Holiday shopping tips... from the other side of the counter

I am in the blessed field of retail management. During this holiday season, there are just a few things I'd like to get off of my chest. You would never hear me say any of these things in my store, BTW. Other retail people, please feel free to contribute your own "pointers".

1. Please don't dig for change at check-out. The 40 people behind you are getting frustrated.

2. Whether or not a store takes back a return is based largely on the culture of the company. Coming into the store on the defensive will therefore not help and may even make the store personnel LESS likely to help you. Be nice, at least at first.

3. Store employees have families too. Please plan your day so that you do not have to be in the store an hour after it closes.

4. All major retailers are keeping prices low by cuting payroll. Be patient if you need help, and be considerate of others by not monopolizing a sales associate's time when you get it.

5. Yes I work here. That's why I'm wearing a name tag and this stupid striped shirt.

These wierd time-shifting DU problems bumped my brand-new, insightful thread to page 2.

Remember, we don't care about you or your family, your problems, your wishes, why you are buying what you are buying, especially at this time of the year. Get what you want, pay for it and fuck off.

And no, we don't really want to be here.

Bah fucking humbug.

that device, object or item DOES or DOES NOT do.

I'd like a salesperson who regarded ME as more important than the telephone.

I'd like a salesperson who could form a complete sentence and didn't have eyebrows drawn on or lip piercings.

When I worked retail we got business because we knew our products, how they worked, WHERE they were in the store, how they worked with other products and which were the best, best for cost and best for the customer.

But you don't care. See, you got a job because you HAD to, not because you cared about quality of work or any other such silly ethic. You're there to collect a paycheck, to heck with customer service!

How glad I am I am not in it any more. I hated the holidays. I loved it at the grocery store - that was really cool, and we had mostly all normal people coming. It would be packed and out of control, but people weren't nasty about it.

But I also worked part-time at a drug store (Walgreens) and gads I hated that - that was all weird-ass people running around with their little sales flyers trying to find the POS that were on sale and bitching and moaning and basically like a WalMart clientelle except 50 years older and cheaper and nastier. Eeeewwwwwwwww. I hate thinking about.

So I agree with what you posted -

get your money ready to pay for the damn stuff, youhave many people behind you.

Write out your check beforehand, except for the total. Don't wait until the checker gives you the total, and THEN start digging for the checkbook. Have that SOB ready to go.

Please, check the prices of things on the little stickers on the shelves. Yes, sometimes the stickers are missing, but when you come to the register and feel the need to hand me every item, slowly, so taht you can see what price it rings up as and THEN decide if you want or not, well, you piss me off, and you piss off the 10 people behind you.

Please don't do all your Christmas shopping at a drugstore. It's just tacky.

Yes, I know it's crowded here today. I've been here 6 hours longer than you, so you don't need to tell me. Thank you for the information, though. Instead of pointing out the obvious in a sarcastic tone, why not ask me how I feel with all thais busy-ness? Or why not actually respond to me when I say "Hi" and "Thank you for shopping at <store>"? Ass.

I worked (very) briefly at Rite Aid and it was the worst job I've ever had. I'm telling you folks, there is not one shread of humanity in a chain drug store.

;-)

I realize it is not the fault of the clerk but the prices in the Walgreen's computer are so frequently incorrect that I can't help holding up the line. It is not so bad now as it used to be. As recently as five years ago or so, I would find an incorrect price almost every time I shopped. On my income, I can only buy sales items, so I can't just let it go by. Fortunately our Walgreens clerks have always been patient with me. I have wondered often if I could do their job, and I'm afraid I doubt that I could.

Are the benefits decent? Many of the clerks have worked there 10 years or more in my area so it appears to be a job worth keeping? But I don't feel I can ask such a prying question -- I try to keep the chitchat to the weather, health, things of that nature.

Unless you are a pharmacist (then the pay and benefits are incredible) or a store manager.

