Anyway, you readers should be excited for a completely different reason--hopefully, once class starts, I'll have more topics of some substance to write about as opposed to the irrelevant crap I've been posting on here lately. I feel like the subject matter has slowly deteriorated into something kind of like Livejournal (*hangs head*). My current mood is ashamed because of this. I hope to include on here some topics from class and maybe some experiences with a few of the extracurricular organizations I've applied to work with. I'm going to be an Honors Mentors for Dr. Tunberg's section of 101, and I've also applied to be an Honors Ambassador and a Peer Fellow. Those things could be interesting.
So I feel that this would be a pretty appropriate time to bitch a little bit about my current experiences in the retail business as a cashier. Before I go any farther with this, I should probably go ahead and state that this is only my 7th month in the retail business. I definitely haven't clocked enough hours to be considered a true veteran of retail; I'm not trying to give that impression, either. I'm merely going to discuss some of the most unbelievable and ridiculous incidents that have occurred within these seven months as evidence for my final point, which I'll get to later. Prepare to be amazed... or maybe not, if you've ever worked in retail:
While working as a grocery store cashier, I once gave a 15 cent refund to a furious foreigner who demanded to know why his Gatorade rang up as $1.00 instead of 85 cents. I can be a little understanding here, as this guy just might have not grasped the value of the American dollar yet. But 15 cents? Jesus. You could buy a pack of Wrigley gum for this... wait, no you couldn't.
This is the scenario: It's a busy as hell Friday night, and I have 15+ people in my line to check out. An older (60-something) couple comes through my line and buys about $60.00 (keep this number in mind) worth of merchandise. Three minutes later, the man is standing off to the side of my register with a ridiculous look of pissed on his faced, holding his receipt. I can see where this is heading. I ask him what the problem is. Apparently his swim trunks, which were on sale for $12.00, rang up incorrectly in the computer as $15.00. I proceed to explain to him that he will have to get back in line so that I can run a price adjustment in my computer, and he proceeds to bitch, bitch, bitch about how "unfair" it is that he has to get back in line for something that I "screwed up," making a scene all the while. The asshole apparently does not understand that cashiers are not in charge of everything involved in running the store and that I cannot simply take money out of my till then and there. The woman who is next in line overhears this exchange and offers to let said asshole get in line in front of her. He insists on getting in the back of the line (big surprise here) to continue his three-dollar-martyr routine. Of course, he treats me like shit when he finally gets back to me, as expected. Why the hell do some people act this way? I am completely understanding of the fact that people need to keep a close watch on their finances (everyone does to an extent), but considering that the... guy had already spent $60.00, was $3.00 really worth all that hassle and inconvenience to himself, myself, and everyone in my line? This jackass obviously just wanted to cause a problem and have an excuse to bitch at someone.
Another scenario: On an equally busy day, I overhear a squabble between a clothing associate and an apparently dissatisfied customer with a return. The clothing associate tells the upset customer that he has to get in a cashier's line in order for the return to be processed, and said customer begins to bitch about every aspect of our customer service and how ridiculous it is that he has to even stand in line for a return. Of course, by the grace of the good Lord, he gets in my line (would it be any other way?). When it's his turn, he proceeds to give me the same speech that he gave the clothing associate, only in a lot more detail. I tell him that if he'd like to speak to a manger, there is actually one right next to me in the opposite check-out lane. The customer of course does not do this after wasting all his breath on me--as if I could really do anything about his complaints other than apologize on everyone else's behalf. This was particularly interesting because the customer was from India. His attitude gave me the impression that customer service in India has relatively higher standards than in America. That's probably true, and I wouldn't mind to see customer service in America improve in certain areas, but that doesn't necessarily make this incident any less ridiculous from my perspective as a cashier with basically zero authority.
Here we go again: a dirty man enters my line to return three equally dirty shirts. He has no receipt and the shirts have no tags attached, so I have no UPC's for the shirts. He is already in violation of just about every aspect of our return policy, but we decide to be nice people and do the return for him despite the violations. We find two of the UPC's pretty quickly from merchandise currently on the floor, but one shirt is apparently so dated that our front end manager has to go in the caves of our warehouse to locate a book that would contain the UPC. The dirty man, in the meantime, is loitering around my register like a disoriented clown, making sure to occasionally complain about the inconvenience we're causing him while we search for the UPC's. "Uhhhhhh, I should just get this shit fuhr free, yall's tahkin' so long." The codes finally come out of the warehouse and I finally get the guy out the door. Here's a perfect example of a person who either (1) genuinely doesn't grasp the concepts related to products codes and how necessary they are for correct inventory and (more importantly) quick transactions, or (2) knows their importance and simply thinks that store policies don't apply to him/her and that he/she is entitled to whatever they want, when they want it. Based on his attitide, I'd like to think number 2 applied to this guy.
I have several other ridiculous, funny stories that I could post on here, but I think these will suffice for my point. A career in retail really requires a certain adeptness and tolerance level for dealing with people--moreso than many other jobs require. The face-to-face interaction in the retail business adds an interesting element that can often create more stress than one anticipates. So the next time you encounter a retail employee, be nice--he or she probably deals with the aforementioned types of situations daily.
