Hey, quick question for any fellow retail monkeys here, don't derail the thread over it. What do you do when a customer wants help from you while you're in the middle of something else? Not in an asshole-ish way, this is Canada after all. What I'm talking about is if, for example, I'm called to head to a particular aisle to help someone (I'm usually the guy with the lockup keys), that involves me crossing the store, or I need to go into the back to get an item, once again involving me crossing the store, and during this trip, another customer asks me for help. See, sometimes I help them, and in the worst of times, this starts a chain going where I have like 5 tasks to do, and the original person just leaves, other times I try and tell them I'm busy, but I end up feeling like a jerk. So, no debating, just an opinion. What's the polite thing?
My take? "I'll be with you in a minute, just let me do this one thing first".
Of course, I've never worked in a place where you have to set a date with the second customer in terms of aisles and sections, so your guy might feel a bit more abandoned if after that line you disappear into a maze of corn flakes and microwaveable meals.
This. "I'll be right with you, I'm already waiting on a customer" is usually enough. If the customer gets offended, they are a cock.
I third this.
If they think they're more important that whatever business you're already engaged in then they wouldn't have been any fun to deal with anyways. so good riddance.
Hey, quick question for any fellow retail monkeys here, don't derail the thread over it. What do you do when a customer wants help from you while you're in the middle of something else? Not in an asshole-ish way, this is Canada after all. What I'm talking about is if, for example, I'm called to head to a particular aisle to help someone (I'm usually the guy with the lockup keys), that involves me crossing the store, or I need to go into the back to get an item, once again involving me crossing the store, and during this trip, another customer asks me for help. See, sometimes I help them, and in the worst of times, this starts a chain going where I have like 5 tasks to do, and the original person just leaves, other times I try and tell them I'm busy, but I end up feeling like a jerk. So, no debating, just an opinion. What's the polite thing?
My take? "I'll be with you in a minute, just let me do this one thing first".
Of course, I've never worked in a place where you have to set a date with the second customer in terms of aisles and sections, so your guy might feel a bit more abandoned if after that line you disappear into a maze of corn flakes and microwaveable meals.
This. "I'll be right with you, I'm already waiting on a customer" is usually enough. If the customer gets offended, they are a cock.
I third this.
If they think they're more important that whatever business you're already engaged in then they wouldn't have been any fun to deal with anyways. so good riddance.
Fourthed. Customers will be helped in the order they asked for help. As a customer, expecting anything else is being a gigantic dildo, no ifs, no buts.
I work as a manager/stockboy/shipping & receiving monkey at a local wholesales store - in other terms I play my DS for most of the day - but it godamn irks me how stupid some people can be. Mainly I'm talking about customers.
Generally when I go shopping, I get into the store, have a list of all the shit I need to buy ready, go get the shit and get the hell out. Why is it that some people just decide to wander around looking like they're lost? And it's not 'wander around looking at the different products', its 'wander around durrdurrdurr look pretty colours'.
What the fuck.
Or another example, I was coming out of the receiving section in the back while a giant cart stocked with product and the way to get out is like a T intersection, go straight, go right into the chips/drinks/paper towels section or go left into the milk/dairy section. An older couple moves out of the the way to let me by, when suddenly some stupid bitch comes out from the left, looks at me, stops her cart in the middle of the fucking path and starts looking at the paper towels.
Jesus godamn christ, I wish I could beat people like this to death with...fuck, something that hurts a whole awful lot. In the first week working there I rammed some stupid gawker with a shopping cart because he wouldn't get the hell out of my way.
And then theres the fat people, always asking 'hurrhurrhurr this bread says its 100 calories, I thought it was 50' - I don't give a fuck, does it look I care? I actually had some guy come up to me and tell me that the taco shells where a horrible product because they kept crumbling. Maybe if you fucking but a damp cloth or paper towel on them before you heat them up, they won't crumble assface.
TL;DR - my job makes me angry and fat/old/slow people make me angrier.
