Retail Employee Stories Part 8: Stories From Smart Tech Featuring Andy

In some cases I am sure the store is glad not to have that customer coming back. We used to send people to Walmart all the time when we didn't have what the customer wanted, no one cared including the managers.

I am not sure if anyone here has heard of Kirklands but its this weird furniture housewares type store. Now the return policy on the back of the receipt says if you are unhappy with anything to return it within 60 days, what they apparently don't tell you is if something breaks they won't refund it or exchange it and the only way for you to get resolution is to buy another one of the item you are not satisfied with. I was in there buying a small clearance item when I witnessed at least 2 altercations of people who could not get returns due to broken merchandise. Then the sales associate cheeringly tried to sell them another of what just broke saying that is the only way for them to get a replacement. I am sure their merchandise is all Chinese made crap I could find online for less too. Some of the items in that store are very expensive too.I will not be going back to that store.
 
I thought Kirkland's was Costco's company.

Also, piece of advice to anyone here and anyone you know: Do not tell cashier jokes. We have heard them all, multiple times. Yes, we know you printed the bills last night. Yes, we know a derogatory term for a wife is "bag." Yes, we know that if we do not have any customers for 0.54 seconds that must mean we were bored or waiting for you. We hear each and every one dozens of times a day. And laughing like you are the greatest comedian ever doesn't make it any funnier.

Also, please stop griping about self-checkout. It is not as bad as you make it to be. Yes, you put the money where he flashing lights are. No, it is not taking away jobs. Instead of 4 SCO registers and 1-2 manned registers, you would just have 2-3 registers.

And please stop stabbing the PINPad. A soft touch will get it done without breaking the screen.
 
Personally I'm not a fan of self checkout more because I kinda prefer to go through a real checkout being run by a real person. That way if there's any issues I'm not having to wait and wait and sometimes really wait for the person running the self checkout area to become available. Not that I'm against using self checkout as I have used them in the past but usually when I got a decent amount of items then I won't use it for the reasons I stated already.

[quote name='DNukem170']I am more annoyed by "I'm going to your major competitor!" Like we're supposed to grovel for your money?[/QUOTE]

Reminds me back to my days working at CCity when the third Pirates film came out. As per corporate policy (and stated in our ads etc) we could only allow a customer to purchase three copies of a new release. This was mostly due to stopping other stores from coming in and buying our stock so they can resell it at their higher costs.

Anyways I had this one woman who had about 12 copies of the film. Obviously I had to be the bad guy in all of this and inform her of store policy. I still can to this day hear her just yell at me "WELL I'LL JUST GO TO THE COM-PE-TIT-TION!" I mean its like I don't make the policies I just follow how and what I'm supposed to do.
 
Never had a problem with cashier jokes, but people have gotten so much more rude and demanding since I have last been a cashier.

Only one store here has self checkout for a reason, all stores had them for a while but then ripped them out. No one knows how to use them. At the one store that does have them its 6 checkouts to one cashier manning the station it works reasonably well but you have to see the clerk every time you have a coupon and since there is only one clerk for 6 registers it takes a while.

I am not sure about Kirklands but the store I am talking about is a stand alone furniture/housewares store. I know Costco also has Kirkland branded items but we don't even have a Costco here. It was about the equivalent of Sears appliance department in terms of customers arguing, but kirkland's now officially takes the crown away from that as within about a 5 min span I heard 3 people have complaints and arguments at the store. I have heard screaming matches come out of the Sears appliance dept. but it is not nearly as frequent as that.

http://kirklands.com is the store I am talking about.
 
You made me check this thread out because I didn't understand what "Retail Employee Stores" were. OP is intentionally spelling every instance of the word "stories" incorrectly for more views? Well played...
 
[quote name='Blade']You made me check this thread out because I didn't understand what "Retail Employee Stores" were. OP is intentionally spelling every instance of the word "stories" incorrectly for more views? Well played...[/QUOTE]

I didn't even realize that. Damn I need to read more carefully lol
 
[quote name='Blade']You made me check this thread out because I didn't understand what "Retail Employee Stores" were. OP is intentionally spelling every instance of the word "stories" incorrectly for more views? Well played...[/QUOTE]

why in the world would he want more views lol it isn't like he gets paid for page views.
 