Walgreens treats their employees like cattle - low pay, they try to get as many part-time employees as possible so they don't have to pay health insurance or pension or anything, the store managers get huge bonuses each year but no one else in the store gets one; they monitor employees with secret cameras constantly. I was really appalled at how Walgreens has no trust in their rank and file employees (they assume everyone is a thief and wants to steal from the company, and that's the foundational basis from which they plan their management strategy - "they" meaning the coporate office. The store managers tend to be much more human, but from on high, every relationship in the company is built on not trusting the below oneself - corporate doesn't trust anyone, the district managers are there to make sure the store managers aren't screwing up and losing money and/or stealing stuff, etc.

I don't know how anyone can work in a corporate structure like that.

Penny-pinching nasty ass company.

But I own stock in it because I can trust in at least one thing - they will never let employee pay or benefits get in the way of turning a profit.

Thanks for answering my question though. The clerks at my Walgreen's are very courteous and put up with a lot from their registers, which act up pretty often...they deserve better!

while you're standing in line go ahead and fill out everything but the amount.
1. DO NOT whip out your checkbook and ask for a pen after the clerk had totaled your purchases.

2. If you're paying by credit card please have it in your hand when you approach the checkout counter. See (1) above.

3. If the store uses price tags instead of bar codes please make sure your purchase HAS A PRICE TAG ON IT. If you can't find one with a price tag, ASK A CLERK BEFORE you reach the checkout counter.

4. ANY coupon that must be ferreted out from the depths of that steamer trunk you call a handbag will automatically be voided.

Thank you from a Frustrated Fellow Consumer.

To fire at the idiots.

"Oh, you don't have your coupons or your checkbook out of your steamer trunk yet? Okay, but I get to shoot you once a second until you have them, becuase you are an idiot, and no longer protected by law. The 10 customers behind you also get to call you names and get to rustle in an annoyed way so that you can hear teir displeasure."

Oh, and when you get home, and you realize that the scotch tape taht was supposed to be on sale for $1.39 rang up at $1.45, you know what? It's not worth your time to drive all the way back here immediately and bitch about it. Wait until you come back to the store for a regular reason, then bring it to our attention.

Our manager would sometimes, when we'd obnoxious people like that bitching about nickels and dimes, would just reach into his pocket and give people the dime. "Here - have a dime. I don't feel like filling out all the paperwork. If it makes you feel better, have MY dime." It was hilarious when he did it, becuase he was so friendly and yet deliciously sarcastic at the same time.

I had just been hired by the FAA and was in an all male orientation class.
Lots of rules and regs, DOs and DON'Ts.
Inevitably there was the question "Yeah, but what if I DON'T...(whatever)?"
The instructor had a terrific sense of humor.

"Well, if you don't, THEN we get out THE PEE-PEE STICK.
You have to lay your pee-pee on the desk and then I whack it with the pee-pee stick."

For ladies he used the Booby Bat.

I think now's the time.

at one of those.

Do ya'all post at www.customerssuck.com ? If not, go there IMMEDIATELY and sign up. You won't regret it. Tell 'em expizzaguy sent you.

which have to be rung up individually when there is one cashier and 19 people in line behind you. This actually happened to me a few days ago. The guy in front of me wanted to buy 3 boxes of candy bars which were on sale. Unfortunately, the clerk was unable to ring them up by the box. They had to be scanned. There were 3 different kinds of candy. There were, I think, 45 bars in each box. She was not able, because of the store's bizarre register, to scan each once and put in 45 for the quantity - she had to run each of the three types in front of the scanner 45 times.

The holiday season is not a good time to buy 135 individual items. And who buys candy by the case from frigging Rite Aid, anyway? Go to Costco, you yo-yo!

I felt really sorry for the clerk, but she was apologizing to everyone and explaining that the chain's management back in wherever the hell Rite Aid's headquarters is, had decreed that items could not be scanned in multiple quantities; they'd revamped their inventorying system or something and were insisting that every single item be individually scanned. Way to go, Rite Aid management - change the system right before the busiest time of the year!

Answer me? Answer me? Hey, Look at ME!!!


