Believe it or not, we sales people are NOT out to get you...

[Evannah]

I work in a clothing shop situated within a large garden centre.

We have a sale on. I was given the job of handing out fliers promoting it. I'd pretty much done a full circuit of the garden centre and only had a few more fliers to give out, so I thought I'd stand at the main entrance and give them to people as they came in. I was down to my last one. I handed it to a woman, told her about the sale, and she just looked at me blankly. I ended by telling her the location of our shop, and pointed her to it. Her response?

"I'm quite aware of where it is, I'm NOT stupid."

I just don't get it. Why are people so intent on getting offended by the things we say or do? I never once implied that she was stupid, I was just trying to be helpful. It's only been open four months, and some people only come to the garden centre once or twice a year. I know this because we get new customers who love the fact that we're here, and that they've never seen us before. Also, not everyone notices the little shops inside the garden centre.

[Mora]

I read your posts on that other site and have for a couple years. It's taken me until now to realise who you are! Derp.

Hallo! I'm glad you escaped Quidshop. It sounded hellish. Sometimes, there are c*nts in the world and front line service workers such as you will always encounter them first. I'm chuffed you haven't burned out yet from the stress. I had to leave customer service because it got to be too much so well done to you for having the strength to deal with the British General public!!

Also well done for not wadding up that leaflet and shoving it up her bum... ;-)

[Lace Neil Singer]

"I'm quite aware of where it is, I'm NOT stupid."

"Well, you're doing a pretty good impression of being stupid!"

Fantasy reply. xD Honestly, some people seem to be working hard at being offended at everything.

[morgana]

"Well, you may or may not be stupid, but you sure are rude." (Again, fantasy reply . . .)

[Evannah]

I read your posts on that other site and have for a couple years. It's taken me until now to realise who you are! Derp.

Hallo! I'm glad you escaped Quidshop. It sounded hellish. Sometimes, there are c*nts in the world and front line service workers such as you will always encounter them first. I'm chuffed you haven't burned out yet from the stress. I had to leave customer service because it got to be too much so well done to you for having the strength to deal with the British General public!!

Also well done for not wadding up that leaflet and shoving it up her bum... ;-)

Oh haha. Yep, it's me *waves* So glad I found this place.

I don't know how I stuck it at Quidshop. It was horrible. Very degrading place to work because a lot of the customers treated me like shit.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I work in a clothing shop situated within a large garden centre.

I have seen several references to "garden centre" on this forum. I always though it was an area of a store when garden supplies were sold. In the context of this post, it seems to refer to what in the US is called a shopping center. Is this correct?

[Evannah]

I have seen several references to "garden centre" on this forum. I always though it was an area of a store when garden supplies were sold. In the context of this post, it seems to refer to what in the US is called a shopping center. Is this correct?

A garden centre is usually a large building that sells garden supplies, home decor, plants, general knick-knacks, etc. There are usually a couple of shops within them too, like mine. In this one there's us, a home decor store that's a part of the shop where I work, a food hall, a restaurant, a shoe shop, a mobility chair/scooter shop, an aquarium and also some mazes and a nature reserve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_centre

[Lace Neil Singer]

I used to work in a pet store situated within a garden centre; much the same premis as Evannah cept a different type of shop. But attracting the same level of idiocy. XD

[greek_jester]

I have seen several references to "garden centre" on this forum. I always though it was an area of a store when garden supplies were sold. In the context of this post, it seems to refer to what in the US is called a shopping center. Is this correct?

Not quite. A shopping centre is a building containing a variety of different shops (or sometimes shops arranged around a pedestrianised square). A garden centre is one business on its own site, often in rural or semi-rural areas.

As the name suggests, a garden centre sells most things garden related, ranging from packets of seeds and flowerpots up to luxury sheds with all mod cons; google "Cherry Lane Garden Centres" if you'd like an example.

In recent years some centres have added things such as cafes, usually run by a separate business, in much the way you find coffee shops in larger bookshops. Some have also branched out into selling other types of goods; for instance one that I often go to also sells things like stationery, basic clothing, bedding, jarred/tinned food etc. (the local village Post Office/shop closed down). In this case the non-garden items are almost always being sold by the same business, so it would not class as a shopping centre.

[EricKei]

Some larger stores (Voldemart, the K) will have a "garden center" attached to them, as well.

[rapana1]

A garden centre is usually a large building that sells garden supplies, home decor, plants, general knick-knacks, etc. There are usually a couple of shops within them too, like mine. In this one there's us, a home decor store that's a part of the shop where I work, a food hall, a restaurant, a shoe shop, a mobility chair/scooter shop, an aquarium and also some mazes and a nature reserve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_centre

Whoa. That's a bloody big garden centre! The local one has a cafe in it, as most have taken to doing these days, but you'd never fit all that in King's Plant Barn!

[greek_jester]

Whoa. That's a bloody big garden centre! The local one has a cafe in it, as most have taken to doing these days, but you'd never fit all that in King's Plant Barn!

Eh, I've seen bigger. The central buildings vary in size, but most of the goods are outside, either on stands (as in the picture) or in a series of industrial greenhouses.

We have quite a few around here (we're semi-rural) and they range from half a square mile to a square mile. Our favourite has a series of big old farm buildings that got knocked together; the first part is purely equipment (spades, trowels, hoses, seeds, various weed killers/nutrients), the next section is "gifts" (candles, ornaments, etc.), stationery and cards, the next is clothes (practical and hard-wearing), bedding, and furnishings (including full-size displays of different rooms) and kitchen equipment (not white goods), then the final section is a strange mix of house-plants, tinned/jarred groceries and cleaning supplies/toiletries. Tacked on rather awkwardly is a purpose-built café extension, and free-standing around the back is the aquatic centre.

Of course, outside is just under a square mile of plants in various stages of growth, garden equipment ranging from plant pots and brooms, through statues, gravel and paving slabs, up to sheds of various sizes including ones set up to be outside offices, where all you need to do is get an electric cable run out to it.

Down near the end there's another building (which you can reach via a covered walkway) which is "seasonal"; patio equipment, washing lines, etc. in the summer, Xmas decorations in the winter.

If you don't tear around it usually takes a good part of the day to get around.

[wolfie]

We have quite a few around here (we're semi-rural) and they range from half a square mile to a square mile.

WTF? Those are BIG garden centres. A square mile is 640 acres (4 times the size of a standard homestead during the "opening of the prairies"), or roughly the size of 480 U.S. football fields. On the 401 to Montreal, there's a truck stop that boasts about being big - it's called the 10 Acre truck stop.

[Moirae]

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that at least half the population shouldn't be allowed to breed. The world is becoming idiocracy.

[otakuneko]

But... sales people totally are out to get me... they go and do dumb things like using the just-released new version, which is at least six months behind on bugfixes for demos instead of the mature and stable previous version... then they scream and yell when they can't get it to work... @_@