for all those who have ever worked retail...or haven't

Retail blows at times...its the consumers who come in and give us attitude, mainly. So for those who work retail I salute the patience and aggrivation that you experience with me. and for those who do not work retail, learn how it works, or I'm eventually going to snap.

I have been working retail for almost 6 years now. I am currently an employee of the Sherwin Williams company. I used to work at Best Buy where I started my run in retail hell. Sure, for the most part it is kinda fun at times as long as you work with the right kind of people on the store staff, but its the customers that can get to you. For some reason we seem to be targets for irrate and ignorant people. So it came to my attention as to why people get angry at the people in the store who sell the product...simply, they're all stupid/ignorant jerks who have nothing better to do than to become unreasonable and point blame to someone who doesn't have anything to do with the creation of the product they buy. (its like killing the messenger).

But what I want to say is that for those who don't know what it takes to be in retail, consider this scenario: There is an ad in the paper for products on sale. There are a bunch of stores (ex: best buy) all over the country. The ad is the same all over the country. There are a lot of people in this country (nearly 300 million). We have 500,000 of a product to split amongst 600 stores and sold out of a product. Now what do you do?

One person can ruin my whole day because they think I can be like Copperfield and make things appear for them...leave us alone and be patient like all of the nice people. If we are out of something, just say 'OK. What can we do about this?'

I needed to vent. It just seems that people these passed couple of weeks have been evil.

I know there are others out there who know how I feel.

i work retail just about every single day of the week...i work at Garden Ridge, and some of the rudest people come in there, but i dont take any shit from them, ive worked there for 7 months and dont plan on working there for much longer at all....somehow people seem to think the customer is right, whenever someone told me that........they were looking at a price (which was the wrong price) and i tried to explain it to them, and they said "havent you ever heard the customer is always right", i said "yes, but who works here?, me or you?, who knows the price of things around here, me or you?"...oh boy did they get mad lol it was funny, then they were like can i speak to your manager, i was like yeah sure, go find him and walked off lol, they eventually found him, and he told me later, just not to do it again, and i said im not going to take any shit from a customer, but me and my manager are cool....so yeah retails sucks, i highly suggest avoiding it like herpes

Right now I'm working 2 jobs, I'm helping a contractor and also working at the auto parts counter at Canadian Tire (a Wal-Mart type place). I hate the contracting job like you would not believe, it's just back breaking, horrible work, but at the parts counter, it's bad ass, and if anyone gives me any attitude I just go "yes, yes, yes, sir (or maam), there's nothing I can do" and the njust turn to the next person or start stocking shelves, they eventually leave me alone. The thing is, you can't let it get to you, you have to let it slide. But I must admit, sometimes it sucks, when I worked in sports and housewares (at the same store) it was horrible!! lol, Fucking customers go nuts over a 20cent saving on toilet paper!

20 cents saving? :rofl:

I work retail too, he's not kidding about the 20 cents while working in a grocery store this lady had a coupon and when it didn't go through the register I told her it was invalid unless she purchased 2 of the item, the bitch throws a pepper right at me she was so mad and walks out haha.

:iamwithst: ive worked in retail for the better part of the past 5 years. I have had many a pepper thrown at me, could be because I am a smartass. Screw the customers, they may pay your paycheck but if they are jackasses then fuck em, just blow them off.

Since we are talking about retail jobs, i work in a grocery store as a stocker, when people ask me where something is located like say...popcorn. I simply point to the side of the store where it is and say "You see that big ass sign that says popcorn? Its right under that." My manager got a kick out of it.

i used to work at a computer store (now i work for the military) and i had ppl come in the next day and say, is my pc built is my pc built like fuck guy i got 20 ppl lined up and we are custom making your pc, this isnt dell, this isnt compaq.....usually it takes a week, i mean i can make them in 30 minutes and another 30 to put windows on but sometimes you get such demand you run out of parts etc etc and thats why you say itll take up to a week we will call you when its ready i mean if you order something the day before xmas youre retarded anyways....my current job is ok most ppl respect you for the hard work you do but theres always assholes in any job, it only takes a few of them to offset the dozens of nice ppl

