Retail definitely taught me to be a friendlier person. I worked at a Gap on Long Island during the holidays for two years - your won't meet ruder people.

Like GammaPhi88, I had a Dwight Schrute boss - two, actually. Most of our managers were really cool, but our store manager and one of the other managers lived and breathed Gap. It was grating.

On the other hand, I'll complain all day about the sickening "corporateness" of working for Gao, but I can't deny that the employee discount was fantastic.

Well, I've never worked retail or anything like that but, I'm never rude to someone who is working retail. I mean, I wouldn't want anyone to be rude to me if I did work retail.

I was driven crazy by the "corporateness" at Justice, too. (Owned by The Limited...basically a Limited Too for even younger girls with slightly cheaper items and a lot more Hannah Montana and High School Musical).

I learned every song stupid Miley Cyrus ever sang (at that time...pre skank phase) and every HSM song. I hate musicals. They'd tell us at the beginning of the day (I always opened) what items to push and it was almost always in one of those two categories, which meant to sell well I had to be able to talk about them. Gag.

I DID get into one fantastic conversation with a 6 year old about Harry Potter one day, though. :) I'm really not that great with kids, but this one liked me for some reason and followed me around talking about Harry Potter. Her grandfather was shopping for her and her sister and was very nice, offering to make her sit with him and let me work but this was the one time I didn't mind babysitting, so I let her tag along and we talked HP while I folded clothes. (I also thanked the grandad for being so nice and responsible since most of the Hoover moms...which made up the majority of our shoppers...let their children throw things, grab stuff off of the tables and leave it, etc. while mom word vomits into her cell about how her tacky three inch nails weren't done exactly to her specifications...shudder.)

I wish more people were like this. I think that sometimes people don't often think that common courtesy extends to minimum wage workers while they're in service mode.

On the note of lack of courtesy, a customer yelled at me today and called me a horrible employee because her coupon wouldn't discount an electric when the coupon clearly said "EXCLUDES ELECTRICS/ELECTRONICS" in big letters. She said I should "be ashamed" of my "poor performance and stupidity." So apparently the measure of an employee's intelligence is based on customers ignoring or not reading noted exclusions.

Our computers were also down so we couldn't check our system for anything... I did get to work an extra hour because our lines were horrendous, though. I'm trying to decide if I'm happy or upset about that. I got paid more, but I had to deal with the inappropriate insult to my intelligence that wouldn't have happened if I was off on time. Rather me than someone else, I guess.

Yep. It's just that a lot of people think because someone works a retail job that they can mistreat them. How would that customer like it if someone talked to them like that? I wouldn't like it if someone treated me that way so, I'm not going to treat others that way.

I also believe in Karma, so that customer who was rude to you will get it back. Don't let anyone make you feel that way, because you're not. Funny thing is you're probably more educated and intelligent than most of the morons who think they can insult your intelligence. Just say okay and ignore them. Getting into any discussions with assholes and rude people isn't worth it.

As I said in my earlier post-I have never worked retail but a lot of what I do is similar and same will go for cheerfulgreek if she enters private practice. People are just as nasty and rude. Didn't know this was an exclusive thread:rolleyes: BTW I am not trying to be a b&^ch.

lol
I love you! :p:p:p

I've worked in both retail and food service and honestly, my retail experience hasn't been that bad. I was hired in as holiday help for Winter 2009 and ended up staying on in a limited capacity through the year up to the present. My coworkers and managers are pretty much all really fantastic (except one manager who just doesn't like me...I don't know why. I think shes always kinda bitchy to everyone, but just kicks it up a notch for me. Even so, I like her wayyyyyyy better than some of my coworkers at my food service job.). I always ask a ton of questions and they are always patient with me. I don't even have any customer horror stories that come to mind. It may have to do with the location I'm at; we are in a smaller, 'upper class' (not really) mall so maybe we just have the right type of people who shop with us. I guess I've just been fortunate with my retail experiences...Although its been more than made up for on the food service side.

SantaClaus, your signature creeps me out.

