Ho! Ho! No!

[Trixie]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I'm currently a retail warrior for more years than I'd like to admit and have had plans to escape for almost as long. I have a good feeling about 2010 though!

I've had stuff happen that I always think would be good to share here and just never got around to posting it. But this past week I've had some people that just pushed it over the edge for me. So I share.

Get Your Jolly On

Starring
Me:
Old Lady:OL

We were fairly busy this day, busy enough that I'd have a line build up every few minutes. Old Lady comes up and acts like she's the only one in the store. Takes her time putting the stuff on the counter, counting out the change to pay, just moving slow and a line builds up behind her. Towards the end of her transaction this little exchange took place.

OL: Are you ready for the holidays? (I hate this question almost more than anything.)
Me: Ready for them to be over.
OL: (starring at me) Shame on you! You should be jolly.
Me: (Did she just seriously tell me I need be jolly?) Well, sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.

I can't believe I came out with that but I don't even think she heard me. Just as I was more than done with her she had a question. Of course.

OL: Do you have any of these Christmas trees?
Me: (looking at the ad in her hand) That's not us.
OL: It's not?
Me: No, it's not.

By this time I finally blew her off, called for some back up and she went on her merry way. I felt bad for the old lady stuck behind Miss Jolly. She was rather loudly complaining about how Old Lady kept talking and she was going to go to another register. I managed to get the second lady out quickly. So that ended well.

Sure I'll get right on that

On Friday we were busy and shopping carts were scarce. A portion of them were filled up with stuff from the truck that couldn't get put up because everyone had to keep hopping on the registers to get the line down. I was ringing up this old couple and was just finishing up when a woman comes and asks the man if they were going to need the cart. I personally thought it was kinda rude to take a cart out of the hands of this couple. Their order wasn't actually that large or the bags too heavy for me but everybody is different. Which lead to these pleasantries.

Me: Me again
Old Lady:OL again

OL: Where are all the shopping carts?
Me: I guess everyone took them. (I said it half joking/half serious because I thought it might be obvious that crowded store=no carts)
OL: Are you kidding?
Me: Uh, well the store is crowded and we're busy.
OL: Somebody should really take care of that.
Me: (I can't remember if I actually said anything. Probably mumbled more stuff customers like to hear)

Overall this is probably the worst I've gotten so I do consider myself lucky. Now if I can make it through my shift on Christmas Day (because we never close) without hurting every person who gives the "You poor thing having to work on Christmas and be ripped out of the arms of your family" speech I will chalk that up to a successful holiday shopping season!

If you've made it this far thanks for reading!

[Krivak]

I've had an old lady confuse us with a competitor too...but nothing about me needing to be jolly

And you poor thing, having to work christmas! But at least you care enough about work to volunteer that day... only kidding... (i hope )

[cinema guy]

Shopping at Christmas (both as retail worker or customer) is about the least jolly thing I can imagine.

Oh, and welcome.

[CaptainThrifty]

We have a monthly sale where all donated clothes are half off. We frequently run out of carts. One of the things I always tell the customers (especially the ones I know do it) that one problem is people taking carts off property and taking them home. I ask them to stop such people and to let us know so we can go get them. I'm all the time cursing the local neighborhood looking for our abandoned carts.

[protege]

I'm all the time cursing the local neighborhood looking for our abandoned carts.

When I was still at Hechinger's, our carts were constantly going away. They were nearly always dumped by the bus stops. What happened, was that we'd get idiots who would buy one or two things...and then would take the cart from store to store in the shopping center. When it was time to head home, they'd simply dump the carts at the nearest bus stop. Of course, many of them would then complain that there weren't "enough" carts inside the store

At one point, the center's management company actually had a truck or two. These guys would drive around the center, looking for stray carts, and returning them to the stores.

[Lace Neil Singer]

What I hate is the following exchange:

Customer: There's no trolleys!
Me: I'm sorry.
Customer: Go and get me one!

