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I work in a clothing department store.
I'm Here!
At the store I work at, the registers are in what we call quads. There's three counters in a square shape, with a register at each corner. I was at one side, dealing with a line. I heard someone walk to the other side, facing my back, but assumed she was just fussing and getting her stuff together before she left.
Then I hear a bag rattle. I start to get suspicious, but think there's no way someone would willingly ignore an obvious line where other customers are still queuing at, and stand on the wrong side. Then I hear the bag rattle louder. There's no way I'm going to turn around and acknowledge her now. I don't indulge that kind of attitude.
Finally two customers later, I hear "Are you only taking people from that side?" I turn around and act surprised to see her, then say, "Yep, that's where the line is." She was perfectly nice to me once it was her turn again, but seriously? People can be crazy.
Closing Times Don't Apply to Me
There was someone new, and she didn't know to lock the doors at close. I headed over, but by the time I get there, a family had just entered. Immediately I call, "Sorry, we're closed." The Mom asks when the store closed, then prepared to leave. The dad, however, started to argue.
"She just came in from out of the country last night and needs a blazer. Can't you accommodate us?"
In what took nearly five minutes, with me explaining how all the registers are being closed while we're speaking and how the store was already closed, and we needed to finish recovery and whatnot, eventually he left. My managers fully support closing time and actively help kick out late shoppers.
Who has a jacket emergency at nine o'clock at night? Now I stalk that door so I can guarantee it's locked on time.
Rules are for other people
For Mother's Day, there were two coupons released at the same time, one was $10 off a $10 purchase, and the other was $10 off a $25 purchase. Many customers came in with both of them, and wanted to do two transactions to use them both. Not a problem. This lady though, just irritated me.
She walks up to the register and throws a shirt and a pair of pants at me. I ring them up, then she thrusts the two coupons at me. If you're rude to me, I'm not going to volunteer any extra, so I just tell her, "Sorry, you can only use one per purchase."
"That's ridiculous! It doesn't say that." So I point it out to her where it does, in clear letters, 'one coupon per transaction'. It is the very first thing in the fine print. Then she grabs her coupons, yells "Fine. Then just skip it." I void out the purchase, then she gets an idea. It was almost cartoony how her expression changed. "I'll just get this here and get the other one at another register." So I rering her up, then let her go on her way.
I could have done all that right there, but my rule for working is to reward the good customers and not the rude ones.
Awesome Child
I walked into the fitting room nearest the swimsuits (always a disaster), and I see a 10ish year old girl picking up the swimsuits and hanging them on hangers. I start talking to her and ask what she's doing. She got bored waiting for her mom to try on clothes, and since all those 'rude people' didn't know they were supposed to hang their things up, she was going to. I tried to talk her out of it but she was insistent, so she and I chatted until her mom was done. Then I made a point to speak to her mom and tell her how awesome her daughter was. I also gave her an extra discount on her stuff.
People who raise children like that deserve to be rewarded.
I'm Here!
At the store I work at, the registers are in what we call quads. There's three counters in a square shape, with a register at each corner. I was at one side, dealing with a line. I heard someone walk to the other side, facing my back, but assumed she was just fussing and getting her stuff together before she left.
Then I hear a bag rattle. I start to get suspicious, but think there's no way someone would willingly ignore an obvious line where other customers are still queuing at, and stand on the wrong side. Then I hear the bag rattle louder. There's no way I'm going to turn around and acknowledge her now. I don't indulge that kind of attitude.
Finally two customers later, I hear "Are you only taking people from that side?" I turn around and act surprised to see her, then say, "Yep, that's where the line is." She was perfectly nice to me once it was her turn again, but seriously? People can be crazy.
Closing Times Don't Apply to Me
There was someone new, and she didn't know to lock the doors at close. I headed over, but by the time I get there, a family had just entered. Immediately I call, "Sorry, we're closed." The Mom asks when the store closed, then prepared to leave. The dad, however, started to argue.
"She just came in from out of the country last night and needs a blazer. Can't you accommodate us?"
In what took nearly five minutes, with me explaining how all the registers are being closed while we're speaking and how the store was already closed, and we needed to finish recovery and whatnot, eventually he left. My managers fully support closing time and actively help kick out late shoppers.
Who has a jacket emergency at nine o'clock at night? Now I stalk that door so I can guarantee it's locked on time.
Rules are for other people
For Mother's Day, there were two coupons released at the same time, one was $10 off a $10 purchase, and the other was $10 off a $25 purchase. Many customers came in with both of them, and wanted to do two transactions to use them both. Not a problem. This lady though, just irritated me.
She walks up to the register and throws a shirt and a pair of pants at me. I ring them up, then she thrusts the two coupons at me. If you're rude to me, I'm not going to volunteer any extra, so I just tell her, "Sorry, you can only use one per purchase."
"That's ridiculous! It doesn't say that." So I point it out to her where it does, in clear letters, 'one coupon per transaction'. It is the very first thing in the fine print. Then she grabs her coupons, yells "Fine. Then just skip it." I void out the purchase, then she gets an idea. It was almost cartoony how her expression changed. "I'll just get this here and get the other one at another register." So I rering her up, then let her go on her way.
I could have done all that right there, but my rule for working is to reward the good customers and not the rude ones.
Awesome Child
I walked into the fitting room nearest the swimsuits (always a disaster), and I see a 10ish year old girl picking up the swimsuits and hanging them on hangers. I start talking to her and ask what she's doing. She got bored waiting for her mom to try on clothes, and since all those 'rude people' didn't know they were supposed to hang their things up, she was going to. I tried to talk her out of it but she was insistent, so she and I chatted until her mom was done. Then I made a point to speak to her mom and tell her how awesome her daughter was. I also gave her an extra discount on her stuff.
People who raise children like that deserve to be rewarded.
I ignore them until they figure out how to use their voice. I'm horribly rude that way. 
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