I Work(ed) in Retail, and Now I Understand... - Page 8

Tulip86 · #**106** 12-10-2010, 06:33 PM

Yup Psychology Bachelor here as well... and working on my Masters'

Psi U MC Vito · #**107** 12-05-2011, 06:43 PM

Bump!

WCsweet<3 · #**108** 12-05-2011, 07:15 PM

So I will probably repeat some, I skimmed most of the pages but will probably miss a few:

People are really trusting of others with their children. A lady full on handed me her infant when she went into a dressing room.

Normally we gave women with children (mainly those with strollers) the larger handicap room. Instead this women left her sleeping kid outside of it with no one watching.

Some people really don't watch their children/don't care that they just tore down posters from the ceilings/messed up three stacks of folded clothing/almost got smashed by a mannequin. Literally saved a child from a falling mannequin because he pushed a leg after I had warned both the father and the kid about it.

People steal a ridiculous amount of things. There is nothing quite like closing and finding sensors hidden all over or working in the dressing room and finding a ton too.

People cannot read. Be it how to use a coupon (no you can't combine them, it says so on the coupon and not in small writing.) or what sizes are.

Many sales people don't know what sales are going on because they change so frequently and managers will sometimes forget to tell all of them. Also they may not know that this one shirt in a large store happened to have a sign above it saying there was a sale on it while the computer disagrees.

Computers/cash registers suck and mess up a lot. The sales person is not necessarily the person at fault.

Present the coupons before actually paying. If you have done everything and then go OH I have a coupon, the transaction will be voided.

Try to be ready at the cash register. There is nothing quite like "oh I love that shirt I'm going to try it on while you ring all of this up!" and there is a huge line. Somehow, trying on one shirt always seems to take forever.

If we offer you other things to try on, it may be because the we are required to and wouldn't push it on you. That also may be why some items in your dressing room are not things you picked out.

The return policy can't be changed. Seriously. I can't make exceptions. After 90 days your stuck with it, even if you are from BFE and couldn't make it in.**

**story: A woman came in about ten minutes before closing with a return. Thats fine whatever. She went to go find things to buy/exchange. Also fine. Until you realize that she doesn't have receipts and her transaction isn't in the system. Also since these items are old, most of them are on clearance so she will get little in return. She gets back from finding things for me to tell her the bad news. She is understanding about it. Manager gets involved and is talking to her. I am told to continue checking her out since she had about 8 transactions. The last one is about 6 months out while we only have a 90 day return policy. She then gets huffy and asks me to make an exception. She lives four hours away and couldn't make it in. Ignore the fact that she skipped two other locations to get to my store. Also ignore that her other transactions were made after the out-of-date one. She throws a hissy fit and everyone in the store, customers, managers, and myself, are all "low class bitches who are stealing her hard earned money!"

There are so many stories... Ugh.

I will always resize things as i go through stores. If I am going through trying to find my size and things are obviously out of order, I can just as easily resize things. Oh also, I may not put things back exactly right (folding, hanging etc as stores are specific) I will turn it right side out and buttoned. I never understood why people would hang thing inside out.

Xidelt · #**109** 12-05-2011, 08:01 PM

1. I always pick up after myself in the dressing room. That was one of my least favorite parts of working retail.
2. I never trash the sweater table. I know how much work it is to size and fold those!

KSUViolet06 · #**110** 12-05-2011, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

So I will probably repeat some, I skimmed most of the pages but will probably miss a few:

Some people really don't watch their children/don't care that they just tore down posters from the ceilings/messed up three stacks of folded clothing/almost got smashed by a mannequin. Literally saved a child from a falling mannequin because he pushed a leg after I had warned both the father and the kid about it.

Re: children in stores. Craziest thing I've ever witnessed in a retail store regarding a kid:

I was in H&M once and saw a kid who looked to be about 4 (not very old but old enough to understand when you say "don't touch.")

There was a large like 3 foot glass vase thing with bracelets in it. The bracelets in it were plastic and it was just light enough to move when the kid started pushing it. The kid was pushing it toward the edge of the table. Mom was too busy looking at stuff to pay attention.

