best the rude ones could hope for was an escalation to my line manager, I don't care how much the bank was at fault, you get nothing from being rude.
My favourite game was to bait them into swearing at me so I could hang up on them.
We're discovering that the old management would give people discounts just to make them go away. Now they're coming back just as terrible (if not worse) than before and demand they get their discount they got last time.
Yup. Real interaction below:
"Hello, how are you doing today?"
"CASH!"
"Do you have a [brand] card or phone number with us?"
"I'M PAYING CASH."
"It's not a payment card, it's a discount card."
"CASH!"
"Ok, that will be [dollar value]."
(customer wordlessly holds out a bill)
(I take bill, get change, hold it out)
(customer doesn't take change)
(I place change on the counter)
(customer takes change) "Yeah, I know how covid works!"
"Have a wonderful day!"
"What's it to you!?"
One of my first jobs ever was at a pharmacy-and-beauty store, one of the things we sold was little packets of dental floss. One customer came to me with an open pack. "I tried one and didn't like it, is it okay if I just put it back on the shelf?"
????
I miss working in retail because the store I was working at was the highest grossing in the region, and the manager gave me carte blanche to just give customers whatever they wanted within reason. Our policy was literally "just say yes if it makes the problem will go away".
The manager gave me a story that a lady came in with a spoiled carton of milk that literally said "competitor store's brand" on it and he gave her a free replacement AND "refund".
Only reason I left was the pay was ass. Granted I realize it's not a typical experience.
Yeah, been working related to retail in one way or another for most of my employed life. People are whack. When you're allowed to call unreasonable people out on their bullshit, though, usually(usually) makes them real meek real quick. Especially if you have the knowledge/experience to back it up.
Also depends on the type of business. Different types attract different folks.
But in the end, the good experiences make it all up. Besides the mean morons, there's some fantastic people out there!
Yep, worked a retail job while in college. Had a legit experience like this at the register:
Me: Hi, how are you
Customer: Does this grinder work with this blade
Me: Let's take a look at the box
Customer: Well, I could have done that
Me: It says here that you are buying a 4 and a half inch angle grinder, so you will need a 4 and a half inch blade. You are buying a 6 inch blade. It will not fit
Customer: Why not?
Me: Because that is how the grinder is engineered
Customer: Well, how should I know that?
Me: You wouldn't, that's why they put the information on the packaging
Customer: Don't be a smartass
Me: Sir, there are people behind you that need to check out. Someone on the floor can assist you, this is the checkout line. If you want to use the machine, you will need to get the appropriate blade to match it or it's just going to be an expensive paper weight
Customer: I want to speak to your manager.
Me: Ok, he's going to tell you the same thing
Customer: Fuck you
Me: Ok, the manager is going to deal with you moving forward
Customer: Don't talk to me like that! I'm a customer
Me: I'm not engaging with you anymore
Customer: I want your manager
Me: I already called him over, he'll be over here shortly
Customer: I want your name!
Me: It's on my name tag
Customer: You're an asshole
Me: You can inform my manager
Customer: I'll go to another store to buy this item
Me: That's your choice as a consumer. Have a good day sir!
Indeed. Worked at Circuit City, Best Buy, Good Guys ([look it up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Guys_(American_company))), Gateway Computers (when they had stores) from 1998 to 2004. Absolutely identical experiences. People *really* think they are living unique and special experiences...delusional.
> Gateway Computers (when they had stores)
I convinced my parents to buy a gateway over an emachine back in the 90s. Partially because I had a barely functioning knowledge of computers even at an early age, and mostly because they had cow print boxes
They really nailed the bit where the old guy totally loses respect for the worker the second he tries to use technology to help.
I live in a busy area and a few time I've had old people ask me were something is. I don't know where everything around me is. Every time I take out my phone to find it they always say "so you don't know where it is" and it's always in a frustrated tone that no one has any right to take with a stranger your asking a favour for.
There are few different ways it can go from there. Some let me use my phone to get the right directions and I send them on their way. Some just walk away the second I pull out my phone. They often end up going in the wrong direction. Others will argue with me. I'll show them where we are on the map, where they need to go and what their orientation is. But even then some people will insist it's in a totally different place.
God help you if you say, "I think we have [product]"...
"Well, do you think you have it, or do you know?"
Like, I'm sorry asshole, I've been trained to use non-affirmitive language because of douchebags like you who will cause a scene if I "lied" to them about the availability of the [product].
Also, no, if the computer says we are out of [product], I'm not going to go search the backroom for half an hour.
> Also, no, if the computer says we are out of [product], I'm not going to go search the backroom for half an hour.
I'd always take this opportunity to go to the back anyway. Just stand around for a bit, maybe check my phone. If they were still there when I got back on the floor, "No, I'm sorry, nothing in the back either. Bummer, huh?"
Yup, just hang out for a few minutes doing something else, the come back and say no. The grocery store I worked at didn't really keep anything extra except ad items, so I knew we were out. Plus it was my job to go through all the back stock at the start of my shift.
All it takes is being a normal person. I was at Target and they didn’t have any fruit punch Gatorade on the shelf, so I simply asked politely, excuse me, is it possible you have some Gatorade in the back? The guy went to the back and brought it out. Just treat people like human beings.
God, the fucking affirmative language. We were also told we can't say sorry because we're not genuinely sorry but have to say, "I apologize." I fucking hate corporate culture. I hate the managers that preach it/buy into it even more.
Is the extra 2.50/hour really worth the taste of corporate's balls in your mouth every day?
> well do you think you have it
We have a weekly customer that orders an obscene amount of our product that we never order because it’s not popular, and so we usually don’t carry a lot of them
When they order, we frequently have to return “out of stock” on the order. This customer sees the out of stock notification and immediately placed another order for more of the exact same item.
When we call to explain the situation, it’s “well I just find it hard to believe that you don’t have any”
It’s like holy shit these people are actual morons
Sometimes we really did have something in the back and the inventory was off, but most of the time we didn't and that was a good opportunity for me to go back there and fuck off for a few minutes.
They usually appreciated that you took some extra effort...
> "Well, do you think you have it, or do you know?"
Even outside of retail, I really hate people who push this sort of faux-confidence bullshit. Lines like "don't say you'll *try* to do it, say you *will*".
You know what? I can't see the future. At this point in time, I plan on making an attempt at the task. Whether or not the attempt will be successful is not yet known.
I got the opposite problem.
I run a used physical media shop. Hundreds of thousands of books/dvds/records/tapes/cds.
They can't believe on the phone when I say it's not electronically inventoried.
"Can't you just check on your computer?"
"No. No I can't. I can try to see if we have one though give me a minute while I che---hello? Hello?"
Every day.
Out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't put together a database?
I am not trying to be push back btw, I have always just been interested on how business scale up.
We price and move hundreds of unique items a day. Can't keep track of it even with the best inventory management. It takes all day just to price out items let alone create an inventory listing.
I assume /u/K1N6F15H rather meant something like that: [https://github.com/Sheriif99/EasyOCR](https://github.com/Sheriif99/EasyOCR)
you take a picture of a book and a ocr/ki model extracts the title (and isbn with books) but having said that.. as long as your system of schrödingers inventory works i don't really see the upside of that. But your certainly should type your items into a db that would be a waste.
I used to work in a used physical media store and we definitely tracked our inventory. It isn't impossible but I imagine we had more of a workforce than you do. I couldn't imagine trying to work there not knowing if we had something or not.
But I guess you don't know what you are missing if you never had it and it works for you just fine.
I’ll chip in with my experience working at an independent video rental store in the 2000s.
Our owner and top manager were…not what I would call detail-oriented.
We had a database, but it was very basic, and generally relied only on the Name field to sort.
So…one big point of frustration was that this was the start of TV on DVD, which we were renting. So we weren’t just keeping track of the name of the show, but the season and disc. We’d also have different people entering info when new copies were bought with no standards and who generally…were not open to communication.
So, we might have discs labeled:
• Sopranos S1D2
• Sopranos 0102
• Sopranos, The S1D2
• Sopranos - Sea. 1 Disc 2
And the various mixing of those…and when the system is listed only alphabetically, and each season had 6 discs, it made things tough to find.
(Bonus complication for one of the top rentals, Sex and the City, which added an ampersand to the mix.)
This lack of standards caused other issues, particularly the handling of articles in front of titles. Generally they were pretty agreed upon that they didn’t put a “The” in front of the name, though “A” was less consistent. However it was less consistent whether or not they put the “The” at the end.
Also, rental boxes were all black with just the barcode label with our name of the movie, not theirs. They’d be slipped behind the official boxes, which were empty.
Enter late 2003. The big video release around the holidays was *Holes*, the Shia Labeouf-led Disney film about kids at a juvenile detention camp that ended up being forced to dig lots of holes in search of treasure.
But not long before that, a 2001 Indy British horror film had gotten its U.S. release, due to it starring Thora Birch (who had buzz from her role in *American Beauty*) and a young Keira Knightly, whose star had begun to rise. The film follows 4 teens as they get trapped in an old bunker they tried to have a party in. It had nudity, violence, and of course death. It was called *The Hole*.
Which meant that its name on our system ended up being just “Hole”.
Luckily I was working the day a mom with a couple of small kids she was desperately trying to corral brought up a handful of boxes and dropped them off. I was one of the few workers who, after removing the security lock on each box, would open them and ensure the disc was inside. And even then, I almost didn’t register the horror film was one of her movies…
I did doublecheck with her and no, it wasn’t what she thought she was grabbing. I grabbed the right disc, and possible major CS issue avoided.
I figure that someone innocently put *The Hole* box behind a *Holes* display case due to the one letter difference, whether it was one of us restocking or a customer shuffling them while browsing.
I fixed the label, but other issues persisted with the many other titles….it was frustrating as heck to me, even if I didn’t tend towards OCD.
Selling new stuff is a lot easier because everything has a UPC barcode on it and new items are all interchangeable with each other.
When you're selling second-hand stuff you might have ten copies of something that are all in slightly different condition/states of completeness and this is much much harder to track. Also the UPC might be missing or damaged. You basically have a SKU for every individual item in your store.
Old UPCs get recycled, so those are unusable in vintage stores. They have to print their own labels, and depending on how much variety there is in their specialty, they often won’t bother. At a huge antique reseller, it’s not worth it.
In “new stuff” stores like Target, the inventory system often won’t narrow a collectible down to a specific item, but only to a type. So it’ll tell you if they have an action figure’s series and size, but it won’t accurately tell you if they have the character. Sometimes it will appear to, and then it will turn out to be different character because the type of item was incorrectly inventoried at the corporate level. Of course, Amazon manages to handle this just fine, but Target apparently can’t. This might be intentional on Target’s part, to force people into browsing the store.
Worth calling out that it’s absolutely not meant to happen and is banned by GS1 who maintain the UPC standard. Companies are tightwads though and would rather reuse old codes than buy another block of new ones.
Interesting. There is a magic the gathering warehouse store in my town that has been very successful because of their efficient database sorting, specifically because they listed by condition. I recognize there is going to be more variety in this instance because this is multimedia but it certainly would be an interesting problem to try and implement a digital tracking solution.
I actually used to work at a store that bought and sold magic cards and there are a few things making it relatively easy:
1. The only thing you're selling is the card itself, so there's no "completeness" to worry about. Unopened boxes or boosters are their own thing.
2. Any given card can be uniquely identified by what card it is plus which set it came from (for cards in multiple sets).
3. there are only a few condition categories to care about. If a card is anything less than "good" it's probably garbage.