Firstly, I am not a trolley girl; I work in petrol. I do occasionally have to enter the store; that does not mean I'm instantly the SC's slave. Get your own damn trolley.

Second, the main reason why we have run out of trolleys is cuz people are not putting them back in the corrals, they are instead leaving them all over the car park. Cuz the trolley boys have to travel all over the bloody car park collecting trolleys, they are no doubt going to be slower in returning them. And finally, this question is mostly asked around the lunchtime period; guess what, trolley boys need to eat sometimes.

The trolleys are usually either cluttering up the disabled bays, motorcycle area (grr) or pushbike park, or are sitting happily in the nearby residental area, where people have used them to take their shopping home and then abandoned them. We actually have a unit for trolley retrieval; the furthest one was found halfway to the next town. O_o How it got there, I have no idea.

[ralerin]

We have poles on our carts to prevent that very thing from happening. But more often than not people steal the ones that don't have poles and they sometimes end up on (Busy Street). Usually an employee on their way back to work carts (pun not intended) them back, not a problem.

However, it's mostly the old people who forget the poles and slam into the door with an almighty CRASH. One woman kept yanking on the cart to make it go until I nearly screamed at her that THE CART WILL NOT GO OUT. All she did was stare at me dumbfoundedly. "Why?" Then pulled the catbutt face at the pole and grumbled she'd get her own bags, then, even waving off the help of J who wandered over to help.

[Trixie]

And you poor thing, having to work christmas! But at least you care enough about work to volunteer that day... only kidding... (i hope )

If by volunteer you mean I had no choice in working or not, then yes I did volunteer. Ehh, I'm used to this by now.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm working Christmas Eve, but the petrol station is closed Christmas Day, and I'm not working Boxing Day either. However, I will still get paid on those days, cuz I booked them off as holiday.

[EvilEmpryss]

Not being part of any major religious group, I was always very popular on holidays, because I was willing to pull other people's shifts and rake in the holiday pay. I have a very Who-ville type family: as long as we were able to get together some time around the right date to celebrate the holiday with family, it didn't matter if it was Dec 22, 25, or 30th.

If we could do so with enough extra cash in our pockets to really tie on the feed bag, all the better!

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm not religious, I just want to lie around all day drinking booze, eating chocolate, pulling crackers and watching crappy films just like everyone else. XD Is that so wrong?!

[trailerparkmedic]

Now if I can make it through my shift on Christmas Day (because we never close) without hurting every person who gives the "You poor thing having to work on Christmas and be ripped out of the arms of your family" speech I will chalk that up to a successful holiday shopping season!

Argh, those people annoy me to no end. If you feel so bad for me, perhaps you should have thought about that before coming in to the store/calling me/etc.

Oh, and to

[SourRobot]

I feel you. I really hate working during the holidays. I try my best not to complain because I really need the money that badly, but at the same time I get irritated that I work such a long schedule around that time. I think I'm a bit different than others though; I wouldn't mind working on Christmas Day, since that's more money going on my paycheck. As long as I don't get the people who give me the same speech that they give you, I guess I'd be okay.

Seriously though, can't the shopping take a break for at least one day?

[Kristev]

Since I happen to detest my family (want them? I'll sell them cheap,) I try to work every holiday for the extra pay. God knows I need it.

And by the way, Lace Neil Singer, you're absolutely right. I was a trolley collector with Wal-Mart for three and a half years, and since they refuse to hire Christmas help this year, the entire janitorial team has to be misappropriated to go do someone else's job (collecting trolleys) to cover the missing shifts on the lot. Ridiculous.

But you're completely right about the dynamics of how bad a parking lot gets.

[RayvenQ]

I'm not religious, I just want to lie around all day drinking booze, eating chocolate, pulling crackers and watching crappy films just like everyone else. XD Is that so wrong?!

According to Sc's, yes, the ones that'd expect you to be open so they can fill up and go visit their family and do those things