That's how I always figure it to. I hate people being rude to me, so why be rude to them? They're just doing their job. Although I had an experience with rude employees at a chain store today when I wasn't rude to them at all. It's just not my day in the retail world, apparently, haha...

I apologized, but otherwise there's not much I can do. She huffed out without buying anything, so I just kind of dropped it and went to help the other thirty people in line. It's frustrating, but I pretty much just roll with the punches. :)

You have a really positive attitude, and that will really take you far in life. There's always something positive in almost everything negative. You deal with hundreds of people at work, I'm sure, each of them with different personalities, and I'd say after doing it for some time, you'll be able to relate to pretty much anyone. As aggieAXO said, I see people like that all the time. There are clients who will argue with me based on erroneous information they picked up from the internet, and there are some who will expect me to pull a miracle from the sky with the costs. Meaning, they'll ask how much everything is going to cost and then when I tell them, they'll say they don't want to pay for all of the tests that need to be done in order to find out what's wrong with the patient. Then they'll say, "So why can't you tell me what's wrong with her/him?!" I can only make an observation or a guess without tests that they freak out about when they see the cost. "Well, you're just a student, I want to see the Dr." Funny thing is the Dr. tells them the same exact thing. It's annoying, but it helps me to know how and what to say to certain clients.

Sorry so long, but keep the positive attitude you have, you'll go far with it. And thanks for sharing.:)

-I know Bitches are nasty: I've found a used (read bloody) tampon on the floor of a dressing room.

-Mother's think they rule the world: Sorry if it offends some of you, but that is YOUR offspring, it is not my responsibility to watch, patrol, comfort, or soothe your child because you're trying to be cute. And shut that snot rag up, if you're child is screaming at the top of their lungs, you need to get off the phone, leave the dressing room/store and calm them down. Neither I, or the rest of the customers, want to hear that shit.

-You give what you get. I don't give a rats about the company policy, you pop off at the mouth with me, you'll get ignored at best, at worst you'll get it back and then some.

-My life does not revolve around this damn store. If this is my second job and I need Saturday off because of a family engagement, then so be it. As a manager YOU chose to do retail full time, not moi.

lol lol
Hilarious!!! :p:p

Have you guys seen notalwaysright.com? It's about how the customer is NOT always right. Some pretty funny stories of dumb people.

I love that site!

I just always have thought it was wrong for a lot of the retail stores to make as much money as they make, pay minimum wage, and then expect more than the maximum out of their employees. I dunno. It's just that what I'm saying kind of ties into what Ch2tf was saying. Like, when I go grocery shopping, I see them bending over backwards for some of these places, but yet they're not even getting paid enough money to make a decent living. Then, it kills me when I see these companies making up silly job title names. And this has nothing against people working retail, it's all against some of the retail companies. Some were even open on Thanksgiving. For crying out loud, give them the day off. This is why I never worked retail, and thank God I never had to, and hopefully I never will. If I did, I really wouldn't care if I had to leave without a notice. I remember I posted that I didn't think there was an excuse for people to be unemployed. I thought why can't they just get a job and a fast food place until they can get back on their feet. It really shocked me when I was told on that same thread about how McDonalds and other fast food restaurants don't want to hire people with advanced degrees because they know they're probably unemployed and will leave when they find something else. Seriously??? And I'm not even going to get started on Walmart.:rolleyes:

For those of you who work retail, I have a lot of respect for you, because I don't see how you do it. What they pay vs what they have some of you doing, is borderline slave labor. Seriously.

I'll be honest, I worked retail management, because it paid more than what my degree jobs paid. I would have needed a Masters Degree to make the same amount in my field.

When I worked retail, over a third of the employees there had a bachelor's in psychology but couldn't afford to go to grad school. Not much you can do with just the bachelor's.

Theres alot you can do with just a bachelors, it might not pay as much as an MBA.

Not with a degree in psychology (as advanced degrees [not likely an MBA] and licenses are necessary before you can practice).