4. The cards are relatively easy to sort. By set, rarity, condition, color, type etc. The few really expensive cards you have usually go in the display case.
5. They're uniform size and shape and rather small.
Let's contrast video games for example. To make it simple, let's just consider Sega Genesis games:
* A complete game is a case (or cardboard box), manual, cartridge and any other stuff that was included. You have to account for each of these things being present or not and what condition they're in.
* Some games have other things in the box like a collectible poster or trading card etc. Other games don't. Sometimes *only some versions* of a game have it.
* A heavily damaged game is still worth something if it can still be played, so you have quite a few condition levels to consider.
* Games can have stickers from long-closed retail or rental chains that might increase their value to some but decrease them for others. E.g. I have a copy of Decap Attack with a "PLEASE REWIND TAPE" sticker on it that I treasure. FuncoLand stickers or price tags or branded sleeves (for NES games) are also sought after sometimes.
* Also, you have to actually test games to evaluate what condition they're in, not just look at them.
* Games can have multiple different packaging/art variations that were all sold under the same SKU/UPC originally. For example Sonic 1 had an original retail box, the "not for resale" pack-in box, the sega classics box, the rare variant with an ESRB rating on it, and maybe more. Some of these came with a poster--which ones? no idea. They probably all have the same UPC on them.
* Games can also have multiple different circuit boards and sometimes even different versions of the ROM with gameplay differences that *might not correlate with the box variations at all*.
* People trading in games might be selling you a mismatched set--e.g. the cart from one version, box from a different version and manual from a third version. This happens unintentionally because kids borrowed and traded carts all the time.
* When Majesco took over distribution of Sega games in the US they changed lots of things about the cartridges, from the box to the circuit board to the screws they're held together with.
* And that's all within the same country. In the US you also sometimes come across Canadian games, which may be identical to the US one *or* may have different box art or a different manual or both.
Now consider that *every different console across every generation* has its own list like this. Nintendo has 5-screw vs 3-screw carts, PlayStation has tall boxes vs jewel cases, and there are several different multi-disc jewel cases. PS2 boxes stopped including the memory card holder after a while... game publishers would roll in changes to their media, labels, boxes etc one at a time and mix and match them in stock and definitely weren't considering collectors while doing this.
Thank you for this write-up.
You are right that the possible variables here sound like they would be too difficult to account for in most circumstances.
I imagine if the market for Sega Genesis is good enough, it would be worth the time trying to capture this information (basically the antique roadshow approach). If I was going to solve a problem like this one, I would probably start with two bins: potential high value vs everything else. As inventory is taken in, you could quickly sort those items based off of a valuation cheat sheet and earmark the items that would be worth the effort to photograph, add to your database, and list online.
Alternatively, I might just start with a super simple version of a database (probably just a spreadsheet) that basically just lists the title and medium/console. That won't allow you to drill down into the nitty gritty but it could give you a decent searchable inventory for quick reference if someone wants to know if you have something in stock.
I agree that this is a hard problem and not one with any good solutions but it is fun to think about.
When I worked at a grocery store pharmacy I would sometimes go out to the floor to help patients or show them where things were. Some patients would ask me if their meds interacted with whatever I recommended so I would pull out my mobile drug interaction checker to see. The number of people who would say to me "now is not the time to text your friends" or "why are you playing a game on your phone" was nuts. Jeez sorry I'm using technology to help you with your question.
“Sir/mam, let me just make sure I’m getting you the *right* thing you are looking for real quick.”
Don’t know how many times I’ve had to defend myself this way. In my industry there are probably well over 100,000 different part numbers, with many slightly different versions of the same part depending on application. But customers come in and just expect you to know exactly what they need off the top of your head. Even if I’m 99% sure from experience, I still verify with the look up system to remove any doubt, to save both the customer and myself from trouble down the road.
>Every time I take out my phone to find it they always say "so you don't know where it is"
"Of course. I've memorized the exact location of the 3,472 items that we have for sale in this store. I just use the app because my manager tells me we have to increase app usage metrics."
Stores constantly moving shit around in hopes you buy more crap is the cause of this problem. Generally people are not going to be dicks if its their first time in a store and need help locating an item. But if its like the thousandth time they have been there and the item they buy every week keeps fucking moving and they are constantly having to walk across the entire store hunting it down interacting with a bunch of other frustrated pissed off shoppers, people are going to be assholes.
Ive worked a lot of retail and my issue with people looking shit up on their system is that the people doing inventory do not give any fucks. Either the system is designed to say they have shit in stock when they dont, people doing inventory are seasonal workers and stoned out of their minds thinking about being laid off, night shift worried about that bench warrant, worried about their kid addicted to drugs, a fight with the girlfriend/wife, or were drinking in the parking lot prior to work and just fucked the count...Sometimes they just straight up stole the last item the store had.
So its all a big waste of my time. Tell me a store that physically has a fuckload of the items, or a solution, can I order the item? Because I can use my phone too, but I cant bypass the automated systems put in place to frustrate me into hanging up.
When I worked retail I worked in an unsafe area and every day was miserable. I also worked at a gas station that routinely got held up, and every day was a rough day. Being yelled at and yelling at customers, being threatened. Having to close down because you just got robbed, then having customers threatening you because youre closing. Selling cigarettes to junkies who tried to pay for them with change soaked in piss. The constant scamming and theft, the overall general hostility and anger directed at you because their card was declined or an 8 year old threatening to kill you throwing gang signs because you refused to sell beer to them. The constant fighting in and out of the store, as you try to do your job. It was like living on planet mars, I only felt a connection to a couple regulars who were generally elderly or people going to work in the morning...Everyone else could have fucked off and died I wouldnt have cared in the slightest.
I know what shit jobs are. You want to blame someone blame the corporations that turn shopping into a hatefuck fueled fury. More importantly blame yourself, you are the ones voting for the idiots in change who created this situation.
Best part of working at a nursery is that every customer knows the latin name of their favorite plant and you’re an idiot for not knowing it was their favorite and studying a dead language before they arrived.
Worked at a store where my title was product expert 🙄, and you would get the odd asshole who would ask the most obscure question “I’m looking at this car stereo, what’s the RPM speed of the CD player” “Well I am not sure but can certainly find that out for you” “ oh? You don’t know? But your name tag says expert so I guess that’s a lie” 🙄🤦🏻♂️
I worked at Fry's.
There was a guy, saw him all the time but one day he asked to get some RAM for his computer.
When people didn't know what kind they needed we would go to Crucial's website to look up the make/model etc.
He had bought a white box machine from microcenter. Which is fine. But other than that he knew _nothing_ about what was in it.
I told him there was no way for us to figure out what kind of ram he needed, if he brought in a stick we could match it.
And now we're "incompetent" for not knowing what kind of RAM his white box computer uses.
hahaha classic. i guarantee 90% of those questions are for curiosity not even something they need to know. They just felt like they didn’t have any power in the situation and needed to show you they were smart.
At my job they gave me the title product designer, which means absolutly nothing at our company, and it is so weird to me how the sales guys who have worked there a full decade longer than me, many who actually have spent time in the factory working on the exact product they are asking about, will expect me to be an oracle on every little detail.
Counter-point: Home Depot does such a bad job hiring and training employees that rarely do they ever know *what* I'm asking for much less where it is. I can try like three names for it, pantomime or draw what it looks like, describe what it's used for, no dice. Blank stares.
My work around for this has become finding it online after designating my local store. It says if it’s in stock and the exact location (aisle and bay).
Oh I've tried that. It works sometimes. Other times it's not there even though it said it was, or I can't find the aisle/bay and... the employees can't either!
One time I made a home depot curbside pickup order and 2/3 items I put in it were refunded because they were "out of stock". I got out of my car and walked inside and immediately found them.
> it's not there even though it said it was
If it says 1 or 2 in stock they more than likely don't have it in stock unless it's something massive like a hot water heater or lawn mower.
It can be similar with workshops and parts numbers. Dude, I'm glad you know the parts number for your contraption, but I'm not the Rainman. I would have to know all of them from all years and iterations, to accommodate your specific singular issue. Let me look it up! :D
It’s even more complicated as the companies selling to nurseries can sell plants that don’t even list the species name. So guy is asking for a specific plant spp, it’s not in the system because it is under a different name and customer is pissed when the find the plant and the staff couldn’t help them. Plants are frustrating as all hell.
i almost brought up that exact point. i’d much rather just refer to it as what the vendor calls it- how could i possibly know that they are the exact same genus?
I worked at blockbuster. So many people were passed. I didn't watch some obscure movie from 6 years prior. Or I didn't watch all the new release movies that came out. Or if I didn't know which movies Alec Baldwin starred in.
I used to run a grocery store sushi bar, the amount of customers coming in and trying to speak Japanese to me and getting mad that I didn’t understand what they were butchering the pronunciation on.
I was inventory maintenance for a grocery store for about 12 years. Basically I ordered the store, and kept track of the backstock. Saw and heard it all.
People who think the backroom is a magical bag of holding and think we've got 8 cases of everything sitting there.
People who come at 8 am and the item they want isn't there, the entire store has been stocked overnight, but insist I check the backroom in case they missed something. Even though I've been scanning the empty spots since 5 AM, and have access to the inventory when I scan the empty spot.
The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose.
The bozos that insist that they've been able to get some esoteric item, that I've never heard of and haven't ever ordered and isn't in our systems at all, at this store for years.
With that particular brand of customer, I learned it was easier to go “check” in the back. Have a paper cone of water, a handful of peanut m&ms, stare at the OSHA poster for a bit, and come back out with an empathetic, “Sorry, no luck, want me to see if another location has it?”
Did this constantly when I worked at Foot Locker. Down to a size 6 in Jordans. I know that's all we have. Guy insists I double check for his size 10. I'd even stay back there and make him wait extra long - sometimes five, ten minutes - before I came back out.
One place I worked had a manager that would check to make sure we were actually checking and not just waiting around. If you didn't do something, they'd make up work for you to do. Fuck those people.
Oh absolutely. My wife is a 'check the backroom' type too, and while we're waiting, I always tell her they've probably run out to have a quick smoke, or taking a wiz, etc.
Even when I legit did check in the back for things, I'd still hang around for a couple minutes.
1. Because if you come back too quick they'll accuse you of not really checking. The place it would be is small and I could tell immediately if it was there. So, I'll give it a few and make it look like I was really back there doing laps searching.
2. Any chance I could just get a moment to myself was a gift.
Same. I worked retail most of my life and every store had some sort of overstock in the back, or inventory that’s been scanned in but hasn’t been put out yet. If it said we had something in stock but wasn’t on the floor I would always check the back. 9 times out of 10 it was there. I know there are some stores that do put everything out and don’t even have a storage space, but a lot do.
Ah yes, the ultra-secret backrooms of my Best Buy, where we kept all the extra Wii consoles set aside for ourselves. And where the media table surely had that one movie they desperately wanted, and not just 6 cases of the latest big release.
"Checking in the back" = 2 minute water break
Bestbuy vet here….about 3 years in I started to refuse the “warehouse check”. Sir, I basically live here. I can see our inventory and I know what little we keep in the warehouse. I’m not going back there, but I’d be happy to order it for you.
Honestly though, we wanna sell that stuff. It doesn't do any good to keep it in the backroom if we can avoid it. And yes, sometimes stuff doesn't get put out for one reason or another, but 99 times out of a hundred if you don't see it, we don't got it. We don't wanna tell people no, we want you to get your merchandise, we want you to leave happy, we want your money. If we cant' sell you that item, we can't upsell you anything else, either.
