These boxes are the worst part of my job

[Boozy]

This woman wasn't even a customer, but her attitude was so classically SC that I'm putting the story in here. If anyone disagrees, please report me to me.

I've posted more stories about people wanting our empty cardboard boxes on delivery days than I have about people actually buying our products. My customers are usually great, but these "freebie box whores" as I've come to call them can be really nasty.

My co-worker was moving a few weekends ago, so when she came in to help me with the delivery, she asked if we could set aside all the boxes for her to take home, instead of putting them in the cardboard compactor for recycling. No problem, I say.

Within an hour, we have a large stack of boxes, and people are walking by and eyeing them. Some of them have the brass ones to actually grab a stack and start walking off with them, without even asking. My co-worker, who's feisty, chased them all down and retrieved them.

Then this woman comes over. She's polite at first...

SC: Are you going to throw away these boxes, or could I have them?
CW: Actually, these boxes have already been spoken for. Sorry.
SC: (getting testy) You mean you can actually reserve ALL these boxes?
CW: First come, first serve. You can try again next Tuesday if you'd like.
SC: (really bitchy now) I don't see what is so special about this person who is getting ALL these boxes, but I think I should be allowed some too. That's only FAIR.
CW: Actually, ma'am, I'm the one taking the boxes. I work here, I've unpacked them all, separated them from the inserts, and took care to stack them neatly for easy removal. And I need them all for my move. These are mine.
SC: (raising her voice) That's not RIGHT! You should offer them to customers first!
CW: (shrinking back a bit) I suppose I could spare one or two....

This is where I jump in. I'm pissed off now, because I've never seen this woman before in my life, and I've been working for this store for 4 years. So despite her idiotic assertion, she's no "customer"....she's just a random bitch after something for free. Secondly, I don't like people browbeating my staff into submission.

Me: (using my extra polite voice) Excuse me for interrupting, but I don't think you understand. These boxes are not yours. They belong to [Co-Worker]. When you ask her for these boxes, you are asking her for a favour.
SC: These should go to customers first!
Me: (fake embarassment) Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you were a customer, and I should have been offering assistance. Let me help you select a bottle or two of wine. Come on in. We have a beautiful new Bordeaux blend I'd like to show you. It's $70, but worth every penny....
SC: (stammering) I don't have time for that today. I don't have time for this. But this isn't right. Not fair.

She wandered off muttering about the injustice of it all.

My co-worker was totally willing to give up a few boxes if she'd bought that Bordeaux, too. There's a sales incentive for that product, and I was going to credit her the sale. Would have made for some expensive boxes, though.

[blas]

My head hurts.

That sounds just like the people who only go to certain stores to dig in the dumpster and recycling compactors, and then bitch if someone calls the cops or if there isn't anything in there so they go inside the store to whine.

[Evil Queen]

I used to get the same thing when I worked at Smith's. And I was primarily in the bakery!

[marty]

Makes me glad we have a backroom for the boxes and a lock on the dumpster.

[Crow The Robot]

Nicely played. I hate people like that, i get boxes from the liquor stor but I always buy some beer or wine, so I am an actual customer, not just somebody looking to score some free boxes.

[Nephy]

Lmao, after realizing it was a liquor store you're talking about, it would have been awesome for her to have the boxes, and get the weird looks from her neighbors for having that many alchohol boxes. I could see it now
"Wow, Ms. Snootyface next door really likes her wine, huh?"

I get customers asking us all the time if we have any boxes that they could have. I'm usually a good girl and go to the back to see if any of my employees were too lazy to crush their boxes. Usually we don't have any uncrushed boxes, so they have to leave empty handed and pouty.

What's worse is I work in Boulder, and extremely eco-friendly* town. So people hear that we crush our boxes and jump to the conclusion that we just throw them away, upon which they feel the need to berate us for "hating our planet". Uh, dude, we crush them and put them in bales so they can be recycled, calm the hell down and go eat your tofu!

*Friendly to the environment at least, not to other human beings that inhabit their precious planet with them.

[AdminAssistant]

During my recent move I was lamenting my lack of boxes, when a friend (PhillyBoy from previous threads) said, "Well, why don't you just go to stores and ask for some? I did." I got that 'look' (the one that makes men cower in corners) and BLASTED him. #1 It's annoying - it used to annoy the hell out of me when I worked retail. #2 He was also moving - and hiring movers! As in paying $1200 for other people to move him across the state. I told him that if he could hire movers, he could pay for some freaking boxes.

But this guy was also a horrific SC at times. I've actually been so embarrassed by him that I walked out of the store.

[KiaKat]

Oh goddess...the boxes...

I spent four hours last night breaking down boxes and cutting cardboard.

>.<

My hands are THE PAIN! OH THE PAIN! right now. And sadly, I didn't have a co-worker I could actually get to help me.

The broken glass didn't help either. We wouldn't have been able to give any of these boxes away, due to the broken glass.

[Apathy]

Ah, the entitlement minded customer.
People have a skewed concept of fairness. As in: Fair = Unbalanced in my favor

[Gabrielle Proctor]

I recently went around and asked retailers for boxes, but that was because we were moving the hobbyshop. It turns out, Hobby Lobby keeps all of it's boxes! No joke. They use them and then ship them back to corporate to be packed with more inventory.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

We no longer save boxes for customers. That came to a halt after we accidentally threw out boxes a customer called in and asked for, and he went absolutely apeshit when told we had no boxes for him.

And I for one couldn't be happier.

We used to have come in and take our empty boxes off the salesfloor while we were filling trucks, but then he got too bold and went into the backroom so we put the kibosh on that.

[bloodrose]

Heh, I was reading this and thinking what's the big deal with those boxes? Then I see that they're wine boxes - it makes more sense; those things are damn good for packing glasses and you need a lot of 'em. The recycling center near my place has giant dumpsters full of cardboard boxes so I usually dive there for some - no one has told me off yet and it's pretty clean since they're dumpsters used only for cardboard boxes.

If I were you, I'd start lying to the customers saying, "No, we send these back to the wineries to reuse." And if they bitched, "can you just spare one?" you could be all like, "No, they winery will charge us for it." Oooorr... you could go with the radical honesty movement and just say "No, I don't really like you and I don't want to spend the effort giving you something."

[bainsidhe]

We used to have come in and take our empty boxes off the salesfloor while we were filling trucks, but then he got too bold and went into the backroom so we put the kibosh on that.

Whatta jerk, this guy ruining it for the rest of us. This is exactly how I got moving boxes (sans the back room). I went during overnights when stockmen were loading the shelves, and I just helped myself to the broken-down boxes. Nobody cared as long as I wasn't in someone's way or annoying.

[jedimaster91]

I've asked for boxes at Kroger. But of course, I don't go all Sucky Customer if they don't have any.

[nomorecarts]

Fred Meyer usually leaves their egg boxes out so customers can take them

My store doesn't save boxes for people, except for sometimes an associate will be moving and have some held out of the baler, and they probably hold them out if a customer calls, but they get into the baler pretty quick, because we have more than 1 bale of them every day, and our back room isn't big enough to have a bunch of crap there