I would not work in any kind of sales position with out a commission. Hell, i find it hard enough to be bothered pushing extended warranties/dealing with retards/caring when I'm on 20% + kickbacks. The best thing about kickbacks is that they come in voucher form, so you just don't claim them when tax time comes around
Want to give your customers good service and get things sold? Put your motherfucking sales people on a low hourly wage and a high commission, instead of just the low hourly wage.
When I'm dealing with someone else i just state so... The worst are the people who just assume that because I'm at my desk, with out someone sitting infront of me, i must be free, then just won't accept that I'd like to finish what I'm doing before i move onto them.
I would not work in any kind of sales position with out a commission. Hell, i find it hard enough to be bothered pushing extended warranties/dealing with retards/caring when I'm on 20% + kickbacks. The best thing about kickbacks is that they come in voucher form, so you just don't claim them when tax time comes around
Want to give your customers good service and get things sold? Put your motherfucking sales people on a low hourly wage and a high commission, instead of just the low hourly wage.
When I'm dealing with someone else i just state so... The worst are the people who just assume that because I'm at my desk, with out someone sitting infront of me, i must be free, then just won't accept that I'd like to finish what I'm doing before i move onto them.
See, it's the opposite for me. I couldn't work on commission, I just hate the entire principle of the thing. I want to give customers the very best products for their needs. If they're good people (and not assholes), I want them to leave the store 100% satisfied. I think that commission skews the employee's speech to the customers and I'm not having it. This said, I don't really mind ripping off assholes, because they're assholes and if someone deserves their money, it's anyone but them.
Djiem on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
Speaking of asshole/gigantic dildo/cock customers, we had a lot of them today.
I visit another one of our stores frequently during the winter. Because they're in a ski resort town, they are dead for 9 months of the year, and then fucking crazy the other 3 months. It seems they have a higher-than-average percentage of entitlement assholes there, though.
We had one guy who may have been 21 try to buy beer, but had no ID. We said no, and the much older man with him tried to buy it for him. We also said no. Now don't forget, this guy made no mention of it being his son, brother, or anything else.. just that he'd buy it. So we, as the law allows and requires, told him no. And he threw a fit! "This is bullshit that you won't sell me alcohol! I want to speak to your manager right now!"
Now, I'm not technically that checkout's manager, but I am a checkout manager, so I came to help. The conversation with him ended at "I don't really care what you think about our policy, the police will always side with the merchant" as I picked up the phone.
Another prick was trying to pay with a money order. We don't do this. We only cash money orders that we print. Even if another one of our stores prints the money order, we won't cash it for you. But this guy, again, threw a fit, and uttered some bullshit that "you'd take my bad check, but not a money order that's guaranteed?"
Now, if you know anything about money orders, you know they're not guaranteed, and they are extremely easy to forge. He walked out, and as he was leaving, said "I hope the fish doesn't go bad. I sneezed on it!" He wasn't amused when I said "that's ok, I already keyed your car in response."
I would not work in any kind of sales position with out a commission. Hell, i find it hard enough to be bothered pushing extended warranties/dealing with retards/caring when I'm on 20% + kickbacks. The best thing about kickbacks is that they come in voucher form, so you just don't claim them when tax time comes around
Want to give your customers good service and get things sold? Put your motherfucking sales people on a low hourly wage and a high commission, instead of just the low hourly wage.
When I'm dealing with someone else i just state so... The worst are the people who just assume that because I'm at my desk, with out someone sitting infront of me, i must be free, then just won't accept that I'd like to finish what I'm doing before i move onto them.
See, it's the opposite for me. I couldn't work on commission, I just hate the entire principle of the thing. I want to give customers the very best products for their needs. If they're good people (and not assholes), I want them to leave the store 100% satisfied. I think that commission skews the employee's speech to the customers and I'm not having it. This said, I don't really mind ripping off assholes, because they're assholes and if someone deserves their money, it's anyone but them.
I actually find that i end up making the most money when i balance the shark and actual help. I just run on a needs satisfaction strategy, granted i can bend nearly any of my products to suit nearly any need (Just using the system as an internet access point? Of course you need a quad core!), but I don't. With out commission there i couldn't see myself caring.