[quote name='Blade']You made me check this thread out because I didn't understand what "Retail Employee Stores" were. OP is intentionally spelling every instance of the word "stories" incorrectly for more views? Well played...[/QUOTE]

Nope. Somehow I didn't notice the misspelling until you mentioned it. Fixed now.
 
This happened last month.

Woman: Where are the infant's tights?

Me: They are next to the underwear.

Woman: I DON'T WANT UNDERWEAR! I WANT TIGHTS!!!

So I walk the woman into the aisle past the underwear, stood in front of the tights and pointed to them. She grabs a pair and with a frustrated look on her face says "Thanks" and storms out.

Yesterday, a woman was angry because we didn't have enough of a certain kind of peanut butter that expired in September 2013 (most of them said March and May of 2013). She is a germaphobe that visits the store often and ALWAYS has something to complain about.
 
[quote name='therealdanhill']These threads used to be bumpin', I miss those days. I wonder if it's because of people not having jobs, with the state of unemployment and all.[/QUOTE]

For me, it's just getting jaded about the whole thing. You can only complain about the idiot who decides the sale sign 20 feet away from an item must apply to it before it doesn't really phase you anymore.

Quite simply, customers are still stupid- just not interestingly so lately.
 
So now that I am back at my teaching job I only work saturday nights at Kmart. Find out today that two days ago the entire assistant management staff got let go from my store. I am glad because most of them were fucking idiots who made a lot of bad choices (who makes a teenager the manager of electronics?). Turns out they cut the assistant manager position completely. At this point I don't fucking care if I am pushed out either since I work there once a week. Also found out our store is no longer doing layaway...which can be a good sign that we will be closing soon and it's pointless to do layaways anymore.

Anyone else want to confirm this event at their stores?
 
I think maybe it is because people are afraid to talk about their jobs online because if they get caught they will get fired.
 
I'm still in the mindset that I could post just about every day since it's so bad where I am.

I thought we were "team members" yet it has become every person for themselves. Until this past week, employees were actually hiding equipment [with manager approval] so other work centers suffer. I thought I was being punished seeing as how one of the vendors put in a good word with me (she said I help her more than any other employee she's ever met) that I was given a "reference number". And here I was thinking that a company would make money by keeping stock on the floor, not empty and in the stockroom.

Meanwhile, the store still thinks having two cashiers at a time and making customers wait is a "best practice". I counted 8 times in one day that I had to go up for backup (half of those times were in one hour's time). If I reached 10, I would have walked out on them.

Next time, I'll talk about something they did that was so disgusting that I can't even eat in their break room.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']So now that I am back at my teaching job I only work saturday nights at Kmart. Find out today that two days ago the entire assistant management staff got let go from my store. I am glad because most of them were fucking idiots who made a lot of bad choices (who makes a teenager the manager of electronics?). Turns out they cut the assistant manager position completely. At this point I don't fucking care if I am pushed out either since I work there once a week. Also found out our store is no longer doing layaway...which can be a good sign that we will be closing soon and it's pointless to do layaways anymore.

Anyone else want to confirm this event at their stores?[/QUOTE]

I don't agree with the "teenager as manager of electronics" line, mainly cause when I was 18, I was the manager of electronics for the kmart in my local town, and I was pretty f'ing awesome at it too. But a normal teenager that is probably an idiot, that would be a big no no.

As far as layaway being cut out, yeah, your kmart is on its way out soon. Seen a couple in this area do that, and lasted 4 to 6 months between them, along with Sears right behind them.
 
[quote name='Cage017']I'm still in the mindset that I could post just about every day since it's so bad where I am.

I thought we were "team members" yet it has become every person for themselves. Until this past week, employees were actually hiding equipment [with manager approval] so other work centers suffer. I thought I was being punished seeing as how one of the vendors put in a good word with me (she said I help her more than any other employee she's ever met) that I was given a "reference number". And here I was thinking that a company would make money by keeping stock on the floor, not empty and in the stockroom.

Meanwhile, the store still thinks having two cashiers at a time and making customers wait is a "best practice". I counted 8 times in one day that I had to go up for backup (half of those times were in one hour's time). If I reached 10, I would have walked out on them.

Next time, I'll talk about something they did that was so disgusting that I can't even eat in their break room.[/QUOTE]

"team members" "best practice" and an unhappy employee, smells like Target to me. Marchin' their way on down to Walmart's level, hopefully right past them and all the way down to KMart where you've got 3 employees in the entire store at any given time.

