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just hold on..one more second…

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Honestly, the worse I ever feel about myself is while I'm at my retail/customer service job. That's probably because I can't be myself, customer service asks you to be less human and more servant than anything else. Sometimes, retail jobs go too far. They dehumanize the workers, requiring the accomplishment of unrealistic tasks and goals and the subversion of our own true self to satisfy the customer. It is harmful, and in the future the human race will look back on it as a vulgar and pointless practice.

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if you scream at 19yr old retail workers who are trying their hardest till they cry i hope you fucking burn in the deepest level of hell

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retail etiquette

alternatively titled, “how to be a decent human being to people who are suffering enough as it is to help your supposedly entitled ass”

1. get off your cell phone.         - cashiers ( not to mention the people patiently waiting in line ) don’t need to hear about how little Kelsey’s doing on the soccer team, or how your mother-in-law is coming into town for her birthday and you’re just SO INCONVENIENCED by having to purchase paper plates and cheap napkins before her arrival.  just tell them you’ll call them back when you’re done.       - if you can’t be assed to think about other people, at least acknowledge the cashier with a smile or a wave.  if they speak to you or ask you a question, don’t shush them.  tell your BFF Tanisha to hold on for what might be a total of four seconds. 

2.  when an item doesn’t immediately scan, please say anything but “oh, it must be free!”  please, dear god, anything but that.  you’re not being funny.  or clever.  or original.  they hear this at least ten times a day.  

3.  the number of items listed on the express lane is not a suggestion.  if you know that you have more items, don’t go there.  it’s that simple.  the express lanes have to be kept open for people who have small orders, so they’re not stuck behind someone with a cart piled high with what’s maybe a week’s worth of food and clothes you’ll inevitably be returning. 

4.  while unloading your cart, put the big items ( i.e., packages of toilet paper, crates of water bottles ) last.  there’s very little room for the cashiers to work with.  when you’re done unloading your cart, pull it up to the loading space and start putting the bags and other items into your cart instead of standing there and staring off into space or fiddling with your phone. 

5.  when you ask a cashier a store-related question ( i.e., how many coupons are allowed per order, whether or not you’re getting the right BOGO deal, etc. ), and they answer you politely and confidently, don’t challenge them.  they work there.  you don’t.  they know the way the store works.  you don’t.  if they’ve forgotten something or made a mistake, by all means, ask them about it – but do it politely.  we all make mistakes.  

6.  do not – i repeat, do not – put your money down on the counter or conveyor belt, especially if the cashier is visibly ready to take it.  hand it over to them.  if you need to count out some change, tell them so they can wait.  oh, and if they’ve already cashed you out, don’t hand over some random amount of change after the drawer’s open.  

7.  if your card’s declined, it’s not their fault.  don’t ask them why it wasn’t accepted.  they don’t know.  and don’t get angry or impatient with them, or insist you have money because you just deposited a check – they do not care.  they cannot help you with problems that are clearly on your end.  

8.  do not yell at a cashier.  once again, for the people in the back:  do not yell at a cashier, especially someone who’s clearly new to the job.  would you appreciate being yelled at for something beyond your control, or a simple, fixable mistake?  no.  so don’t do it to them.  

9.  if you get an answer you don’t like from a cashier and ask to speak to a manager, guess what?  you’re most likely gonna get the same answer from them.  here’s a news flash: the customer is not always right, the company will not always pander to your temper tantrums, and making a scene in front of a line of people with quickly-diminishing patience will not change their minds. 

10.  overall, please just be polite.  these people are working their asses off to help their customers, most of which don’t appreciate their efforts at all.  they’re constantly ignored, mistreated, questioned and degraded, and over time, it really does a number on their emotional state.  just be kind and courteous.  they’re human beings, not mindless drones.  smiles and nice conversations go a long way.  

if anyone else has anything to add, feel free.  floor associates, back room / production workers – go crazy.  share your woes and pet peeves.  

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Service Workers are People Too

Service workers are people too, and we deserve the same basic courtesy and respect as any other person you encounter in your life. We are NOT servants. We are not required to obey your commands or treat you as royalty. We are not the business owners, we are not the corporation you are buying products or services from, we are only their representative. Please keep this in mind.

#retail #retail worker #service #customer service #customer experience #customer service worker #respect

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So last night, within the first 15 minutes of my shift, I managed to be hit on by 2 creepy old men. I know what you're going to say. "K, it's a compliment!" No. It's not. It's a huge pain in the ass because I can't defend myself the way I would if I wasn't in my supermarket attire. Advice: if anyone hits on you at work and you're annoyed but can't express that outright, give them the most disgusted look ever and say "thanks?" Because if they complain about you, they're going to go to the manager and say "she told me thank you!" And the manager is going to say "and?"

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65. Cashiers are people too

We have feelings. We have bad days. Don’t yell at us and make us feel bad over things we can’t control, and don’t make us feel stupid when we make a mistake. And don’t get all pissy if we’re not super cheerful and upbeat. Shit happens in our lives too, and as much as we try not to let it affect our work, sometimes it does. Please just bear with us. And if you see a cashier that seems to be having a rough time, simply being polite is enough to help us out. Or if you wanna be really nice, say something nice/encouraging, or, if your brave, venture to ask what’s wrong or at least ask if we’re ok. Sometimes it’s too personal to share with a stranger, but sometimes it’s simply that we’ve been abused by too many customers and just need to vent a bit.

