What people do to show you how stupid they are.
- Thread starter LordMudd
- Start date
I know exactly what work in retail is like, so I know what it can be like at times. But that's part and parcel of the job to a certain extent. But other comments you get customer walks in late at night and ask "are you still open?"
But what is more annoying is being asked when I'm out in another shop getting asked, do you work here?, can you tell me where X is?. It might not be so bad except for the fact that I'm not wearing anything that looks like that particular shops uniform.
There's no such song.
I have come to learn that when people ask that question, they are asking it to open a conversation with you, not because they are not sure whether you work there. Don't take it literally.
(Also, fyi, the correct response to 'what would you recommend' is not 'reading the fucking menu'. Apparently.)
Maybe so, but it makes things so much easier. Imagine it like a road: orderly, you're not having to fight to get around and to where you need to go, and slower moving poeple can keep to the right while faster people use the left lane to pass. Otherwise it's like Christmas week where everybody is just everywhere and wondering around like bewildered jackasses. You'd think they'd never been shopping in their life.
Ah, yes, people who hear you have a talent for something and then want you to do something for them for free. It's one of the few times I have no problem whatsoever saying NO.
I remember a conversation through e-mail with a potential employer, that began something like this:
I couldn't not make the scheduled interview, so I asked if being a little late was okay, or if I needed to reschedule, or if I need not bother (in other words, I wasn't no longer in the candidate pool for this), and the reply was:
"Yes."
"Yes" I can be late? "Yes" I need to reschedule? "Yes" I shouldn't even bother?
Apparently answering simple questions is rocket science
I couldn't not make the scheduled interview, so I asked if being a little late was okay, or if I needed to reschedule, or if I need not bother (in other words, I wasn't no longer in the candidate pool for this), and the reply was:
"Yes."
"Yes" I can be late? "Yes" I need to reschedule? "Yes" I shouldn't even bother?
Apparently answering simple questions is rocket science
Maybe it was all the double negatives that confused him?
Dunning-Kruger effect.
Italian Navy motto "Torpedo the Dam, full speed astern!"
CCC.
Generally, people who work at grocery stores don't do this at other grocery stores although I'm sure there are probably a few exceptions here and there.
Having worked in a grocery store for a few years once, I can attest to having experienced all of the above from customers on a daily basis.
"The customer twist" was a term I coined to describe a customer who picks something up from a neatly arranged shelf (like a box of cereal), looks at it, and then very carefully puts it back where they got it from--but facing backwards.
My early years of grocery store employ have taught me how to use some common sense and treat emplyees better. I put things back where I got them from, facing the correct way. Sometimes if I pull an item off a shelf already faced, I pull another forward to replace the one I took. If I see an item where it doesn't belong and it's in a spot I'm going to in another isle, I'll take it with me and put it where it goes. I'm nice to the employees and don't blame them, unless they are clearly in the blame (like the Taco Bell employee who once gave a friend freebie and then the manager heard it and said now I have to get one because its not fair and you can't do that). I put the handhled baskets back and may even pick others up along my way to the exit. I put shopping carts where they belong and in outside cart holders unless raining heavily, and if I need a cart I'll bring one from outside unless raining.
Don't show me how stupid you are because I don't want to see it because I DON'T CARE, so go show someone who cares!
Like the idiot who speeds to cut in front of you only to stop and turn into a driveway when you are going straight.
Or the person who says to you "If someone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it to?" Why would someone be stupid enough to ask that in the first place?
CCC.
I hate when people do that! Same with tailgaters. I'm not going to drive any faster when you people do that. In fact I'll just drive that much slower 
.Hell, I get it and I look nothing like the people working in the store!
Well-meaning confused person: "Excuse me, do you work here?"
Me: "Umm... no. Why would you think I work here? I'm wearing a pink My Little Pony shirt, a pair of khaki shorts, carrying a shopping basket, and this is a Target."
Usually the response is "you looked like you knew what you were doing," which is both a compliment and a sad statement on retail service.
I've run into that one a couple of times! One very recently
. I was at a store with a friend and someone asked me if I worked there... I looked at her incredulously and let her know that I didn't. Same with the other time. It's priceless when it happens.Used to work retail, at a grocery store, as a bagger, so I have the patience for the most part... but it's still rather strange when it happens.
Sorry, but I really wanted to get home.
I think the majority of people who work in grocery stores (or any retail store) do this. Many customers also do this, but some days they felt like a rarity.
One of the worst things was when customers picked up perishable items (like meat, produce, dairy, and frozen goods), then decided later that they don't want it, and just dropped it off far from where they got it from. By the time an employee discovered it--usually hours later or even the following day--the item was spoiled and had to be thrown away. If done enough times, a store passes the cost of all those losses on to the customers by raising prices.
I still find myself doing that stuff today.
It's not a matter of having perfect eyesight or being able to see fine print it's a matter of being able to SEE.
I had someone come to my counter the other day, she looked around and asked me where our hamburger was. It was right in front of her. If she's so vision impaired that she can't see the bright-red ground beef that's right in front of her then I'd love to know how she was able to drive to the store in the first place or navigate around the store and select items without any obvious means of aid.
And I doubt fully half of the customers I encounter suffer from a serious visual impairment.
No, it's that people are stupid, more likely lazy and don't want to do anything themselves or absorb information. Most of the time they barely want to look past the tip of their own nose.
"Are you out of these?" (Looking at the empty spot in a case where a pan obviously is missing)
"No, if you look three feet in front of you, you'll see someone behind me working on filling a tray of meat. Hmmmm connection between that and the empty space in front of you?"
I do stuff like this all of the time, there's so often going through another store I'll find myself facing the shelf where I just pulled an item off. It's so subconscious.
How do you know she drove? Is there no other way to get to the store?
Also... I would class "hamburger" as a disc-shaped thing, not as a tray full of ground meat; maybe it wasn't what she was expecting to see either?
How do they know the tray wasn't for something else? (How big is the store - could there be other areas with empty spots that aren't immediately visible from where the customer was?) Some shops make a habit of removing empty-and-will-not-be-refilled trays for various reasons.
