Holiday SC pet peeves

[Sheldonrs]

OMG that is such a case for justifiable homicide. I think I would have called the police after the first 45 minutes and reported her as a trespasser.

Agreed! And mgmt. is partly to blame as well. If she takes more than 15 mins. after closing she should have been "escorted" from where ever she was with the groceries she had and told pay or go NOW! And since she was broke anyway, who cares if she likes it or not?

[ExRetailDrone]

I thought of one type of SC that would always annoy me when I worked retail during the holidays.

Captain I-Can't-Think-For-Myself

This happened mostly when I worked for years at the jewelry counter for The Bullseye. People, mostly women it seemed, would come up looking for jewelry as gifts for various members of their family or circle of friends. So often I would get asked some variation of the question "What do you think my daughter/granddaugher/sister/niece/fuck buddy would like?" Um, how the hell am I supposed to know? You are the one who knows this person, shouldn't you have some idea what she might like? It was even better if the question began with something like "I'm looking for something for my <insert relation here>, she's about your age/height/looks like you..." Seriously, people? Seriously?!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Agreed! And mgmt. is partly to blame as well. If she takes more than 15 mins. after closing she should have been "escorted" from where ever she was with the groceries she had and told pay or go NOW! And since she was broke anyway, who cares if she likes it or not?

Luckily, the managers I've worked for (despite varying from shitty to brilliant) have never done anything that bad to staff. O_o Even in the garden centre, where the manager was a total tool, he would still be shoving customers out the door on Christmas Eve, cuz he wanted to go home to wifey.

[ShinyGreenApple]

My first Christmas Eve working retail I volunteered to do a double shift at my Volde-Mart. I was starting to come down with a sore throat and by the middle of my second shift, I was feeling pretty crappy. Banshee from hell comes up to my line, complaining that her ice cream is melted. Melted because she waited for soooo long in MY line. She wanted to me to call someone to get her another one. Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen. So I ran back to get one myself, it was the wrong brand/flavor/whatever and she NEEDED the other flavor because she's the only one who eats butter pecan in her family and no one else likes it. She then wanted to know why I didn't make a manager or supervisor get it, and pointed out they were working cash. We really did have upper management on the tills that day, it was insane. Dumbass bitch.

Around this time of year, I'm so glad I don't work the seasonal department. All those damn Halloween costumes strewn all over the place, because people rip them apart to see if they'll fit, or they're just playing with them, etc. And then some brilliant person decided that all Volde-Mart's costumes will be in bags now, so of course people have to open the bags up to look at the costume and we lose parts of it. Ugh.

Also I'd just like to add, pretty much everyone who waits until the day before Thanksgiving to buy their holiday dinner is an idiot, and I hate them with the burning passion of a thousand angry suns. Unless you get paid on this day and were broke up till then, there is no excuse for this.

[Lace Neil Singer]

The petrol station where I work is open on Easter Sunday and Boxing Day, tho I never work those days. Some stupid bitch came in on Easter Sunday at around twelve noon and asked if there were any chickens for sale, cuz she needed one for her Easter Sunday dinner. We don't sell chickens. According to my collegue Jim, the bitch immediately threw a massive tantrum and screeched about how her family were waiting for dinner and now Easter was ruined.

So why the fuck did she wait til Easter Sunday noon to go and get dinner? Say it with me; "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine."

[Tora]

Man, I don't miss working retail around the holidays. The store I used to work in with my sister would get insanely busy and of course, because the people were all coming in from outside, I was mopping the stone tile floor non-stop. I even had a couple people who couldn't take the hint that we were closed, in one case getting so bad that I had FIVE PEOPLE come in and window-shop before I could lock the door.

But the worst was my brief stint at the infamous Arches. They put me in a McD's in the local Maul-Mart. In December. On SATURDAYS.

[XCashier]

Finally at 9:30, she made her way to the cash register, dragging 2 carts. The cashier was so angry that her hands were shaking uncontrollably, making the check out even longer.

Her card was declined. She had nothing on her card. The cashier said she cried all the way home, she was so angry and frustrated.