I'm not sure if movie theaters count as retail, but after working there, I will NEVER leave food on the floor of a movie theater. Yes, it's my job to clean the theaters, but I will never understand people who put their (mostly full) popcorn bags on the floor, rather than carrying them out with them to the trashcan outside the theater. Dropped popcorn and other items is understandable. It's a movie theater, it's dark, you want to watch the movie. I don't like searching around under the seats for my empty box of Milk Duds, either.
But to leave ALL of your food on the floor after you leave will never make sense to me.

I Work(ed) in Retail, and Now I Understand...

to used the dividers at the checkout lane...the cashier DO NOT know where one customer's stuff ends and the next customer's items begins...

I was a cashier at Target and that was my BIGGEST pet peeve.

!!!! @ the bold

I was at Target YESTERDAY, I was in the express lane. I had A shirt (single, just one lol). The lady infront of me had 36 items (Yes I counted). So I didnt put my single shirt up there because there was no room. And I kid you not as soon as the conveyer (spell check) moved up an inch the woman behind me started throwing her 22 items up on the thing. She used a divider. Well I just held on to my shirt and when I got up to the cashier, She asked me if that was all mine and I said no just the shirt. She gave me a rude "okay and.." and a look. I looked at her and said well if would have had room behind AND infront of me i would have put my ONE shirt in THE EXPRESS LANE conveyer...

oops.

I will tell you, as a former cashier who worked Express Checkout lanes quite a bit, we weren't allowed to say anything to someone who went over 15 items - we just had to ring them up and get them out of there.

But I remember a lady who had a ton of stuff, and as she was leaving, the woman behind her said, "Which is it, honey? You can't read or you can't count?"

That made me so very happy.

Not sure how I missed this the first time around, but thanks to a few posts on here, I now officially feel doomed about my B.A. in psychology with a minor in English. Grad school, here I come!! :D

Yup Psychology Bachelor here as well... and working on my Masters'

Bump!

So I will probably repeat some, I skimmed most of the pages but will probably miss a few:

People are really trusting of others with their children. A lady full on handed me her infant when she went into a dressing room.

Normally we gave women with children (mainly those with strollers) the larger handicap room. Instead this women left her sleeping kid outside of it with no one watching.

Some people really don't watch their children/don't care that they just tore down posters from the ceilings/messed up three stacks of folded clothing/almost got smashed by a mannequin. Literally saved a child from a falling mannequin because he pushed a leg after I had warned both the father and the kid about it.

People steal a ridiculous amount of things. There is nothing quite like closing and finding sensors hidden all over or working in the dressing room and finding a ton too.

People cannot read. Be it how to use a coupon (no you can't combine them, it says so on the coupon and not in small writing.) or what sizes are.

Many sales people don't know what sales are going on because they change so frequently and managers will sometimes forget to tell all of them. Also they may not know that this one shirt in a large store happened to have a sign above it saying there was a sale on it while the computer disagrees.

Computers/cash registers suck and mess up a lot. The sales person is not necessarily the person at fault.

Present the coupons before actually paying. If you have done everything and then go OH I have a coupon, the transaction will be voided.

Try to be ready at the cash register. There is nothing quite like "oh I love that shirt I'm going to try it on while you ring all of this up!" and there is a huge line. Somehow, trying on one shirt always seems to take forever.

If we offer you other things to try on, it may be because the we are required to and wouldn't push it on you. That also may be why some items in your dressing room are not things you picked out.

The return policy can't be changed. Seriously. I can't make exceptions. After 90 days your stuck with it, even if you are from BFE and couldn't make it in.**

**story: A woman came in about ten minutes before closing with a return. Thats fine whatever. She went to go find things to buy/exchange. Also fine. Until you realize that she doesn't have receipts and her transaction isn't in the system. Also since these items are old, most of them are on clearance so she will get little in return. She gets back from finding things for me to tell her the bad news. She is understanding about it. Manager gets involved and is talking to her. I am told to continue checking her out since she had about 8 transactions. The last one is about 6 months out while we only have a 90 day return policy. She then gets huffy and asks me to make an exception. She lives four hours away and couldn't make it in. Ignore the fact that she skipped two other locations to get to my store. Also ignore that her other transactions were made after the out-of-date one. She throws a hissy fit and everyone in the store, customers, managers, and myself, are all "low class bitches who are stealing her hard earned money!"


