Don't Play "Hide the Merchandise" In My Store.

[Mike Taylor]

It's nothing traumatic, but it was damned annoying and a head scratcher besides. When I was finished with a customer in a different part of my department, I came back to video games to see one of the loss prevention guys with a stack of PS2 games in his hand and muttering, "Now where does this go?" I put them back for him and he proceeds to tell me about a group of teenagers who were picking the games up and then moving over to the next aisle and hiding them behind stuff. These were little crap $9.99 games on our bargain shelves, mind you. Not the newer PS2 titles. As the night progresses and I focus more on that side of the department, I find DVDs hidden behind computer software, CDs tucked away behind the front-most video game on a display, and so on.

The loss prevention guy watched them on camera and they didn't steal anything that he could tell.

Anyway, I thought I would share. The spoiled rich brats in this town (and we have a LOT of them) piss me off quite a bit.

[CreepyCarrie]

LOL. That reminds me of this one time when I was but a small imp, perhaps 4 or 5. I went with my dad to the drugstore and saw the cutest little stuffed dog that I wanted. I knew better than to ask my dad though, since he had given the whole "Now when we get in this store, don't ask for anything, I'm going in for one thing and coming out" speech before we got in. So I tried to hide the dog inside a bin of camera film. When my dad asked me why I was doing that, I replied that I was hiding it until I had saved up enough money to buy it, to make sure nobody bought it before I had the chance.

But yeah, hiding a whole bunch of DVDs and games seems more like teenagers being sucky.

[blas]

That's called "The Wal-Mart game"

Bored kids go to Wal-Mart and put the mascara in automotive, put motor oil in with kitchen stuff, put diapers in the young ladies clothes, put electronics with cosmetics, put pet food with diet food.......

You'd think with gas prices growing ever so high, kids wouldn't be able to afford to even go to Wal-Mart and pull that shit. Oh hell, I suppose if these kids had JOBS *cough* or better things to do, this wouldn't happen.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

That's called "The Wal-Mart game"

Bored kids go to Wal-Mart and put the mascara in automotive, put motor oil in with kitchen stuff, put diapers in the young ladies clothes, put electronics with cosmetics, put pet food with diet food.......

...put a whole fresh chicken behind canned goods on the bottom shelf, put a pack of fresh shrimps under the bread shelves....

I only got one week of vacation left, and yet I still don't miss my job.

[Jack T. Chance]

LOL. That reminds me of this one time when I was but a small imp, perhaps 4 or 5. I went with my dad to the drugstore and saw the cutest little stuffed dog that I wanted. I knew better than to ask my dad though, since he had given the whole "Now when we get in this store, don't ask for anything, I'm going in for one thing and coming out" speech before we got in. So I tried to hide the dog inside a bin of camera film. When my dad asked me why I was doing that, I replied that I was hiding it until I had saved up enough money to buy it, to make sure nobody bought it before I had the chance. :-D

Yeah, that's pretty much what I did when I was a kid making only $2.00 a week in allowance (yes, my parents WERE cheapskates, I already know this!) I'd go to the K-Mart, Zayre's, Bradlee's, Jamesway or Ames* with my parents (Wal*Mart? Target? They had yet to show up in MD back in the '70s and '80s) and find some really cool toy that I wanted that they wouldn't buy for me, that I couldn't afford with only $2.00 in my pocket, so I'd hide it in a different aisle, behind merchandise that was plentiful, but never really sold. That way, I could come back later after I'd saved up enough to buy it. And every time I went back into the store, I'd check my "secret stash" to make sure the item I wanted was still there, safe from the eyes of other kids that might want it! If a nosy employee had discovered it and put it back out, I'd grab it off the shelf and hide it again!

But then, right around the time the MASK toys were in stores, I discovered the concept of Layaway. As long as the item I wanted cost $10 or more, the folks at K-Mart or wherever would let me put it on Layaway and pay on it every week or 2! So, from that point forward, that's what I did for any item costing $10 or more that I couldn't afford to buy all at once. Once I joined the workforce, I even used Layaway to buy a video game system or 2, back when I was a part-time peon that worked very hard, but didn't make diddly-squat!

