Customer, slamming down their museum grade size 8.5 white dookies with the tag still attached: "size 8.5 skates please"
Me, pointing at one of literally five signs saying the rental skates don't come in half sizes: "no half sizes"
Customer, after staring at the sign for 30 seconds: "oh, uhhhh, 9.5 then"
One point in their defense: sign blindness, which is a combination of change blindness, inattentional blindness, and visual clutter.
The retail environment tends to be full of visual clutter: products, prices, directions, labels, and advertisements. Especially advertisements. Even the products themselves often contain advertisements. Humans can only handle processing a limited amount of information at once, so we cope by not actively focusing on most of it. Otherwise, we'd be like small children in a theme park for the first time, stopping frequently to look at all the details. It becomes a skill and a habit that is automatically applied in similar environments.
I'm guilty of it, and I strive to be an attentive, thoughtful person. Just the other day, I missed the "tap here" taped on the card reader at a convenience store. It was next to two advertisements for energy drinks, a rack of candy and truck stop boner pills also plastered with advertisements, and under all the signs you could imagine for tobacco products. Places like that teach us to tune out signs everywhere else.
Oh 100%, and the sheer number of people who did this backs that up. I would be more patient now than I was in my late teens, hahaha
Huh. This is also why webpage advertisements suck, and adblock is accessibility.
I've legit had to explain to two customers that 15 is less than 18.
I remember I once had a woman purchase a plain electric kettle off display, then try to bring it back the next day because she couldn't figure out how to operate it.
It had one button.
"Sorry, we're closed."
"But I just came into the store!"
...
I used to work in a thrift store. We'd arrive about two hours early to label merchandise and stock the shelves. One time someone left the front door unlocked. I found a woman browsing the store, in near darkness with all but a few lights off, at around 6:30 AM. The store opened at 8. When told to leave, she groused about how the door was open so it meant we were open, so she was going to finish her shopping. Fuck no. Trespassed.
I've had that with closing and a door not being locked. Some people seem to think of they manage to get inside the building it's a magic spell and you have to serve them now.
reverse vampires
IT too
Them: i got an error
Me: ok, what did the error say
Them: i didn't read it
Me: ok.... well, can you take a look?
Them: i already turned off the computer
"Did you try resetting your system?"
"I'm not an idiot, of course I did!"
Checks system uptime: 64 days.
"How did you reset it?"
"I turned my screen off and on."
Me: “Okay, do an ls to see what’s in this directory”
Them, employed as a Linux sysadmin at a Fortune 100 company: “How do I do that?”
No ma'am, I cannot accept your coupon for "$5 off a Nintendo Game"... First, this coupon expired in 1994; Second, this coupon was only valid at Toys R Us; Third, this is a Wendy's and you're only here for your free Mini Frosty.
Yes, I'll get my manager...
Every time a customer asks where something is, I tell them it's down aisle 14, we only have 12 aisles.
Wut, aren't you paid to be there to help the customers, it's not like they're asking something ridiculous
Supermarket I work for recently rolled out AI chatbots to help customers find items without asking us.
I don't mind helping customers, that's literally my job. All this has done is it's changed what questions they ask us. Now instead of asking us where our canned mushrooms are, they ask us where aisle 31 is (I was recently asked this question).
And there's only 14 aisles in our store.
that's so dumb, one of the chains here has a proper (if extraordinarily well hidden) system where it straight up shows you the area it should be on a map of the store
that, or you go with the hardware store system of "it's on shelf Home 20, green signs", and you just go to the area with green signs and look for one with 20 on it.
And this is why I walk down the aisles reading the lil sign thingies and guessing. If after the second aisle I'm still fuckin lost then I go up like "I'm sorry, first time in this store and also have the brain the size of a pea..."
Sometimes, but rarely when something changes, specific supermarkets will hand out these:
That's a map.
what's frustrating is how easy it would be to do better.
every store has coordinate locations for every item in the store. Most companies will even print the coordinates on the tags. However, only lowes and home depot (that I know of) actually make this information accessable to customers through the website.
A lot of major stores tell you what aisle now, at least. I don't remember any of them doing that before COVID. (Maybe Target did?) The hardware store maps are really nice, though. I almost never had to bother an employee because of those maps.
omg, I've literally asked by saying, "I know it's probably right in front of me, but my brain has decided to stop working. please help, I'm an idiot" Almost every time it's 6 inches from where I was looking. or behind me.
the other day i was really tired and uh, there's two stores that start with the letters bil. i found an item i needed online at one of those stores, went to the store, searched for 20ish minutes, and then asked an employee for help. they told me "hey, you're at the wrong store"
It's almost like being nice is the magic ingredient.
Exactly, the ones who ask nice get the somewhat accurate answer, I don't know where stuff is, just vaguely where it is.
If y'all so smart how come when I'm the customer in need of assistance all I get is professional box readers, then?
man I only get the amateur ones it seems, lucky you
“Uhh no price on it, then it must be free” No it is not free just because it is missing the price sticker… “then why doesn’t it have a price on it?” I really don’t miss working in retail
To be honest i hate when there is no price sticker or label or anything. I wanna know how much the fucking product costs before i buy it. And i frequently see missing price info in stores around here..
I guess that means it's free, probably. Same with that freezer door over there that isn't priced.
For sure, but you still don’t expect things to be free just because the price tag has fallen off.
It's a joke, y'all.
You might think that, but then they start to argue and not taking no for an answer.
Well, I say it as a joke. For the express cause of causing you pain.
When I was working at a gas station I had to ask everyone if they pumped fuel because drive off stuff. Most of the time it was legitimately someone just forgetting due to grabbing other stuff or whatever else so we had to ask as a reminder. "Did get any gas today?"
"Yeah somethings not quite agreeing with me, breakfast was rough" or whatever other stupid fuck response will just have me stare dead into their fucking eyes, unblinking, with every muscle in my face slack save for my mouth being closed. God that shit drives me fucking insane. Especially if it was the same twat doing it repeatedly. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Worked as a supervisor in fast food. Any bill larger than $20 requires a supervisor code so they can check the bill.
Multiple times a day:
"It's good, I printed it off this morning!"
I had to just pretend I didn't hear them and ignore it.
A tip for everyone: if you have a "go to" joke you always use with workers, I promise you they have heard it too many times that day. Just don't.
Mine's from working at a fish market as a kid: 20 times a day, somebody would walk in the door, hold their nose, and say "Something smells fishy in here!"
...
There's a reason that I wish customer service people a quick and easy shift rather than a nice day. I already know the kind of day they're having.
Did they ever mention the state of Denmark?
Yea, that’ll get me unreasonably angry too.
I'm up there at 0400 opening the place and some prick rocks up at 0645 saying that like "Oh yeah the timmies I got aint sittin right" like Sir... at this moment my job is not to serve you. My job is being paid minimum wage to not rearrange the furniture using your face as a dolly.
Do you guys not have pricing on the shelves in most places?
The only places that use price stickers around me are clothing places on the tag
We do, except where I worked 15 years ago 🙃
Boomer brain suppose that store's property must actually be boomer's property if store's property does not have sticker attached. 🤯
Like.. Okay, lady.. I know you're just being snarky, but your joke doesn't make any fucking sense.
I loved when customers used to get so angry that they would demand I refund them gas for coming back to the store.
No one in the history of customer service has refunded travel, so enlighten me as to why you should be the first?
To be fair, I've been on both sides of the help desk and can confirm the business end applies a ×0 IQ multiplier
Have you been following me around?
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