Crazy Can Lady

[Dreamstalker]

Can't remember if I've posted this before

I can't count her as a 'customer', but there's no section for 'sucky leeches' so it goes here.

She wears a conical straw hat and multiple layers of arm protection (sometimes she even has plastic gloves). I'm not sure if she's homeless, but I've seen her literally all over town picking through nasty dumpsters for cans. She smells horrible, and I'm not sure why she hasn't been banned (I saw her washing her hands in the water fountain, and once I saw her molesting the produce)...mom thinks she probably has been banned from every other redemption place in town. The grocery store can ban her on health reasons, the question is does SM want to? I'd kinda like to find out how many complaints the store has about her (I know there are at least a few because I witnessed some of them). She also steals our precious supply of plastic bags...for what, I don't know and don't want to. She touched my bare arm once and I swear that spot was itching for an hour afterward O_o

She will monopolize the bottle machines for an hour or more, and every time she comes in one of them breaks. When it does, she will try to physically grab the nearest employee to fix it. Only a handful of us know how to clear a jam (I think you're supposed to shut the machine down before groping inside it, which nobody ever does, but I'm not about to get myself mauled; bottle SCs stand too close to the machine when someone's fixing it and I don't want to be the time they decide to 'helpfully' hit the shiny green button).

Night manager P absolutely hates CCL. She was in last night (somehow she got her grubby paws on two huge water-cooler bottles), and the can machine jammed. P and I are over at the manager's podium (she's counting cash for a drop, I'm serving as another pair of eyes while staying away from the frigid air near the selfscans) and CCL comes over and starts yammering (interspersed with grunts) "Machine! Fix! Fix! Broken! You fix!" and starts pawing at P. I'm wearing gloves, so can head her off; I'm not touching her, just waving my hands to intercept. Both of us are repeating "You need to WAIT. Someone will fix it. WAIT!" Eventually she wanders off; P then said she was waiting for CCL to touch me or the podium as then she would be able to throw her out.

Later P finds that one of the large bottles is a brand we don't even take back (we can only take the brand we sell).

[Ezio]

I'm sensing a mental issue here. About how old is this woman?

Your SM is an idiot not to ban her. How many times has she broken the machine and how much does it cost to repair it each time? What is his motive for not banning her?

[Dreamstalker]

She's probably in her 50s at least. My store tends to attract a 'clientele' that the boutique grocery in town would toss out on their ears, probably because we're the only other store in town (and somehow SM thinks that means we can't ban anyone...on the contrary, we should if they are a health hazard or food-safety risk).

[Pagan]

Quoth Dreamstalker

She wears a conical straw hat and multiple layers of arm protection (sometimes she even has plastic gloves).

Why do I get the feeling that if you look under that hat, you'd find tinfoil?

[bbbr]

There were "customers" in the grocery store I used work (escaped from retail after 15.5 years as a p/t front end manager...) who would smell horrendously and squawk loudly the moment a can machine went down and wouldn't shut up till it was running again. We kept a bottle of FeBreeze on hand to cut the stench down once they cashed out.

For added fun- occasionally one of my service clerks (general purpose bag boys/carriage grabbers/what else was needed workers) would call out sick and I was allowed to shut the machines down as they filled up since i was "short handed" and had more important things to do. Those were wonderful nights as I got to tell em off without getting in trouble

[Dreamstalker]

I don't know if there's a way to actually shut the machines down aside from going behind the lotto dispenser and finding the plugs. I've yelled at CCL more than once about taking plastic bags.

Mom's complained many times (to the wrong person IMO; the CSDH can be too concerned with making customers happy--this woman is NOT a customer). She's not sure if going to corporate would do anything--other than let them yell at the store peeps--as it needs to be handled on a store level. I'll tell her to talk to SM next time. Now that I know P (as well as more than one of the produce guys) has issues with CCL I might be able to get us all to go to SM about her.