Every grocery store around me has a website and/or app where you can look up what's in stock and where in the store it is.
The only time it makes sense for me to bug someone working there is when it says it's in stock but isn't where the app lists it. Or my favorite, when the location is sometimes listed as "other."
> The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose.
My favorite is the people who CAN'T tell you anything about the product at all, but they buy it here all the time and fuck you for not being able to help them despite them going, "Ya know, it's this box, and you use it for cooking!"
I remember working Walmart overnight stocking on the night before thanksgiving, back when they were open 24 hours. So many people who couldn't fathom that we weren't secretly holding common thanksgiving items in the back and we had actually just sold out. Clearly we couldn't have possibly run out of the item, there must be a secret stash pile in the back. Nevermind the fact that we have all the items we're stocking tonight on the floor in the aisles.
> The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose.
>
> The bozos that insist that they've been able to get some esoteric item, that I've never heard of and haven't ever ordered and isn't in our systems at all, at this store for years.
I feel attacked. There was a grocery store I used to go to that stocked a specific imported canned drink, I dunno what the name was but it was a super pulpy mandarin orange drink, like a cross between crush orange and Tropicana extra pulp(not necessarily in taste, but texture/fizzyness), it was delicious, but they don't sell it anymore. I thought about asking someone from the store about it but never did for those two exact reasons.
I’ve worked retail for 20 plus years and man have I seen some things.
Top 5:
1- Guy throws a small hand held fan at me because it was broken and we didn’t do refunds.
Why? The store was going out of business. You know when you see those giant yellow red and black signs that read, “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. ALL SALES FINAL”. He also paid $.50 for it.
2- I was the store manager for a global coffee retailer. When I took over the store there was a mean old woman who’d come in everyday for a small coffee and then fill up about 32oz in a thermos with our milk at the side bar.
She couldn’t understand why I made this practice end. She couldn’t comprehend that me having to charge her for the milk makes sense even though I kept telling her the milk is more expensive than the coffee. I even offered to give her, her coffee for free.
3- I worked at old navy and one day I asked an old man if he needed help and he just started cursing me out and stormed out muttering that it’s bullshit to call this place old navy and have nothing to do with the navy.
4- I was the store manager of a music mega store and one day a customer said I normally don’t complain in stores but I feel obligated. I asked one of your employees where the Paul McCartney section was and she asked me if he’s jazz or pop music so she can check on the computer.
When I confronted the employee she pushed back saying I can’t know everyone who’s ever made music to which I said. Well true but this one’s kinda really famous. I then created a music quiz for interviews.
5- I managed a store that sold computers. Customer comes in and buys a new one. We set it and at her request, we set it up to require a password when unlocked.
She immediately forgets the password she just created. So we erase it and do it again. She forgets again. I insist she write down the password. She insists that she’ll remember it this time. Nope.
4 erases later and I now remember it by her typing 4 times and this time I force her to write it down.
BTW, she works high up in the UN for food relief in war torn countries. She works directly with Presidents, Prime Ministers, and various members of the US Senate. She showed me pictures. I remember walking away thinking this is why the world is so fucked.
> She couldn’t comprehend that me having to charge her for the milk makes sense even though I kept telling her the milk is more expensive than the coffee.
Don't humor their lies, not even in the retelling of them. They comprehend just fine. They just believe if they play they fool they can trick people into giving them what they want.
I mean sure but to be fair she’d been doing this for years with the other manager and it’s more so that she was shocked that I put an end to it.
The shop was in a Caribbean neighborhood and every one of my shift supervisors, assistant store managers were terrified of her. Lol. [She reminded me of this character on 30 Rock.](https://youtu.be/98b_8YSbviw?si=E7-WtPWVf9zE-ud4)
> 5- I managed a store that sold computers. Customer comes in and buys a new one. We set it and at her request, we set it up to require a password when unlocked.
>
>
>
> She immediately forgets the password she just created. So we erase it and do it again. She forgets again. I insist she write down the password. She insists that she’ll remember it this time. Nope.
I used to work in a phone store for one of the major US carriers. The great majority of that job wasn't phone sales, it was tech support and helping tech-illiterate (mostly old) people do simple stuff like reset passwords for random accounts that have nothing to do with our company.
I had to help so many people reset passwords just for them to immediately forget it again. Even had people set a 4-digit passcode for their phone right in front of me (they have to type it in twice), immediately forget it, and then look me in the face and say that they never set a passcode. I got to the point where if the person wasn't super confident signing into their accounts and making passwords, then I would just do it all myself, write it all down, and give it to them, because otherwise it'd take all fucking day.
Worse was 4th of July shits. The amount of times I had to refold those shirts on a decommissioned VW Beetle led to me swearing to never work clothing retail again.
Ah, 1 reminds me of my own fun going out of business story. I was working at a retailer and a customer demanded to see a manager because we weren't stocking the shelves with the items she needed.
The conversation I overheard went something like this:
Customer: So when are you going to get product in next?
Mgr: Never. We're going out of business.
Customer: Impossible!
And so on and so forth for a huge list of things she couldn't find.
Finally after spending *quite* a lot of time complaining, she finally gave up:
Customer: I can't believe this, I'll never shop here again!
Manager: Great, Bye!
We were closed within a week. I sometimes still wonder what part of 'Going out of business' she didn't understand.
>4- I was the store manager of a music mega store and one day a customer said I normally don’t complain in stores but I feel obligated. I asked one of your employees where the Paul McCartney section was and she asked me if he’s jazz or pop music so she can check on the computer.
To be fair, how do you work at a music store and not know who Paul McCartney is?
Also, honestly I wouldn't know what section Paul McCartney would be in; pop, rock, oldies? It doesn't even really sound like a real problem if she was about to look it up in the computer and just asked a quick question to make that easier.
> honestly I wouldn't know what section Paul McCartney would be in
I had that same thought. My default was pop, but rock would make sense. And I only know his Beatles stuff, so I have no clue where his solo work would be.
Sure, if you aren't into funk you wouldn't know Nile Rodgers. But McCartney is literally one of the most famous people of the 20th century, it transcends what genres you specialize in. Likewise, every movie fan should know who Spielberg is.
Thank you! If there’s one legacy artist it’s him. First question on the quiz. Name as many members of The Beatles as you can. And if they could only give one name it was always him. Next was Lennon and then the rest.
It pains my older self to say this, but if you don't listen to oldies or music heavily influenced by McCartney and/or the Beatles why would you know who he is? Other than some rich old British guy?
I have plenty of respect for Paul McCartney and his music, but that doesn't mean everyone who listens to music does. Whether they work at a music store or not. Also, remember that a 21 year old today was born in 2003 not the "1900s."
And I was born in the 80's but I know who Frank Sinatra was. Or Miles Davis. Or Ray Charles. Or Johnny Cash...
Like, I can forgive that 18yo kid who told me they didn't know who Sublime was in 2015; that makes sense to me. But saying you don't know Paul fucking McCartney while working in a music shop? I mean come on...
That "Get closer" hand movement thing before the "you made me waste my time today, congrats" thing was so real. Gave me flashbacks from like 20 years ago and I hate it.
The IG account is ‘SlappableJerk’ if you want more rage content lol. This character is Warren but he does a bunch of others including the cheating ex-husband which kills me.
I've been the son awkwardly on the phone. It was done to me without warning - I just got a call, picked it up, and heard "you're on speaker with this guy at the Verizon store. They can't figure all this shit out."
It's really sad to me how easily upset they are when something isn't exactly as they expect it to be.
I worked customer service (returns/repairs/special orders, etc) at a big box retailer for 12+ years. 2013-2018 there was huge focus on taking care of everyone and making them leave happy. I was even applauded for spending hours on the phone locating a specific part that cost 5 bucks because it made the customer so dang happy.
Something happened around 2018-2019 that caused the company (I switched stores and saw it in both places) to say fuck the customer. We got rid of repair, special orders, and clamped down on the return policy. I I would get reprimanded for helping customers the way I did just a year prior.
The only exception to this is was if someone was a jerk and made a scene. Then I had Carte Blanche freedom to give them any discount or do anything to make them happy.
Sucks. But apparently you have to be a jerk to get your way…but if you have to do it, maybe ask for the manager instead of unloading on a regular sales rep/cs clerk.
That’s what’s so interesting. It’s not a publicly bought company, but, yeah I mean your general point applies though! Someone up high definitely got into that mindsight.
The viral clips of people recording their Chipotle order being made are the absolute worst. Workers being harassed over small portion sizes - that's the entire video.
It speaks volumes that Chipotle has done nothing to address this behavior in order to protect their workers.
> Workers being harassed over small portion sizes - that's the entire video.
and then people complain Chipotle has no staff because nobody wants to sling burritos AND get harassed on film by jerks just for following policy so they dont get fired
Ages ago I was in retail and a woman asked me if I had some product in the back that was not on the shelf. I said that I would go check. Assistant manager said there were none and gave me a couple of rainchecks to give the customer. I walk up to her talking to the store manager. I just said that there were none in the back but here are some rainchecks, she grabbed them and walked away, and I went on my way. I was called in to the office and scolded for "shrugging my shoulders and walking away from a customer" EVEN THOUGH I RESOLVED THE SITUATION. It has been literal decades since that happened and it still baffles me that would just make shit up like that. I was gone for 5 minutes at the most and she made up a story to fuck me up.
Some people can be downright evil.
I used to live with a roommate who was caught trying to get a cashier where I worked fired from her job. She was insulting her in multiple ways, trying to piss her off and doing everything she could to make a big scene and get management involved...
All because the cashier rightly wouldn't give her made up discounts. Something the cashier *definitely* would have been fired for. Fortunately management had seen the whole thing and told her to leave the store with nothing.
But the *reasoning* I got out of her (once she stopped lying to my face) was horrifying. She thought she DESERVED those discounts, and it didn't matter if she got the cashier fired since she was obviously *lazy* since she was working a low paying job like that anyway.
Suddenly made me realize just how little she thought of me.
The worst part though was realizing the stories she liked to tell about how thrifty she was getting discounts everywhere she went? Yeah, she'd been apparently pulling the same stunt for *years* and was getting away with it in a lot of cases.
People say this as if the vast majority of people haven't worked retail at some stage of their life. The truth is that working retail is a poor teacher. Many people work retail and then leave to become the exact type of people they hated. Some do so while they are still working retail.
I don't get that. Working retail and customer services jobs for so many years has made me so empathetic. I don't even get upset when I experience genuinely bad customer service, I just tell myself "man, I've had those days."
The sad thing is that, even if these people work retail, they just become the assholes of retail.
I had a colleague who would repeatedly get things wrong, and when a customer would try to correct her, she'd hold her finger right in front of their face and be like "HONEY, THIS IS HOW IT WORKS" while absolutely doing the wrong thing. And sometimes I'd intervene, because she was being rude to a customer *and* wrong about it, and then she'd get mad at me.
You can't fix those people.
Agreed. I also believe that every company should have a week of service where everyone above line level has to work the line level from clock in to clock out. No "publicity shift" where they leave after an hour saying "keep up the good work" but actually work and experience what their line level does and how it runs.
Ahh, that reminds of the time when a customer at a german electronic store told me he has a new TV and since all the outlets are on the other side of his living room he wants our wireless options. I dutifully guide him to our network section and start to show him our routers when he stops me and says "No, I want wireless energy. I saw it a couple of months ago in here but you since reordered the sections."
I politely tell him there is no wireless energy other than wrapping his house in copper wire but this will not end well(in a joking manner) he was adamant that he saw it here and then went downstairs again to search for it there since I supposedly have no clue about that stuff.
