"That's what employees are for"

[Racket_Man]

(Or do and don't care.) . It ain't Mr. Sandman in Back to the Future time any more.

The funny thing is is that "scene" really has not been true for at least 35 years. around that time gas stations mostly went self-serve (gas crisis of the 1970's), retail stores cut back on employees (especially Sears with their 'centralized' 3 or 4 registers placed in the store and NO one really manning a specific dept.), and the rise of big box discount retailers like K-Mart and Wal-Mart and Target.

It has only gotten worse payroll wise.

[sms001]

has not been true for at least 35 years.

Yes, but that conflicts with my carefully constructed self-denial of aging, so I will ignore it.

[peoplesuck]

I tend to agree that if you make a mess, you clean that mess. Unless its intrinsic to the business your patroning.

However, I'm a willful sucky customer in one instance: There is a Family Mart near my house, I go there to buy various things like Coke or Mtn. Dew. They have installed in their drinks refrigator a inclined plane so the drinks move forward when you take one out. However, they did not install properly sized stops, so if you take a drink out two or three drinks behind it ram forward and fly off the shelf onto the floor. The shelf is at such a awkward angle that its hard to grab the second or third bottle before removing the first.

This is clearly a poorly implemented business process. If all the customers pick up the spilt drinks and force them back into the inclined plane then the business has no incentive to put proper stops at the bottom of the slope....

The first time I was embarassed and picked up the split drinks, the second time I thought it was silly, after that I stopped and just tell the cashier the drinks fell out of the fridge again. She smiles and says "no problem" every time......

[siskaren]

The funny thing is is that "scene" really has not been true for at least 35 years. around that time gas stations mostly went self-serve (gas crisis of the 1970's)

But that scene takes place in 1955.

[sms001]

...at least 35 years. [emp. added]

But that scene takes place in 1955.

Yeah, I think what he's saying is that the Oil Crisis was the real death blow to truly "Full Service" gas stations which happened longer ago than I said in my post (which can't be true, as that would make me 50+ years old! )
None-the-less, the thrust of the statement remains true - businesses still push, and custys often expect, employees to clean windows, check oil, fill tanks, and air tires... 'cept there's only one person doing it now instead of four.

[vikingchyk]

The cart thing drives me nuts... especially when they dump their carts in the middle of a spot (usually the one I want to park in )... no more than two spaces away from the dang cart corral. The world is full of so much lazy...

Ugh, had this happen this week at "Dealer Joseph's" - the cart corral was directly behind the spot where they dumped the cart. I didn't see the cart until I was pulling into the space (tall SUV in the space to the right) and there was someone on my tail, so I just pulled in as far as I could, then pushed it up against the curb. It was only 4" from the curb, anyway. The benefits of a 12 year old car: I don't mind ramming carts in my way Thankfully the person behind me didn't take the empty space next to me, so I was able to wrestle it out from between my bumper and the curb. Really? You couldn't push it 10 feet to the corral? Ugh.

Especially irritating when people abandon carts there, since that part of the lot is on an incline, and I've seen carts taken by the wind and get up a pretty good head of steam - I once chased & grabbed one that escaped the corral (barely in, another lazy person only put the front wheels over the threshold that is supposed to keep them from escaping : gravity + wind = runaway buggy) and was heading for some lady as she was struggling to unload her bags into her car. That would have left a mark, either in her or her car, or both

[Racket_Man]

Yeah, I think what he's saying is that the Oil Crisis was the real death blow to truly "Full Service" gas stations which happened longer ago than I said in my post (which can't be true, as that would make me 50+ years old! )
None-the-less, the thrust of the statement remains true - businesses still push, and custys often expect, employees to clean windows, check oil, fill tanks, and air tires... 'cept there's only one person doing it now instead of four.

EXACTLY

and for the record I am over 50 so I do remember the FULL service type gas stations where 2 or more employees did the tire/oil/whatever check EVERY single time you pulled in and retail stores full of helpful employees. Heck at the local Sears store the SHOE salesman knew my parents by sight and name (and I still remember his name Mr. Slokum for some reason).

Try getting that level of service today (as in you will not) unless you are at some high level pricey establishment.

[HawaiianShirts]

A few grocery trips ago, I watched some guy just shove a cart in the general direction of a cart corral. It cruised across at least ten empty parking spaces before crashing into the side of the corral frame, and the guy just left. I wanted to say something, but all that managed to come out was an angry-sounding "Lazy!" which he didn't acknowledge.