While I'm still with the company in a part time capacity, the best thing I ever did was leave working full time and go back to school. I'm not sure if I'll end up with a decent enough paying job to pay these student loans but I'll tell you this, I'm glad I'm not dealing with their crap for a full 40 hours a week anymore...
 
[quote name='EdgeCrusher36']I don't agree with the "teenager as manager of electronics" line, mainly cause when I was 18, I was the manager of electronics for the kmart in my local town, and I was pretty f'ing awesome at it too. But a normal teenager that is probably an idiot, that would be a big no no.

As far as layaway being cut out, yeah, your kmart is on its way out soon. Seen a couple in this area do that, and lasted 4 to 6 months between them, along with Sears right behind them.[/QUOTE]

I say it was an idiotic move because the fucker ended up stealing controllers and other stuff from 360/ps3 units and giving it to his cousins. I don't think they charged him , just fired him. They later put this 20 year old as temp manager and he was an even bigger fuck up by selling off other customer's layaways and stealing Vita gaming systems from the back. My manager kicked him out of electronics but then put him back into electronics 2 days later for Black Friday weekend. Management got really pissed at him because they caught him selling a tv that was set for black friday weekend sale only and telling the customer that they could come back and get it at the sale price. They threatened to fire him but he ended up quitting. I do blame management more than the employees though because they should know by know who can they trust and who can't they trust.

I wouldn't be surprised if next time I go in they tell me I am cut since I don't work many hours there anyways.

Still sucks to walk in to work one day and to be notified that your position has been eliminated. Shit if I knew the DM was there and I wasn't at my other job I should have told them how my manager was trying to pad those surveys by going to the library and using pre-paid cell phones to boost the stores numbers. That's enough to get her fired. But oh well it's done and over with.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Still sucks to walk in to work one day and to be notified that your position has been eliminated. Shit if I knew the DM was there and I wasn't at my other job I should have told them how my manager was trying to pad those surveys by going to the library and using pre-paid cell phones to boost the stores numbers. That's enough to get her fired. But oh well it's done and over with.[/QUOTE]

It's amazing the amount of work some people will put into not doing their jobs.
 
Going a few pages back, at my old job at Staples I knew the "Speaka spanish" all too well.

One day a group of four walk in together and are looking at cameras. I go over and ask if they need help, one asks me "Speaka spanish" I say no, his buddy next to him asks the same question 2 seconds later, I answer no, then his buddy right next to him does the "ohhhhhh" bit then asks the same question.

I don't miss those days at all, now its laughing at the customers as a customer. Like Halo 4 launch day, I am at gamestop 9:50 AM with just random guys who didn't want to get it at midnight. Door opens we all walk in, form a line and wait. Lady walks in cuts everybody to get Little Big Planet kart racing a minute after it opens. Of course I was next in line so I am just staring at her and yelling to get in the back on the line with everybody else. Good to know people are still stupid since I got out of customer service.
 
[quote name='Aldogg']Going a few pages back, at my old job at Staples I knew the "Speaka spanish" all too well.

One day a group of four walk in together and are looking at cameras. I go over and ask if they need help, one asks me "Speaka spanish" I say no, his buddy next to him asks the same question 2 seconds later, I answer no, then his buddy right next to him does the "ohhhhhh" bit then asks the same question.
[/QUOTE]


Well from last night's shift the new one I got was "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" when I was telling the guy about BT and the coupon he got. Every time I told him something new, he kept on saying "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm". So I decided to say the same thing.


Forgot to mention last night. 1 minute before we closed I hear these high heels walking thru the store and I am like who is that? It's some vietnamese women walks towards the back of my department and so me and another associate follows her and ask her what she needs as we are closed (someone in the front forgot to lock the door and let her walk in). So trying to understand her she is telling us that she needs a 4.5 volt battery but kept on insisting that a 1.5 C battery will do . I look it up and it looks like one of those kodak camera batteries. I tell her that it won't work and she doesn't listen and still wants to buy it and I tell her I can't ring it up because we are closed. Bone head security guy comes up to me and tells me to get rid of her and I tell her that I am trying but she doesn't understand. She still insists in buying it but I tell her our registers are closed and tell her to go to walmart since it's open 24 hrs. Mean while I get this dirty look from LP...seriously? Not my fault the front end people didn't lock the front door. I can't control anything in the back of the store.
 
