| The world of Retail is full of trials, tribulations and lots of very stupid people. Let's face it; if everyone had an average intelligence than none of these events would ever have occured. And so I give you RealTales, stories submitted by you, the readers, recounting your experiences in the work force.
To submit a RealTale, just email it to RetailWeekly@hotmail.com with the subject "RealTale."
August 3rd, 2001
have you ever noticed just how persistant customers
can be, even when it's *obvious* that something has
been mis-tagged?
Aurora
"None Too Bright"
It started as Marshall (the guy training me at the time) was showing me how to stock the light bulbs. It was no small display. About nine feet high and twelve feet long it was a sight to behold. We had about a pallet's worth of generic light bulbs to try and fit into the already full space and us being the avid Tetris fans we were, we were convinced we could make this work. As we stand there weighing our options, a small old lady resembling a "pepper-pot" from Monty Python walks up and stands next to us. She joins us in our staring contest with the section. Silence. For a full five minutes we stand there with our new companion. Finally, reason comes through and we decide there's nothing we can do to get the bulbs in. As we both start to walk off, the woman finally speaks.
"Sirs!"
"Yes ma'am?" Marshall chimes in.
She responds, and I quote: "Do you know where the light bulbs are?"
Fifteen seconds later I'm being restrained from strangling the little old hag. I hate retail.
Kev
Fun with the sticker gun: someone stickered their
initials on a store cart. It became their cart, and
remained unused by anyone else thereafter, even long
after that person quit.
Aurora
A VERY large man walked into my store with an RC Car he had purchased a few days
ago. He has one fo those "I'm gonna get my refund one way or the other look" on
his face. After Squabbling for almost 10 minutes over the fact that since he had
used the car and didn't have a reciept and i couldn't give him a refund, he got
nasty. I did what any other employee who was interested in self presevation, i
handed him off to the most Cynical person ever to work at our store. The man
threatened and threatened, My coworker kept a straight face. Then the funniest
thing happened, the man asked him " Do you know who i am in this town?" to which
my coworker replied, "nope. not at all..." the man was speechless that we didn't
know who he was that he just left in a huff....it was quite funny....
Josh
Trying to get fired. I dyed my hair red, and put a
white stripe in it. Unfortunately, the entire
management staff decided to follow my example... By
the time I left, there were some interesting hair
styles, and the customers loved it. Makes you wonder
why they state in the store rules that you're not
allowed to do this...
Aurora
About three years ago, Rose's Stores Inc. carried-go carts and other ride on "Toys". Since we were one of the cheapest companies in existance our items broke. Quite often, and quite often while in use. Needless to say we got alot of this stuff back in for refunds. I remember one time in particular myself and Jason (the other guy who trained me) had been called to the service desk to take a go-cart back to claims to be sent back. It was a nice one. Built sorta like a dune buggy. Really good design. What we didn't know was the brakes didn't work. *insert ominous music here* It was too much trouble to just walk along and try to stear it from beside so Jason tells me to get in and stear. I climb in and Jason starts pushing. We're moving along at a pretty good click when the turn for the stockroom comes up quicker than I expected. I hit the brake and make a sharp right. As I said, the brakes didn't work. I suddenly smash into the deodorant isle. As Secret, Brute, Right Guard, and a bevy of anti-pit-funk spray rains down on me in the cart I notice at the opposite end of the Isle the manager is talking to the DISTRICT manager. They both look at me for a moment. I realize Jason has left me to die.
Instead of my demise, my manager mearly says,
"Let me know when you've got the isle fixed."
I haven't heard a word about it since.
Kev
Price checks- I never bothered. I would ask the
customer if they remembered the price. If they
didn't, I guessed, and if they thought that it sounded
alright, that's what I rang it up for. As a matter of
fact, I think that the only time that anyone bothered
with price checks was when the customer insisted.
Aurora
The Fax machine- I worked in Pharmacy, and we had the
only fax machine in the store. So, of course we
received all the faxes for the store, besides the
usual from doctors' offices. Thing was, though,
nobody from the front of the store *ever* came to get
the faxes. About once I week or so, I would take
these (dated) faxes to the front of the store, and
give them to the store manager. She hated getting
these things so much, that she'd try to dodge and
escape without me handing hem to her. I usually left
them on her desk. I guess management wanted to be
able to say that they "never got" them.
Aurora
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