I decided in November that making some money over the holiday break would be a good idea. The only thing I could think of was to work retail as holiday help; my mom already worked at a department store twice a week, so she asked if I could possibly come in for holiday help.
Most of my time was spent on the register. There’s one conclusion I came to when working at that store: The customer is not always right.
When you work in anything customer service-based, they drill into your head that you have to practically get on your knees and feed the customer caviar, if that’s what will make the customer happy. At this establishment, the philosophy was not much different. Sales associates are actually instructed to never say “no” to a customer. If we could not say “yes,” we are supposed to get a manager. This is an absolutely ridiculous policy. Sorry to all the precious people shopping, but sometimes the answer is, “no.”
We had this big blowout sale (and by big blowout, I mean we had one of the sales like every two days), and we were selling men’s slippers at a really low price. On the day of the sale, we ran out of the slippers within an hour. Throughout the day, I had people approaching me to ask where the slippers were. The conversation would go something like this:
Little old lady:“Nice saleslady, where are these charming slippers advertised in the ad?”
Me: “Oh, I’m so sorry, ma’am; we ran out of them earlier today.”
Little old lady turned into a giant Christmas-shopping monster:“You’re out already? Well, that’s just ridiculous! This is the first day of the sale; it’s unbearable to think about all the slippers being taken away within the first couple hours! You should have thought about this earlier, young lady!”
Magically, people didn’t know that chains like that are not controlled by themselves. They have corporate to be guided by, and corporate is like the god of retail. Oh, heaven forbid if corporate hears about anything in which associates have to expose a shred of truth to the customers!
One of my co-workers sold a fragrance to a customer one day. The product had a free gift available, but you only got the gift if you spent a qualifying amount. The customer didn’t spend that amount, but my co-worker said even though she didn’t, she would give her the gift anyway.
The customer later wrote to corporate, filing a complaint, stating that the sales associate made her feel like she was unworthy of the free gift.
Really? If a sales associate at a store makes you feel this way, you need to enroll in therapy to discover the true root of your problems.
Waiting in line was pretty much inevitable in the few weeks leading up to Christmas. Some customers, however, thought it was their job to whine about waiting in line, when they are the ones who waited until the week before Christmas to do all of their shopping.
A customer complained to my mother about the yuletide lines.
Customer:“These lines are awful! Don’t you all know that people hate waiting in line around Christmas?”
My beloved mother:“Well, ma’am, we have as many registers open as we can. You could always do your Christmas shopping online.”
Oh, that makes sense, because I love waiting in line during other times of year, so I’m so glad she cleared that up for me.
Coupons for a percentage off of a single item were often available online, where you could print off several. However, at the bottom of the coupon it reads, “One per customer per day.” I was ringing up a woman purchasing several items. She tried to use like five of the online coupons. I explained to her that she could only use one, showing her the restrictions on the bottom. She told me that was stupid. She then asked me if she could just walk out the door, come back in and use another. I smiled and said, “I suppose, but that wouldn’t be very ethical, would it?” If you’re going to play the coupon game, fine, but at least do it in the realm of reasonability.
My last vent: fitting rooms. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was always taught to put away the items I tried on, not to leave them inside-out in a heap on the seat of the fitting room.
I once found 15 pairs of jeans, all the same size. They were tossed in a mound on the floor of the fitting room.
So, if you remember anything from this article, remember the fitting rooms!
The customer is not always right. I shop a lot, so I sympathize, but just because you are shopping at the store does not mean you are supposed to be treated like the ruler of the world.
Wendy Morell is the opinion editor of the Reflector. She can be contacted at [email protected].