The really sharky guys i work with make less money, because they end up spending most of their day dealing with angry people they have ripped off.
I work at Hollister. I can't decide if I hate my job or love it. On one hand I have to deal with jerk customers who hate me just because I work in a dark, loud environment. That and I get paid minimum wage($7.65.) On the other, hours are so flexible I believe the store does yoga and I basically shit around all day hanging out with a bunch of hotties. Oh, and my bosses are awesome.
But today was filled with absolute goonies:
-Big black lady comes up to the register and I ring her clothes up and everything. Ask for the money and SHE REACHES INTO HER BIG 'OL BOOBIES to pull out a wad of cash. It was grosssssss.
-Lady who knew exactly 3 words of English tries to do a return/exchange of clothes. I spend 4 minutes trying to figure out which of the old clothes she wants to return because apparently she doesn't want to return all of them-- just some of them. The words "new," "ok," and "yes" were all she said. Why she had to bring all of the old clothes to confuse me I dont know.
-Whenever we ring someone up we have to say a tagline. As of now our tagline is basically promoting a new underwear store called "Gilly Hicks." We say a bunch of jargon and hand the customer this tiny little book with a bunch of people in underwear/naked in front of branches and whatnot. So I do the speech and hand the booklet to this mom. She goes absolutley ape-shit at me saying how I should stop handing out porn booklets. She even threw a "God would punish you" at me. My coworkers and I nearly cried after laughing so hard when she left. It was glorious.
Oh, and just to let you know; if you're ever in a Hollister, 9/10 times when you ask us to check in the back for an items' availability we'll probably just lie to you and say we dont have it. What we really do is go into the stockroom and just chat it up with the stockers and possibly mow down on some food they got back there. We're hungry.
-Big black lady comes up to the register and I ring her clothes up and everything. Ask for the money and SHE REACHES INTO HER BIG 'OL BOOBIES to pull out a wad of cash. It was grosssssss.
I hate when people give you wet money, but there's no reason for it to be wet. Like it's in there wallet and it's not raining or anything, but it's wet. What the hell?
Anyway, interesting story for the day. I'm an obnoxious asshole, so yesterday I came up with a great plan. Our Wii demo unit still has Super Mario Galaxy in it. I would position Mario to jump on to one of the Lumas and carefully shifted him around so he would bounce on the little star forever while making his jumping sounds. Just to bother my boss and the customers in the store.
Every now and again, someone would move Mario off and I would have to reposition him. Later on while Mario is bouncing, me and my boss are helping customers. A guy walks in from outside(strip mall store) moves Mario off the star and immediately leaves. The Wii is right inside the door so he only had to take a few steps in.
My customer watched him do it and says "That was weird."
So I'm supposing that minimum wage is ALL OVER THE PLACE across the U.S. but I didn't realize it was that different. Minimum wage in Kentucky is $5.15. Although I like how my job handles pay as it is 100 percent dependent on how well you are doing your job. I handle health insurance and child care claims. Depending on how many claims I process and the accuracy of my claims my pay can range from 8.50 to 18.00 an hour. Naturally I try to accurate so I tend not to drop below $16.50.
The bad part about where i work is that its a fortune 500 company that takes on contracts from dozens of companies to handle their health care claims, paperwork, and computer troubleshooting. Our department does well and is ahead on its work but unfortunately that just means we have to help out the other departments in the building that are far behind. Like I had to come in on Saturday (which is RARE) to work 8 hours to help out another department. I don't get how our department seems to be the only one that stays ahead of its work but we have the second biggest contract in the building.
It kind of sucked ass when minimum wage was raised about 2 dollars here my pay wasn't scaled with it. So I guess even though I've worked 5 years here anyone who has worked about one year in my position will make as much as me. Unless they kept starting wages the same but now they are minimum wage instead of being a couple dollars higher. I should inquire about it.
So I'm supposing that minimum wage is ALL OVER THE PLACE across the U.S. but I didn't realize it was that different. Minimum wage in Kentucky is $5.15. Although I like how my job handles pay as it is 100 percent dependent on how well you are doing your job. I handle health insurance and child care claims. Depending on how many claims I process and the accuracy of my claims my pay can range from 8.50 to 18.00 an hour. Naturally I try to accurate so I tend not to drop below $16.50.
