Adventures in Retail

D has been writing about her experiences in retail, so I thought I'd comment with some suggestions of my own. However, as these things are wont to do...especially with retail complaints...I decided that it was getting too long for a comment.

Things that I find annoying and ways I deal with them...you might find some of this useful...and hopefully some of it amusing. :D

Complaints about the price of the bill: "Yes, I totally agree with you. I wish I could change it, but if I had THAT power, I wouldn't be standing here, now would I?"

Giving me a $100 bill for a $2 item first thing in the morning: "I'm sorry...we have to get change out of the safe." Wait a REALLY long time...paging people who aren't actually in the store is a great way to buy time.

Giving me a bill, letting me ring the whole thing through, then "Oh! I have 58 cents!": Oh, gee...thanks. Now I have to do the math in my head. I don't do math...especially early in the morning. Like we don't have an entire safe full of change...don't pretend you're doing ME the favour.

Handing me the basket full of items. Lady, you can pull them out of the basket yourself. How many times are you going to do that today? MAYBE five, if you're Christmas shopping? I'd have to do it over 100 times if everyone did it. Can you say "repetitive stress"? Generally, I just tip the basket over towards me and ignore any dirty looks. You probably don't have this problem because of the conveyer though.

Letting your children run amok in the store. Um, yeah. This happened a couple of weeks ago. A woman was taking a course (two hours long) in our store and let her three kids just be in the store. Alone. There was a 9 year old boy and 5 year old and 1 year old girls. After about an hour, she came out of the classroom and gave them lollipops. All of them. Including the year old. So, now instead of three unsupervised children, we now have three unsupervised, sugared up children...one of whom is likely to choke on their treat. Actually with the way that the other two were running around, they were fairly likely to choke as well.

Leaving your purchase at the front counter, either before or after you've paid for it. Please! Clutter up our counters with your crap. We've got nothing better to do with our space than babysit the shit you just bought...or are thinking about buying! We especially love it when you bring up six or seven big huge fake trees and stick them around us, because we work inside, and we definitely wouldn't want any LIGHT getting to us! No no no! We're SPECIAL people who work inside because we have an allergy to light. Thank you for being so considerate of our special needs!!

Ok...I think I'm done for now. :p