No respect for Grocery store workers

[Soviet Heavy]

I'm pissed off. I work at my local No Frills, and I pretty much get shit on by every fucking customer who asks me a question.

First, the act like I'm not even there, then they start speaking about how the service is so bad, while I am right behind them stocking shelves.

Then they come and ask me where stuff is. You might think this isn't such a bad thing. But guess what.

Here's an example. A lady is asking me where the grapes are. as I am putting them out, right in front of her. If people took five fucking minutes to look for shit, they wouldn't need to call me.

And then they complain about the fact they can't find anything, and blame the staff. You know, the people who are there to get their food out on display? If we weren't there, the blind idiots who shop at our store wouldn't be able to find anything.

The worst part is when they "apologize". You know, that "I cut you off with my cart" apology that they use like a fucking get out of jail free card.

Store clerks get shit on, abused, and blamed for too much crap, by ignorant consumers who would be hopelessly lost if we weren't there.

Anyone else fee the same?

 

[Sleekgiant]

Well thats all jobs were you interact with humans, they feel superior to you because you are working at such a low establishment to them. Just suck it up and cash in your paycheck, thats all you can do

 

[madcap2112]

I think everybody that works in the service industry can sympathize with you. I know I can; nothing makes me hate humanity more than working at a deli shop. The customer is not always right and there are such things as stupid questions.

 

[Christemo]

where do you live? because it sounds like at least half the place are mushbrains. or else there doing it on purpose.

 

[Insanum]

So...Bad day?

We all have them. Its called Life.

Some people are idiots, some people are cool, It all depends on what you get. I worked in a callcentre, It really had mix of good days and awful days.

 

[Pimppeter2]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.70218-The-Customer-Is-Always-Wrong

You're welcome.

Relish in it my friend.

 

[Yoshemo]

I work at a Wendy's... fast food people get it just as bad

 

[Soviet Heavy]

where do you live? because it sounds like at least half the place are mushbrains. or else there doing it on purpose.

It took them two weeks to figure out we'd moved the grapes one counter over. We pick up a lot of inbreds apparently...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.70218-The-Customer-Is-Always-Wrong

You're welcome.

Relish in it my friend.

Basking in all its glory.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Well thats all jobs were you interact with humans, they feel superior to you because you are working at such a low establishment to them. Just suck it up and cash in your paycheck, thats all you can do

It's like when I'm riding my bike down the street and a car full of douchebags decides to shout some clever one liner at me because obviously I've never ridden in a car before because I'm trying to go for a bike ride and get some exercise...

It's why I always try to be nice to the people who work at stores. Some people are just jerks and I don't know why.

 

[feather240]

I think I'm nice to them, is their anything that people do without being aware of it?

It's hard to deal with people like that. I used to work for a grocery store as my first job, and some people can be very disrespectful. But you have to realize that without them you don't get paid. It's not really something you can change because your real boss is the customers. I tried to keep everyone happy as best as I could so that I still got paid. I don't know how No Frills works, but my paycheck was dependent on how much business we had, so I was working my butt off in the best & smartest ways I could to make everyone happy.

...and you only lost your self respect. ^^

 

[DefunctTheory]

Things like this make me glad I have a job where people are either respectful to me, fearful of me on a basic level, or utterly terrified because a man in a uniform with a crazy look in his eye is not someone you want to mess with.

I do sympathize with you though. Things like this are why I almost always tip well, and in general leave people alone who work retail. I know their lives are shitty enough without be bothering them mid-shift.

 

[Sleekgiant]

I work at a Wendy's... fast food people get it just as bad

Worse actually, I once had a 14 hour day of people yapping in my ear, Drive-Thru, BLARGH

It's why I always try to be nice to the people who work at stores. Some people are just jerks and I don't know why.

Its society and its lack of morals today. I really feel chivalry is dying. I am glad you respect the employees, I always gave good discounts or extra help when I could.

 

[xDarc]

Good thread. As George Carlin said, the public sucks.

I once worked at a walgreens years ago. A man in his early 60's stormed in, all huffy, asking me where the hand soap is. I never stocked anything in the store, just worked the register. I told him there was all kinds of soaps in aise whatever.

Not good enough for him. He rolled his eyes and waved an open hand at the aisle and said he didn't have time to look for that shit. I offered to help him look for the product, which he wasn't sure what it was, he referred to it by several different names. We spent a couple of agonizing minutes looking for it while he muttered under his breath the whole time. He found it and snatched it up and marched up to the register and my manager walked up at about the same time.

I was right next to him when he said to my manager, "What do you have fucking retards working here now?"

My manager didn't even flinch. But I was pissed. I told the manager to ring this guy up, that I was going in the back. Then I looked at the guy and added, if he said one more word, I would beat his old wrinkly ass right out into the parking lot.