The bad part about where i work is that its a fortune 500 company that takes on contracts from dozens of companies to handle their health care claims, paperwork, and computer troubleshooting. Our department does well and is ahead on its work but unfortunately that just means we have to help out the other departments in the building that are far behind. Like I had to come in on Saturday (which is RARE) to work 8 hours to help out another department. I don't get how our department seems to be the only one that stays ahead of its work but we have the second biggest contract in the building.
Yeah I hear that. I've had people claim they didn't believe me that I only pay $445 a month for a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with water included. They acted like that was the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard.
What the FUCK!?!? I think all my bills together: Rent, Electricity, Car Insurance, Cell Phone, Cable & Internet all total up to about $750....I think I'll avoid Hawaii.
ZombieAsuma on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
What the FUCK!?!? I think all my bills together: Rent, Electricity, Car Insurance, Cell Phone, Cable & Internet all total up to about $750....I think I'll avoid Hawaii.
My rent is $750, and I'm definitely not in Hawaii. Unless Vermont gets a shitload warmer, anyway...
I suddenly like it in Kentucky a lot better. But back on topic of work. I think the higher-ups are very pleased with our department lately as they've bought us expensive lunch 4-5 times in the last two weeks.
Man, up here in alberta a decent bachelors apartment runs you 900-ish, not including utilities much of the time. It's hard to afford a decent place @ 20$/hour. I really don't see anyway anyone who makes minimum wage could afford to live here, its crazy.
Yeah, CA minimum wage is nothing to boast about. My one bedroom apartment in San Diego is $1500/mo, not including utilities. It's in a nice complex, but still... :P
Some of these rent rates getting mentioned are twice as high as my parents house payment for a 3 bedroom two bathroom house with two car garage. Well since the thread is de-railed I'll try to bring it back. I'm convinced that people cannot read. My department handles health care and child care claims which involves the people sending in the forms filling out the most basic of info and people still manage to get things wrong. Really stupid stuff like putting their date of birth in the service date box or just writing the word 'various' and usually misspelling it instead of a service date. That and no matter how bad employees of Duke University mess up forms or receipts we still have to approve ALL THEIR CLAIMS for some reason.
Some of these rent rates getting mentioned are twice as high as my parents house payment for a 3 bedroom two bathroom house with two car garage. Well since the thread is de-railed I'll try to bring it back. I'm convinced that people cannot read. My department handles health care and child care claims which involves the people sending in the forms filling out the most basic of info and people still manage to get things wrong. Really stupid stuff like putting their date of birth in the service date box or just writing the word 'various' and usually misspelling it instead of a service date. That and no matter how bad employees of Duke University mess up forms or receipts we still have to approve ALL THEIR CLAIMS for some reason.
Yeah. I can't speak for adults right now, but in about five years, they actually won't know how to read. I teach math and the two main strategies for answering word problems are guess (if it's multiple choice) or skip it. I gave a worksheet to my ninth grade remedial math class, one of those deals where your answers to the problems decode a funny message. Most of them couldn't figure out how to decode it unless I read the instructions to them. In ninth grade. For the love of God.
tarnok on
Wii Code:
0431-6094-6446-7088
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
WHY I HATE WALMART, TOM LEDERBRAND DIVISION
Puff The Magic Dragon. Also the theme from Barney the Dinosaur. (The latter stopped me dead in my tracks. Usually I've been able to just work through it and vent here in the morning, but dammit, Lederbrand, stop asking me to e-mail you with requests before I "request" you consume your bunghole through your nostrils.)