;)

Your poor thing, Hugs, Laura

Please get those check out clerks stools to sit on. Every time I go through a store check out I wonder why they hell those people can't sit down and work the cash register! It makes my feet hurt to look at them and it makes me mad at the store for making 6 dollar an hour employees stand while doing that mindless work.

The store employees do not set the prices and cannot change them. Do not try to haggle.

Try to remember the words "please" and "thank you", assuming you ever learned them.

The cashier is not interested in your religious testimony or literature.

The cashier is not going to go on a date with you, so don't bother asking.

The cashier is asking for ID to make sure no one is stealing your checks. If you do not understand why this is necessary, lend me your checkbook for a couple days and I'll demonstrate.

The store employees do not determine the sales tax rate. The government does. Arguing about it will not change it.

No, you cannot use WIC to pay for beer and cigarettes.

and lived to tell about it. Loved it at Christmas, actually. Except that year I go t the flu in the beginning of December and it didn't go away until January because I was worked six 12 hour days a week.

My pleas to customers:

Don't even use checks. Just don't.

On Christmas Eve, please go home when the store is closed. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, most of the clerks and managers do and it's a really, really important time for them.

Don't bring your $9.99 t-neck back complaining that it came apart after 10 washings. You get what you pay for.

If you decide to write a $200 check ten minutes after closing on Christmas Eve that necessitates a call to the bank to clear because of the amount and the fact that you just moved and don't have your address on your checks or your driver's license yet, expect to be shot and your body dragged through the store behind Santa's sleigh while the employees throw Sensormatics at it.

As I prepare myself to go work another day as a clerk with the responsibilities of assistant management but with the pay of the lowest underling.

And one more I'd like to add:
- No, I don't gift wrap. I'm not going to spend fifteen minutes wrapping it exactly to your specifications while ten other people wait impatiently behind you, who will BTW all want me to gift wrap their damn shit as well. Go home, spend five minutes of your lazy-ass time and do it your damn self!!!

Everyone's suggestions are great! "Yes I work here. That's why I'm lugging this thirty pound box over to that folding table. Now move the hell out of my way!"

Sigh. If only we could say these things at work.

Edit: I agree. Just leave the checkbook at home. We just don't want to bother with it.

Parents of small children, please duct tape your child's hands together, and his/her mouth shut. It's amazing how much friendlier clerks can be when not cleaning up broken items while listening to your shrill little child screech at top volume. Thank you very much.

Do not pay for a 50-cent paper with a $20-dollar bill.
Do not stop to buy one more book when you are coming down with SARS.
Do not eat a head of garlic & then breathe on me. My back only bends so far back.
Do not lick your finger, count your money & hand it to me.

Why, thank you. I feel so much better!

Take it from me, no more last minute shopping. Theyre always out of the things you want if you wait too long. Good idea on the thread btw.

In my parish, and perhaps in the rest of the state of Louisiana, there is inventory tax. Therefore the stores need to run out of as much items as they can by January or they will pay more taxes on them. It is better to plan ahead in November and early December for anything special needed in late December or the month of January. One of my close friends has a birthday in January, and I have learned to plan way ahead!

The consumer frenzy this time of year drives me nuts. It's all internet shopping for me!

Remember as you do your work, it's not the customer's fault you make nothing. Don't take it out on us. I used to be a server, and I understand getting yelled at for something that's not my fault, being haggled with and the like. But you gently explain to the person that it was the Kitchen's fault their linguini took 25 minutes to get to them, not mine. Or that they got onions on their pizza when they asked for none. But I kept a cool head a got the manager who gets paid to deal with rude people. I was also a hostess with a large restaurant chain. People get rude when not seated FIRST, right away, or if they're in a big group, in the order they came in. I alway said, I'm sorry, they're sitting in a booth. And if they got huffy, I'd say, "Hold on, sir, I'm not paid enough to deal with you, let me get my manager." And while that is a little rude, I wasn't paid enough to deal with that shit, and I refused to do it. I'm sorry that customers are rude to retail workers. But it goes with the job, and its' something you should expect before taking the job. Just come right back sarcastically and sweet as pie, and they'll shut the fuck up while you get them a manager.
Duckie