I don't blame her at all. Her Christmas Eve was ruined by one inconsiderate, self-centered ass. She was probably exhausted by an overlong shift, as well. I sure hope she had a nice Christmas, and some good overtime pay. And I hope that SC got the Karmic boot to the head that she deserved!

[ralerin]

The petrol station where I work is open on Easter Sunday and Boxing Day, tho I never work those days. Some stupid bitch came in on Easter Sunday at around twelve noon and asked if there were any chickens for sale, cuz she needed one for her Easter Sunday dinner. We don't sell chickens. According to my collegue Jim, the bitch immediately threw a massive tantrum and screeched about how her family were waiting for dinner and now Easter was ruined.

Why did she not go "Oh. Hm. Well maybe if you have turkey/ham I can take that instead?"

Ooops silly me, that would require thought and politeness, 2 things that she doesn't have.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Well, the petrol station only carries a few snacky type items; we're not actually allowed to sell large items like dinner stuff cuz of the supermarket accross the road. The thing is, there's a late opening supermarket a little ways into town; I guess my collegue could have told her, but she was being so bratty and annoying, he kinda forgot to mention it. XD

[Sapphire Silk]

I probably would have cried too!

I think I would have said something that would have started a fist fight . . . with the SC. Even if I'd been a customer in line (though I wouldn't have been in that situation).

See, it's stories like this are the reason I LOATHE shopping. I hate crowds. I hate fighting my way through stores. I hate lines.

Most of all I hate the Sucky Customers. I'm rarely annoyed with salespeople or cashiers. I almost always get friendly, helpful people. But the SC's . . . they don't breed like normal human beings. They breed by binary fission.

I never shop on Black Friday, and I do everything I can not to Christmas Shop.

Online shopping was God's gift to humanity as far as I'm concerned.

[Justsomegirl]

Oh you can't for the the people that want every thing for nothing. My item has been on backorder for over a month, how much of a discount are you going to give me?? What, come on work with me here..

We may have 4 ware houses but your item is still our of stock. Then they have to blame me for the item being out, So I bought over 1000 things of the samething?.... Or I can control when the mfg send use the items, Oh wait I'm on the road stopping the truck???? Boy I must be very powerful and not even know it!!!

[AccountingDrone]

Oh you can't for the the people that want every thing for nothing. My item has been on backorder for over a month, how much of a discount are you going to give me?? What, come on work with me here..

We may have 4 ware houses but your item is still our of stock. Then they have to blame me for the item being out, So I bought over 1000 things of the samething?.... Or I can control when the mfg send use the items, Oh wait I'm on the road stopping the truck???? Boy I must be very powerful and not even know it!!!

Crap, I had to order a transmission and have it shipped from Germany once, it is 4 weeks by cargo vessel unless I wanted to spend IIRC $400 to get it flown over. If something is not in stock locally, screaming about it doesn't get it here any faster than being nice.

[SecurityWench]

Sadly, customers usually don't plan ahead when it comes to buying holiday dinners.

Last Easter, some lady tore me a new one because

a) We were all out of the size ham that she wanted
b) We were going to be *gasp* CLOSED ON EASTER!!!!

This year my store has a fantabulous deal where if you buy a ham you get the turkey for free, and I can't wait to see all the tantrums and non-reading of coupons to come. (And all the employees get a free turkey! )

Plus, is anyone else getting people who are throwing fits about Halloween discounts? The stuff goes pretty damn quick, and no, you can't get discounts on the Christmas items because it isn't Christmas yet!

(This is why I already requested Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas the INSTANT they were available to request off.)

[Kristev]

You can shop on Black Friday . . . if you use Amazon.com to do it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I don't mind working on Christmas Eve; it can have its funny moments on occasion and since we always close at six pm sharp, I've got plenty of time to go to the pub. XD It was funny last year, cuz we had to close the petrol station at one point for two hours cuz some customers had a split fuel tank and there was diesel all over the place. The fire brigade arrived to clean up and we not only closed the petrol station but switched off all the pumps. We had a ton of people driving into the petrol station thru the back whining, "Sobcrywaaaaambulance! Why are you cloooooossseddd! It's Christmas Eeeeeevvvveee! And I need pettrrrrolllll!" Um, there's a big red shiny fire engine there, why do you think?