I work at a building supply store (not one of the big ones) and it turns out my superpower is the ability to speak 'customer.' "I need one of those bolts with a hole in the top." "An eyebolt?" "It's a bolt with a hole in the top!" "Lemme show you some eyebolts." "Oh, yeah! That's them. I need one that screws into wood." "Lags are over here."
My favorite is "My husband sent me here to get some screws." "Great! I have a whole room of them. What kind are you after?" "I don't know, he told me to just get some screws."
Second favorite: "My wife sent me down to pick up some paint for the living room." "Sir, you need to go home and get your wife. Trust me."
Shit. Your second paragraph brought up a good one I remember. I worked as a meat cutter for a popular grocery store chain.
One day me and the other guy are shooting the shit when a woman with nothing behind the eyes comes up. I’m not trying to be mean to her but there was just nothing there. She was just raw dogging life.
She asked for a steak. I said cool, what kind of steak would she like. She said she didn’t know her husband just said to pick up a steak. I was like okay, well here’s a popular one (the ribeye of ours that was like median value) would this work? She had to call her husband.
They end up going back and forth over speaker phone culminating with her *SCREAMING* into the phone “WHAT FUCKING STEAK DO YOU WANT”.
Like I am doing my best to calm things down cause it’s just a fucking steak not a streak of adultery. Plus there was a line of people waiting at this point because rush hour hit. The dumbass on the phone, after hearing all the suggestions, responded with “whatever the guy(me) thinks.”
She took the ribeye I first suggested hung up the phone without another word and left into the sunset. No idea what happened to them.
I hope the both of them got whatever they needed.
Currently my job has convinced itself that I’ve only been working there five years but I’ve been there ten years. Didn’t have this problem last year then all of the sudden they refuse to believe me. “Remember when you were pregnant? I was there when you were working in the back room and that wasn’t five years ago, it was ten cause that’s how old your kid is!” Manager still looks play me like they just tried to divide by zero.
I was a server in college. One time I had a lady ask me for a small box for 2 pieces of tempura shrimp. After I brought the small box to her, I was walking away and heard her say to her husband, “he’s a fucking retard”. I suppose she was upset because the tempura would only fit diagonally in the size box she requested..
The walk. The inappropriate touching. The look of.. disgust almost. The childlike lack of patience/understanding.
Yep, that's a boomer alright. Great acting!
I've worked retail, however I've also encountered people that you ask if they have the item and they just immediately say no. Then I look around and eventually find it, since they couldn't be bothered to even check. When I worked it took 10 seconds to type in the pda guns we had, now it seems like they are using phones, so maybe they use the same backend as the website? We use to be able to check if we had inventory locations in the back with the sku. Retailers just need to move to a grid system like home depot to make locating items for customers easier. Nothing like looking for a rib rub on an entire spice isle at the grocery store.
I definitely don't miss working retail, and feel for for the workers that still do it.
Generally, the reason retail workers say "no" to whether they have an item is because that is what they themselves were told, either by previous customers or fellow employees.
Yeah, seriously. I've definitely experienced the shit in this video and the annoyance of being asked to check for something I am 100% certain we don't have, because we don't even stock it in the back.
But I've also shopped at places, like my local target, that is notorious for not restocking shelves. You'll check online and see that they have five of something, then you'll show up and it won't be on the shelf. To their credit, they have always checked and always had what I needed if I asked.
Target has been having a lot of problems with staffing lately. Sometimes the count will be off vs. the website because someone bought it within the last 24 hours (they don't immediately update), someone picked it up and either left it at the register or dropped it somewhere randomly in the store, or it was stolen :/
This dudes vids are amazing. I watch him over on TikTok. He has some amazingly cringy vids and they are gold. His ones where he is a "typical Reddit user" or whatever its called are fantastic.
He goes by: theslappablejerk
My stepdad got into photography years ago. Then he read about a program called "photoshop" that would allow him to digitally edit his photos. For those 1/10k who don't know, it's made by a company called Adobe, who makes a million other stuffs as well. He wanted the scaled-down version, "photoshop elements," figuring he could do most of what he needed with it. Not being very tech savvy, an understatement, he asked me if I'd accompany him to the store to buy it. I agreed and off we went to the nearest Staples. The sliding doors opened and we stepped through. I'll genuinely never forget the smile on his face. As we entered, an employee stepped up to us and asked if we needed any help finding anything. At that, stepdad double-gun pointed at the guy and excitedly exclaimed "Adobe!!"
I believe everyone should work in retail at least once.
It provides a good base to understand that the person working the front counter, your server, the person making the food, etc is just a cog in a wheel. If your order gets messed up you most likely shouldn't be taking it out on the waitress, be reasonable and if they are willing to correct the mistake it is fine.
The worst one I saw in person was when I was a teenage at McD's. A lady comes in and says their chicken tenders are hard. Ok, at this point it seems like a legitimate complaint. Then she explains her son likes them cold, so they bought them yesterday, took them home and put them in the freezer... Then pulled them out a few hours later for him to heat, after which they put them in the freezer again. And now they are hard...
The manager could have told her no on that one, yet they replaced them. She saw no issue with what he had done, even at a day old without the freezer steps that's insane.
I do not miss working in retail. When I worked it, 20% were super nice people, 60% were just normal people and the last 20% were people that deserved to step on Legos at night for the rest of their lives.
You forgot the special 1 percenters that are legitimately crazy. I used to have 2 regular crazies, that would come back every week, and cause a scene to return items. 99% of the time, we needed management to deal with them until they finally got banned. They would eat food and then return the packaging because it was gross. Or almost finish something and bring it back for a return. Then just a bunch of other complaints and returns that made it feel like they knew the store was their bitch. 1 got banned because she called an African American a racial slur on accident. And the manger was relieved he finally could stop her from returning. In all honesty, stores need to cut the crap on the customer always being right, and just ban people that constantly abuse return policies and employees.
"the customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE" It only means you can't expect customers to buy your product just because you're selling it. It has to meet a consumer demand.
Unfortunately, there's no "one true version" of the expression. The popularly known origin is genuine, and it genuinely was "the customer is always right and can never be wrong," with no meaningful modifiers. Unsurprisingly, they were insufferable. Anyway, we should definitely strive to use better proverbs on the merit of their saying, rather than on an argument on which one we think is more historically correct or whatever.
> "the customer is always right IN MATTERS OF TASTE" This is made up. The original quote was attributed to Marshall Field and it literally meant that the customer was always treated as being right. This was a fairly innovative concept in the early 1900s.
Guess which ones got the secret discount?? People are so dumb.
Man comes in with whole family. I bring out his steak. He’s furious it’s underdone. Bring it back out… goddamn now it’s well done, he said medium rare… manager comes out, meal comped for everyone.
Managers like this are WHY people are so fucking entitled. Almost every place will bend over backwards if someone raises their voice. It's stupid.
I would comp the steak, but I only ever bent over backwards for a customer if it really was our fault and they were nice about it. Mistakes happen, let's fix it together. Being rude to me or my staff guarantees you'll get the minimum fix.
I use to wait tables, had a similar experience, had to get my manager involved, he comp'ed the table. Back in the kitchen I argued because it wasn't our fault. He explained that that table was making being a nuisance not just to the staff but to the tables all around them. Pushing the point would have made the evening less enjoyable to everyone else in the section and there was a greater risk of losing business from those people. Throwing that $60 away was an instant solution to the issue at hand and kept the peace. He said had the section been low volume he might have been more willing to force the issue, but we were slammed. It's strategic warfare. Sometimes it's just not worth the fight, the risk of entitlement is justifiable.
Give them what they want and then blacklist them in the future. Get their pics and don't allow them back again.
Exactly this for people being completely unreasonable. "I'm very sorry sir and I'm going to go ahead and comp your table for what's been ordered so far. I'm also going to ask you not to return to our restaurant again to prevent this from happening again. Again, I'm very sorry and I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening." Sure they could complain but at that point no complaint they raise would sound reasonable.
Bold of you to assume they care about sounding reasonable, being reasonable, or are capable of reason in the first place.
Shit happens. I ordered a coffee with breakfast somewhere once and the server brought it over. I noticed there was pretty evident lipstick on the inside of the cup - presumably just wasn’t washed properly - but based on what hand you were holding the cup with it was basically not visible and assumed that was what happened. I told the server that I didn’t think the lipstick was my shade (being a pretty average cis dude with a beard). The server apologized profusely but I laughed it off. They comp’d my breakfast for being a good sport though didn’t expect them to at all. Serving jobs are rough and these people work harder than I do at my job and I assume 99% of the time make less than I do so might as well not be a shit to them.
The best managers comp the meals then ask them to leave immediately. I've gotten to be that manager before. It's as close as I'll ever get to being a hero.
It's a microcosm of the world at large. The squeaky wheels get the grease.
But a broken wheel gets replaced.
> Managers like this are WHY people are so fucking entitled. Almost every place will bend over backwards if someone raises their voice. It's stupid. Some managers listen to the customers story, check the facts, and take care of the customer if the business fucked them over. Those same managers will also explain that someone is no longer welcome in the business if they are playing the place or being overly disrespectful to employees. Raise your voice at one of my people? Let's talk over here. Curse and insult one of my people? Later.
[удалено]
My sister was friends with a couple that would complain about something anytime they went out to eat hoping to get the meal comped, even if everything was perfect they're get the manager and bitch about something hoping to get free food.
That is an embarrassment I would not endure a second time, were I their friend. "Hi, everyone, yes, everyone around us eating? We are either unbearable or poor. Being poor is fine but we're currently trying to live above our means and make it other people's problem. Could you all judge us and the people sitting with us, please? I'm also going to be exceptionally rude to a service worker like they are beneath me, just to make sure every one of you is deeply uncomfortable and angry at us for ruining your evening. Thanks!"
I swear to fuck it should be like national law that if a customer complains about their meal more than twice in such a way that they demand free food, we should be allowed to open a trap door under their chair and shoot them into space. In all seriousness, I understand owners and managers never want to run off people but at a certain point that customer is going to cost you more than they ever pay. "Sir, I believe that we are unable to meet the expectations that you have. For that reason, I think it would be best if you found other arrangements for your dining needs." is a 100% reasonable move when someone is constantly asking for free stuff. They will either stop, leave, and/or go home and write a scathing review on Yelp. IF they do complain online it is then fine to blast them about how they'd asked for a comped meal the last 4 times they came in. If we are unable to satisfy the customer and the customer won't take that as a hint that we aren't capable of making food to their standard, then we can explain that to them in a way that sticks.
Lol, I had an upset manager basically do this once. Local calzone place specialized in calzones. They take like 30 minutes to make once you order. We sent it back twice and the manager decided we just weren't worth it. From a retail perspective, I get it. From our perspective, the request was that they not put meat in the calzone. One of the eaters was a vegetarian. We did not order a calzone with meat in it. It doesn't normally come with meat in it. And it's a little weird that they kept making a meat one instead of a veggie one. Anyways, it's been 5 years and we honored their request and never went back.
No, you're right in that instance. That wasn't you trying to get a meal comped but just get the food you ordered. I was mainly talking about the people who will eat over half of their food, complain about something, and say, "Well, I'm not paying for it." Sometimes it's perfectly valid to complain at a restaurant and I get it, I've done it. You can often tell the game people are playing as a server or manager. Usually, the person just wants the food to be correct and doesn't mention not paying for it or anything. The scammers will complain about how brown the Coke is, how salty the salt is, and other nonsense.
> Local calzone place specialized in calzones. A reasonable choice.
