As someone who works in retail (at the tills in specific), I believe there should be such a thing as "supermarket etiquette" that everyone should follow.
I am BEGGING you, PLEASE put a divider in between your shopping and the shopping of the person behind you. I cannot count how many times I have scanned someone else's shopping and apologised for it when in reality it's cause the customers haven't put dividers down. No, it doesn't matter that your shopping is a distance away from the customer I'm currently serving, put a divider between them ya lazy bastard.
Please don't hold your discount card in my face just milliseconds after I served the customer in front of you. Yes, I will scan your discount card but PLEASE BE PATIENT !
For the love of all things that are holy, PLEASE don't ask a cashier if it's their first day if they seem flustered or don't know how to do something. You may mean well but it's really fucking rude and disrespectful, and recently it's been driving me up the walls. No, I've been working here for four months. If it was my first day I would warn you beforehand. Seriously who raised you to think that's appropriate to say to someone?
And I may be being a bit nitpicky here but if a cashier is about to go on their break/clock out for the day, please please please go to a different till, they will serve you.
yknow, one of the sad things retail has shown me is that the average middle aged/older person has no manners. when i say to customers at work "what can i do for you?" i get "i need" or "i want" or even straight up "give me". theres rarely any "may i" and god forbid they say please. its not hard to look a person in the eyes, say "can i please get ___" instead of barely acknowledging me and barking demands at me like i'm a robot. it's disrespectful. and it's really sad that the generations that taught us manners growing up seem to have forgotten theirs entirely.
As someone who works in a pet-friendly retail store, I am constantly shocked by how much dog mess I have to clean up when we have clean up kits available to customers.
Strange or foreign currency is my bread and butter at work. I love unusual currency (ie. 2$ bills, giant 1$ coins, 50¢ coins, Krons, Rubles, ect). It adds to the liminal space feeling of everything
New year, new job, less stress? My ass. Got accused of handing out too much money on my second day even if this was someone else fault (not even an apology), overreacting when made a mistake (as if I had told something 1000 times already), lack of training, and impatient colleagues, who rolled their eyes too quick when asking questions and not holding onto agreements on week 2.
Someone wishing me luck for my new job application I sent out today for a different company. I really hate this crushing feeling in my chest, making me anxious and unable to concentrate on more important things. :( And I don't want to crawl back to my old work, too proud
Black Friday stories from a very frazzled retail worker:
I was just minding my own business, walking to go put some misplaced merchandise away when some lady comes up being me and yells, "Get out of my way!" To which I reply, "Okay, my asile I need is right here anyway." Then before I even get the chance to move she hits me with her cart and screams, "MOVE FASTER BITCH!" Like, lady... I needed to take two steps to get out of your way.
Then I had to restock the apparel display and I can't even get through the crowd of people to make it to my display. As in standing there, patiently waiting for an opening, arms full of jeans, customers start ripping the jeans right from my hands and yelling at me when the jeans they grabbed weren't the right size.
I'm so done. I'm ready to go home. Just one more hour...
I have just been given a shift on the 10th March. Where I live it's mother's day on that day, so obviously I'm gonna have plans to spend it with my family, but I've been given an all-day shift anyway. And I was told that the only option is to swap with someone else but I can't do that because my other colleagues will be spending mother's day with their families as well so I have nothing to do.
Just the thought of serving customers on a day I was supposed to have with my family makes me fume.
I'm just not gonna go in on that day. I'll probably pull a sickie cause if they're gonna snake me like that, I'll just snake em back