Because I feel snarky
Nov. 19th, 2013 02:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
becomingkateInspired by: http://rocksteadyash.tumblr.com/post/12403420976/what-retail-employees-want-you-to-know
What shoppers want retail workers to know
We know you hate your job. But it is your job. We also don't want to hear how much you hate your job while you are clocked in at said job. Save it for your friends and family and pets when you get home. It's not cool to be walking around with my young child and hear choice language on how much your job sucks.
It is your job to make the displays look nice. I'm sorry I can't board fold without a board or that by the time I realized I picked up the wrong size socks, I was in the home goods section so I put them on the shelf. If I brought them all the way to checkout, you'd still have to put them away. You get paid to put it back. I don't. I'm also sorry you only put trash cans at the entrance of your store. While I was trying to board fold that sweater for you, I had to put down my coffee and I forgot to pick it up again.
When you ask how I am, why is it so hard to answer when I reply "Good, how are you?" Since when do I have to answer you, but you don't have to answer me? Also, don't be that employee who actually bitches to my face about his job when I ask him how he is. That will pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to ask you how you are anymore.
Re: returning items in stores where you bought them. So when I go to a random trip to my mother's house and I happen to buy something at the Target there, you want me to trek up there and bring it back when there's a Target around the corner from me? Got it. Not likely though.
Re: me picking up my phone when I'm in line, I'm sorry it makes YOU feel awkward, but maybe I've just gotten a call from my son's school, or a family member in need. Maybe I can multitask paying and talking at the same time and it doesn't really matter if I want to talk about how so and so is a whore, because I'm not the face of the company, but you are, and you still think it's okay to talk about the badass fuckin' party you had the other night or how you're so fuckin' hung over when I'm walking by with my 7 year old son.
Re: kids. I'm not a neglectful mom. The best mom will probably lose her kid in a store at least once, and suffer the wrath of some poor employee who had to do their job, unless she puts him on one of those leashes, and then she deals with disapproving looks because she has a human being on a leash. Moms really can't win. My son has run off twice. It's not that I'm not trying or that my kid is reckless. It just happens. I'm so sorry you have to deal with finding a lost kid but at least you didn't have to deal with the panic of it being YOUR kid.
Re: finding items that are hand written instead of visuals. Really? You don't know where you keep your brown belts, but if you had a picture, that would help?
Lastly, here's the thing with receipts: They're easily lost. When you hand it to me instead of putting it in the bag, it goes into the recesses of my purse which is quite small but apparently bottomless, because I'll never find that thing again. Here's another thing. Your website says if I bring in the card with which I made the purchase, you can do my return. You'd just rather not look it up.
Retail employee, get over yourself.
What shoppers want retail workers to know
We know you hate your job. But it is your job. We also don't want to hear how much you hate your job while you are clocked in at said job. Save it for your friends and family and pets when you get home. It's not cool to be walking around with my young child and hear choice language on how much your job sucks.
It is your job to make the displays look nice. I'm sorry I can't board fold without a board or that by the time I realized I picked up the wrong size socks, I was in the home goods section so I put them on the shelf. If I brought them all the way to checkout, you'd still have to put them away. You get paid to put it back. I don't. I'm also sorry you only put trash cans at the entrance of your store. While I was trying to board fold that sweater for you, I had to put down my coffee and I forgot to pick it up again.
When you ask how I am, why is it so hard to answer when I reply "Good, how are you?" Since when do I have to answer you, but you don't have to answer me? Also, don't be that employee who actually bitches to my face about his job when I ask him how he is. That will pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to ask you how you are anymore.
Re: returning items in stores where you bought them. So when I go to a random trip to my mother's house and I happen to buy something at the Target there, you want me to trek up there and bring it back when there's a Target around the corner from me? Got it. Not likely though.
Re: me picking up my phone when I'm in line, I'm sorry it makes YOU feel awkward, but maybe I've just gotten a call from my son's school, or a family member in need. Maybe I can multitask paying and talking at the same time and it doesn't really matter if I want to talk about how so and so is a whore, because I'm not the face of the company, but you are, and you still think it's okay to talk about the badass fuckin' party you had the other night or how you're so fuckin' hung over when I'm walking by with my 7 year old son.
Re: kids. I'm not a neglectful mom. The best mom will probably lose her kid in a store at least once, and suffer the wrath of some poor employee who had to do their job, unless she puts him on one of those leashes, and then she deals with disapproving looks because she has a human being on a leash. Moms really can't win. My son has run off twice. It's not that I'm not trying or that my kid is reckless. It just happens. I'm so sorry you have to deal with finding a lost kid but at least you didn't have to deal with the panic of it being YOUR kid.
Re: finding items that are hand written instead of visuals. Really? You don't know where you keep your brown belts, but if you had a picture, that would help?
Lastly, here's the thing with receipts: They're easily lost. When you hand it to me instead of putting it in the bag, it goes into the recesses of my purse which is quite small but apparently bottomless, because I'll never find that thing again. Here's another thing. Your website says if I bring in the card with which I made the purchase, you can do my return. You'd just rather not look it up.
