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I work part-time evenings and weekends for a nationally known retail DIY automobile parts store. I work a full-time job as well. When I started working there over a year ago, they were looking for two guys to work the counter. They are still looking for one more person.
Since being understaffed has become the normal SOP, I was working the store alone while my boss was getting things done in the back. Older guy comes in at about 5:30 PM, and immediately asks if the part that was promised him at 6:00 PM might have already arrived early. I informed him that the part had not yet arrived. Customer asks where our "Help!" section is: where there are lots of odds and ends, and bits and pieces that fit lots of different applications but none a perfect match to OEM. Stuff that people can sort'a make work. He appears to just want to kill 30 minutes or so before his part arrives. I point it out to him, and he wanders around for a few minutes.
I've been answering phone calls and getting parts from behind the counter for other customers. After 5 minutes of wandering around, older guy comes up to counter and shows me a broken plastic interior clip and asks me where they are. I show him the racks that contain all of these little parts: they cost about $2.50 for a pack. For the amount of profit we make on these little clips, I've already invested more time than I get paid for. His ordered part isn't going to arrive for another 25 minutes.
I help a few more customers, and answer calls. Delivery driver actually gets here early, and I let the older guy know that his part is here. After looking through the area where we have all of the little plastic clips, he asks me if I can look up which clip is for his vehicle. Let's just say that our company does not do a brisk business in bits and pieces, and we do not carry much in the trim area. We do not have a way to look up which clip might work for any given application. I tell him that I don't have a way to look up his clip; it was the truth.
Rather than being happy that his part got here earlier than promised, he was grumpy that I couldn't look up his broken clip. He paid for his ordered part, and left declaring that he would check if our direct competitor two doors down might have in stock. It happens a lot. We don't have something in stock: we can't stock everything, but the guys next door sometimes happen to have things we don't and vice versa. It works both ways. No big deal.
Here is where it gets frustrating. Customer comes back about half an hour later with a small packet of the clips with the competitor's logo on the bag. He's got this look on his face; it isn't going to be pleasant. He proceeds to inform me that he got the clips he was looking for at our competitor. Implying that I probably have them too.
He then proceeds to lecture me about how the counter girl two doors down helped him find the part he was looking for, and asking me if I understood what he was saying. He kept emphasizing that she HELPED him, that she came out from behind the counter and HELPED him, and asking if I understood what he was saying to me.
He did this several times, essentially implying that I wasn't worth the minimum wage they pay me for this retail job, and that he was entitled to my undivided attention while I held his hand looking for a $2.50 pack of clips that I don't have in stock. I've never flipped off a customer in my life, but I just about did then. When he repeatedly asked me if I understood what he was saying, I had to fight mightily not to sarcastically reply, "Yes, Mastah, I undastand. Thank you, Mastah. Thank you!"
Those stupid cheap little plastic clips are on the floor so you can help YOURSELF. Alternators, starters, brake parts, etc. are behind the counter. My main job is to get those for people. If he was the only guy in the store, and my boss was able to help the people that really needed help, maybe, just maybe, if you weren't already acting like a douche, I might get down on my knees to look at plastic interior clips and point out some that might be close to what you are looking for. It is interactions like this that make me dream of the day I can quit this retail gig, and spend that time at home with my family. That's a few years away, however.
Since being understaffed has become the normal SOP, I was working the store alone while my boss was getting things done in the back. Older guy comes in at about 5:30 PM, and immediately asks if the part that was promised him at 6:00 PM might have already arrived early. I informed him that the part had not yet arrived. Customer asks where our "Help!" section is: where there are lots of odds and ends, and bits and pieces that fit lots of different applications but none a perfect match to OEM. Stuff that people can sort'a make work. He appears to just want to kill 30 minutes or so before his part arrives. I point it out to him, and he wanders around for a few minutes.
I've been answering phone calls and getting parts from behind the counter for other customers. After 5 minutes of wandering around, older guy comes up to counter and shows me a broken plastic interior clip and asks me where they are. I show him the racks that contain all of these little parts: they cost about $2.50 for a pack. For the amount of profit we make on these little clips, I've already invested more time than I get paid for. His ordered part isn't going to arrive for another 25 minutes.
I help a few more customers, and answer calls. Delivery driver actually gets here early, and I let the older guy know that his part is here. After looking through the area where we have all of the little plastic clips, he asks me if I can look up which clip is for his vehicle. Let's just say that our company does not do a brisk business in bits and pieces, and we do not carry much in the trim area. We do not have a way to look up which clip might work for any given application. I tell him that I don't have a way to look up his clip; it was the truth.
Rather than being happy that his part got here earlier than promised, he was grumpy that I couldn't look up his broken clip. He paid for his ordered part, and left declaring that he would check if our direct competitor two doors down might have in stock. It happens a lot. We don't have something in stock: we can't stock everything, but the guys next door sometimes happen to have things we don't and vice versa. It works both ways. No big deal.
Here is where it gets frustrating. Customer comes back about half an hour later with a small packet of the clips with the competitor's logo on the bag. He's got this look on his face; it isn't going to be pleasant. He proceeds to inform me that he got the clips he was looking for at our competitor. Implying that I probably have them too.
He then proceeds to lecture me about how the counter girl two doors down helped him find the part he was looking for, and asking me if I understood what he was saying. He kept emphasizing that she HELPED him, that she came out from behind the counter and HELPED him, and asking if I understood what he was saying to me.
He did this several times, essentially implying that I wasn't worth the minimum wage they pay me for this retail job, and that he was entitled to my undivided attention while I held his hand looking for a $2.50 pack of clips that I don't have in stock. I've never flipped off a customer in my life, but I just about did then. When he repeatedly asked me if I understood what he was saying, I had to fight mightily not to sarcastically reply, "Yes, Mastah, I undastand. Thank you, Mastah. Thank you!"
Those stupid cheap little plastic clips are on the floor so you can help YOURSELF. Alternators, starters, brake parts, etc. are behind the counter. My main job is to get those for people. If he was the only guy in the store, and my boss was able to help the people that really needed help, maybe, just maybe, if you weren't already acting like a douche, I might get down on my knees to look at plastic interior clips and point out some that might be close to what you are looking for. It is interactions like this that make me dream of the day I can quit this retail gig, and spend that time at home with my family. That's a few years away, however.
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