Hang on, let me just magically pull one out of my arse for you.

[journochick]

Basically I work in a convenience store. It's a little shop two minutes from my house. The majority of customers are regular customers who live in the area but we do get some god-awful ones who love to grace us with their almighty presence.

The ones who annoy me most are those who assume that a small convenience store can magically stock every single item in existence.

Take last week, for example.

Man: 'Do you have coconut?'
Me: 'No we don't I'm afraid.'
Man: 'Ground coconut?'
Me: 'I'm positive we don't sell that, but I'll have a look for you anyway.' (I don't do stock, I'm just the cashier, so some items I wouldn't know).

So I look for a few minutes, ask another member of staff, and no, we don't.

Man: 'God, this is stupid.' *stamps out.*

Well, nice to see I wasted my time over nothing.

For God's sake. If you want stuff like that, go to a SUPERMARKET.

A day later...

Woman shouts at me: 'You got son-in-law?'

'Excuse me?' Granted, I was just starting to feel offended. As a 22-year-old who has the misfortune of looking about 28, I didn't know I looked old enough to have a son-in-law. Time for the Olay, methinks.

Anyhow, the rude woman pipes up, brandishing a greeting card from the rack (which I have to add is a big selection for a small shop): 'Cards. You got one for a son-in-law?'

I step away from my till and look. I know for a fact we don't sell specific cards like this but I looked anyway just in case we did.

Me: 'Sorry, we don't have one for a son-in-law.'
Woman: 'What? None at all?'
Me: 'Well we have son, daughter, mother, father, and generic birthday cards. Oh, and sympathy ones. But son-in-law is a bit - '
Woman: 'This is stupid. Absolutely stupid.'
Me: 'Well what I was ABOUT to say is that we are a small local shop. Obscure cards are not in demand here. If we had them, they wouldn't sell. Basically all people want are general greetings - '
Woman: 'Now what am I going to do? I need one today.'
Me: 'Have you tried the post office next door? They have cards there.'
Woman: 'I'm not going there. They're rubbish. Absolute rubbish.'
Me: 'Then go to town.'
Woman: 'No. This shop is terrible. Nobody has anything here people actually want.'
Me: 'Usually, if people want a specific card, they go to a CARD SHOP. We are small convenience store. Not Clintons. If you don't want to go to town, that is your problem.'

I just walked away. Stupid old bitch.

Funnily enough, when I want a variety of specific things, I go to the supermarket. If I'm out of bread, milk and chocolate, I run to the local store. That's what it's there for. CONVENIENCE.

Guess we should start selling cards to suit absolutely everyone then? I'm guessing 'Sorry to hear your aunt's dog died' will be a top seller.

Oh, and she still bought a basket full of stuff from the 'terrible shop that doesn't have anything anybody wants.'

Terrible indeed.

[digilight]

God you get stupid ass people there. A C-Store is the basics, run in and out. You need a quart of milk for the baby at midnight, C-Store it is. You Smoked a kilo of dope, ate a car battery, drank 4 pots of coffee, or whatever your chemical needs may be and now need 400 cc's of nacho cheese stat then a C-Store is what you want. Smokes, Beer, Chew, Soda, Rubbers, sure. WTF Coconut, SIL B-Day cards at a C-Store. Maybe I'm just jaded and lack the stupid gene that seems to run rampant in so many of the customers mentioned on here but all I can say is, holy crap.

[Skandranon]

There's a convenience store near here that stocks some odd things. Only the most basic of snack foods, and no bread or milk or anything, but pliers, thermostats, bandage rolls, computer screen cleaning pads, and a small selection of romance novels. Guess they must have some intriguing standard customers.

[Becks]

Skandranon, that sounds like Bit Lots or a weird dollar store, not a convenience store.

[SuperB]

Ah, you live in my world it would seem. I get this every summer when the cabin owners start coming up. Ironically, this year we are moving away from grocery and concentrating on items the traveler, hikers and campers will buy. We use Leaning Tree for our cards and I only buy the generic greetings. The locals buy them but they aren't a huge seller so there's no way I'll buy more. Same with most of the grocery items they would like us to carry. Add to that the fact that we can't get wallmart/Sams Club/safeway prices for them and they really start bitching.