I dont think it's so much retail that you get bad experiences...it's whenever you deal with the general public that you get the assholes of the human race that you just want to destroy and rip apart all their limbs slowly in such an agonising way that the rest of these scum will get the message...sorry, I got carried away :)

yeah people always complain to me that the price says $8.59 but its supposed to be $8.49. all i do is look at them with a look of "fuck you and your grandma" 10 fucking cents and youre a rich bastard anyway. (i work in this rich section of the beach, no i dont live there thank god) (im not rich btw)

Oh jeez....i've been in retail since i'm 19...i'm 24.

My last job was autozone....complete hell.

One thing you have to remember, when someone is yelling at you, or talking to you in a demeaning manner...you don't get paid for that. So yell back, thats what i've learned.

Also, have a VERY direct attitude. By that i mean if you don't have something, and they ask why/what etc...don't say, "Sorry sir, i don't have it.."for whatever reason... Say "NOPE"....

As soon as a customer hears you get apologetic (did i spell that right..?) they try and eat you alive..not me.

BTW, technically you cannot be fired for yelling back to a customer, if they are rude to you....be rude to them.

And if your "boss" has a problem with that, tell him you don't get paid to handle personal abuse from people....i'm here to do my job.

Lol, you probably think i'm bs-ing, but i've used that MANY times and the boss was ok with it.

Lol, one time (about a month ago) i got this mechanic at 8am looking for a seal of some kind for his boat engine... "oh this is bullsh*t"...."everytime i come here this always happens"...he says..

I get my buddy to help him, and tell him right in front of the guy "help him before i do something that will land me in jail again"..

OH he shut up....

Well it all depends, a lot of places have a probation period where they can fire you for smelling funny if they want, no questions asked. A buddy of mine who is a manager at a store actually did fire someone during their probation period because they smelled funny, he told them that they werent working out at the store but it was really because they smelled horrid.

*EDIT* That is why he should make sure he wont get fired if he yells at someone first, then just yell at people for the hell of it.

i work at a small "upscale" furniture store and i've had some pretty nasty people come in. i havent been rude to any customers who've been rude to me, mostly because i dont care if they come back or not and i'd rather not piss them off on purpose. but i'm sure someone could change my mind. my manager would definitely get a kick out of me yelling at/telling off a customer.
like solaris said, be direct - not apologetic. :1:

You know guys, you cant let it get to you like said above. I have been a Manager at Canadian tire for quite a while now. And i get my fair share of people swearing at me, threatening this and that, complaining about the dumbest things, and at the end of the day, i leave it at work. Its the same for any job, you have to leave work at work. You can imagine some of the stuff i have had to deal with. More then once i have had someone threaten they were going to kick my ass in the lot after work. None have ever shown up. and if they do, ill simply phone the cops. No need for me to deal with that shit. I have to deal with thieves on a daily basis, and its the same thing. eventually it becomes routieen (sp) and it doesnt bother you any more.

Bottom line is, if you want to survive in retail, you have to let the bad go, sure that customer is pissed. But deal with them in a polite way, stay positive, and make eye contact the whole time. Also its never a good idea to say no, instead suggest annother route. Damn i should get paid for this stuff.

As long as you know your shit you will always have something to say back to the asshole customer. Be confident in your knowledge. I think managers are pussies usually.

When I worked at Sports Authority for 5 months I sold shoes. Do you know how pissed off people get about shoes? Wow. And then they all want a damn custom order. So I always had to go to the back of the huge store and make like 5 phone calls to different stores around the country and ask if they had a product, then once I found one I had to get the persons address and do a manual copy of their credit card, and fill out a report. Then my managers got mad because shit got stolen since nobody was watching footwear. Then customers got mad because they couldn't get any help and the shoes were out of order, or I didnt have their size and couldn't get it for them, theres no more in the back, they got mad because my name was Rick, and they didn't like my shoes, they were mad because I was born in the first place, all over some damn 39 dollar convereses. Fuck... I hated retail, but it was so fun because of the people I worked with. But it sucked when we were busy, or if I worked alone. Which was like 80 percent of the time.

wow. someone had a traumatic working experience. bummer.