An employee told him to please stop because it will fall. Then she walked away. Kid keeps doing it. Mom sees, tells him to stop, then turns her back to keep shopping. He continues.

He knocks it over and it shatters, spilling bracelets everywhere.

What does mom do? Laugh. Not say "I'm so sorry!" Not tell her son that that was not a safe thing to do. Laugh.

The manager and another came to try and clean it up. Mom got really mad when they told her something like "ma'am can you please move so we can clean this up?" and ushered her son out of the way so he wouldn't step in it. She left the store in a huff saying that they were rude and inconsiderate because her "son could've gotten hurt" and she would have sued them.

Um, how would that have been the store's fault?

christiangirl · #**111** 12-06-2011, 02:48 AM

Kid story: One day at B&N, a kid "went missing." The manager attempted to call it overheard but the mom was running around the store screaming "BOOOOOBBBBBYYYY" so loudly that that no one could get her to describe what he was wearing. We asked her repeatedly if she checked the children's area where the toys are but she would not. stop. screaming. Finally, the manager got her to hold still and tried to tell her kids usually walk off to the toys but she said "NONONO HE WOULDN'T GOT THERE, THAT'S NOT WHERE I LEFT HIM, BOBBBBYYYY!!!" So I walked to the children's area where the toys are, said "Bobby?" and the kid looks up from the trains and says "What?" I took him by the hand and led him to the friont where his mom was now running around outside screaming his name at the people walking by. I give the kid to his mom and she bends down, she sobs into his chest, then explodes at all of us for not finding him fast enough.

PhoenixAzul · #**112** 12-06-2011, 08:16 AM

I'm just going to leave this here...

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/co...me_grievances/

BossLadyAKA · #**113** 12-07-2011, 12:28 AM

Retail is the devil. That is all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

I'm just going to leave this here...

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/co...me_grievances/

I love you for this.

Callais · #**114** 12-07-2011, 12:42 AM

Just got back from a retail shift! Never before have I hated the holidays so much. Nah, I'm just kidding.

There's this one kid who keeps coming in and apparently has a serious problem with me because I laughed at one of his dad's jokes during a transaction months ago. Whenever he comes in, he will ask for me, and if I'm working when he's there the first words out of his mouth when he sees me are, "My dad is not funny. You shouldn't laugh at his jokes." And then he goes on to tell me that I'm not as cool as one of my coworkers.

When I'm not there he tells my coworkers to remind me that his dad is not funny the next time they see me.

Anyway - ever since I started working, oh man I have not been able to leave a shelf disorganized. Be it a bookshelf, a video game shelf, any kind of shelf - if things are out of order or just lying around, I can't leave them alone. It's gotten to the point that I'll come in to check my schedule for the next week and will end up staying for an hour fixing the walls until my boss goes, "Callais, you're off the clock, stop doing that."

I've also become a lot more conscious of whether or not I'm returning things to the right place when I decide not to buy them.

And can I just say, it's super embarrassing to say "Thank you and have a nice day!" when I'm a customer in another store?

christiangirl · #**115** 12-07-2011, 01:31 AM

Thank you for that link. After this story, I had to go take my shower and come back because I knew I'd be here for awhile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paper_Cut_On_My_Eye

Grocery store:

I was about to leave, the manager on duty ask me to stick around because he spotted a shop lifter. As she passed the registers, we walk up to her and asked her to stop. She immediately grabs my mangers arm and bites down. I pull her off of him, and we walk her upstairs. We sit her down in a chair, and tell her we have to fill out a report. While working on that, she pulled out a box knife she had found and slit both of her wrist. After about 30 seconds of bleeding, she stands up and holds out her bloody hands, still holding the knife and starts chasing us. We bolt down the stairs and slum the door shut behind us. We call 911, and while waiting for an ambulance/police to show up, she climbed into the ceiling. We had to evacuate the whole store. The fire department found her up in the rafters after about 30 minutes. She ended up being ok, and ended up in jail for awhile for it.

She was stealing a Mach 3 razor for those who are curious.

This person isn't even on GC and they STILL trump all of us.

carnation · #**116** 09-24-2022, 09:09 AM

!!! I just found this old thread. These customers are as bad as the tourists at theme parks.