yeah, that SUCKS!

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At our store, we have tickets or stickers on each item that not only have the price WE sell the item for, but also the price when it is sold at another department store.  Here is an example of what a normal ticket at our store would look like:

Compare at: $25.00
Our Price: $14.99

This means that the price we sell it for is obviously $14.99.  In fact our tickets have our price typed in larger and bolder numbers so customers can understand how much the item is.  However, our store has a few signs that says "Up to 20-60% off" which can confuse customers.  But this means that the merchandise that we sell at our store is 20-60% off compared to when it is sold at other stores.  Naturally, we explain it further and the customer understands.  But there is a rare case when a customer can’t wrap their head around any of this.  Something like this happened today.

Customer: (walks up to my register, with some gift set for babies) How much is this?
ME: (I check for a price tag and find one that says, "Compare at $60.00, Our Price $29.99)  It’s $29.99.
Customer: But there was a sign that says 45% off.
ME: Oh yes, that’s compared to when it’s sold at another department store.  Here it’s $29.99. (points at the larger number that says "Our Price")
Customer: (stands there)
ME:  See if the item is $29.99, but at another store it’s $60.00.
Customer: So I can’t get 45% off?
ME: Not off our price.
Customer: Are you sure?
Me: I’m sure.
Another customer: (gently pushes the first customer out of the way) Okay okay, you got what you were asking for.
(First customer walks away)

Now I know what you’re thinking: the second customer was very rude.  However, the second customer told me that the first customer cut in front of her.  When the second customer took note on it, the first customer said that she only wanted to know the price of the item.  I guess the second customer went ahead with it, thinking it wouldn’t take long.  Hmm, guess it didn’t work out that way?

So who is the bigger issue, first customer or second customer?

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You’d think mangers would make sure their staff leave on time, even more so when that member of staff is stuck on fitting room duty on the last hour of their shift. So why was it today I was left on there for half an hour longer-making me do half hour overtime that might just go unpaid? Is it so hard to check who is on fitting room duty and what time they finish their shift so there would be someone there to take over in good time? Instead all the managers do is sit in their office drinking coffee and not caring a bit about the poor staff members who are waiting to go home. Not even when said staff member has moaned at them every five minutes from the time their shift ended until the time they got to finally leave to go and get someone to take over! In the end I ended up just walking out of there and went home. I am now dreading going back on Thursday in case they call me up on walking out and leaving the fitting rooms unattended. But it’s their fault for not having some sort of organisation in the whole shop to stop the staff having to do unpaid overtime.

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ME: everything on this table is 75% off
Customers around table: really!? great! awesome! ::digging through stuff:: 
ME: ::welcome more ppl in:: Hi, welcome to **** & **** *****
Customers: hi!
Customers @ table: Ma’m excuse me, is this 75% off?
Me: yep everythingggg on the table is
Customer: is this 75% off
Me: all the products in the bins on this 75% table are?
:: yells from another table::
Customer: Ma’m excuse, how much is this going to be
Me: well this is the 50% off table and that item is marked $10 sooo
Customer: sooo how much?
IN MY HEAD: REALLLLLLLY HOW MUCH!? SERIOUSLY!? THANK THE LORD I’M IN COLLEGE & HOPEFULLY WILL NEVER WORK IN RETAIL AFTER THIS
ME: $5 ma’m

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Sometime went by and I was sorting clothes, while I was doing my little jig, when I noticed a customer come in (SM was nowhere to be found). I helped her find some tops and bottoms, then we went over to the lingerie section. We couldn’t find her size in the style she wanted, so I offered to look in the back. I announced it over the radio and went into the back. I wasn’t able to find her size so I went back to tell her that we didn’t have it. The SM that was NOWHERE to found, came out of the back told the lady to start trying on clothes (which was fine), but when I came back empty handed, she ended up taking over my entire sell by offering to call another store or looking online for it. At the time of check out, the SM rang her out under her name (even though I spent a half hour with her compared to her 10 minutes), and I was out a $200 sell.

Another month or so went by, and a couple of co-workers came up to me telling me of the crazy things the SM was telling them. I heard everything from sly comments she would make about my work ethics, to the out right verbal attacks she would say about me. I could careless; I knew she was fake and only putting a friendly face out to people to cover up the demon that hid behind it.

During the summer, I had a family emergancy to attened to in California. I told the manager that was working the night I had to leave that I woun’t be able to show up to my shift and asked if I need to call anyone in. She said no and that she and another associte would be fine without me. I then told my SM about the family emergancy, and she had the nerve to say something along the lines of "I don’t see how that effects you, but ok." 

The last straw was when she cut my hours from a normal 12-20 hours a week to only 4 (meanwhile, I was already looking for another job and was hired instantly at the job I’m at now). As soon as I got my new job, I sent in my two-weeks notice and didn’t look back. I heard from a co-worker that as soon as the SM saw my notice, she told EVERYONE how excited she was that I was going.

Joke’s on her; not even three months later, not only was I was asked to come back to the company, but she quit two-weeks after they got a new district manager.

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Every Christmas, I thank god that I’m out of retail Especially when I see the mobs at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or worst of all, the mall. For those still in retail, hang in there, and for those stuck working on Christmas (i.e. CVS employees or anyone else in a 24/7/365 establishment), I pity and can empathize with you. Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy New Year!

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Several years back, I’d been working as a cashier for Safeway in Anchorage. I had relatively few complaints: awesome co-workers, reasonable hours, managers with manageable egos, etc.