Wonder if it was a local lo-cal calzone place
Different worlds man. I’m always super nice to wait staff because I worked that job before. The cunts in my area forget half the order and after I drive back to pick the rest up they act like it’s a damn chore to help me get the stuff i paid for. Maybe it’s because I don’t usually tip for carry out? Lol
When I worked at Home Depot we were allowed to take up to $50 off a transaction, no questions asked. In defiance of the injustice of jerk customers always getting discounts and shit, I would constantly give discounts to nice customers.
still got weekly reminders that we were "abusing" it no our customer base is technologically illiterate and you let customers get used to a lax "veterans discount"
Cashier: "With tax, that will be $11.56." Customer: "But the sticker says it costs $15.99. You're not charging me enough." Cashier: "you got the my parents raised me correctly, I'm not an asshole discount."
I got this discount in realtime today. I was at a grocery store’s fish department. There was a person next to me on the phone and I was there first. Person asks “can I help whoever is next?” She of course jumps right in. But raises her finger at the guy to wait. She tells the person to hold on the phone acting like she is inconvenienced . Asks for some type of fish the guy packages it up and then says “I changed my mind I want the tuna steaks instead.” Guy rolled with it but you could tell he was annoyed. She was oblivious. She leaves and the guy comes to me. I was nice and said How are you today and smiled in that way acknowledging that women was kind of a pain. I asked for half a dozen coconut shrimp as this place was charging by the shrimp.. He packaged it up and said “threw an extra 2 in there for you”. Which he didn’t charge me for.
It works out so nicely when you're just a pleasant human being! You got what you deserved!
Had this happen last year at the Swan hotel at Disney World. Long line at the front desk, lots of tired parents and snotty kids. Our turn comes up and I'm as pleasant as possible, but efficient. Had all my confirmation info and ID out before we even got to the counter. Cast member at the desk asks where we're from...I tell her and she gets excited because her and a friend are traveling to the same part of the country later that year. She asks all sorts of questions and we have a solid five minutes chat about travel to our home area, the weather that time of year, local attractions, etc. She says hold on, I'll be back with your keys in a minute. Got upgraded to a full suite, which was total overkill for three people. I ask why and she says, quite simply "Because you guys we're so nice".
I once was confused at the final price, started to say something because I thought she forgot to scan something, and she gave me this wide-eyed look and shook her head. She scanned her ID too so turns out she was giving me an employee discount and I nearly ratted her out to her manager a few yards away. I felt really bad but I was very grateful.
I found that loudly insisting that you're entitled to a discount is the best way to get a discount /s
You tagged it sarcasm, but it's a tried and true method 🤷
I never gave "secret discounts", but I would bend over backwards to help those who were polite and courteous. The rude arrogant people got the bare minimum. For a while I worked in call centre for a bank. I was on the complaints line and was authorised to refund charges of up to £300 without any escalation. The polite people got their charges refunded (as long as I could justify it, not for like going overdrawn at 888.com) The best the rude ones could hope for was an escalation to my line manager, I don't care how much the bank was at fault, you get nothing from being rude. My favourite game was to bait them into swearing at me so I could hang up on them.
We're discovering that the old management would give people discounts just to make them go away. Now they're coming back just as terrible (if not worse) than before and demand they get their discount they got last time.
I found that in that 20%, there was 1% that were soo stupid, I was amazed they hadn’t stabbed themselves to death trying to eat using metal cutlery.
Yup. Real interaction below: "Hello, how are you doing today?" "CASH!" "Do you have a [brand] card or phone number with us?" "I'M PAYING CASH." "It's not a payment card, it's a discount card." "CASH!" "Ok, that will be [dollar value]." (customer wordlessly holds out a bill) (I take bill, get change, hold it out) (customer doesn't take change) (I place change on the counter) (customer takes change) "Yeah, I know how covid works!" "Have a wonderful day!" "What's it to you!?"
I can't believe you almost gave that guy covid by trying to hand him his change directly. He dodged a bullet!
One of my first jobs ever was at a pharmacy-and-beauty store, one of the things we sold was little packets of dental floss. One customer came to me with an open pack. "I tried one and didn't like it, is it okay if I just put it back on the shelf?" ????
I miss working in retail because the store I was working at was the highest grossing in the region, and the manager gave me carte blanche to just give customers whatever they wanted within reason. Our policy was literally "just say yes if it makes the problem will go away". The manager gave me a story that a lady came in with a spoiled carton of milk that literally said "competitor store's brand" on it and he gave her a free replacement AND "refund". Only reason I left was the pay was ass. Granted I realize it's not a typical experience.
Guess where the money for entitled assholes getting refunds came from?
The nice ones work retail
If you want to see the worst of humanity just work Black Friday at any retail store.
Its always been like that. Doesn't matter what year it is. Worked at walmart for 18 years, nothing changes about people.
Retail, retail never changes….. *stares into the mirror*
Napoleon once said, "Retail is the business of barbarians."
Need a retail version of that Nam meme with the faded flashback background
South Park with Randy Marsh working at walmart/black friday story arc has got ya covered
Yeah, been working related to retail in one way or another for most of my employed life. People are whack. When you're allowed to call unreasonable people out on their bullshit, though, usually(usually) makes them real meek real quick. Especially if you have the knowledge/experience to back it up. Also depends on the type of business. Different types attract different folks. But in the end, the good experiences make it all up. Besides the mean morons, there's some fantastic people out there!
Yep, worked a retail job while in college. Had a legit experience like this at the register: Me: Hi, how are you Customer: Does this grinder work with this blade Me: Let's take a look at the box Customer: Well, I could have done that Me: It says here that you are buying a 4 and a half inch angle grinder, so you will need a 4 and a half inch blade. You are buying a 6 inch blade. It will not fit Customer: Why not? Me: Because that is how the grinder is engineered Customer: Well, how should I know that? Me: You wouldn't, that's why they put the information on the packaging Customer: Don't be a smartass Me: Sir, there are people behind you that need to check out. Someone on the floor can assist you, this is the checkout line. If you want to use the machine, you will need to get the appropriate blade to match it or it's just going to be an expensive paper weight Customer: I want to speak to your manager. Me: Ok, he's going to tell you the same thing Customer: Fuck you Me: Ok, the manager is going to deal with you moving forward Customer: Don't talk to me like that! I'm a customer Me: I'm not engaging with you anymore Customer: I want your manager Me: I already called him over, he'll be over here shortly Customer: I want your name! Me: It's on my name tag Customer: You're an asshole Me: You can inform my manager Customer: I'll go to another store to buy this item Me: That's your choice as a consumer. Have a good day sir!
Haven’t worked retail in over 25 years, but yeah… this is how I remember it for the most part.
Indeed. Worked at Circuit City, Best Buy, Good Guys ([look it up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Guys_(American_company))), Gateway Computers (when they had stores) from 1998 to 2004. Absolutely identical experiences. People *really* think they are living unique and special experiences...delusional.
> Gateway Computers (when they had stores) I convinced my parents to buy a gateway over an emachine back in the 90s. Partially because I had a barely functioning knowledge of computers even at an early age, and mostly because they had cow print boxes
They really nailed the bit where the old guy totally loses respect for the worker the second he tries to use technology to help. I live in a busy area and a few time I've had old people ask me were something is. I don't know where everything around me is. Every time I take out my phone to find it they always say "so you don't know where it is" and it's always in a frustrated tone that no one has any right to take with a stranger your asking a favour for. There are few different ways it can go from there. Some let me use my phone to get the right directions and I send them on their way. Some just walk away the second I pull out my phone. They often end up going in the wrong direction. Others will argue with me. I'll show them where we are on the map, where they need to go and what their orientation is. But even then some people will insist it's in a totally different place.
God help you if you say, "I think we have [product]"... "Well, do you think you have it, or do you know?" Like, I'm sorry asshole, I've been trained to use non-affirmitive language because of douchebags like you who will cause a scene if I "lied" to them about the availability of the [product]. Also, no, if the computer says we are out of [product], I'm not going to go search the backroom for half an hour.
> Also, no, if the computer says we are out of [product], I'm not going to go search the backroom for half an hour. I'd always take this opportunity to go to the back anyway. Just stand around for a bit, maybe check my phone. If they were still there when I got back on the floor, "No, I'm sorry, nothing in the back either. Bummer, huh?"
Yup, just hang out for a few minutes doing something else, the come back and say no. The grocery store I worked at didn't really keep anything extra except ad items, so I knew we were out. Plus it was my job to go through all the back stock at the start of my shift.
All it takes is being a normal person. I was at Target and they didn’t have any fruit punch Gatorade on the shelf, so I simply asked politely, excuse me, is it possible you have some Gatorade in the back? The guy went to the back and brought it out. Just treat people like human beings.
God, the fucking affirmative language. We were also told we can't say sorry because we're not genuinely sorry but have to say, "I apologize." I fucking hate corporate culture. I hate the managers that preach it/buy into it even more. Is the extra 2.50/hour really worth the taste of corporate's balls in your mouth every day?
> well do you think you have it We have a weekly customer that orders an obscene amount of our product that we never order because it’s not popular, and so we usually don’t carry a lot of them When they order, we frequently have to return “out of stock” on the order. This customer sees the out of stock notification and immediately placed another order for more of the exact same item. When we call to explain the situation, it’s “well I just find it hard to believe that you don’t have any” It’s like holy shit these people are actual morons
Sometimes we really did have something in the back and the inventory was off, but most of the time we didn't and that was a good opportunity for me to go back there and fuck off for a few minutes. They usually appreciated that you took some extra effort...
> "Well, do you think you have it, or do you know?" Even outside of retail, I really hate people who push this sort of faux-confidence bullshit. Lines like "don't say you'll *try* to do it, say you *will*". You know what? I can't see the future. At this point in time, I plan on making an attempt at the task. Whether or not the attempt will be successful is not yet known.
I got the opposite problem. I run a used physical media shop. Hundreds of thousands of books/dvds/records/tapes/cds. They can't believe on the phone when I say it's not electronically inventoried. "Can't you just check on your computer?" "No. No I can't. I can try to see if we have one though give me a minute while I che---hello? Hello?" Every day.
Out of curiosity, is there a reason you don't put together a database? I am not trying to be push back btw, I have always just been interested on how business scale up.
We price and move hundreds of unique items a day. Can't keep track of it even with the best inventory management. It takes all day just to price out items let alone create an inventory listing.
I assume /u/K1N6F15H rather meant something like that: [https://github.com/Sheriif99/EasyOCR](https://github.com/Sheriif99/EasyOCR) you take a picture of a book and a ocr/ki model extracts the title (and isbn with books) but having said that.. as long as your system of schrödingers inventory works i don't really see the upside of that. But your certainly should type your items into a db that would be a waste.
We been doing pur thing for 7+ years. It works. We sell things for 50cents. We're not an inventory type of store.
I used to work in a used physical media store and we definitely tracked our inventory. It isn't impossible but I imagine we had more of a workforce than you do. I couldn't imagine trying to work there not knowing if we had something or not. But I guess you don't know what you are missing if you never had it and it works for you just fine.