I used to work as cashier at a restaurant and once a driver forgot a tape dispenser on the counter. When I came back to the front, four of the customers was making tape balls and wrapping our counter... I took away the tape and one of them had the guts to ask me if he could "borrow some more tape".
 
Last Christmas I had a customer come up to me and say "I want to do that $99 xbox deal ya'll got up there!" (Now usually the customers don't read the fine print that states you pay $99 and Microsoft sends you a coupon for a discounted system for you to take to the store and then bills you a $14.99 xbox live membership monthly for the next 2 years.) I had a ton of customers who were expecting to pay $99 and walk out with an xbox so I explained the process to him. I also told him that it would be cheaper in the long run to just buy the system outright ($299 + $60 for xbox live for a year) and that it would come out to less than he would be paying Microsoft.

He wasn't grasping the concept as usual so I said "Hang on a second, let me get the calculator out to do some math, if that is alright with you?" He said with enthusiasm "Sure!!". I grab the calculator and total in the $299 with the $60 and it comes out to $359. Then I calculate the "deal" from Microsoft. $99 + $14.99/mo for 24 months which came out to $458.76. I told him even if he wanted to get another year, it would still be cheaper to do the whole thing outright rather than paying for the plan monthly. He said "Thanks so much, I understand and you are totally right!" and he left.

Fast Forward a couple of hours and he is back. He walks up to me and says "I thought about it and I think I am going to do the $99 xbox deal." before I could ask if he was sure he said "I think you had some bad math and I will get out of here with more money in my pocket if I do this deal" I sighed and said "If you are sure I will ring you up. I just hate that Microsoft is ripping people off like this. Sure it is better short term, but long term you are spending about $50 more plus if you change your mind the contract has to be paid in full." He said "I'm sure" and he hands me the coupon.

I go to ring it up, and I start reading the fine print (I hadn't ever scanned one because most customers thought it was just $99 or they saw they would save money by doing it through us and not MS). While I am reading I say "Which system would you like? The 4GB with Kinect, or the 250gb without Kinect?" He starts raising his voice "I want the 250GB WITH Kinect!!!!" I said "Sir, it isn't one of the options." he replies "ON THE WEBSITE THEY SHOW IT AND SAY YOU CAN GET IT!!!!!" I said, "Hang on a second sir, let me ask another manager and see if he knows more than I do." I walk to the back room and ask my boss and he says he hasn't heard of that being one of the ones in the deal.

I go back to the customer and let him know, he is super angry right now. I asked if he minded if I look it up on my phone and try to figure it out for him. He said sure, so I look it up and it seems like it is only through MS online. He gets angry, and I tell him I can't do it. Then again I say "Are you SURE you want to do this?" he said "Yeah, if I change my mind I have to give them $50 today." I apologized and said, I will see what I can do for you because I know I have some promotions going on and I will get you out of here today spending the least amount as possible.

He left with the 250gb system (I got the holiday bundle for him with Forza 4 and a DLC Skyrim game), a used Kinect with Kinect Adventures (free add-on), and an extra controller/play and charge pack. He was happy... I thought.

He came back a couple of hours later wanting to return everything because "He changed his mind about the deal" Normally I would be glad to do so, but he opened the system and items. yet again he was super angry. He said "I didn't really change my mind, I can get the 250gb system with kinect at Best Buy so I am going to do it there because you guys won't do it!"
I apologized and told him I can't do the return, I can only swap it for the same system. He left.

I was super frustrated at this point and glad to see him go.

He kinda redeemed himself this past weekend. He came in with his family to buy some more games. He said "I wish I had listened to you for that xbox deal, because It would have been cheaper to get that and the family pack for a year rather than that monthly for a user and buying 3 $60 cards for the others in my family." I said "I know, MS is ripping people off" and he was like "I am sorry I was angry, I thought you were trying to make a quick buck off of me" I was shocked and I said "Sir, I don't work off of commission and I believe that people should be treated fairly. If I wouldn't' do something, I won't ask my customers to do that" he was surprised and said they would keep coming back and seeing me, and they pre-ordered 5 games which was awesome!

So I guess he did redeem himself, even though he was super angry at Christmas time.
 