I’d been assigned a new bagger "Lizzy." Perky and always willing to help. A good kid with a good head on her shoulders, albeit somewhat emotional.

I was checking out a customer with an excess of ‘fragile goods’ i.e: produce, eggs and food from the bakery. Check out was easy enough. Customer seemed irate and pissed so I went quickly about it; no point getting sucked into that maelstrom of ire.

Shit hit the fan when this customer noticed Lizzy putting a carton of eggs in the same bag as the milk. She turned to Lizzy and said in the most snide voice I’ve ever heard "BAG the eggs separately! I don’t need you cleaning broken egg shells in my car!" Lizzy apologized and bagged the eggs separately.

New employees will make mistakes, its inevitable; as a veteran employee, you have to be prepared for any mishap or hiccup. Correct the employee in a polite and helpful manner. A happy employee is a hard-working employee and it doesn’t pay to be a tyrant.

What happened next I will never forget.

Lizzy had removed the eggs from the milk bag and PUT a pie in. Before I could correct her, this customer flies into a rage only surpassed by the Hulk.

"Are you stupid?" She asked snidely. Lizzy went silent and shook her head

"No Ma’am." She slowly responded.

"Are you retarded?" She asked again.

"N-no Ma’am." I saw the tears welling up in Lizzy’s eyes.

"You should know better than to put a pie in the same bag with milk! Anyone with half a brain knows that! Are you a bagger because you’re too stupid to do anything else?"

Lizzy began crying. If there’s one thing I detest, it’s seeing an employee being walked on so I donned my chivalry armor and said:

"Ma’am, please leave the store now."

This hag then turned on me, calling me everything from grossly incompetent to retarded. In retail we’re trained to just bite the bit and be professional but I couldnt, seeing as how she made Lizzy cry. At the end of her verbal tirade she demanded to see the Manager.

I explained what’d happened verbatim, Lizzy collated the same incident. We expected the influential manager stand up for us but…

He APOLOGIZED for our "gross disservice." The customer swore she’d never shop at our store again and stomped off. He informed us both to visit his ‘office.’

Back in the manager’s "dungeon" we were given a reprimanding speech about how we are NOT to pester or annoy customers.

The manager folded his arms and tweeked his mustache "What you two should have done was remain silent."

"As she insulted Lizzy? Calling her stupid, retarded?"

In an executive weasly manner he dodged my retort "We must provide STERLING customer service, even if it involves being shouted at."

Lizzy gave her two weeks notice on the spot and I had lost all respect for the manager. I quit several weeks later.

STERLING CUSTOMER SERVICE benefits only a elite few: the executives, managers, district supervisors. Safeway is a fortune 500 company: even a Team Leader in the Produce section knows if he/she plays the cards right by stomping on the necks of a lowly worker, they can escape the 11$/hour pay and become Produce Manager! All it takes is a little indifference!

The hypocrisy is absolutely astounding: go out of your way to appease and kiss the customer’s arse yet heaven forbid you do the same for an employee being mistreated or insulted.

Is it too much to ask? That managers, supervisors and the executive branch look out for their employees? Stick up for them when they’re being mistreated? I felt betrayed by this man’s lack of compassion or concern for Lizzy. He’s more concerned with jumping up the totem pole of executive promotion than having any sense to protect his employees.

Why is it a unanimous happenstance? That managers give two fucks about an  employee but will bring heaven to earth just so the store makes an extra buck?

So next time you’re in Anchorage, head to Safeway #1806 and ask for Store Manager Daniel Murakami, tell him to remember, remember the 2nd of November 2005 when "Lizzy" got passed over for some goddamn milk and pie.

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I worked for a large retail company (not the evil one) in several departments, and in the summer I worked garden center a lot. We sold retaining wall bricks, the odd-shaped kind with a lip on the back to hold them in place. We had two sizes, the smaller of which cost us 79 cents apiece and the larger 99 cents apiece. Of course we had a markup, it’s retail.

Anyway, a guy came in and looked at a pallet, which had about a hundred of these bricks on it. Asked how much they retailed for, and I told him- I don’t remember what it was now. He said "I’ll give you 20 bucks for the whole pallet."

I told him sorry, we can’t take that much of a loss on it. "Why?" Because that would be us selling them for far less than what it cost us to buy them. He kept insisting, I kept putting him off. Finally he said he’d be back. I called the manager and he told me I was right, and to not sell for that price.

I mean, it’s not like an expired product that we simply have to get rid of so bad that we would take a loss. In the wintertime we just put them in storage and tried again next year.

And the guy wouldn’t shut up! He kept coming back, asking to get the whole pallet for 20 bucks. He brought his girlfriend too. He really thought he could get almost 80 dollars worth of product for 20 bucks.

Glad I quit. I have real authority in my job now.

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I once went into the store I worked at with my mom, on my day off. I was working odd shifts 6 days a week at that time.

A customer asked me a question, there was a long line and he was desperate for help. Look, I’m not salaried, if I’m not on the clock forget it. I put him off, then mom said "Actually he works here, it’s his day off."

"My ONLY day off!" I said to mom. She thought she knew retail because she worked in two different small drugstores, one in 1966, one in 1970. This incident took place near black Friday 1998.

My own mother wanted me to work for no pay.

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So, every morning we have our little meeting right before we open, as all clothing stores do in my experience.  This meeting was kind of retarded:

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