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Great essay related to what happened to K recently.

”Telling a woman that you think she is beautiful can seem very innocuous; sometimes it is. Sometimes, it will make her day. All this depends on context and I cannot explain when it is and is not OK, because that is like trying to explain intuition. Intuition about what will and won’t offend women is really just a set of odds, based on your lizard brain tabulating and comparing the outcomes of many similar previous interactions. But it’s important to recognize that these odds are skewed because women so often swallow their discomfort or indignation in order to keep the peace - especially if they are at work. Obviously all women have different boundaries and I’m not trying to slide into some essentialized decree about what women do and don’t want, but I think that a lot of mutual discomfort could be avoided if dudes would generally try to figure out whether a woman is interested before trying to figure out how to fuck her.

Although these situations are too nuanced and contextual to come down to do’s and don’ts, there are certain things to consider before giving sexual attention to a female bartender or server. Consider the power dynamic: Women will make more money if their patrons like them; often, their managers will scold them if they react negatively to what we have collectively deemed to be acceptable attention. Where does that leave the woman? She is expected to smile and say thank you, even if she feels mildly affronted, even if she finds you disgusting - although you would likely never detect this as she is forced to suspend these opinions at work.

As a baseline, in any context, treat women like people you are not engaging with primarily because you might get to put your dick inside of them. When you are out in the world–at a bar, at a show, making time with a lady - and you realize you’d like to get down with her, put your game on pause and feel out her vibe.”

Read the full essay here and share with anyone you think needs to read it!

#post by A #consumerism #sexist #retail #feminism #customer service #retail worker

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So today I got hit on. I told a guy where to find orange juice. And he came back around with a folded up piece of paper and said, “Here, I think you dropped this.” I took it and it had a phone number on it. While some may think this is smooth and clever, I don’t appreciate it.

I have no intention of calling him because I’m just not interested. But being an employee makes it difficult to not respond to him.

He knows I work there. He knows where to find me. And he may ask why I didn’t call. There are only so many times I can “leave it in my pocket and wash it by accident.” Suppose he’s angry. He knows exactly where I’ll be. And that’s terrifying.

PSA: please don’t hit on ladies at work.

-by K

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#submission

I got my first job at a supermarket when I had just turned 15. I was stocking shelves when an older man came up to me and asked where the taco shells were. I lead him to the taco shells and very nicely point them out, no biggie. I’m about to turn around and go back to stocking, but he is staring at me. Like trying to see into my soul staring. So I ask if there’s anything else I can help him with, and he stares for a few more seconds before smiling (in a very creepy way, I might add), looking me up and down, and saying, “Your daddy must sit on your porch with a shotgun, trying to keep all of the boys away.” He smiles lewdly and fucking WINKS at me so I quickly walk away. I was 15! It was so gross. What do people expect when they say shit like that?

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So today I got hit on. I told a guy where to find orange juice. And he came back around with a folded up piece of paper and said, "Here, I think you dropped this." I took it and it had a phone number on it. While some may think this is smooth and clever, I don't appreciate it. I have no intention of calling him because I'm just not interested. But being an employee makes it difficult to not respond to him. He knows I work there. He knows where to find me. And he may ask why I didn't call. There are only so many times I can "leave it in my pocket and wash it by accident." Suppose he's angry. He knows exactly where I'll be. And that's terrifying. PSA: please don't hit on ladies at work. -by K

#retail probz #retail problems #customer service #a smile isn't an invitation #it's in my job description

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I am not one for confrontation at work, given that I am afraid of losing my job or getting written up over something dumb like a customer complaint.

This is one of the many advantages conferred upon customers in the era of "the customer is always right". While the customer was allowed to wear a clearly racist costume, and express his admiration for his own idea, the employee did not have a clear ability to truly respond they way they see fit. It's important to recognize that this is not about being respectful or polite. The customer certainly wasn't being respectful. The point is, if the employee expressed what they really felt, the customer could have complained to a supervisor, putting the employee's source of income(source of life really) in jeopardy. That is power, that is an advantage that the customer has, is probably unaware of, and abused in this instance.

So, a white guy (racist) and his white friend came through my line near Halloween with black body paint, a doo-rag (I don’t know how to spell that please excuse me) jeans, a white wife beater, a fake gold chain, and some other items. He asked me with a goofy smile to guess what he was going to be for Halloween. At this point his friend walked off BUT…

I looked at his horrible stereotypical items and the smile slowly slipped off my face because I could see where he was going with this and I didnt want to believe it.

So I said “I don’t know, what.” He happily, cheerfully, and worst of all proudly proclaimed, “a black guy!” I couldn’t respond how I wanted to so I stayed quiet. He faltered a bit and was like “You’re jealous aren’t you? I bet you’re jealous.” I incredulously blurted out an awkward half laugh told him for a matter of fact that no, no I was not jealous. He paid and muttered “I can’t believe you’re not jealous,” as he walked away. It was kind of like I had thrown him off and he was trying to save face or didn’t know how to respond or react to my clear lack of amusement.