I think that humanity as a whole would be improved if everyone, and I mean everyone, were required to work in retail or fast food for a fixed period of time. It'd be like joining the Army when you turn 18, except that it'd be for a two-year stint instead of four, and it'd be required. I think that it might give some people a better perspective of how much other people can suck, and be inconsiderate - and enlighten them as to how nice it can be to have a polite or helpful customer when you're having a rough day. The idea would be to make people be more considerate, to be the sort of person that workers like to have shopping at their store - but then, it might just make them hate all of humanity for ever and ever and turn their closet into a war room for their secret plan to take over the world.

You know, it's actually quite retarded . . . someone works at a minimum-wage job, thinks it's stupid and takes no pride in their work, goes nowhere, and is surprised and angry to find that they don't end up going anywhere and are still working for minimum wage years later. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. I take pride in my work, even if I think the job's worthless. Eventually, someone notices. True, my job at Big Lots doesn't bring in "da hi-dolla", but in the 2 and a half years I've worked there I've gone from just stocking the shelves to also being the only male non-manager cashier, the only male non-manager customer service desk person, and they're training me to be a bookkeeper due to my attention to detail. I could just piddle around, and get by - I'm in college, and I'm not going to be working retail for the rest of my life or anything, so I don't have to do well in it or anything - but I've worked hard, and everytime I've been up for review, I've gotten a 10% raise.

Yeah, I know. Whoop-dee-doo, I've gone from making $6 an hour to now making $7 an hour. But it's almost always little steps, and consistently rising, even in a low-dollar work environment, shows you're not a totally lazy ass when you graduate college and look for a better job.

On a minor rant . . . Big Lots is a closeout store. Another store goes out of business and doesn't sell all their stuff before they close down, the BL suits buy the stuff and distribute it. A Target or Wal-Mart buys more of a product than they can sell, the BL suits buy the extra. Reconditioned stuff gets bought. Stuff with typos on the label that they didn't want to sell elsewhere gets bought. That sort of thing. What it means is that we can't order stuff, and can't count on having a certain item in, say, a week or two. So customers get mad when we don't have something some friend of theirs thinks they saw a few months ago.

That $0.20? Yup, I've seen people go and get all cheesed off over that much. Less, in some cases. Or they'll get all pissed off because we can't just pop the change drawer and give them a roll or two of quarters. It's like, "Sorry, ma'am, but we're not a bank." Stinkin' bank charges extra for change delivery, and we can't just give change out because then the registers run dry. And ooooohh, that really makes people mad (I know, because it's happened before). The sheer pettiness of people is absolutely amazing. I've slowly and regretfully come to the conclusion that World War III will start as a civil war, between the stale-french-bread-wielding rebels, the rotten-cabbage-throwing nationalists, and the environmentalists who will simply poke people with fully certified organic soy noodles.

. . .

. . .

No, it wasn't supposed to make sense. There was once a lady with a very legitimate complaint, though. She pulled up in her shiny new Avalon (I was out getting our carts), and asked me a question. I saw something in the corner of my eye and called out a warning, but it was too late. One of our metal shopping carts had come downhill (ah, the nastiness of a sloped parking lot) and smacked her new car solidly on the passenger door, giving it a nice dent. She asked if she could sue for that, and I calmly pointed to the sign behind me that said Big Lots couldn't be held liable for loose carts . . . I don't think she ever came back. I've got four dents in my passenger door from one (yeah, ONE) cart that went downhill. Sucks. I parked as far uphill as I could after that - less space for the carts to gain speed.

[/rant]

Okay, I feel better now.

i think you dudes are more knowledgable about retail than cars! lol