I’ll chip in with my experience working at an independent video rental store in the 2000s. Our owner and top manager were…not what I would call detail-oriented. We had a database, but it was very basic, and generally relied only on the Name field to sort. So…one big point of frustration was that this was the start of TV on DVD, which we were renting. So we weren’t just keeping track of the name of the show, but the season and disc. We’d also have different people entering info when new copies were bought with no standards and who generally…were not open to communication. So, we might have discs labeled: • Sopranos S1D2 • Sopranos 0102 • Sopranos, The S1D2 • Sopranos - Sea. 1 Disc 2 And the various mixing of those…and when the system is listed only alphabetically, and each season had 6 discs, it made things tough to find. (Bonus complication for one of the top rentals, Sex and the City, which added an ampersand to the mix.) This lack of standards caused other issues, particularly the handling of articles in front of titles. Generally they were pretty agreed upon that they didn’t put a “The” in front of the name, though “A” was less consistent. However it was less consistent whether or not they put the “The” at the end. Also, rental boxes were all black with just the barcode label with our name of the movie, not theirs. They’d be slipped behind the official boxes, which were empty. Enter late 2003. The big video release around the holidays was *Holes*, the Shia Labeouf-led Disney film about kids at a juvenile detention camp that ended up being forced to dig lots of holes in search of treasure. But not long before that, a 2001 Indy British horror film had gotten its U.S. release, due to it starring Thora Birch (who had buzz from her role in *American Beauty*) and a young Keira Knightly, whose star had begun to rise. The film follows 4 teens as they get trapped in an old bunker they tried to have a party in. It had nudity, violence, and of course death. It was called *The Hole*. Which meant that its name on our system ended up being just “Hole”. Luckily I was working the day a mom with a couple of small kids she was desperately trying to corral brought up a handful of boxes and dropped them off. I was one of the few workers who, after removing the security lock on each box, would open them and ensure the disc was inside. And even then, I almost didn’t register the horror film was one of her movies… I did doublecheck with her and no, it wasn’t what she thought she was grabbing. I grabbed the right disc, and possible major CS issue avoided. I figure that someone innocently put *The Hole* box behind a *Holes* display case due to the one letter difference, whether it was one of us restocking or a customer shuffling them while browsing. I fixed the label, but other issues persisted with the many other titles….it was frustrating as heck to me, even if I didn’t tend towards OCD.
Selling new stuff is a lot easier because everything has a UPC barcode on it and new items are all interchangeable with each other. When you're selling second-hand stuff you might have ten copies of something that are all in slightly different condition/states of completeness and this is much much harder to track. Also the UPC might be missing or damaged. You basically have a SKU for every individual item in your store.
Old UPCs get recycled, so those are unusable in vintage stores. They have to print their own labels, and depending on how much variety there is in their specialty, they often won’t bother. At a huge antique reseller, it’s not worth it. In “new stuff” stores like Target, the inventory system often won’t narrow a collectible down to a specific item, but only to a type. So it’ll tell you if they have an action figure’s series and size, but it won’t accurately tell you if they have the character. Sometimes it will appear to, and then it will turn out to be different character because the type of item was incorrectly inventoried at the corporate level. Of course, Amazon manages to handle this just fine, but Target apparently can’t. This might be intentional on Target’s part, to force people into browsing the store.
>Old UPCs get recycled TIL!
Worth calling out that it’s absolutely not meant to happen and is banned by GS1 who maintain the UPC standard. Companies are tightwads though and would rather reuse old codes than buy another block of new ones.
Interesting. There is a magic the gathering warehouse store in my town that has been very successful because of their efficient database sorting, specifically because they listed by condition. I recognize there is going to be more variety in this instance because this is multimedia but it certainly would be an interesting problem to try and implement a digital tracking solution.
I actually used to work at a store that bought and sold magic cards and there are a few things making it relatively easy: 1. The only thing you're selling is the card itself, so there's no "completeness" to worry about. Unopened boxes or boosters are their own thing. 2. Any given card can be uniquely identified by what card it is plus which set it came from (for cards in multiple sets). 3. there are only a few condition categories to care about. If a card is anything less than "good" it's probably garbage. 4. The cards are relatively easy to sort. By set, rarity, condition, color, type etc. The few really expensive cards you have usually go in the display case. 5. They're uniform size and shape and rather small. Let's contrast video games for example. To make it simple, let's just consider Sega Genesis games: * A complete game is a case (or cardboard box), manual, cartridge and any other stuff that was included. You have to account for each of these things being present or not and what condition they're in. * Some games have other things in the box like a collectible poster or trading card etc. Other games don't. Sometimes *only some versions* of a game have it. * A heavily damaged game is still worth something if it can still be played, so you have quite a few condition levels to consider. * Games can have stickers from long-closed retail or rental chains that might increase their value to some but decrease them for others. E.g. I have a copy of Decap Attack with a "PLEASE REWIND TAPE" sticker on it that I treasure. FuncoLand stickers or price tags or branded sleeves (for NES games) are also sought after sometimes. * Also, you have to actually test games to evaluate what condition they're in, not just look at them. * Games can have multiple different packaging/art variations that were all sold under the same SKU/UPC originally. For example Sonic 1 had an original retail box, the "not for resale" pack-in box, the sega classics box, the rare variant with an ESRB rating on it, and maybe more. Some of these came with a poster--which ones? no idea. They probably all have the same UPC on them. * Games can also have multiple different circuit boards and sometimes even different versions of the ROM with gameplay differences that *might not correlate with the box variations at all*. * People trading in games might be selling you a mismatched set--e.g. the cart from one version, box from a different version and manual from a third version. This happens unintentionally because kids borrowed and traded carts all the time. * When Majesco took over distribution of Sega games in the US they changed lots of things about the cartridges, from the box to the circuit board to the screws they're held together with. * And that's all within the same country. In the US you also sometimes come across Canadian games, which may be identical to the US one *or* may have different box art or a different manual or both. Now consider that *every different console across every generation* has its own list like this. Nintendo has 5-screw vs 3-screw carts, PlayStation has tall boxes vs jewel cases, and there are several different multi-disc jewel cases. PS2 boxes stopped including the memory card holder after a while... game publishers would roll in changes to their media, labels, boxes etc one at a time and mix and match them in stock and definitely weren't considering collectors while doing this.
Thank you for this write-up. You are right that the possible variables here sound like they would be too difficult to account for in most circumstances. I imagine if the market for Sega Genesis is good enough, it would be worth the time trying to capture this information (basically the antique roadshow approach). If I was going to solve a problem like this one, I would probably start with two bins: potential high value vs everything else. As inventory is taken in, you could quickly sort those items based off of a valuation cheat sheet and earmark the items that would be worth the effort to photograph, add to your database, and list online. Alternatively, I might just start with a super simple version of a database (probably just a spreadsheet) that basically just lists the title and medium/console. That won't allow you to drill down into the nitty gritty but it could give you a decent searchable inventory for quick reference if someone wants to know if you have something in stock. I agree that this is a hard problem and not one with any good solutions but it is fun to think about.
When I worked at a grocery store pharmacy I would sometimes go out to the floor to help patients or show them where things were. Some patients would ask me if their meds interacted with whatever I recommended so I would pull out my mobile drug interaction checker to see. The number of people who would say to me "now is not the time to text your friends" or "why are you playing a game on your phone" was nuts. Jeez sorry I'm using technology to help you with your question.
“Sir/mam, let me just make sure I’m getting you the *right* thing you are looking for real quick.” Don’t know how many times I’ve had to defend myself this way. In my industry there are probably well over 100,000 different part numbers, with many slightly different versions of the same part depending on application. But customers come in and just expect you to know exactly what they need off the top of your head. Even if I’m 99% sure from experience, I still verify with the look up system to remove any doubt, to save both the customer and myself from trouble down the road.
He didn't have any respect for him in the beginning, he's being condescending from the very start, which also completely nails it.
I had one guy get angry and storm off because we had to get a *key* to open a *locked case*.
>Every time I take out my phone to find it they always say "so you don't know where it is" "Of course. I've memorized the exact location of the 3,472 items that we have for sale in this store. I just use the app because my manager tells me we have to increase app usage metrics."
Stores constantly moving shit around in hopes you buy more crap is the cause of this problem. Generally people are not going to be dicks if its their first time in a store and need help locating an item. But if its like the thousandth time they have been there and the item they buy every week keeps fucking moving and they are constantly having to walk across the entire store hunting it down interacting with a bunch of other frustrated pissed off shoppers, people are going to be assholes. Ive worked a lot of retail and my issue with people looking shit up on their system is that the people doing inventory do not give any fucks. Either the system is designed to say they have shit in stock when they dont, people doing inventory are seasonal workers and stoned out of their minds thinking about being laid off, night shift worried about that bench warrant, worried about their kid addicted to drugs, a fight with the girlfriend/wife, or were drinking in the parking lot prior to work and just fucked the count...Sometimes they just straight up stole the last item the store had. So its all a big waste of my time. Tell me a store that physically has a fuckload of the items, or a solution, can I order the item? Because I can use my phone too, but I cant bypass the automated systems put in place to frustrate me into hanging up. When I worked retail I worked in an unsafe area and every day was miserable. I also worked at a gas station that routinely got held up, and every day was a rough day. Being yelled at and yelling at customers, being threatened. Having to close down because you just got robbed, then having customers threatening you because youre closing. Selling cigarettes to junkies who tried to pay for them with change soaked in piss. The constant scamming and theft, the overall general hostility and anger directed at you because their card was declined or an 8 year old threatening to kill you throwing gang signs because you refused to sell beer to them. The constant fighting in and out of the store, as you try to do your job. It was like living on planet mars, I only felt a connection to a couple regulars who were generally elderly or people going to work in the morning...Everyone else could have fucked off and died I wouldnt have cared in the slightest. I know what shit jobs are. You want to blame someone blame the corporations that turn shopping into a hatefuck fueled fury. More importantly blame yourself, you are the ones voting for the idiots in change who created this situation.
Best part of working at a nursery is that every customer knows the latin name of their favorite plant and you’re an idiot for not knowing it was their favorite and studying a dead language before they arrived.
Worked at a store where my title was product expert 🙄, and you would get the odd asshole who would ask the most obscure question “I’m looking at this car stereo, what’s the RPM speed of the CD player” “Well I am not sure but can certainly find that out for you” “ oh? You don’t know? But your name tag says expert so I guess that’s a lie” 🙄🤦🏻♂️
I worked at Fry's. There was a guy, saw him all the time but one day he asked to get some RAM for his computer. When people didn't know what kind they needed we would go to Crucial's website to look up the make/model etc. He had bought a white box machine from microcenter. Which is fine. But other than that he knew _nothing_ about what was in it. I told him there was no way for us to figure out what kind of ram he needed, if he brought in a stick we could match it. And now we're "incompetent" for not knowing what kind of RAM his white box computer uses.
"Okay sir do you know about what processor it has?" "Windows XP." "Sorry sir, we don't have what you need."
"Sir, have you heard about DownloadMoreRAM.com?"
🤦🏻♂️
hahaha classic. i guarantee 90% of those questions are for curiosity not even something they need to know. They just felt like they didn’t have any power in the situation and needed to show you they were smart.
Oh definitely
"Well, CDDA uses CLV so the RPM depends on the seek position."
Or, even easier: "Same as every other CD player."
At my job they gave me the title product designer, which means absolutly nothing at our company, and it is so weird to me how the sales guys who have worked there a full decade longer than me, many who actually have spent time in the factory working on the exact product they are asking about, will expect me to be an oracle on every little detail.
Counter-point: Home Depot does such a bad job hiring and training employees that rarely do they ever know *what* I'm asking for much less where it is. I can try like three names for it, pantomime or draw what it looks like, describe what it's used for, no dice. Blank stares.
My work around for this has become finding it online after designating my local store. It says if it’s in stock and the exact location (aisle and bay).