Retail employee, get over yourself.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 10:41 pm (UTC)The big one is the phone thing, no, most people can't multitask on the phone. A few folks have done phone conversation + checking out in ways that weren't horrifically rude and a trial for me, but uh, it was rare enough that I learned to cringe when people came to my register on a phone or got a call while I was checking them out. They have an entire conversation and tune me out while I ring up their purchase and then have a fit because I didn't read their mind and give them the right bag or run their credit card as debit or because I'm waiting for a response from them on something but they're ignoring me. I get it that sometimes one really has to take a call, but seriously is it so hard to say "listen, I'm in line at the grocery store, hang on just one moment okay?" and give me the two seconds it takes to ask any relevant questions and get them out the door?
It's not a requirement to have small talk with me and I totally understand if it's an emergency or an important business call or something, but I do care if my whole line is getting held up because I'm trying to get their attention and instead of telling the person on the other end to hold for one second, they're giving me the "hang on" signal while they have a conversation that keeps stretching on and I've got an increasingly angry line behind them. Take the call if you have to, but either tell them you'll call back in a minute once you find out it's not an emergency, or at least put whoever the it is on hold for two seconds if the person has a question. These people get pissy if I didn't just KNOW they wanted paper, or two bags instead of one, or they didn't realize they need to push a button or sign their name and then are pissed that I'm not done yet when there's something they need to do and they won't let me tell them so.
I've never minded phone conversationalists who will pause and put their hand over the receiver to give me a quick hi, respond if I need to know something, pay attention to what they have to do to pay, and then maybe throw me a wave while they leave, but people who don't even look at me because they're on the phone? That's rude and dehumanizing. I'm not a robot servant, y'know? They could acknowledge me. Just because it's my job and I'm expected to be polite doesn't mean I'm reduced from human to meaningless automaton. All too many people think "retail or service worker" means "idiot slave unworthy of notice whose job is to cater to my moods and needs without complaint regardless of how I behave." And people wonder why we hate the job? So yeah, I super get that one. I am betting you fall into the "not a jerk on the phone" category, so at least in my book, you get a pass, but having known those others, no, I totally see why people say PUT IT AWAY in lists of things they wish customers wouldn't do.
The other one that not a lot of people realize/ think about is the "leaving stuff in the wrong area/ leaving garbage around" thing... there are situations in which this is not a problem (and people do drop or forget some piece of litter from time to time, that's understandable), but in terms of grocery items, a lot of loss happens this way-- you can't just put something back in the fridge or freezer section that you found behind the baby booties, it might have thawed and become dangerous to consume. That wastes food and drives up costs, and might contaminate other areas with germs. In terms of non-perishable items, it's mostly no big deal... until someone's looking for the last of something that the computer swears you have but you can't find anywhere for this person, or you get the jokers who are either embarrassed or think they're hilarious and hide the item behind other things instead of putting it where it can be easily seen so it can be returned to the right section. When you can, it really is better to either take it with you to the register and hand it back there, or find a passing employee and hand it off to them. If you can't do that and you're pressed for time, leave it somewhere it's easy to see, or we might never find it! That becomes loss too sometimes. If someone can't find it, it has to get entered in the computer as missing, so unless it does turn up later it is counted as loss. When it's a perishable though, oh man, never leave it somewhere else, I guarantee it won't get discovered until it's stinking up the place and maybe ruined something else.
I get it about the coffee, people do just forget sometimes-- it's only horrible when someone didn't see it and bumps into it and ends up spilling it all over the shelf and ruining a bunch of merchandise. Sometimes life happens and I get that, but you can't help wonder how many people just went, "eh, I'm done with this... hm, I'll leave it here, it's their job to clean the place right?" Yeah but we have a lot of other tasks too, and definitely can't read people's minds that they left something behind, or spot abandoned sodas before they spill in all cases.
Don't get me wrong, retail workers can really be shit sometimes, there's not a profession that's exempt from that, and perhaps especially in retail where you end up with people who are just there because they need the work you end up with total lemons. But there are things about the job that just, woo, yeah, it'd be so nice if the general public would understand that for the most part we're not out to be all rude and horrible and ruin your day, a lot of the time, there's just some weird crap about how retail works that means a little patience goes a long way to making this not suck for both of us.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 11:59 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, I understand if it's a food safety issue or other health issue (diapers, yuck) but like, someone leaving something non-perishable in the wrong department, or even a coffee cup, not a big deal. Unless someone doesn't notice and it spills or spoils, then yes, gross. But I've read a lot of things that seem to indicate that a lot of retail and restaurant workers think they're the shit and above their job and all that. And maybe some of them are, in this economy where people have to work jobs they're overqualified for. But not all! I mostly see people who act like they're paid to stand around and not help anyone who's obviously wandering the aisles looking confused.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 04:10 pm (UTC)