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I work in what essentially amounts to a knick-knack store. We have Christmas, which is sometimes a nightmare, and then we have inventory, and then we restock. Between Christmas and restocking, the shelves look pretty barren because why would you ever do your annual inventory at a time when your shelves were full? Not everyone gets it.
"Has the economy been that bad for you guys?"
"I've never seen it so empty."
"Are you guys okay?"
"Where is all the STUFF?"
"Oh...I wanted [specific item] but you don't HAVE it."
Also: People who come into a store that primarily caters to Christmas shoppers and end of year shenanigans in JANUARY are a peculiar BRAND of people. They're the "January Crowd." Usually their weirdness kinda stays in a cloud around them and they float in and float out with just a few odd things here and there. But they're really strange. Straight up BIZARRE, actually.
I had a woman come in and ask for kettle corn. Unknown to a lot of people, you cannot make kettle corn outside (which is where our local guy makes it) when it's below freezing. She told us that he needs to take his head out of his ass and get back to work. She then ranted for a good 15 minutes about kettle corn and I could almost see murder in my CW's eyes.
Life story after life story after life story, they will not stop telling me their LIFE STORY.
I said "$39.10" to a customer. He said back, "Thirty-nine cents?" I said "Thirty-nine dollars and ten cents." He snipped, "I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID. YOU SAID THIRTY-NINE CENTS." I couldn't control my face when it happened. I pretty much recoiled in disgust.
I showed a customer where something was and helped him find the price on it. When he came up to the register he said "Hi." as if meeting me for the first time. He then said "You don't look like you wanna be here." I wasn't quite sure where that came from but maybe he saw me yawn? The oddest part about this whole interaction was that I spent a good five minutes helping him and then only another minute later from that, he acted like he didn't know who I was. That was a pretty weird one. At least for me.
A girl picked out about ten novelty sodas. She puts them down at the only register without a person standing at it. I walk over and she asks me if I have a bag she can put them in. In my store, no, you can't have a bag until you pay for something. But we do have baskets available. I ask her if she wants a basket so she can keep shopping without paying twice. She says yes. I arrange the bottles in the basket so she would be able to walk with it without the bottles going everywhere in it. I then leave them to shop. She never once even picks up the basket and five minutes later, my CW is ringing her out at that same register. I think my eyes rolled out of my skull.
We have this regular guy who's noted around town for being..."touched." That's apparently the nice way of putting it. He comes in and says things to us (we're mostly a bunch of women) that are borderline uncomfortable but mostly just weird. One day I had enough of him.
Guy: You're just so tiny, someone could put you in a stocking.
Me: A stocking? Is that where you would put a woman?
Guy: No! I put women in their place!
Me: Oh no. No no no no no. Nope. Nuh uh.
I had to walk away from that one. Everybody gets one. That's how I see it. Next time, the managers are having a talk with him.
BONUS:
Before January, actually rewind to Christmas. I had a pleasant exchange with a young woman until she started telling me that her identity had been stolen after her wallet went missing at a nearby amusement park. She then stated: "It only happened because they started giving out those free passes in the inner city!" I was decidedly not amused by this development in our conversation and simply stared at her until she figured out she was no longer welcome to speak to me.
Two women couldn't be arsed to wait thirty seconds for me to get someone to help them with the elevator. They decided to take their full cart down the stairs. There is now a sign stating that this activity is dangerous and will be stopped if witnessed.
"Has the economy been that bad for you guys?"
"I've never seen it so empty."
"Are you guys okay?"
"Where is all the STUFF?"
"Oh...I wanted [specific item] but you don't HAVE it."
Also: People who come into a store that primarily caters to Christmas shoppers and end of year shenanigans in JANUARY are a peculiar BRAND of people. They're the "January Crowd." Usually their weirdness kinda stays in a cloud around them and they float in and float out with just a few odd things here and there. But they're really strange. Straight up BIZARRE, actually.
I had a woman come in and ask for kettle corn. Unknown to a lot of people, you cannot make kettle corn outside (which is where our local guy makes it) when it's below freezing. She told us that he needs to take his head out of his ass and get back to work. She then ranted for a good 15 minutes about kettle corn and I could almost see murder in my CW's eyes.
Life story after life story after life story, they will not stop telling me their LIFE STORY.
I said "$39.10" to a customer. He said back, "Thirty-nine cents?" I said "Thirty-nine dollars and ten cents." He snipped, "I HEARD WHAT YOU SAID. YOU SAID THIRTY-NINE CENTS." I couldn't control my face when it happened. I pretty much recoiled in disgust.
I showed a customer where something was and helped him find the price on it. When he came up to the register he said "Hi." as if meeting me for the first time. He then said "You don't look like you wanna be here." I wasn't quite sure where that came from but maybe he saw me yawn? The oddest part about this whole interaction was that I spent a good five minutes helping him and then only another minute later from that, he acted like he didn't know who I was. That was a pretty weird one. At least for me.
A girl picked out about ten novelty sodas. She puts them down at the only register without a person standing at it. I walk over and she asks me if I have a bag she can put them in. In my store, no, you can't have a bag until you pay for something. But we do have baskets available. I ask her if she wants a basket so she can keep shopping without paying twice. She says yes. I arrange the bottles in the basket so she would be able to walk with it without the bottles going everywhere in it. I then leave them to shop. She never once even picks up the basket and five minutes later, my CW is ringing her out at that same register. I think my eyes rolled out of my skull.
We have this regular guy who's noted around town for being..."touched." That's apparently the nice way of putting it. He comes in and says things to us (we're mostly a bunch of women) that are borderline uncomfortable but mostly just weird. One day I had enough of him.
Guy: You're just so tiny, someone could put you in a stocking.
Me: A stocking? Is that where you would put a woman?
Guy: No! I put women in their place!
Me: Oh no. No no no no no. Nope. Nuh uh.
I had to walk away from that one. Everybody gets one. That's how I see it. Next time, the managers are having a talk with him.
BONUS:
Before January, actually rewind to Christmas. I had a pleasant exchange with a young woman until she started telling me that her identity had been stolen after her wallet went missing at a nearby amusement park. She then stated: "It only happened because they started giving out those free passes in the inner city!" I was decidedly not amused by this development in our conversation and simply stared at her until she figured out she was no longer welcome to speak to me.
Two women couldn't be arsed to wait thirty seconds for me to get someone to help them with the elevator. They decided to take their full cart down the stairs. There is now a sign stating that this activity is dangerous and will be stopped if witnessed.
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