attention, shoppers!

In order to make the shopping experience pleasant, for all please follow these simple rules:

DO NOT allow your children to rampage through the store. In addition to trashing the place, they have a tendency to knock over elderly customers.

If you pick up an unwanted item: PUT IT BACK WHERE YOU GOT IT FROM!

DO NOT allow your baby to chew on merchandise and then hand it to the cashier to scan. She does not care to handle your baby's spit.

If you unfold an item of clothing, refold it and PUT IT BACK!

Bring any or all of the following items with you: cash, credit or debit card, checkbook or companion with the aforementioned items.

If you plan to buy alcohol or tobacco products, BRING YOUR ID!

DO NOT go back for "just one more item". This will cause the people in line behind you, to form a lynch mob, with you as the target.

DO NOT scream at the cashier over scanning errors. SHE is not the one who programs the computer.

DO NOT present expired coupons and expect the cashier to "honor them, anyway".

DO NOT allow your children to play with cigarette lighters. This is a bad habit, to allow them to develop. (I see this, several times a day).

For those of you, in Arizona: the letters E-B-T DO Not spell "debit". READ the simple, straightforward directions on the debit machine.

When the store closing announcement is made, DO NOT wander, aimlessly around the store. Pay for your purchases and let the overworked and understaffed employees go home.

(OK, I had a rough night, at work and I am sick and tired of stupid people!)

Very good tips!

Poor Cindy

It does sound as if you've had a very bad shift. Never mind, put your feet up for a bit, relax and unwind and console yourself with the fact that these people have to live with their stupidity day in and day out. You only experience them once in a while!

Even though I have never actually worked retail, most of the stuff on your list drives me nuts too. I actually will pick up merchandise that is in the wrong place and put it back where it should be, especially clothes. Just a quirk of mine, I guess. Hubby thinks I'm nuts when I do it, but it drives me crazy that people are too lazy to clean up after themselves.

The mortgage broker lady - real piece of work in general, but that's beside the point - told us that she sometimes goes into a store, like Wal Mart, and shops and shops, filling up sometimes 2-3 carts of merchandise, and then just leaves the carts by the checkout. She said it soothes her shopaholic tendencies, but she doesn't need to buy the stuff. Oh, well, good for you, but what about the poor saps that have to wander all over the store putting your stuff back that you never intended to buy? I just thought that was beyond rude.

Cindy,

I've always believed that everyone needs to work in retail and be a waiter/waitress before they ever take another job. That way everyone will understand how difficult these jobs are -- not because of the work, but because of the customers.

Having worked in retail and as a waitress for many years before or while going to college I know what it is like. So, I always bend over backwards to make the work easier for folks holding down these jobs.

It seems to have been worse, lately. There is Viscount Suites Hotel, across the street. They had a two-week Jehovah's Witness convention, there and some of those people are WEIRD!

A lot of rich, Mexican tourists are up, for the back-to-school sales. THEY were the ones, last night, who trashed the store. A group of them unstacked the patio chairs, bought Starbucks' coffees and had a little kaffeklatsch, around the front door.

One woman had two little boys, who pulled all of the gift cards off the rack and scattered them around, pushed into line, in front of people and set off all of the "Kung-Fu Hamsters". I was ready to smack their mother! I had to get the manager, to step in when they started playing with the cigarette lighters. (He speaks Spanish - I don't). Mama was too busy loading up hundreds of dollars worth of makeup and hair color, to supervise her brats.

I know that it isn't a cultural thing - most of the Mexicans that I know are nice, polite people. When I'm shopping, in Mexico, I'm polite and I have NEVER trashed anyone's store!

katl8e:

Much sympathy... from one who's been there and back again.

It may be a "rich" thing instead. I worked for many years in the China department of a major department stores and we had a little phrase to identify a certain type of irritating wealthy customer: "woman in a wolf coat." These were the types of women who would go through three dozen dinner plates to choose the two most perfect, while their brats rocketed through the crystal section unchecked... or buy pinwheel crystal wine glasses, go away and come back with a chipped one, claiming it was that way when they got it home... obviously just replacing one they've chipped in the past. It got so bad with one such customer that we marked our crystal with clear nail polish just to catch her at it.

People can be really hard to deal with. I worked in the restaurant industry for about 10 years for the extra money. Toward the end, it was making me a bitter and evil person, not the way I want to be at all.

We get a lot of tourists here in Lancaster, especially from New York and New Jersey. I say give me a New Yorker any day. They can be demanding, but if you take control and give good service, they tip extremely well. They also turn out to be very nice.

I used to hate getting groups of teenagers, and groups of old southern ladies (sorry!). They just wanted bowls of soup and water (the older crowd), and would leave a quarter. Not worth the effort.

And I do think rich people haven't got a clue, unless they had to work to get it themselves.

Some people don't seem happy unless they are making someone else miserable. Amazing how many of them go out to eat and shop!

Ooh, good suggestions. I don't think I could ever work at a store. I was at Wal-Mart the other day, and this lady left her (about) three year old daughter outside the fitting room and assumed because I was waiting in line, I would watch her. I'd never met this lady before, it was definitely bizzare.

Brenda, the consensus among all of us waiters and waitresses was that women in general don't tip worth a darn and that old women tip nothing at all. Whenever we saw a group of women come in we would beg the hostess to put them in someone else's section! Of course the most irritating customers but best tippers were the car dealers. They loved to show off their money!

And.....rich people are often the worst! They just assume that the world is full of "little people" who are here to serve them. Even when I worked in doctor's offices, the accountants said that rich people never pay their bills, but the poor people struggle and scratch and save and pay every little bit they can!

When I was in high school, I worked at Disneyland. I started in behind the scenes and then went to Main Street selling popcorn. It used to amaze me some of the questions people would ask me. There I was selling popcorn and this family came up one day and said "Excuse me, do you sell popcorn here." One time, I was stationed really close to the entrance and this lady came up to me. She was already in the park and said. "I need to get to Disneyland, can you tell me how?"
I got a lot of "Do you work here?" And my favorite. "Can you tell me where Main Street is, and where in Disneyland Walt Disney is buried?"

Having worked in the Retail and Restaurant industry in the past, I can tell you, I am a very patient and understanding customer now, because I know what the employees go through. I will also tell you that I will NEVER work in those areas again. I will have customers again here real soon (wedding video), but it will be my own business.

Keith

Between the medical field, tourism, casinos and retail, I've had to work with the public for most of my life. Frankly, I'm sick and tired of rude, inconsiderate and just plain stupid people.

As soon as my VA benefits come through, I'm going back to school and learn how to do something that doesn't require me to be nice to everyone.:tounge2:

When I used to work retail, we all decided that every person in this country should be required to spend at least a month working in retail.

One night we had a particularly bad storm, and a section of the roof of the store actually collapsed. People did not want to leave the store, even as it was completely flooding! I had 2 final customers who kept dawdling and wanted to go back for that "one more thing". I told them, as I watched a river of water coming down the main aisle, that I wasn't about to use a piece of electrical equipment (the register) while standing in water, so they could either check-out or miss out.

I worked in retail from 9/96 -2/97, and it didn't really bother me. What bothered me was that my manger was the same age as me (at the time, 19), and she figured she could go home early, do whatever while the associates worked.

As for not putting stuff back ....... I'm guilty if I want to get out of the damn store. And, I'm not saying it's right, but that is what the employees are there for..... If you don't like doing that part of the job, you shouldn't be working in that type of environment. Plan & simple.