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
Wow. Chemical accident at work Friday. Some dipshit spilled a 5 gallon bucket of paint thinner on our stairs--we had to leave the building because everyone was high as a kite. I got a good 20 minute giggling fit out of it
Wow. Chemical accident at work Friday. Some dipshit spilled a 5 gallon bucket of paint thinner on our stairs--we had to leave the building because everyone was high as a kite. I got a good 20 minute giggling fit out of it
That'd make for an amazing episode of "The Office"
Puff The Magic Dragon. Also the theme from Barney the Dinosaur. (The latter stopped me dead in my tracks. Usually I've been able to just work through it and vent here in the morning, but dammit, Lederbrand, stop asking me to e-mail you with requests before I "request" you consume your bunghole through your nostrils.)
Did you find the Hershey's kiss christmas bells songs just as irritating? I did, and that's only being in the store for 10 minutes.
FyreWulff on
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GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
Man, mtvcdm, can you bring an mp3 player to work or something?
Nope. The PA gets used by the coach too. (The coach doesn't like Leberbrand either. Once he cut off the Hamster Dance and mocked it over the PA until the noise stopped.)
Speaking of, a store is opening in Jefferson (a town which has long fought tooth-and-nail to keep Wal-Mart out but has ultimately failed, and I can guarantee you right now that store is going down in flames) and we're going to be losing about half the staff to there in May. Which leaves all sorts of openings for me to get the hell out of third shift. I'm almost going to be able to pick my spot, and if anyone from Electronics is bolting, that's where I'm headed. (It's still Wal-Mart, but it's not third shift, and for now that's good enough for me. It'll take some of the pressure off to find something, anything, now now now.)
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Speaking of, a store is opening in Jefferson (a town which has long fought tooth-and-nail to keep Wal-Mart out but has ultimately failed, and I can guarantee you right now that store is going down in flames) and we're going to be losing about half the staff to there in May.
Why do you think it's going to go down in flames? Because of the opposition to it? Generally, when a town/city/state is that opposed, and the plan ends up going through, Wal-Mart does fucking great. The store in Williston, VT, had to fight for years to get in there, and now that store is constantly dealing with long lines, lack of parking, and sales that make the store manager weep for joy.
Speaking of, a store is opening in Jefferson (a town which has long fought tooth-and-nail to keep Wal-Mart out but has ultimately failed, and I can guarantee you right now that store is going down in flames) and we're going to be losing about half the staff to there in May.
Why do you think it's going to go down in flames? Because of the opposition to it? Generally, when a town/city/state is that opposed, and the plan ends up going through, Wal-Mart does fucking great. The store in Williston, VT, had to fight for years to get in there, and now that store is constantly dealing with long lines, lack of parking, and sales that make the store manager weep for joy.
Yeah, this happens all the time. Wal-Mart plans to put a store in a new area. Locals oppose. Locals fail to block opening. Store opens and is a success.
Its usually just a vocal minority. A group of small business owners who are afraid of going out of business, backed up by a few low level politicians who want to look like they're for helping the little guy (but don't fight too hard, because they know that having a Wal-Mart will probably be good for tax revenue, among other things).
Personally, I think we need to stop crying for the poor small business owner. I'm not saying its impossible to make it, but you really need to offer something the big stores can't offer, and I don't mean great customer service, because the people have shown that they will choose lower prices over good customers service almost all the time. Unless you have some unique product or service that the big stores are unable or unwilling to offer, you might as well throw in the towel.
Speaking of, a store is opening in Jefferson (a town which has long fought tooth-and-nail to keep Wal-Mart out but has ultimately failed, and I can guarantee you right now that store is going down in flames) and we're going to be losing about half the staff to there in May.
Why do you think it's going to go down in flames? Because of the opposition to it? Generally, when a town/city/state is that opposed, and the plan ends up going through, Wal-Mart does fucking great. The store in Williston, VT, had to fight for years to get in there, and now that store is constantly dealing with long lines, lack of parking, and sales that make the store manager weep for joy.
Yeah, this happens all the time. Wal-Mart plans to put a store in a new area. Locals oppose. Locals fail to block opening. Store opens and is a success.
Its usually just a vocal minority. A group of small business owners who are afraid of going out of business, backed up by a few low level politicians who want to look like they're for helping the little guy (but don't fight too hard, because they know that having a Wal-Mart will probably be good for tax revenue, among other things).