Like he came through my register, thinking that a fellow whitey would look at his blatant blackface racism and clap him on the back and congratulate him on being so clever and witty. I really wanted to badly tell him to have fun being a racist as I handed him his receipt, but I am not one for confrontation at work, given that I am afraid of losing my job or getting written up over something dumb like a customer complaint.

I’m not trying to congratulate myself or anything, by the way, or act like i stood up to a racist and am a hero. It’s just something that rustles my jimmies a lot. There’s a reason he went through my line and not to one of my POC coworkers lines. I think he knew in the back of his mind that what he was doing was wrong and that that wouldn’t have gone down very well if he had gone to one of them instead.

But hey, racists will be racists amirite?

#consumerism #retail probz #retail work #retail #customer service #customers #racism #oppression #capitalism #post by A

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The Submitter's friend has an excellent point.

For those of you who do not know, "NPC" refers to "non-playable characters" in video games.

Generally these non-playable characters are an afterthought, sometimes treated as canon fodder, beings for the player to destroy. Most are rarely treated with sincerity or humanity.

This concept can also be related to George Simmel's Blasé attitude. In 1903's "The Metropolis and Mental Life", Simmel describes the Blasé attitude of indifference to what is going on around a person as a mental defense mechanism against the overwhelming amount of stimulation in modern society.

It requires further observation and research but, it may be possible that our Blasé attitude towards each other is a result of the overwhelming number of people we come into contact with each day.

This should not be used as an excuse, denying a person's humanity should never be excused. Understanding the nature of how that denial occurs is critical to its prevention.

Post by A

My friend made an interesting observation the other day. I was saying how I’m sure customers are nice, intelligent ppl normally, and then they just aren’t when shopping. She said “that’s because they see us as NPCs.”

#Post by A #consumerism #consumerist society #retail probz #sociology #social theory #critical theory #retail work #retail #customer service #George Simmel #Blasé attitude

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K's Epiphany

I know it isn't much but I had an epiphany at work. Back story: I wasn't feeling well. I sometimes get headaches and pass out from them (it's a hydration thing). I needed water ASAP. But I would have to purchase it and was "on the clock." I ended up buying a bottle of water because it was either pass out and be taken home/to a hospital or buy water and maybe be in trouble. The epiphany here is that self care comes before store policy. Always take care of yourself. Be it mentally, physically, emotionally. And that is the way that all stores should look at it. Employees run the store. People in charge need to realize that people come before profits. Once more for the people in the back: your well-being > money/store policy. -by K

#post by k #self care #retail problems #retail probz #consumerism #capitalism #customer service problems #customer service probz #take care of yourself

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Great article from HuffPost showcasing reasons why the the "customer is always right" strategy back-fires. Chief among them, "it makes employees unhappy" and "it gives abrasive customers and unfair advantage". Post by A

#post by A #socialism #consumerism #capitlism #retail probz #customer service #retail worker #retail woes #the customer is always wrong #the customer is not always right

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Oppression Though?

Some people scoff at the name of this page. How could we really call something like the customer and worker interaction oppression? After all, the workers are just doing their job, and the customer is always right. We chose to use this name because our training in sociology led us to believe that there indeed is some sort of oppressive relationship occurring between customers and workers in customers service and retail work environments. We should clarify though, we came to this conclusion using the oppression model, a tool used by sociologists to describe social relationships with imbalances of power. This is not exactly the same definition of oppression that you would find in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.

Oppression has four main components:

     -  Oppression is a social relationship

     -  Oppression always involves an unequal balance of power

     -  The individual or group with more power benefits from the relationship at the expense of the group or individual with less power

     -  The individual or group with less power suffers in some way as a result of the relationship

We should also clarify the use of the term Power in this definition.

Power: ability of individual or group to further their interests, despite resistance, from other groups. Power usually involves controlling or influencing behavior of others.

Now, those of you who have customer service or retail work related jobs, does this at all describe the relationship that develops between you and some customers?

Here at tumblr.com, there exists many, many testimonial blogs that provide workers with the opportunity to express the difficulties in their jobs, especially when it relates to how customers treat them.

Consider a situation that occurs all too often, when customers use various forms of threat to encourage the worker in doing something for them, such as providing a discount, or punching through a coupon that does not apply to the product they are purchasing.

In this instance, the customer is using a covert method of power to serve their interests and secure an economic benefit. Often times, they use this power that is created by a culture of “the customers is always right” to threaten the employee. They believe that the employee is doing their job correctly if they won’t give them a particular discount for a misread promotion or coupon.

That checks all the boxes. There sure does exist a relationship between customer and worker. There exists an imbalance in power. The customer is trying to secure an economic benefit. And as evidence by the hundreds possibly thousands of testimonials to the treatment of workers on submission blogs, the workers do suffer as a result of the exchange. So yeah, oppression does really hit the mark.

- by A

#post by a #socialism #capitalism #consumerism #oppression #retail probz #retail work #sociology #customer service #customer service probz