My manager of course apologized and then fired me. I already knew that would happen. It was the 90's and you could still get a job anywhere. The look on that old bastards face was priceless. He kept his fucking mouth shut until I went in the back too. I told my manager it was worth it.

I ran into that manager ten years later at another walgreens. Still a manager. He looked very tired. Sad.

 

[The Lawn]

When I go into stores I act like a dick to customers who are acting like a jerk to the employees, and I just say what I would have wanted to say if I were the employee.

A few weeks ago I was in Vons, and this one customer was outright insulting this girl who worked there to the point that she was in tears.
The fact that no one around even did anything to stop it just aggravated me even more.
I went up behind him, grabbed his arm, put my hand over his mouth and said "If I had my knife with me, you'd be dead right now."

Now of course I'd never actually hurt anyone, unless it was self defense, but he turned the palest of white.

Then I just let him go, grabbed a Snapple off the shelf, and continued on with my day.

I did a little victory dance when I got out of the store.

 

[LeonLethality]

I was a service clerk last year for a grocery store called Save on Foods and it's a mostly thankless job, I bagged peoples groceries and I put away returns, I have to do returns quickly because where I worked we had hardly any service clerks and they needed them at the checkouts bagging things to get things going faster, people constantly asked me where things are while I am hastily trying to do returns and when I tell them I am busy and to ask someone else as nice as I can they have the nerve to go to the manager and complain about me! If I helped all the customers that asked I would be behind and then have my manager complaining about that.

And when I am on time and bagging groceries people keep telling me how to do my job, if they want it done in a specific way they can do it themselves! *rage* I quit after a few months when I was accepted at a place with the same amount of pay

Yes it was Subway and there I got treated a little better but I was still dirt to the customers, They keep thinking they have to walk me through EVERY STEP when I knew what I was doing -.- I again got fed up with the place and it wasn't easy quitting because I had awesome co workers.

I now work at a used game store and wouldn't trade this job for the world, great pay, great co workers and hardly any complaints/stupid customers (though that's not to say there is none) and when it's slow I get to just sit on the computer hanging out on the escapist!

But yeah I hate the lack of respect I get for being a service to people.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Good thread. As George Carlin said, the public sucks.

I once worked at a walgreens years ago. A man in his early 60's stormed in, all huffy, asking me where the hand soap is. I never stocked anything in the store, just worked the register. I told him there was all kinds of soaps in aise whatever.

Not good enough for him. He rolled his eyes and waved an open hand at the aisle and said he didn't have time to look for that shit. I offered to help him look for the product, which he wasn't sure what it was, he referred to it by several different names. We spent a couple of agonizing minutes looking for it while he muttered under his breath the whole time. He found it and snatched it up and marched up to the register and my manager walked up at about the same time.

I was right next to him when he said to my manager, "What do you have fucking retards working here now?"

My manager didn't even flinch. But I was pissed. I told the manager to ring this guy up, that I was going in the back. Then I looked at the guy and added, if he said one more word, I would beat his old wrinkly ass right out into the parking lot.

My manager of course apologized and then fired me. I already knew that would happen. It was the 90's and you could still get a job anywhere. The look on that old bastards face was priceless. He kept his fucking mouth shut until I went in the back too. I told my manager it was worth it.

I ran into that manager ten years later at another walgreens. Still a manager. He looked very tired. Sad.

I feel for you. There's nothing worse than an ignorant customer bitching you out for not knowing where something is from a department you've never worked in.

 

[Weaver]

I used to work at a grocery store as well, a loblaws years ago.
Customers I found to be... interesting. I, of course, have many horror stories but I guess Canadians are just more polite than other people or something? I don't know, because the majority of people I dealt with were generally sane.

However, around HOLIDAY TIMES my fucking GOD people just. go. nuts. The store was just chaos for a week. It wasn't even like the people were worse, it was just that there were SO MANY MORE. Lines and lines everywhere, it was almost impossible to stock crap.

I have a few stories. Just for reference, I worked produce (you know, fruits and vegetables).

So one, an old man walks up to me and says "Do you guys sell any napalm around here?!?" I just sent him over to the general merchandise desk and let them deal with him.

Another time yet another old man asked me if he could have the empty clementine boxes I had piled up there. As I was going to just throw them out I said he could. As I was more or less ready to leave, he just said "Wanna know what I want these for?" Saying "no" is pretty impolite, so I turned and nodded.

This signals a 5 minute long conversation on how he uses the wood to build model boats. I'm a modeler myself so it wasn't actually an uninteresting conversation, but I had a lot of crap to do, and most common social cues of "I really have to be going" didn't seem to phase the old man.