Biting My Tongue

What is it with people asking if a product is "in the back" or if we "have it somewhere else" in the store??

I was in the store on my day off, doing some paperwork that had to be completed that day. Brilliant, right? I worked the day before and the day after, but I couldn't do it early or late. The manager on duty didn't have the authorization to do it, so I had to come in on my day off. And work. On my day off.

The young cashier saw me and passed on a question from a customer as to whether we had a particular item. When I told the customer that we were out of the product she was looking for, she threw a fit.

"I know more than you about your products. I should work here."

Whoa. Where did that come from?

"I'm sorry, but we're out of that item. We may have some more next week."

"You know, it's sad that I know more than you do about what you sell. You don't even know what you carry. There might be some in the back."

I bit down on my bottom lip, HARD, and tried not to roll my eyes. I repeated that we were out of the item, and there were none in the back. Then I walked off. I SO wanted to say more, and the fact that I wasn't in uniform made me so tempted, but........I've seen the lady before, must be a regular, and I'd still get in trouble. Bite and walk, the best course of action.

Does it make any sense, WHATSOEVER, to have empty shelves but lots of products in "the back?" Where is "the back," anyway? Our "back" is the size of my bedroom at home, if that. It contains a bathroom, a breakroom, store supplies, extra store fixtures and such, defective items, cleaning supplies, and yes, a FEW items that won't fit on the shelf. But when there's room on the shelf, we put the items out.

It's been my experience that items don't sell well when they're in "the back." It generally helps if customers can see them, touch them, carry them to the cashier to pay for them, etc. Customers have no brains. "The back"................it doesn't exist. If it's not on the shelf, we don't have any.

I know, you're terribly inconvenienced and we should give you a 500% discount and deliver the item to your door in person. But guess what? Retail doesn't work like that.

The Latest

It's pretty sad that it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home, too. I feel like I'm living in Alaska or something. Seeing the sun is nice every now and then!

The store is still busy, but because of the increased sales we have more employee hours to use so the sales floor is more adequately covered and I'm a little less stressed.

We put up some more Christmas decorations today. That's about as decorated as it's going to get. It sure takes a lot more time to put stuff up than to tear it down at the end of the season!

"Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays"

The whole "Merry Christmas" controversy is insane. People are choosing where to shop based on how the employees choose to acknowledge the holiday?! My store doesn't have an official position on it, while I don't care if my cashiers say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" or "Have a great day" or simply, "Thank you." I continue with my normal year-round send-off because I'm just not in the holiday mood, at least not yet.

Some customers very pointedly say, "Merry Christmas!" and I usually respond, "You too." I mean, it's not Christmas yet. Christmas is on the 25th. My store isn't open then. Why should I say "Merry Christmas" now? Now with some of my regulars I'm more friendly. I heard how excited one lady is because she gets to visit her son; an older gentleman asked for his gift because he might not see me again before the holiday. He thinks I'm with it enough to have shopped already?

Anyway, the whole "Merry Christmas" thing.......while I consider Christmas a secular holiday, its roots are religious and I'm not into forcing religion on other people. If they ask or even seem interested, I'll certainly share. Never had the opportunity at work, but with friends we've had pretty deep conversations. Life, death, after death, God, which god, the difference between religion and church. If someone doesn't want to hear something, then trying to make them listen will only build a wall that's not easily torn down.

I've seen signs outside businesses that say something like, "We say 'Merry Christmas.'" Yeah? So? Do you provide good service? How about your prices? I don't care if you're politically correct. I care if you give me what I need.

I hate people.

My main cashier was on a break so I was filling in for her. A lady came in and demanded an item (didn't ask for it, but DEMANDED it). After I got it for her she wanted something else that was RIGHT behind her. I told her where it was but she seemed annoyed that I didn't come over to help her pick one out. Yeah, whatever—there are a zillion different types and I have other customers waiting to hand me money, pick one out for yourself!!

There was one register open. All of the other registers had their closed signs up. I was in the front cleaning a shelf within easy sight of the doors and registers. Yet people still had trouble figuring out which lane was open. "Where do you want me?" "Oh, all the lanes are closed, I guess it's free today! HA HA HA!" "Which one's open?" Is it that difficult?! I want you at the only register that doesn't have a rope across it!

18 days left. Will I have any hair left by then?

Research

At this time of year we run out of stuff more than normal. It's because people are shopping more than normal. Is that a hard concept to grasp?

Sometimes our in-stock numbers get messed up too. We might be completely out of something but the computer thinks we have enough of it so the item is not reordered. When that happens I first have to notice the empty shelf and then research it.......did we just sell more than normal this week so we're out of it, or did someone forget to stock the shelf, or is our distributor having supply issues, or did the computer not order any of it because it thinks we still have some?

Yesterday I researched some bare spots on shelves and fixed the problems, including the items that the computer thought we had some of. Today I assisted a customer who was asking about one of those very items. He asked when we would get more of the item so I explained it might be a few weeks because of the computer error. He responded in a very domineering way, "Computers don't make mistakes; people do. I know someone on your board of directors." He said it as if it was MY mistake that we didn't have any of the item. I just FIXED the problem; I didn't CAUSE it!

Is that a threat? I think it's despicable when customers threaten me. I thought to myself, "Do we even have a board of directors?" Then I explained, AGAIN, that I was sorry for his inconvenience and the problem had been fixed but it might take a few weeks to get the product in again. After all, our computer talks to corporate computer, that computer talks to the people who make the product, those people send the product to corporate, corporate sends them to us.....that doesn't happen overnight.

The customer repeated his threat, "I know someone on {Big Competitor's} board of directors! I wouldn't say anything to him about this, but……..I expect you to compensate me for this."

Asshole!

I didn't point out to him that we aren't {Big Competitor} but that we're {Us}. After all, if he's mad enough to talk to someone higher up, let him talk to his friend {Big Competitor} to complain about our store and only then find out that they don't have a store in our area. If he knew who we were he might ask for our office's phone number and cause problems there.

I apologized again, knowing that I could make fun of him all I wanted once he left. I showed him the smaller size of the item he wanted and, after checking with my boss, offered him a rather significant discount on the larger size when it came in. It wasn't as much as he wanted, but what he wanted wasn't anywhere near reasonable. The boss said that was it, not a penny more. Take it, or shop someplace else. We went above and beyond to help you; there's no way you're getting us in trouble.