Personally, I think we need to stop crying for the poor small business owner. I'm not saying its impossible to make it, but you really need to offer something the big stores can't offer, and I don't mean great customer service, because the people have shown that they will choose lower prices over good customers service almost all the time. Unless you have some unique product or service that the big stores are unable or unwilling to offer, you might as well throw in the towel.
Do vocal minorities get the alderman who let it happen recalled? Because that's what happened. (Wal-Mart is really doing shitty in picking places to open around here. They opened one in Monona-- Madison metro. They had to pay through the nose to even get a permit, greened the place to high heaven to placate the locals, and that store IS bombing.)
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
I remember in a little bedroom town near me, the locals fought long and hard--a good 3 years--to keep WalMart out. The superstore they put it is now busy pretty much all the time. The did agree to alter the hours to get in--it's only open from 6am to 11pm--but it's busy pretty much the whole time it's open. I still think it's funny, people bitched so much about it, now they don't quit shopping there.
I remember in a little bedroom town near me, the locals fought long and hard--a good 3 years--to keep WalMart out. The superstore they put it is now busy pretty much all the time. The did agree to alter the hours to get in--it's only open from 6am to 11pm--but it's busy pretty much the whole time it's open. I still think it's funny, people bitched so much about it, now they don't quit shopping there.
I loved that episode of South Park where a Wal-Mart destroyed their local economy but the people just couldn't stop feeding the Wal-Mart beast. "My god, it knows what we're doing and it's lowering its prices to stop us! Five hammers for a dollar? Go on without me, I really have to buy these!"
On the commentary track Matt and Trey said they were inspired by a news report they saw in which they were interviewing the leader of the local opposition to Wal-Mart in some small town. She's talking about how Wal-Mart destroys communities and the American lifestyle while she's shopping at said Wal-Mart.
A more perfect summation of the problem and its cause cannot exist.
That thing about the 6 am to 11 pm hours is interesting. I thought all Wal-Marts were 24 hours by default. Then again lately I've been seeing some really odd businesses/restaurants switching to 24 hours. Like Hardees and Arbys where I live? So what sort of folks come to Hardees at 3 am? Any interesting stories on here about strange late night food service?
That thing about the 6 am to 11 pm hours is interesting. I thought all Wal-Marts were 24 hours by default. Then again lately I've been seeing some really odd businesses/restaurants switching to 24 hours. Like Hardees and Arbys where I live? So what sort of folks come to Hardees at 3 am? Any interesting stories on here about strange late night food service?
Posts
If they think they're more important that whatever business you're already engaged in then they wouldn't have been any fun to deal with anyways. so good riddance.
Fourthed. Customers will be helped in the order they asked for help. As a customer, expecting anything else is being a gigantic dildo, no ifs, no buts.
Generally when I go shopping, I get into the store, have a list of all the shit I need to buy ready, go get the shit and get the hell out. Why is it that some people just decide to wander around looking like they're lost? And it's not 'wander around looking at the different products', its 'wander around durrdurrdurr look pretty colours'.
What the fuck.
Or another example, I was coming out of the receiving section in the back while a giant cart stocked with product and the way to get out is like a T intersection, go straight, go right into the chips/drinks/paper towels section or go left into the milk/dairy section. An older couple moves out of the the way to let me by, when suddenly some stupid bitch comes out from the left, looks at me, stops her cart in the middle of the fucking path and starts looking at the paper towels.
Jesus godamn christ, I wish I could beat people like this to death with...fuck, something that hurts a whole awful lot. In the first week working there I rammed some stupid gawker with a shopping cart because he wouldn't get the hell out of my way.
And then theres the fat people, always asking 'hurrhurrhurr this bread says its 100 calories, I thought it was 50' - I don't give a fuck, does it look I care? I actually had some guy come up to me and tell me that the taco shells where a horrible product because they kept crumbling. Maybe if you fucking but a damp cloth or paper towel on them before you heat them up, they won't crumble assface.
TL;DR - my job makes me angry and fat/old/slow people make me angrier.
Want to give your customers good service and get things sold? Put your motherfucking sales people on a low hourly wage and a high commission, instead of just the low hourly wage.