See, that's the problem with Wal*Mart and Target... they don't think about the kids who want to buy stuff with their allowance! Both chains are unfriendly to people that want to do a Layaway (Target doesn't even do Layaway AT ALL), but when I was a kid, making very little money, that was an important tool to have!

And I'm sure some of you would've loved to have seen me doing that stuff 25 years ago, so you could've told me I was a Sucky Customer! But I would've just told you to "F" OFF!

You see, there's an unspoken truth inherent in South Park... 'cause when I was a kid, we really DID curse like Cartman and the gang... although we didn't know about some of the more adult stuff the SP kids know about until we were 12 or 13.




*You'll notice that, with the sole exception of K-Mart, every single one of these store chains has gone out of business within the last 20-25 years, having been run out of business by stiff competition, first from K-Mart (which was the # 1 most successful retail store chain back in that distant era known as the 1980s), then from Wal*Mart and Target as they rose to power.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I've found books scattered around the aisle, tucked in neatly on shelves or laying on top of other books, whatever, but usually it's done by thieves clearing space to "stage" books until they feel safe to pack 'em up and run. I once found about an 18-inch space on 4 shelves in a bay (about 5 linear feet of shelf space) filled with multiple copies of best-sellers...the books that belonged there were scattered all over the aisle in such a way that you wouldn't notice if you weren't really looking at what's there.

[Despina83]

Put the little cretins to work in hardlines for one day doing reshop and they'll never do it again. They won't find it quite so amusing at the end of a looong day with sore feet and a sore back rushing to tackle an overflowing cart of reshop. I used to occasionally leave stuff sitting anywhere on a shelf, but after just one day of working on the floor, I don't care how far it is I have to walk, I'm walking the damn thing back myself. Even if it's clear on the other side of the store. It's just common sense. Why should some over-worked employee who just wants to go home, dammit, have to run my stuff back across the store? Don't even get me started on the woman who handed a cashier frozen pizzas that she decided against and simply couldn't be bothered to run back to the freezers. Why should she have to? Let one of those lazy, minimum wage-earning employees walk it back! Reminds me of the time I found a (what used to be) frozen tv dinner stuffed in the pop coolers up by the check out lanes. And then there's the time we found a gallon of milk sitting among the shower curtains and had to throw it out. Grrr....

[BookstoreEscapee]

I once found a pack of hotdogs sitting on a display...they were still cold so I put them in the nearest refrigerator, so at least they wouldn't go bad. I would have put them back where they belonged but the store was in the process of closing down and things were generally a mess anyway, and at least half the shelves were completely empty and most of the rest were nearly so.

[powerboy]

Back when I was working at Office Max. Since I was working over nights, I would hide an item behind something, if it was 1-2 left. I would go back the next day and buy it. I done that 2 times.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Discarded banana peel in my cake freezer.
Frozen SOLID. It would stand straight went I took it out.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Discarded banana peel in my cake freezer.
Frozen SOLID. It would stand straight went I took it out.

you didn't leave it next to Kara's car a couple weeks ago, did you?

[Shironu-Akaineko]

you didn't leave it next to Kara's car a couple weeks ago, did you?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~

[Becks]

Due to customers (and possibly coworkers) hiding stuff around Goodwill, I found a bunch of snazzy stuff when cleaning under the shelves.

One such item was a Winnie the Pooh picture, frame included.

LOL. That reminds me of this one time when I was but a small imp, perhaps 4 or 5. I went with my dad to the drugstore and saw the cutest little stuffed dog that I wanted. I knew better than to ask my dad though, since he had given the whole "Now when we get in this store, don't ask for anything, I'm going in for one thing and coming out" speech before we got in. So I tried to hide the dog inside a bin of camera film. When my dad asked me why I was doing that, I replied that I was hiding it until I had saved up enough money to buy it, to make sure nobody bought it before I had the chance.

What a cute story. *warm fuzzies*

[darkcrimsongoth]

Hate returing merchandise

I had to return some clothes from the fitting rooms day. I swear the clothes that were in the store were hiding from me. I couldn't find anything!

All that aside, I hate returning clothes....