I'm sure many of you emphasize this to your offspring as well.

Indeed. In fact, we stopped at a diner for dinner a few nights ago, and when we were done, I had to explain to Little Shirts the difference between the dine-in kind of restaurant and the fast food kind of restaurant. He was all ready to gather up his dishes and take his tray to the nonexistent tray return in a restaurant where the server or a busser would soon come by to clean up for us. "It's part of their job here," I said.

Of course, with that came an explanation that it was considerate and helpful to wipe up spills and stack dirty dishes and thank the employees for the work they do, so he got bonus points for that.

The benefits of a 12 year old car: I don't mind ramming carts in my way.

I've done that, too--very slowly roll up to the cart and let the car nudge it forward a bit. My wife thought it was scandalous dangerous. My son couldn't stop laughing.

[Brojekk]

One thing that always irritated me big time...
Our store has a cart area just inside the front doors of main entrance. SCs leaving the store no longer need their carriage..they push it in the general direction of those carriages and they end up facing the side,or diagnally as they leave.
When I was a carriage jockey I had to stop my train of carriages just inside the door and tuck those wayward carriages in with the others in order to get my train in as well. Would happen at least 20 times a day.

[pinky]

Customers with that attitude wouldn't want to come to our convenience store then. Some of our customers like to make the slurpy station a mess, and sometimes I think they do it on purpose. Whenever my boss catches them, he makes the customer clean it up! Score for boss!

[vstorevigilante]

Where I work a CW was telling how some lady who had just messed up what she had straightened told her that was job security.

My first job was at a movie theatre. I started out as an usher before getting bumped up to box office (more stressful but kind of the 'coveted' position, so that was cool). Anyway, no need to detail the cleaning nightmares of usherdom.

I work at a video store now, and one time I was talking to some regulars and saying how I never get to the movies because I can't afford it. They said they never went anymore because they hated that there were ads asking them to stash their trash.

They used the 'job security' argument about that. About leaving their garbage on the floor. Never mind ushers are responsible for theatre checks, general patron concerns, cleaning up all the spilled popcorn that gets everywhere (which can truly be unavoidable so it isn't like we ever complained), and had to deal with incredibly short turnover times between the end of one showing and the start of another, with managers constantly barking at us to hurry up the cleaning - which, even if everyone threw out their garbage, still took a long time after sold-out shows. Not to mention we had to sort the garbage (organics, waste, recyclables, etc.).

If every patron took the "leaving my garbage keeps you employed" attitude... Oh my gosh. I saw red. I won't wait on those customers anymore. It was three years ago the conversation took place but it still really chaps my ass.

[vikingchyk]

One thing that always irritated me big time...
Our store has a cart area just inside the front doors of main entrance. SCs leaving the store no longer need their carriage..they push it in the general direction of those carriages and they end up facing the side,or diagnally as they leave.
When I was a carriage jockey I had to stop my train of carriages just inside the door and tuck those wayward carriages in with the others in order to get my train in as well. Would happen at least 20 times a day.

I think sometimes they think another shopper will be along soon, who would rather take a free standing cart, than try to pull one jammed onto the end of the long train (I know I would - bad shoulders, so I often cannot get them off if they are jammed even a little)

What I don't get are the people who don't even try to get them near the rest of the cart collection : they stop right in front of the door, take their bags out, and desert the cart right in the middle of everything!

[Monterey Jack]

What I don't get are the people who don't even try to get them near the rest of the cart collection : they stop right in front of the door, take their bags out, and desert the cart right in the middle of everything!

Hell, in my store, they don't even bring the carts to the door...they'll just take their groceries out and leave the cart right there at the register! Which makes me wonder why they got a cart in the first place if they bought so few groceries that they could take them away by hand...just get a frigging basket!

[Argus]

Which makes me wonder why they got a cart in the first place if they bought so few groceries that they could take them away by hand...just get a frigging basket!

Because the walk from the register to their car is shorter than their walk around the store gathering the groceries, and has less need for free hands.

[sms001]

Which makes me wonder why they got a cart in the first place

Argus' answer, plus; it is really hard to block a whole aisle while you spend fifteen minutes choosing between the 10 or 10 1/2 oz box of Super Chocolate Bombs with a puny basket. And you can't lean on them like a walker, or smash 'em into someone's ankles, or have your kids race them up and down the store, or do head dives out of them or...

Baskets are just not SC-friendly.