I have another.

I transferred from a different location to the one I currently work at about a year ago.

The first week I moved to this store some of their "regulars" came in. They started name dropping for the store manager and assistant store manager. (That gets on my nerves, I am the manager on duty, I know what the policies are and I won't change from them, it isn't worth risking my job over)

Anyhow, these people come in and they want to return a used game. I say "No problem" and process the return. The game was $34.99 and they used a $20 coupon, so I say "The return total is $14.99
the wife starts freaking out saying "NO The game is $34.99!" I explain that they used a coupon and I can't credit that back, once it is used, it is used." The wife starts dropping names saying that "**** and **** would let her do it, and I need to call them and ask because obviously I don't know what I am doing" I apologize and say "I am not able to give you the full value back, only what you are charged." The husband is always nice to me now, but the wife is never nice.

A few days ago she called and said "I want you to check the trade in values on 10 games for me." I told her that I could do a couple but I was the only one there and needed to help customers. She said "**** and ***** would do it!" I said "They may but I can't I am the only one here." so she got angry again.
 
A few years ago they transferred a new Store Manager in (we'll call him Numbnuts) who really shouldn't be managing a store. 90% of his decisions are based on what the store looks like when the district manager does his walk (which is every other day). He cares more about making sure everything is swept than if we have enough product and that we have enough staff. Numbnuts has gotten rid of an entire aisle and a half-dozen bays, blocked transfers by talking about associates behind their backs, and has no original thought in his head. And now he has the Customer Service Desk not only doing their additional duties, but also returns from 6am-9am and 6pm-10pm, grabbing and maintaining all online orders after 6pm, as well as calling vendors for status updates. In addition to taking all Kitchen, Millwork, Garden, and Flooring orders.

Then today, every single suit, exec, manager, and supervisor from the Eastern Seaboard (at least 200 in all) was in the store this morning. They took all the parking spots, crowded the main aisle so bad customers couldn't get through, and then did a loud ass cheer that drowned out customers asking questions. They called in a bunch of cashiers and gave them extra hours (which is normally a sin on par with overtime) and even did a one-day transfer of a cashier from another store. All to make the store look pretty.
 
Heres one, a few months ago this elderly woman with her grandchildren i take it where walking around the isles I was doing a mod (changing labels, products, cleaning shelfs) and she turned to me and said this is one of those fagg** wetbacks who are taking jobs from kyle he can't get hired here because he (points to me) is working for less money to raise his 4 kids (I have no kids) then the kids start laughing at me and actually telling me to f*** off and go back to "maxico" so there older brother can have my job somehow I and other races were blocking him from getting hired. I was just surprised the whole time this old lady and two kids just started running off there mouths I just stood my ground and went back to doing my job.

 
200STM said:
Heres one, a few months ago this elderly woman with her grandchildren i take it where walking around the isles I was doing a mod (changing labels, products, cleaning shelfs) and she turned to me and said this is one of those fagg** wetbacks who are taking jobs from kyle he can't get hired here because he (points to me) is working for less money to raise his 4 kids (I have no kids) then the kids start laughing at me and actually telling me to f*** off and go back to "maxico" so there older brother can have my job somehow I and other races were blocking him from getting hired. I was just surprised the whole time this old lady and two kids just started running off there mouths I just stood my ground and went back to doing my job.
Click to expand...
Much respect for not blowing up on them. I probably would've said something insulting right back to them. I haven't encountered a bigot yet at my job but I hope I can remain calm when I do ha.

 
So the Kmart I have been working at since last year is finally going under.   We have been in liquidation mode for about a month now.

-Everyday seems to be like Black Friday weekend.  So we have more customers than the usual fair.

-The common questions I get every day, and every fucking hour is:

           -"What's the price of this..." (points to item that I have no fucking clue without a price gun).

                 If I am with a customer and you do this to me, I usually point to the price scanner and tell them to check there..."

          -"When is your last day?"

                 I usually tell them August, but don't really care.

          -"Why are you closing down?"

                 Blame walmart...........they killed the target in the area... but to be honest it was piss poor management of the store that was the death of it.

          -"Is this the price?" (Usually asked in spanish) and 95% of the time I have to point to the price tag I set up showing them the price...and the response is usually "Oooohohh" or "Ok just looking..."

          -"Is this the price BEFORE discount?"