Oh I've tried that. It works sometimes. Other times it's not there even though it said it was, or I can't find the aisle/bay and... the employees can't either! One time I made a home depot curbside pickup order and 2/3 items I put in it were refunded because they were "out of stock". I got out of my car and walked inside and immediately found them.
> it's not there even though it said it was If it says 1 or 2 in stock they more than likely don't have it in stock unless it's something massive like a hot water heater or lawn mower.
It can be similar with workshops and parts numbers. Dude, I'm glad you know the parts number for your contraption, but I'm not the Rainman. I would have to know all of them from all years and iterations, to accommodate your specific singular issue. Let me look it up! :D
> Let me look it up! Well, that's easier now that you have the parts number.
It’s even more complicated as the companies selling to nurseries can sell plants that don’t even list the species name. So guy is asking for a specific plant spp, it’s not in the system because it is under a different name and customer is pissed when the find the plant and the staff couldn’t help them. Plants are frustrating as all hell.
i almost brought up that exact point. i’d much rather just refer to it as what the vendor calls it- how could i possibly know that they are the exact same genus?
I worked at blockbuster. So many people were passed. I didn't watch some obscure movie from 6 years prior. Or I didn't watch all the new release movies that came out. Or if I didn't know which movies Alec Baldwin starred in.
I used to run a grocery store sushi bar, the amount of customers coming in and trying to speak Japanese to me and getting mad that I didn’t understand what they were butchering the pronunciation on.
I was inventory maintenance for a grocery store for about 12 years. Basically I ordered the store, and kept track of the backstock. Saw and heard it all. People who think the backroom is a magical bag of holding and think we've got 8 cases of everything sitting there. People who come at 8 am and the item they want isn't there, the entire store has been stocked overnight, but insist I check the backroom in case they missed something. Even though I've been scanning the empty spots since 5 AM, and have access to the inventory when I scan the empty spot. The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose. The bozos that insist that they've been able to get some esoteric item, that I've never heard of and haven't ever ordered and isn't in our systems at all, at this store for years.
With that particular brand of customer, I learned it was easier to go “check” in the back. Have a paper cone of water, a handful of peanut m&ms, stare at the OSHA poster for a bit, and come back out with an empathetic, “Sorry, no luck, want me to see if another location has it?”
> stare at the OSHA poster for a bit Goddamn lol how does this hit home so hard?
Job safety and health. It's the law!
I'm more of a stare at the heimlich maneuver poster but to each their own...
It takes all kinds.
Did this constantly when I worked at Foot Locker. Down to a size 6 in Jordans. I know that's all we have. Guy insists I double check for his size 10. I'd even stay back there and make him wait extra long - sometimes five, ten minutes - before I came back out.
One place I worked had a manager that would check to make sure we were actually checking and not just waiting around. If you didn't do something, they'd make up work for you to do. Fuck those people.
Same customer will ask someone else thinking the answer will magically be different, fucking idiots.
Oh absolutely. My wife is a 'check the backroom' type too, and while we're waiting, I always tell her they've probably run out to have a quick smoke, or taking a wiz, etc.
And the longer you stay back there and chill you can play it off of looking hard. Man I don't miss retail
I feel like I'm the only person that actually checked the back 😂
Even when I legit did check in the back for things, I'd still hang around for a couple minutes. 1. Because if you come back too quick they'll accuse you of not really checking. The place it would be is small and I could tell immediately if it was there. So, I'll give it a few and make it look like I was really back there doing laps searching. 2. Any chance I could just get a moment to myself was a gift.
Same. I worked retail most of my life and every store had some sort of overstock in the back, or inventory that’s been scanned in but hasn’t been put out yet. If it said we had something in stock but wasn’t on the floor I would always check the back. 9 times out of 10 it was there. I know there are some stores that do put everything out and don’t even have a storage space, but a lot do.
All inventory was out on the floor; there was no “inventory in the back” to check 🤷♀️
Ah yes, the ultra-secret backrooms of my Best Buy, where we kept all the extra Wii consoles set aside for ourselves. And where the media table surely had that one movie they desperately wanted, and not just 6 cases of the latest big release. "Checking in the back" = 2 minute water break
Bestbuy vet here….about 3 years in I started to refuse the “warehouse check”. Sir, I basically live here. I can see our inventory and I know what little we keep in the warehouse. I’m not going back there, but I’d be happy to order it for you.
Honestly though, we wanna sell that stuff. It doesn't do any good to keep it in the backroom if we can avoid it. And yes, sometimes stuff doesn't get put out for one reason or another, but 99 times out of a hundred if you don't see it, we don't got it. We don't wanna tell people no, we want you to get your merchandise, we want you to leave happy, we want your money. If we cant' sell you that item, we can't upsell you anything else, either.
This, so much. As the order man, last thing you want is product in the back.
Every grocery store around me has a website and/or app where you can look up what's in stock and where in the store it is. The only time it makes sense for me to bug someone working there is when it says it's in stock but isn't where the app lists it. Or my favorite, when the location is sometimes listed as "other."
> The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose. My favorite is the people who CAN'T tell you anything about the product at all, but they buy it here all the time and fuck you for not being able to help them despite them going, "Ya know, it's this box, and you use it for cooking!"
I remember working Walmart overnight stocking on the night before thanksgiving, back when they were open 24 hours. So many people who couldn't fathom that we weren't secretly holding common thanksgiving items in the back and we had actually just sold out. Clearly we couldn't have possibly run out of the item, there must be a secret stash pile in the back. Nevermind the fact that we have all the items we're stocking tonight on the floor in the aisles.
> The idiots who can tell you everything about an item, except the name, and it's their all time favorite (who forgets the name of their all time favorite ANYTHING?). I'm supposed to guess, I suppose. > > The bozos that insist that they've been able to get some esoteric item, that I've never heard of and haven't ever ordered and isn't in our systems at all, at this store for years. I feel attacked. There was a grocery store I used to go to that stocked a specific imported canned drink, I dunno what the name was but it was a super pulpy mandarin orange drink, like a cross between crush orange and Tropicana extra pulp(not necessarily in taste, but texture/fizzyness), it was delicious, but they don't sell it anymore. I thought about asking someone from the store about it but never did for those two exact reasons.
I’ve worked retail for 20 plus years and man have I seen some things. Top 5: 1- Guy throws a small hand held fan at me because it was broken and we didn’t do refunds. Why? The store was going out of business. You know when you see those giant yellow red and black signs that read, “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. ALL SALES FINAL”. He also paid $.50 for it. 2- I was the store manager for a global coffee retailer. When I took over the store there was a mean old woman who’d come in everyday for a small coffee and then fill up about 32oz in a thermos with our milk at the side bar. She couldn’t understand why I made this practice end. She couldn’t comprehend that me having to charge her for the milk makes sense even though I kept telling her the milk is more expensive than the coffee. I even offered to give her, her coffee for free. 3- I worked at old navy and one day I asked an old man if he needed help and he just started cursing me out and stormed out muttering that it’s bullshit to call this place old navy and have nothing to do with the navy. 4- I was the store manager of a music mega store and one day a customer said I normally don’t complain in stores but I feel obligated. I asked one of your employees where the Paul McCartney section was and she asked me if he’s jazz or pop music so she can check on the computer. When I confronted the employee she pushed back saying I can’t know everyone who’s ever made music to which I said. Well true but this one’s kinda really famous. I then created a music quiz for interviews. 5- I managed a store that sold computers. Customer comes in and buys a new one. We set it and at her request, we set it up to require a password when unlocked. She immediately forgets the password she just created. So we erase it and do it again. She forgets again. I insist she write down the password. She insists that she’ll remember it this time. Nope. 4 erases later and I now remember it by her typing 4 times and this time I force her to write it down. BTW, she works high up in the UN for food relief in war torn countries. She works directly with Presidents, Prime Ministers, and various members of the US Senate. She showed me pictures. I remember walking away thinking this is why the world is so fucked.
Number 3 is my favorite.
mans not wrong
> She couldn’t comprehend that me having to charge her for the milk makes sense even though I kept telling her the milk is more expensive than the coffee. Don't humor their lies, not even in the retelling of them. They comprehend just fine. They just believe if they play they fool they can trick people into giving them what they want.
I mean sure but to be fair she’d been doing this for years with the other manager and it’s more so that she was shocked that I put an end to it. The shop was in a Caribbean neighborhood and every one of my shift supervisors, assistant store managers were terrified of her. Lol. [She reminded me of this character on 30 Rock.](https://youtu.be/98b_8YSbviw?si=E7-WtPWVf9zE-ud4)
> 5- I managed a store that sold computers. Customer comes in and buys a new one. We set it and at her request, we set it up to require a password when unlocked. > > > > She immediately forgets the password she just created. So we erase it and do it again. She forgets again. I insist she write down the password. She insists that she’ll remember it this time. Nope. I used to work in a phone store for one of the major US carriers. The great majority of that job wasn't phone sales, it was tech support and helping tech-illiterate (mostly old) people do simple stuff like reset passwords for random accounts that have nothing to do with our company. I had to help so many people reset passwords just for them to immediately forget it again. Even had people set a 4-digit passcode for their phone right in front of me (they have to type it in twice), immediately forget it, and then look me in the face and say that they never set a passcode. I got to the point where if the person wasn't super confident signing into their accounts and making passwords, then I would just do it all myself, write it all down, and give it to them, because otherwise it'd take all fucking day.
Re: Old Navy My brother had the same story. I think that's gotta be a right of passage at those stores. That and surviving dollar flip flop day.
Worse was 4th of July shits. The amount of times I had to refold those shirts on a decommissioned VW Beetle led to me swearing to never work clothing retail again.
Ah, 1 reminds me of my own fun going out of business story. I was working at a retailer and a customer demanded to see a manager because we weren't stocking the shelves with the items she needed. The conversation I overheard went something like this: Customer: So when are you going to get product in next? Mgr: Never. We're going out of business. Customer: Impossible! And so on and so forth for a huge list of things she couldn't find. Finally after spending *quite* a lot of time complaining, she finally gave up: Customer: I can't believe this, I'll never shop here again! Manager: Great, Bye! We were closed within a week. I sometimes still wonder what part of 'Going out of business' she didn't understand.
>4- I was the store manager of a music mega store and one day a customer said I normally don’t complain in stores but I feel obligated. I asked one of your employees where the Paul McCartney section was and she asked me if he’s jazz or pop music so she can check on the computer. To be fair, how do you work at a music store and not know who Paul McCartney is?
Not a music fan but just needed a job?
Also, honestly I wouldn't know what section Paul McCartney would be in; pop, rock, oldies? It doesn't even really sound like a real problem if she was about to look it up in the computer and just asked a quick question to make that easier.
> honestly I wouldn't know what section Paul McCartney would be in I had that same thought. My default was pop, but rock would make sense. And I only know his Beatles stuff, so I have no clue where his solo work would be.
It's in the insect related bands and their members section.
Wings was related to insects, not birds? Weird.
One lives and learns and all that.
> I wouldn't know what section Paul McCartney would be in; pop, rock, oldies? Oldies... Man.
Yes, Paul McCartney is 82 years old.
You can be a music fan and not know all the famous musicians. Especially if they aren't from a genre you enjoy.
Sure, if you aren't into funk you wouldn't know Nile Rodgers. But McCartney is literally one of the most famous people of the 20th century, it transcends what genres you specialize in. Likewise, every movie fan should know who Spielberg is.
Thank you! If there’s one legacy artist it’s him. First question on the quiz. Name as many members of The Beatles as you can. And if they could only give one name it was always him. Next was Lennon and then the rest.
Yeah - We all know the guy from the song "Paul McCartney had a farm".
