It’s been awhile since I ranted about my day job, so I thought I’d give you a catch up entry on how much I still wish I didn’t work in retail. Just in case you started to think that it was all fun for me now. The general public hasn’t learned to behave any better. One could almost claim that they’ve gotten worse. I’m one of those that will claim this. It’s to the point that I dread unlocking the door in the mornings because I know that at least one person is going to get mad and yell at me about something I can’t control.
First, I would like to complain about the overall state of things in my store. Our truck schedule has been all over the place for the last three months. One week we didn’t get a truck at all. We’ve finally caught up on that and had two trucks in one week. But don’t believe that means we have full shelves. Oh, no. Not even close. Half of my aisles are empty. Giant sections just completely wiped out. And it’s not from customers panic buying or anything like that, it’s just not coming in on the trucks. And it’s the most random things, like mops and brooms. And hangers. And school supplies. Or gift bags. Or kitchen tools. We have plenty of paper products and cleaning sprays now, but can’t get duct tape or super glue in to save my life. What is going on? Is it a company problem? Or do the suppliers have a shortage? I don’t even know anymore. Last week we didn’t receive a single bag of dog food.
And of course my customers aren’t pleased with this. And half of them think it means we’re going out of business. *We’re not, by the way. And only a handful of customers are understanding. The rest are irritable and cranky and complain endlessly about how they can’t find such and such item anywhere. And obviously that means it’s my fault. Because why don’t I order it? *Eye roll*
Besides that, there’s people who will complain about other things too.
For example, a regular customer came up to the counter with six 12 packs of doctor pepper in her basket along with a handful of other items. She handed me one 12 pack and said, “These are 3 for $11, right?” I hit total, and they were not on sale. She said, “there’s a sign over there.”
So, I take her word for it and start to mark it down. But my assistant just happened to be standing nearby and went to check to pull the outdated sign down so I wouldn’t have to do a price change for anyone else. He comes back to say there’s no sign in front of the doctor peppers, it’s only by the cokes.
The woman says, “Well, the doctor pepper was on a sale a few days ago.”
Because apparently an ad ending is a foreign concept.
She then asks if I’m going to give it to her for the sale price and I tell her no, since there isn’t a sign over there, there’s no reason for me to change the price. So she decides she doesn’t want the 12 packs and shoves the basket at my assistant manager. She grumbles about ads needing to run longer and pays for her other items.
It was Wednesday. Our ads generally run Sunday to Saturday. You know… for a week. Once in a blue moon they’ll run through Sunday if it’s a holiday. But they don’t run through a Wednesday. So “they were on sale a few days ago” was actually four days ago. But I was supposed to still honor that price? Ugh.
I caught a man throwing his trash in our dumpsters recently. And apparently it’s not common knowledge that this in, in fact, illegal. But it was just a pizza box, so I asked him nicely to throw it in the trash dumpster instead of the recycling. And he argues that it’s cardboard. It’s also not common knowledge that you can’t recycle things with food on them… I try to explain it to him and he gets pissy with ME.
I say, “Well, I could just call the cops since this is illegal in the first place, if it’s that big of a deal to throw it in the proper dumpster.” And he argues that we should have a trash can out front then. So I come back with, “it’s not our job for you to have somewhere to clean out your car.” And he gets in his car to drive away while flipping me off.
Because we used to have a trash can out front in an attempt to keep the parking lot clean. But people just used it to – surprise, surprise – clean out their cars. And trash from small items like gum and cigarette packs, still ended up all over the parking lot. So, we took the trash can away. There are plenty of gas stations and car washes in this town that they could use instead.
And I swear if I have one more person yell at me because I won’t break their $100 bill for an $8 purchase, I might fly over the counter and choke them. Why is it so hard for people to understand that we don’t have that kind of money in our cash registers? It’s a safety issue! And especially when the store opened five minutes ago. People have to give me twenties in order for twenties to be in the drawer. We don’t have hundreds of dollars in the register at all times. That would be the fastest way for us to get robbed! But that fact doesn’t matter to these people. How dare I be a store and not have change for big bills. Because another unheard of thing, apparently, is that they can tell the bank to give them small bills.
But I guess that’s all for this rant. With my book releases stacked up for this year, I really hope my days in retail are numbered. I don’t know how much longer I can be patient and understanding with these people. Something is wrong with the general population. They shouldn’t treat other human beings like crap just because someone once said ‘the customer is always right.’ Because, oh no, no, they most definitely aren’t.