              No you fucktard it's AFTER the discount.  So most people expecting an extra 20-30% off on top of that.

          -Idiots with carts full of crap telling me that our sale "Sucks"... Ok then why are you shopping here?

People are trashing the store on an hourly basis.  I have had people ask me to price something, I give them the price then they tell me they don't want it and want me to take care of it for them....my response is , no you can put it back where you found it.

Thief is out of control.  Nobody cares... we have security that is a joke that are usually on their cell phones texting while people are stealing shit.

Employee's don't give a crap anymore and usually stand around doing nothing.  Customers are getting pissed because it's not the price they want to pay for an item and can't do simple math.  I had one customer who got pissed that the item he wanted (legos) was a dollar more expensive than everywhere else even with the discount.  He ended up buying it anyways.  :headache:

Another customer looked at our system bundles , bitched at the price and I tried to explain the reason why it's higher and I was accused of playing "head games" with him.... again simple math does not compute with customers. :dunce:

Everyone is expecting to come back on the very last day in order to get 50-90% of electronics........good luck with that shit.  The other day management was saying that a select few will be offered jobs at other stores......yeah there is a future for part time employment in a company that is falling apart so in another year more stores will close.  Why bother with that shit? 

 
I have people like those whenever we do a mass clearence of seasonal stuff. They usually expect the discount taken at the register instead of paying the already discounted price. And then customers get indignant and leave without buying the stuff, as if they were the only ones who would ever buy it.
 
I got one customer get really, really pissed at me because she didn't remember her PIN number on her rewards card...Not my problem if they don't remember their pin.  She left and I had to reset the terminal because I couldn't void it.

 
Working at a store that is closing sucks. I was an assistant manager at a KB Toys (making 8.50 an hour Lolz) when it was closing. The last week we were open, when we had half an aisle of product left (mostly n'sync no strings attached dolls) we had a woman screaming at us because she could not find help finding product. She called my cashier a fat cow and when I told her to leave the store, she started throwing stuffed animals at me. We escorted her out of the store, she was swearing in front of her son the whole way. Later I found out she sent a letter to the BBB saying we threatened her and her son was afraid "mommy was going to go to jail". I didn't bother to respond to that one. On the last day we were open, I was bored and playing my gameboy advance to pass the time. A guy came in wanting video game systems that had long been sent to other, non closing stores. When I told him we were out, he accused me of lying because of the GBA in my hand. /sigh
 
Oh, god, I remember when we couldn't void transactions after a payment has been attempted. Which means when a customer's card declined, we had to get a manager to void it out. And usually it was on the only open register. Thankfully that has long since gone.

Had this Hindu lady come into the garden section and immediately asked what was on sale. Never mind that pretty much everything is on clearence, I always get annoyed when people ask me that. Then she couldn't fathom that the tomato plants were $3.48. Then she came up asking how to use the fertilizer spikes. I told her that all she had to do was pound it into the ground and water, she asked if it was the kind to spread around. After I again explained everything, she asked if she could use it on her tomato plant. The spikes she brought up were for Evergreen Trees. All the while she had this very lazy look on her face like she wanted to go home and go to bed.
 
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Within the last two weeks we have had problems with any Federal Credit Union cards.... For some reason the system isn't taking them anymore....and of course people are getting pissed saying "But I just used it this morning...."

Gotta love it when people come in , look at our dead plants and say "Can you make me a deal on those dead plants?"  We all know that they can revive them fairly easily and if they can get a really good deal by trying to out smart us. 

Also gotta love those people who want more off the display models when they have been sat on and damaged. 

 
200STM said:
Heres one, a few months ago this elderly woman with her grandchildren i take it where walking around the isles I was doing a mod (changing labels, products, cleaning shelfs) and she turned to me and said this is one of those fagg** wetbacks who are taking jobs from kyle he can't get hired here because he (points to me) is working for less money to raise his 4 kids (I have no kids) then the kids start laughing at me and actually telling me to f*** off and go back to "maxico" so there older brother can have my job somehow I and other races were blocking him from getting hired. I was just surprised the whole time this old lady and two kids just started running off there mouths I just stood my ground and went back to doing my job.
Click to expand...
Don't you live around Bakersfield? I'm surprised they still have rednecks like that in California, I really love misinformed ignorant people.