When I'm dealing with someone else i just state so... The worst are the people who just assume that because I'm at my desk, with out someone sitting infront of me, i must be free, then just won't accept that I'd like to finish what I'm doing before i move onto them.
See, it's the opposite for me. I couldn't work on commission, I just hate the entire principle of the thing. I want to give customers the very best products for their needs. If they're good people (and not assholes), I want them to leave the store 100% satisfied. I think that commission skews the employee's speech to the customers and I'm not having it. This said, I don't really mind ripping off assholes, because they're assholes and if someone deserves their money, it's anyone but them.
I visit another one of our stores frequently during the winter. Because they're in a ski resort town, they are dead for 9 months of the year, and then fucking crazy the other 3 months. It seems they have a higher-than-average percentage of entitlement assholes there, though.
We had one guy who may have been 21 try to buy beer, but had no ID. We said no, and the much older man with him tried to buy it for him. We also said no. Now don't forget, this guy made no mention of it being his son, brother, or anything else.. just that he'd buy it. So we, as the law allows and requires, told him no. And he threw a fit! "This is bullshit that you won't sell me alcohol! I want to speak to your manager right now!"
Now, I'm not technically that checkout's manager, but I am a checkout manager, so I came to help. The conversation with him ended at "I don't really care what you think about our policy, the police will always side with the merchant" as I picked up the phone.
Another prick was trying to pay with a money order. We don't do this. We only cash money orders that we print. Even if another one of our stores prints the money order, we won't cash it for you. But this guy, again, threw a fit, and uttered some bullshit that "you'd take my bad check, but not a money order that's guaranteed?"
Now, if you know anything about money orders, you know they're not guaranteed, and they are extremely easy to forge. He walked out, and as he was leaving, said "I hope the fish doesn't go bad. I sneezed on it!" He wasn't amused when I said "that's ok, I already keyed your car in response."
All in all, an entertaining day.
I actually find that i end up making the most money when i balance the shark and actual help. I just run on a needs satisfaction strategy, granted i can bend nearly any of my products to suit nearly any need (Just using the system as an internet access point? Of course you need a quad core!), but I don't. With out commission there i couldn't see myself caring.
The really sharky guys i work with make less money, because they end up spending most of their day dealing with angry people they have ripped off.
But today was filled with absolute goonies:
-Big black lady comes up to the register and I ring her clothes up and everything. Ask for the money and SHE REACHES INTO HER BIG 'OL BOOBIES to pull out a wad of cash. It was grosssssss.
-Lady who knew exactly 3 words of English tries to do a return/exchange of clothes. I spend 4 minutes trying to figure out which of the old clothes she wants to return because apparently she doesn't want to return all of them-- just some of them. The words "new," "ok," and "yes" were all she said. Why she had to bring all of the old clothes to confuse me I dont know.
-Whenever we ring someone up we have to say a tagline. As of now our tagline is basically promoting a new underwear store called "Gilly Hicks." We say a bunch of jargon and hand the customer this tiny little book with a bunch of people in underwear/naked in front of branches and whatnot. So I do the speech and hand the booklet to this mom. She goes absolutley ape-shit at me saying how I should stop handing out porn booklets. She even threw a "God would punish you" at me. My coworkers and I nearly cried after laughing so hard when she left. It was glorious.
Oh, and just to let you know; if you're ever in a Hollister, 9/10 times when you ask us to check in the back for an items' availability we'll probably just lie to you and say we dont have it. What we really do is go into the stockroom and just chat it up with the stockers and possibly mow down on some food they got back there. We're hungry.
Anyway, interesting story for the day. I'm an obnoxious asshole, so yesterday I came up with a great plan. Our Wii demo unit still has Super Mario Galaxy in it. I would position Mario to jump on to one of the Lumas and carefully shifted him around so he would bounce on the little star forever while making his jumping sounds. Just to bother my boss and the customers in the store.
Every now and again, someone would move Mario off and I would have to reposition him. Later on while Mario is bouncing, me and my boss are helping customers. A guy walks in from outside(strip mall store) moves Mario off the star and immediately leaves. The Wii is right inside the door so he only had to take a few steps in.
