How DARE you not be an expert on everything in the department!

[Despina83]

So I work in the health and beauty care section of a large store and am in charge of helping customers and conditioning items ranging from tampons to mascara to deodorant to hair dryers. A good-sized area, with obviously a wide range of products. And of course you get someone now and then who expects me to be an expert on everything we sell in HBC. Tonight I got a call from a worker telling me a guy needed help finding a probiotic. He couldn't tell me the name of it or anything. Well, I led him over to the only place that I could recall ever seeing probiotics (in the stomache aisle, and that was the aisle he told me he had seen them before) and showed them to him. He says no, this one was in a bottle. Well, I didn't see any more, and these were the only probiotics I had seen before. After apologizing I went back to my work and a few minutes later I recieved another call from the guy manning the self checkout, the guy was asking for me. So I head over there and he tells me the brand. I lead him over to the items of that brand (in a whole different aisle) and after a moment, I discover a bottle that says probiotics. So turns out there were more items than the ones I showed him. Well, he says in a really condescending tone:

"Oh look, we found it. There WERE more than what you said! Looks like you learned something today."

After he checks out, the cashier at the self checkout and the greeter told me that he was being really nasty behind my back. Apparently he was complaining that I know nothing about the stuff that we sell, and I need to be trained. Okay, buddy. I make less than eight dollars an hour and work in a large Wal-Mart-esque store, and you expect me to be an expert on everything in my department? What fantasy land are you living in? I'm there to straighten the items on the shelf and show customers where the Nair and toenail clippers are located. I'm not a bloody pharmacist, and I certainly don't have every item in the vitamin aisle memorized.

[bainsidhe]

You're still better than me. I would've looked him straight in the eye and in my most pleasant voice asked "What's a probiotic?". Seriously, haven't a clue and am too lazy right now to use google-fu to look it up. I'll have customers ask where they can find *random brand of something* and I have to ask them what type of product it is. I can usually steer them to the right department, but that doesn't mean I'm all-knowing. Most (decent) people appreciate my honestly and my willingness to help them. It's not like I ignore them and just walk away.

[Barefootgirl]

What a nob-end. Seriously, who would realistically expect anyone to know the description and location of EVERYTHING in a shop. You knew where it was most likely to be, you helped him find that location, you did the right things. Stupid man.

One can only hope that he wants the probiotic to help him with a particularly painful and unpleasant bowel problem....

[Solumina]

One can only hope that he wants the probiotic to help him with a particularly painful and unpleasant bowel problem....

Perhaps that stick up his ass

[Sheldonrs]

""Oh look, we found it. There WERE more than what you said! Looks like you learned something today."

And it looks like YOU found out what it's fucking CALLED!

[laborcat]

Sounds like you work at the same annoying place where I work. You'll get used to it. HBC is nuts. Hang in there!

[Sapphire Silk]

What a complete jerk. Sounds like he was taking out his failure to know the name of the product he wanted out on you.

It is completely unreasonable to expect an employee to know each and every one of the thousands of products in a store like that. If I ask an employee to help me find something, I'm happy if they can direct me to the general area . . . and it's not the end of the world if they don't know what I'm talking about (usually they try to find someone who does).

You're still better than me. I would've looked him straight in the eye and in my most pleasant voice asked "What's a probiotic?". Seriously, haven't a clue and am too lazy right now to use google-fu to look it up.

A probiotic is a bacteria that is supposed to improve ones general health, often by improving GI function. They can be found in pill form, but also in yogurt and some other foods. You've probably seen the commercials with Jamie Lee Curtis.

[MoonCat]

Do you guys ever get the feeling that while we're living in the 21st century, a majority of the customers out there have expectations that were more appropriate in the late 19th-early 20th century?

You know, back when the general store had about 10 shelves holding maybe 100 products in all, and the average salesperson was a guy who had been there about 20 years and not only had all the products memorized, he probably used most of them himself?

[laborcat]

Do you guys ever get the feeling that while we're living in the 21st century, a majority of the customers out there have expectations that were more appropriate in the late 19th-early 20th century?

You know, back when the general store had about 10 shelves holding maybe 100 products in all, and the average salesperson was a guy who had been there about 20 years and not only had all the products memorized, he probably used most of them himself?

I agree to this. This dept at my store has 8 aisles and we have a good couple thousand UPCs in there. Too much, too many different things nowadays.

[XCashier]

Seriously, who would realistically expect anyone to know the description and location of EVERYTHING in a shop.

You'd be surprised. A lot of SCs assume that anyone who works in a store automatically knows everything about that store, from the prices of each of the several hundred thousand items to the name of the company that put up the building sixty years ago. And if that person doesn't know everything, they are automatically a pathetic moron who needs to be taken out back and shot.

Loads of fabric store customers were just shocked -- SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!!! -- that I couldn't explain to them how to do tatting, what was the right yarn weight for making a balaclava, how to work a Cricut machine, or any of the other dozens of hobbies we sell supplies for. Look, I know costume sewing, and some painting, and that's pretty much it. I can tell you exactly why that pink camo fleece and green paisley chiffon won't work for that Viking outfit you're trying to recreate. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine, and no, that doesn't make me an idiot.

(Good grief, am I glad to be out of retail! Let's hope it's for good this time.)

[MoonCat]

why that pink camo fleece and green paisley chiffon won't work for that Viking outfit you're trying to recreate.

But....but...it goes with the horned Viking helmet I bought at Spencer's!!! And the girl there said it would look kewl, so there!

[Brojekk]

""Oh look, we found it. There WERE more than what you said! Looks like you learned something today."

And it looks like YOU found out what it's fucking CALLED!

YES!!! Best answer ever.

[ShoeLady4048]

Even if you had super human powers and did happen to know about every product in you department, stores often move items around in said department. My store does layouts in HBC at least once a week. So what once was the vitamin and 'probiotics' isle could now be a toothpaste and deodorant isle. SC are just so unrealistic now a days.

[auntiem]

Loads of fabric store customers were just shocked -- SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!!! -- that I couldn't explain to them how to do tatting

Showing someone how to tat is going to take a class for which there would be a charge. Without money changing hands for me to show them my "explaination" would be - "you make a bunch of knots in string".

The only time I worked retail where I knew where everything was I worked at a store that hired us before the store opened and the employees stocked the shelves of their own department. I just went back there last month and couldn't even find where the departments were let alone the products - everything was massively changed around.