 
ITDEFX said:
So the Kmart I have been working at since last year is finally going under. We have been in liquidation mode for about a month now.

-Everyday seems to be like Black Friday weekend. So we have more customers than the usual fair.

-The common questions I get every day, and every fucking hour is:

-"What's the price of this..." (points to item that I have no fucking clue without a price gun).

If I am with a customer and you do this to me, I usually point to the price scanner and tell them to check there..."

-"When is your last day?"

I usually tell them August, but don't really care.

-"Why are you closing down?"

Blame walmart...........they killed the target in the area... but to be honest it was piss poor management of the store that was the death of it.

-"Is this the price?" (Usually asked in spanish) and 95% of the time I have to point to the price tag I set up showing them the price...and the response is usually "Oooohohh" or "Ok just looking..."

-"Is this the price BEFORE discount?"

No you fucktard it's AFTER the discount. So most people expecting an extra 20-30% off on top of that.

-Idiots with carts full of crap telling me that our sale "Sucks"... Ok then why are you shopping here?

People are trashing the store on an hourly basis. I have had people ask me to price something, I give them the price then they tell me they don't want it and want me to take care of it for them....my response is , no you can put it back where you found it.

Thief is out of control. Nobody cares... we have security that is a joke that are usually on their cell phones texting while people are stealing shit.

Employee's don't give a crap anymore and usually stand around doing nothing. Customers are getting pissed because it's not the price they want to pay for an item and can't do simple math. I had one customer who got pissed that the item he wanted (legos) was a dollar more expensive than everywhere else even with the discount. He ended up buying it anyways. :headache:

Another customer looked at our system bundles , bitched at the price and I tried to explain the reason why it's higher and I was accused of playing "head games" with him.... again simple math does not compute with customers. :dunce:

Everyone is expecting to come back on the very last day in order to get 50-90% of electronics........good luck with that shit. The other day management was saying that a select few will be offered jobs at other stores......yeah there is a future for part time employment in a company that is falling apart so in another year more stores will close. Why bother with that shit?
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Was that Target super crappy because I never heard of a Wal-Mart being able to take down a Target.

Sorry your store closed, that's gotta be a sucky experience to go through.

 
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FadeToDark said:
Last Christmas I had a customer come up to me and say "I want to do that $99 xbox deal ya'll got up there!" (Now usually the customers don't read the fine print that states you pay $99 and Microsoft sends you a coupon for a discounted system for you to take to the store and then bills you a $14.99 xbox live membership monthly for the next 2 years.) I had a ton of customers who were expecting to pay $99 and walk out with an xbox so I explained the process to him
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Lesson one for retail employees should be "customers never read the fine print or do even the slightest amount of research prior to entering the store, ever." I worked at the local TRU from mid September to Christmas, so I got to experience that particular brand of mind-numbing incoherence from the day it began all the way up to my last day there. I worked in the R-Zone, and every other phone call and walk up we got was "you got any more of them $99 xboxes?"

I cannot tell you how many times I had to slowly and dutifully* explain just how bad a "deal" it really was while receiving an equally unfathomable number of glassy-eyed, brain-dead looks in return as I attempted to convey the meaning of basic math to the local population of trapped-in-time Neanderthals. Oh, and the people who would then get pissy with me as if it were my fault that they couldn't be bothered to read the full ad and had expected to walk out with a 360 slim for $99... they were the best, wouldn't you agree? Oh, and the people who thought they could get out of the 2-year XBL service contract after a month and not suffer any penalties, they were great too; basic contract law should be a required subject in high school.

Thankfully I only ever had one person insist on going through with it, and their credit card was declined on a separate, immediately prior, purchase so they never actually initiated the paperwork. Thank you for reminding me of just how awful that job was; I will happily be declining their offer to return again as seasonal help this coming Fall.

Also, fuck the shit-bag in Microsoft's marketing division who dreamed up that fucking $99 "deal." Like, so hard that they can't sit for a week and have recurring nightmares about it.

*Understand that this was obviously not in the best interest of TRU, but definitely in mine and the customers'; my coworkers and management agreed that not only was it a terrible offer, but it would also be a shit-load of extra paperwork for the unlucky SOB who had to check the customer out. I never saw it done, but my understanding was that because of the monthly nature of the XBL billing setup, the prospective customer had to undergo some sort of in-store credit check before being approved for the purchase (which would've eliminated easily 90% of the people who asked about it to begin with).