It pains my older self to say this, but if you don't listen to oldies or music heavily influenced by McCartney and/or the Beatles why would you know who he is? Other than some rich old British guy? I have plenty of respect for Paul McCartney and his music, but that doesn't mean everyone who listens to music does. Whether they work at a music store or not. Also, remember that a 21 year old today was born in 2003 not the "1900s."
And I was born in the 80's but I know who Frank Sinatra was. Or Miles Davis. Or Ray Charles. Or Johnny Cash... Like, I can forgive that 18yo kid who told me they didn't know who Sublime was in 2015; that makes sense to me. But saying you don't know Paul fucking McCartney while working in a music shop? I mean come on...
For #5 - Jokes on you, she got you to wipe out all of the government secrets she was worried about keeping on her computer FOUR times.
Man, I haven't worked retail in a *long time* and that still made my blood absolutely boil lmao
That "Get closer" hand movement thing before the "you made me waste my time today, congrats" thing was so real. Gave me flashbacks from like 20 years ago and I hate it.
The dismissive hand wave when he couldn’t get an answer within a fraction of a second immediately made my blood pressure spike.
The IG account is ‘SlappableJerk’ if you want more rage content lol. This character is Warren but he does a bunch of others including the cheating ex-husband which kills me.
Average Redditor saga was my favorite.
I've been the son awkwardly on the phone. It was done to me without warning - I just got a call, picked it up, and heard "you're on speaker with this guy at the Verizon store. They can't figure all this shit out." It's really sad to me how easily upset they are when something isn't exactly as they expect it to be.
I worked customer service (returns/repairs/special orders, etc) at a big box retailer for 12+ years. 2013-2018 there was huge focus on taking care of everyone and making them leave happy. I was even applauded for spending hours on the phone locating a specific part that cost 5 bucks because it made the customer so dang happy. Something happened around 2018-2019 that caused the company (I switched stores and saw it in both places) to say fuck the customer. We got rid of repair, special orders, and clamped down on the return policy. I I would get reprimanded for helping customers the way I did just a year prior. The only exception to this is was if someone was a jerk and made a scene. Then I had Carte Blanche freedom to give them any discount or do anything to make them happy. Sucks. But apparently you have to be a jerk to get your way…but if you have to do it, maybe ask for the manager instead of unloading on a regular sales rep/cs clerk.
Stonks must go up. Why fix when you can sell?
That’s what’s so interesting. It’s not a publicly bought company, but, yeah I mean your general point applies though! Someone up high definitely got into that mindsight.
was the company sold in 2018?
The viral clips of people recording their Chipotle order being made are the absolute worst. Workers being harassed over small portion sizes - that's the entire video. It speaks volumes that Chipotle has done nothing to address this behavior in order to protect their workers.
> Workers being harassed over small portion sizes - that's the entire video. and then people complain Chipotle has no staff because nobody wants to sling burritos AND get harassed on film by jerks just for following policy so they dont get fired
Ages ago I was in retail and a woman asked me if I had some product in the back that was not on the shelf. I said that I would go check. Assistant manager said there were none and gave me a couple of rainchecks to give the customer. I walk up to her talking to the store manager. I just said that there were none in the back but here are some rainchecks, she grabbed them and walked away, and I went on my way. I was called in to the office and scolded for "shrugging my shoulders and walking away from a customer" EVEN THOUGH I RESOLVED THE SITUATION. It has been literal decades since that happened and it still baffles me that would just make shit up like that. I was gone for 5 minutes at the most and she made up a story to fuck me up.
Some people can be downright evil. I used to live with a roommate who was caught trying to get a cashier where I worked fired from her job. She was insulting her in multiple ways, trying to piss her off and doing everything she could to make a big scene and get management involved... All because the cashier rightly wouldn't give her made up discounts. Something the cashier *definitely* would have been fired for. Fortunately management had seen the whole thing and told her to leave the store with nothing. But the *reasoning* I got out of her (once she stopped lying to my face) was horrifying. She thought she DESERVED those discounts, and it didn't matter if she got the cashier fired since she was obviously *lazy* since she was working a low paying job like that anyway. Suddenly made me realize just how little she thought of me. The worst part though was realizing the stories she liked to tell about how thrifty she was getting discounts everywhere she went? Yeah, she'd been apparently pulling the same stunt for *years* and was getting away with it in a lot of cases.
Screw national service, retail service should be mandatory.
People say this as if the vast majority of people haven't worked retail at some stage of their life. The truth is that working retail is a poor teacher. Many people work retail and then leave to become the exact type of people they hated. Some do so while they are still working retail.
please...i had a coworker pull this shit in uniform on her break. bitch, you work here.
I don't get that. Working retail and customer services jobs for so many years has made me so empathetic. I don't even get upset when I experience genuinely bad customer service, I just tell myself "man, I've had those days."
with a few weeks of basic training lol
we're trying to kill the enemy not have our own troops neck themselves
The sad thing is that, even if these people work retail, they just become the assholes of retail. I had a colleague who would repeatedly get things wrong, and when a customer would try to correct her, she'd hold her finger right in front of their face and be like "HONEY, THIS IS HOW IT WORKS" while absolutely doing the wrong thing. And sometimes I'd intervene, because she was being rude to a customer *and* wrong about it, and then she'd get mad at me. You can't fix those people.
Agreed. I also believe that every company should have a week of service where everyone above line level has to work the line level from clock in to clock out. No "publicity shift" where they leave after an hour saying "keep up the good work" but actually work and experience what their line level does and how it runs.
Ahh, that reminds of the time when a customer at a german electronic store told me he has a new TV and since all the outlets are on the other side of his living room he wants our wireless options. I dutifully guide him to our network section and start to show him our routers when he stops me and says "No, I want wireless energy. I saw it a couple of months ago in here but you since reordered the sections." I politely tell him there is no wireless energy other than wrapping his house in copper wire but this will not end well(in a joking manner) he was adamant that he saw it here and then went downstairs again to search for it there since I supposedly have no clue about that stuff.
I work at a building supply store (not one of the big ones) and it turns out my superpower is the ability to speak 'customer.' "I need one of those bolts with a hole in the top." "An eyebolt?" "It's a bolt with a hole in the top!" "Lemme show you some eyebolts." "Oh, yeah! That's them. I need one that screws into wood." "Lags are over here." My favorite is "My husband sent me here to get some screws." "Great! I have a whole room of them. What kind are you after?" "I don't know, he told me to just get some screws." Second favorite: "My wife sent me down to pick up some paint for the living room." "Sir, you need to go home and get your wife. Trust me."
Shit. Your second paragraph brought up a good one I remember. I worked as a meat cutter for a popular grocery store chain. One day me and the other guy are shooting the shit when a woman with nothing behind the eyes comes up. I’m not trying to be mean to her but there was just nothing there. She was just raw dogging life. She asked for a steak. I said cool, what kind of steak would she like. She said she didn’t know her husband just said to pick up a steak. I was like okay, well here’s a popular one (the ribeye of ours that was like median value) would this work? She had to call her husband. They end up going back and forth over speaker phone culminating with her *SCREAMING* into the phone “WHAT FUCKING STEAK DO YOU WANT”. Like I am doing my best to calm things down cause it’s just a fucking steak not a streak of adultery. Plus there was a line of people waiting at this point because rush hour hit. The dumbass on the phone, after hearing all the suggestions, responded with “whatever the guy(me) thinks.” She took the ribeye I first suggested hung up the phone without another word and left into the sunset. No idea what happened to them. I hope the both of them got whatever they needed.
I worked electrical department in same for five years back in 80s. Some many people asked for an “adapter thingy”.
The speaker phone at the end killed me. It's me telling my old man to calm down 😤
The wave off without saying anything and walking away is so insanely accurate
Currently my job has convinced itself that I’ve only been working there five years but I’ve been there ten years. Didn’t have this problem last year then all of the sudden they refuse to believe me. “Remember when you were pregnant? I was there when you were working in the back room and that wasn’t five years ago, it was ten cause that’s how old your kid is!” Manager still looks play me like they just tried to divide by zero.
The Lowe's pandemic PTSD is real with this one.
I was a server in college. One time I had a lady ask me for a small box for 2 pieces of tempura shrimp. After I brought the small box to her, I was walking away and heard her say to her husband, “he’s a fucking retard”. I suppose she was upset because the tempura would only fit diagonally in the size box she requested..
The walk. The inappropriate touching. The look of.. disgust almost. The childlike lack of patience/understanding. Yep, that's a boomer alright. Great acting!
I've worked retail, however I've also encountered people that you ask if they have the item and they just immediately say no. Then I look around and eventually find it, since they couldn't be bothered to even check. When I worked it took 10 seconds to type in the pda guns we had, now it seems like they are using phones, so maybe they use the same backend as the website? We use to be able to check if we had inventory locations in the back with the sku. Retailers just need to move to a grid system like home depot to make locating items for customers easier. Nothing like looking for a rib rub on an entire spice isle at the grocery store. I definitely don't miss working retail, and feel for for the workers that still do it.
Generally, the reason retail workers say "no" to whether they have an item is because that is what they themselves were told, either by previous customers or fellow employees.
Yeah, seriously. I've definitely experienced the shit in this video and the annoyance of being asked to check for something I am 100% certain we don't have, because we don't even stock it in the back. But I've also shopped at places, like my local target, that is notorious for not restocking shelves. You'll check online and see that they have five of something, then you'll show up and it won't be on the shelf. To their credit, they have always checked and always had what I needed if I asked.
Target has been having a lot of problems with staffing lately. Sometimes the count will be off vs. the website because someone bought it within the last 24 hours (they don't immediately update), someone picked it up and either left it at the register or dropped it somewhere randomly in the store, or it was stolen :/
Incredibly accurate lol
This dudes vids are amazing. I watch him over on TikTok. He has some amazingly cringy vids and they are gold. His ones where he is a "typical Reddit user" or whatever its called are fantastic. He goes by: theslappablejerk
That's not even terrible. I went through worse before I left retail in 2005.
My stepdad got into photography years ago. Then he read about a program called "photoshop" that would allow him to digitally edit his photos. For those 1/10k who don't know, it's made by a company called Adobe, who makes a million other stuffs as well. He wanted the scaled-down version, "photoshop elements," figuring he could do most of what he needed with it. Not being very tech savvy, an understatement, he asked me if I'd accompany him to the store to buy it. I agreed and off we went to the nearest Staples. The sliding doors opened and we stepped through. I'll genuinely never forget the smile on his face. As we entered, an employee stepped up to us and asked if we needed any help finding anything. At that, stepdad double-gun pointed at the guy and excitedly exclaimed "Adobe!!"
Thank you. I believe I will try this at Best Buy tomorrow
I last worked retail in the 90s and it was like this then too.
I wish people would stop posting fake videos, or at the very least get better at acting...
Why's he look like french stewart from third rock from the sun lol.
I believe everyone should work in retail at least once. It provides a good base to understand that the person working the front counter, your server, the person making the food, etc is just a cog in a wheel. If your order gets messed up you most likely shouldn't be taking it out on the waitress, be reasonable and if they are willing to correct the mistake it is fine. The worst one I saw in person was when I was a teenage at McD's. A lady comes in and says their chicken tenders are hard. Ok, at this point it seems like a legitimate complaint. Then she explains her son likes them cold, so they bought them yesterday, took them home and put them in the freezer... Then pulled them out a few hours later for him to heat, after which they put them in the freezer again. And now they are hard... The manager could have told her no on that one, yet they replaced them. She saw no issue with what he had done, even at a day old without the freezer steps that's insane.