I was sucky 'cos I asked "THE Question"!

[CaroPhoenix]

What question was that? It was the dreaded .... "Do you work here?" Question.

I was at Torrid. Every time I go there, the workers don't wear namtags (or they hide them on themselves). But I did have a nice conversation with the workers & manager.

(However, I have to return tomorrow as soon as they open 'cos they didn't remove the ink securtiy tag thingee. *le sigh* GRRRRR).

[Becks]

I don't think you were sucky. It's not as if they were wearing uniforms OR visible nametags...

(Tough thing, though, since I have mentioned customers asking me if I worked at places... :shuffling off to ponder: )

[CaroPhoenix]

And I've had people ask me if I work at certain places (even at places where I actually work and I'm wearing a name tag). That's why I felt I had to report my lapse of better judgement.

[Becks]

It's all good.

[powerboy]

No NO NO, you do not suck for that. It is the employee's fault. I hate when the cashier does not remove the security tags from clothes. Had that happen to me a few times. Infact, just recently, I stopped by the store to buy a long sleeve shirt, and ofcourse I tried it on, and felt the tag. But it didn't clicked in my mind, when I didn't see the cashier remove it

[Demolition Man]

I don't think you were sucky. It's not as if they were wearing uniforms OR visible nametags...

(Tough thing, though, since I have mentioned customers asking me if I worked at places... :shuffling off to ponder: )

What is even worse is when you are at your work in normal street clothing and customers STILL expect you to help them. This has happened to me several times. I literaly have to stutter to them that I.. AM... NOT... ON... THE... C.. L... O... C...K before they get it that I'm just there to perhaps get my paycheck or pick soemthing up myself.

Yeesh... its like as if I don't have a life according to them and that I am a robot there just for THEIR pathetic little insignifigant needs.

[CanadaGirl]

How did you even get out the door with the security tag still attached? Usually those things beep if you go past the sensors at the door.

[Cyanocobalamin]

CanadaGirl: If you saw my store in action, and the EAS gate at the door goes off, the customer keeps walking. We never have extra cashiers for someone to step off the register, take the offending item and deactivate the tag. It's gotten to where hardly anybody even looks up when it goes off. (As I am a stocker I'm usually too far away from the door to come up in time and see what's going on.) And this is what teaches thieves that it's OK to rip us off because nobody will do anything!

Yep, it throws me for a loop when the employees look the same as the customers! In this case I try to watch in a non-creepy way who looks like they are doing bonafide shopping and who is doing work like filling shelves or ringing up people.

[phillippbo]

It's gotten to where hardly anybody even looks up when it goes off.

Back when I worked at Wally World, we had practical joksters (not me, I swear - don't look at me like that, I would never - well, okay, that one time, but - not anymore - sometimes, maybe - okay, it was me) that would take one of the security tags (the little white ones that get stuck on CD's and such) and do one of a few things:

Put it on the floor sticky-side up so that it would get stuck to someone's shoe;

Drop it on the floor between the sensor things by the door;

Or slap one on the sensor things themselves (that one took three hours to figure out - nobody thinks to look ON the sensor).

On top of that, there were at least two days where it got stuck (not from a security tag, it just wouldn't stop going off). Over and over and over and over and over and over again it would say it's spiel. We asked management to turn it off (which was entirely possible), but they told us they couldn't, get this, because someone might steal something. Now, after further prodding, it was revealed that they were not allowed under any circumstances to turn it off because Bentonville wanted an accurate count for how many times it went off, and would log any time turned off with suspicion (read: manager is stealing - out the front door - when the back door is closer to the merchandise, has no security tag detector, the alarm can be turned off by a manager, alarm off time is not logged, and any and every employee knows what has a security tag on it, where it is, and how to deactivate it). Sheesh. At any rate, more than 10 years later I still have what it says memorized:

*BING* "We're sorry, you have activated Wal-Mart's 'Inventory Control System'. Please step back and an associate will help you. Thank you."

Does doing what I said above with the security tags make me evil? An SC? Well, they shouldn't leave a box with over 30,000 of them within easy reach of me, then....

[powerboy]

How did you even get out the door with the security tag still attached? Usually those things beep if you go past the sensors at the door.

Well it went off, and ofcourse the door greeter just waved us out.

[BookstoreEscapee]

CanadaGirl: If you saw my store in action, and the EAS gate at the door goes off, the customer keeps walking. We never have extra cashiers for someone to step off the register, take the offending item and deactivate the tag. It's gotten to where hardly anybody even looks up when it goes off. (As I am a stocker I'm usually too far away from the door to come up in time and see what's going on.) And this is what teaches thieves that it's OK to rip us off because nobody will do anything!

Yep, it throws me for a loop when the employees look the same as the customers! In this case I try to watch in a non-creepy way who looks like they are doing bonafide shopping and who is doing work like filling shelves or ringing up people.

We tried but sometimes it's hard, especially when it's only you at the register and you've got a line. And the people that came back were obviously not stealing, and the people who were stealing sure as hell weren't going to come back! Half the time it was a tag on their clothes. I worked in a bookstore. If they were coming in, or hadn't bought anything, our first question was usually "are you wearing anything new?"

Old Navy has the tags sewn into their pants and you're supposed to cut it out. I had a pair of pants that had one but I didn't realize it. I had been wearing them to work at least once a week for months, and then one day I'm changing the displays next to the door and I keep setting the thing off and I couldn't figure out why. So I went into the bathroom and checked the seam in the waistband and there was the tag. I cut it out and no more beeping. Weird.

I've had something that they left the tag on once and it didn't set off the alarm. I guess it was buried enough in the bag. But they had a sale on bras so I bought a few and put a couple of them away. Then some months later I took one of them out and realized the tag was still there. Of course I didn't have the receipt any more but I took it back anyway and explained the situation. The girl wouldn't take it off cuz she didn't want to get in trouble. So she tells me to go to the customer service counter on the other side of the store and "maybe" they'll do it. I ended up just taking it home and put it into a plastic bag on the concrete floor of my basement, and took a hammer to it. Worked pretty well, though I don't recommend trying it on an ink tag

[NightAngel]

It's not really sucky that you asked.

I have quite a few people ask me at the new job because we don't really have a "uniform" exactly. We do have name tags but it's one of those horrid lanyards- the darn thing hangs down and gets in my way all the time so I'm constantly shoving it in my shirt.
Plus, I have a fear of an irate customer someday choking me or jerking me around with it. It happened to a girl at a BBV in my area about 2 years ago so it isn't really an unfounded concern.

So, personally I don't mind people asking me if I work there. I see it as a trade off for getting to wear my own clothes.