 
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MSUHitman said:
Was that Target super crappy because I never heard of a Wal-Mart being able to take down a Target.
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It's happening to mine since it's not a Super Target. In fact, there are two Walmarts and two Super Targets my store is sandwiched in-between. People have slowly been leaving since January and I feel I may be next.

The guests can be crappy at times (Really? You're yelling at me over Twizzlers and tampons?!) but when I see a team member who can't tell the difference between "7" and "10" and throws their guest at me without even attempting to help them, I get how people can hate the store. Nine years of dealing with that crap has got to end.

 
I'm tired of people trying to tell me what Consumer Reports says.

Also I hate the people who attempt to test your knowledge.

And then there is the kid who wanted a lagless TV to play COD online for no money.

Also the people who think they need 8GB of ram for basic shit, or who want to Photoshop/edit video on a i3. REALLY!!. An i3?!?! -_-*
 
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I had like one or two customers asking about the 99 dollar deal for the 360's.  Since HQ never sent us information about the deal I guess it wasn't offered with us. 

 
TRU is probably a worse place than Walmart to work, you do not want to be dealing with parents and toys and electronics and games, trust me. At least with Walmart you have a chance of being placed in a different department but there is something about a pure toy store that breeds stupidity. I guess that is why almost all the toy stores in the USA have closed up, except for TRU probably because they can't get any employees that are able to tolerate tons of screaming kids and stand on their feet for 8 hours a day. I have shopped at TRU and just from that i can see that the questions that come out of the mouths of people who shop there are unbelievable. It's only going to get worse with these new consoles out especially with the mandatory day 1 patches because the American public is clearly not educated enough to operate them.
 
So my daily dose of idiots coming into the store during our close out continues....

-One old fart comes in, starts bitching at me because the brown chair he has been eyeballing for weeks has not gone any cheaper.  Gets mad because the other "Foreigner" told him to check back Sunday.  I almost slapped him in the face... racist mother fucker.

-This other guy, which clearly had issues started going off on me as well because the cooler he wanted had no price tag (it was ripped off) so he wanted me to generate a price and I told him I couldn't because I needed a UPC or KSN to work with for the system and that I would be glad to find something similar to sell at that price.  He wouldn't listen saying he wants a manager because a manager would give him a price and was accused of not wanting to sell it and "I have to get rid of it..".  I told him to lower his voice so I could work with him and he goes off and bitches to management the same thing.  We find something that's 20 dollars and he gives it to the fucker.  The excuse I get from the customer is that he didn't want to "Name brand" one and when I looked at it, it was pretty much the same.   

-Over the weekend some fucker thought he could pull a fast one by taking a picture of an additional 20% off sign then trying to pass an item that was not in the section where the sign was.  Wanted a manager because he thought he was in the right...so I scanned it, did the math then when he realized I was right and was on to his game, he said forget it and left.  Nice try buddy.

-I JUST LOVE it when people come in saying , "I saw this in the 50% off section".  Yeah that's cause people are fucking leaving shit around that's why everything is a mess.

 
This thread makes me lose a bit of faith in society. Which little I had left, of course. And it makes me sit here stifling laughter the whole time.

 
Don't you guys just love it when customers come in using their blue tooth devices, want something from you and giving you less than 10% of your attention because the other 90% is focused on the conversation on the other line? 

Oh I recently started getting more pissy with customers opening things just to look at it then not buying it.  Now when I catch them I usually tell them in spanish, "you want to buy that?"  Most of the time it's what's the price question and I lead them to the register for them to buy it for opening it.  When they tell me that they have a few more things they want to buy I usually tell them ok I will hold it for them and then come back and pick it up.  People have been opening up stuff like cell phone cases and walking out to "Try them out". 

One guy the other day tried opening some headphones that were sealed in the package (he was forcing it open) , when I caught him he claimed that he was "helping me out" by closing it for me and wasn't trying to take it out...uhh huh.  Made him pay for it.

 
200STM said:
ITDEFX do you own your own store?
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No....just an unlucky SOB working in closing kmart where no one cares anymore. Speaking of which, so I visit another Kmart near where I work during the year and holy shit the place is nice and neat...every department is clean and organized. Management must be super anal in that place.

 
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