My customer watched him do it and says "That was weird."
The bad part about where i work is that its a fortune 500 company that takes on contracts from dozens of companies to handle their health care claims, paperwork, and computer troubleshooting. Our department does well and is ahead on its work but unfortunately that just means we have to help out the other departments in the building that are far behind. Like I had to come in on Saturday (which is RARE) to work 8 hours to help out another department. I don't get how our department seems to be the only one that stays ahead of its work but we have the second biggest contract in the building.
This is in CA. $5.15 sucks...
Federal minimum wage is $5.85.....
Cost of living is also dramatically different.
Don't fucking go to Hawaii unless you're buying or visiting. Seriously, it sucks here.
My rent is $750, and I'm definitely not in Hawaii. Unless Vermont gets a shitload warmer, anyway...
Unfortunately, obtaining housing of any kind seems to be something of a problem...
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Yeah. I can't speak for adults right now, but in about five years, they actually won't know how to read. I teach math and the two main strategies for answering word problems are guess (if it's multiple choice) or skip it. I gave a worksheet to my ninth grade remedial math class, one of those deals where your answers to the problems decode a funny message. Most of them couldn't figure out how to decode it unless I read the instructions to them. In ninth grade. For the love of God.
0431-6094-6446-7088
Puff The Magic Dragon. Also the theme from Barney the Dinosaur. (The latter stopped me dead in my tracks. Usually I've been able to just work through it and vent here in the morning, but dammit, Lederbrand, stop asking me to e-mail you with requests before I "request" you consume your bunghole through your nostrils.)
That'd make for an amazing episode of "The Office"
Did you find the Hershey's kiss christmas bells songs just as irritating? I did, and that's only being in the store for 10 minutes.
Speaking of, a store is opening in Jefferson (a town which has long fought tooth-and-nail to keep Wal-Mart out but has ultimately failed, and I can guarantee you right now that store is going down in flames) and we're going to be losing about half the staff to there in May. Which leaves all sorts of openings for me to get the hell out of third shift. I'm almost going to be able to pick my spot, and if anyone from Electronics is bolting, that's where I'm headed. (It's still Wal-Mart, but it's not third shift, and for now that's good enough for me. It'll take some of the pressure off to find something, anything, now now now.)
Why do you think it's going to go down in flames? Because of the opposition to it? Generally, when a town/city/state is that opposed, and the plan ends up going through, Wal-Mart does fucking great. The store in Williston, VT, had to fight for years to get in there, and now that store is constantly dealing with long lines, lack of parking, and sales that make the store manager weep for joy.
Not from a 'oh noes small businesses are hurting' stance, but from a 'traffic is fucked up enough as is' stance.
Yeah, this happens all the time. Wal-Mart plans to put a store in a new area. Locals oppose. Locals fail to block opening. Store opens and is a success.
Its usually just a vocal minority. A group of small business owners who are afraid of going out of business, backed up by a few low level politicians who want to look like they're for helping the little guy (but don't fight too hard, because they know that having a Wal-Mart will probably be good for tax revenue, among other things).
Personally, I think we need to stop crying for the poor small business owner. I'm not saying its impossible to make it, but you really need to offer something the big stores can't offer, and I don't mean great customer service, because the people have shown that they will choose lower prices over good customers service almost all the time. Unless you have some unique product or service that the big stores are unable or unwilling to offer, you might as well throw in the towel.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I loved that episode of South Park where a Wal-Mart destroyed their local economy but the people just couldn't stop feeding the Wal-Mart beast. "My god, it knows what we're doing and it's lowering its prices to stop us! Five hammers for a dollar? Go on without me, I really have to buy these!"
On the commentary track Matt and Trey said they were inspired by a news report they saw in which they were interviewing the leader of the local opposition to Wal-Mart in some small town. She's talking about how Wal-Mart destroys communities and the American lifestyle while she's shopping at said Wal-Mart.
A more perfect summation of the problem and its cause cannot exist.