There are so many stories... Ugh.

I will always resize things as i go through stores. If I am going through trying to find my size and things are obviously out of order, I can just as easily resize things. Oh also, I may not put things back exactly right (folding, hanging etc as stores are specific) I will turn it right side out and buttoned. I never understood why people would hang thing inside out.

1. I always pick up after myself in the dressing room. That was one of my least favorite parts of working retail.
2. I never trash the sweater table. I know how much work it is to size and fold those!

Re: children in stores. Craziest thing I've ever witnessed in a retail store regarding a kid:

I was in H&M once and saw a kid who looked to be about 4 (not very old but old enough to understand when you say "don't touch.")

There was a large like 3 foot glass vase thing with bracelets in it. The bracelets in it were plastic and it was just light enough to move when the kid started pushing it. The kid was pushing it toward the edge of the table. Mom was too busy looking at stuff to pay attention.

An employee told him to please stop because it will fall. Then she walked away. Kid keeps doing it. Mom sees, tells him to stop, then turns her back to keep shopping. He continues.

He knocks it over and it shatters, spilling bracelets everywhere.

What does mom do? Laugh. Not say "I'm so sorry!" Not tell her son that that was not a safe thing to do. Laugh.

The manager and another came to try and clean it up. Mom got really mad when they told her something like "ma'am can you please move so we can clean this up?" and ushered her son out of the way so he wouldn't step in it. She left the store in a huff saying that they were rude and inconsiderate because her "son could've gotten hurt" and she would have sued them.

Um, how would that have been the store's fault?

Kid story: One day at B&N, a kid "went missing." The manager attempted to call it overheard but the mom was running around the store screaming "BOOOOOBBBBBYYYY" so loudly that that no one could get her to describe what he was wearing. We asked her repeatedly if she checked the children's area where the toys are but she would not. stop. screaming. Finally, the manager got her to hold still and tried to tell her kids usually walk off to the toys but she said "NONONO HE WOULDN'T GOT THERE, THAT'S NOT WHERE I LEFT HIM, BOBBBBYYYY!!!" So I walked to the children's area where the toys are, said "Bobby?" and the kid looks up from the trains and says "What?" I took him by the hand and led him to the friont where his mom was now running around outside screaming his name at the people walking by. I give the kid to his mom and she bends down, she sobs into his chest, then explodes at all of us for not finding him fast enough. :rolleyes:

I'm just going to leave this here...

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/co...me_grievances/

Retail is the devil. That is all.

I love you for this.

Just got back from a retail shift! Never before have I hated the holidays so much. Nah, I'm just kidding.

There's this one kid who keeps coming in and apparently has a serious problem with me because I laughed at one of his dad's jokes during a transaction months ago. Whenever he comes in, he will ask for me, and if I'm working when he's there the first words out of his mouth when he sees me are, "My dad is not funny. You shouldn't laugh at his jokes." And then he goes on to tell me that I'm not as cool as one of my coworkers.

When I'm not there he tells my coworkers to remind me that his dad is not funny the next time they see me.

Anyway - ever since I started working, oh man I have not been able to leave a shelf disorganized. Be it a bookshelf, a video game shelf, any kind of shelf - if things are out of order or just lying around, I can't leave them alone. It's gotten to the point that I'll come in to check my schedule for the next week and will end up staying for an hour fixing the walls until my boss goes, "Callais, you're off the clock, stop doing that."

I've also become a lot more conscious of whether or not I'm returning things to the right place when I decide not to buy them.

And can I just say, it's super embarrassing to say "Thank you and have a nice day!" when I'm a customer in another store? :p

Thank you for that link. After this story, I had to go take my shower and come back because I knew I'd be here for awhile.

This person isn't even on GC and they STILL trump all of us. :eek:

!!! I just found this old thread. These customers are as bad as the tourists at theme parks.