"WTF is wrong with you people?!"

[Mythsaje]

I've been working for a large-chain retail discount store (not Wal-Mart) for nearly a year now. Generally I like my job. I work with a lot of really good people and, despite the expected level of corporate goofiness, I've had much worse jobs in the past.

I'm starting to get a bit frustrated with the customers, though. I like people, I really do. I'm the first to greet our customers with a smile and more than happy to help them find what they're looking for. I enjoy that part of the job immensely. I like connecting with people, even though at least half of what we carry is stuff that I doubt anyone really needs. Wants, perhaps. A lot of it is Chinese junk (though, I must admit, far too much of the consumer goods in this country these days is made in China).

The frustration is growing exponentially though and it's starting to affect my outlook on things. There are things people do that simply drive me nuts. Let's start with the toy aisles. Now I really don't mind all that much when the kids mess the place up...that's to be expected. But when things are left on the floor, or pulled off the pegs by collectors and other adults, and just tossed down wherever, I gotta wonder... Is it THAT hard to set something down where you found it, or take the two seconds necessary to hang it back up?

Maybe it is. And maybe it's me...since I've always been the kind of person who doesn't leave a trail of destruction behind me. People working in such places are usually over-worked and under-paid, and it seemed terribly inconsiderate and generally unfair to add to the burden.

Just recently we got our Halloween costumes in. Some great stuff, if you like cheap costumes and accessories. The fake weapons in the boy's aisle are pretty darn cool. But what grated on me the other night was when I spent half an hour cleaning the area up after it being neglected for most of the day (we're supposed to keep the place tidy, but we're pulled away for hours at a time stocking other parts of the store, so this is often more difficult than it sounds) and not fifteen minutes later I returned to find literally dozens of costumes and accessories pulled off the pegs and just thrown down on the deck (the bottom shelf). Several weapons were pulled off and dropped, and nearly all the women's wigs were pulled off the pegs and left there.

It makes me crazy, but part of me wonders if this isn't a side-effect of the chain store phenomenon. When people shopped at their neighborhood stores, regardless of what store it was, they didn't do stuff like that because they KNEW the owners, and most of the workers. Now it's all impersonal and no one really considers the wage-slaves employed by the big corporation who are expected to clean up after them.

But what really got on my nerves that particular night was a half-empty soda left sitting on one of the decks, tucked partially under one of the hanging costumes. It had been spilled at some point by one of the customers looking at that particular costume. Thankfully, it didn't all spill, but it did leak some onto the deck.

Now a lot of retail stores don't allow people to walk around with food or drink. We do. And, inevitably, people abuse the privilege without ever stopping to think about it. We find cups all over the place, and pizza boxes, and used napkins, just about everywhere. Tossed on the deck, dropped on the floor, stuffed behind items. There's garbage cans everywhere. In fact, there was one not FIVE feet from where I found that spilled drink cup.

We work very hard to make the store a nice place to shop. We aren't paid a bundle for our efforts, but at least it's rewarding in other ways on occasion. Some people are very nice. A lot of people return sincere good attitude with the same.

But I'll be damned if I'll ever understand how thoughtless and inconsiderate some people are. I figure I'm going to stick it out here until at least after the holidays. If everything goes well, I might even apply for a supervisory position. I have most of the skills I need for it, and I've certainly got the respect of those higher on the chain of command and my peers as well. I'm helpful, I have a generally good attitude, and I'm a good teacher.

But it's nights like those where I find myself having to bite back the urge to yell "What the fuck is wrong with you people?!"

That would be bad.

:)

[K8-EEE]

1. Thanks for the reminder....

I'll try to help out when I'm in a store like this -- next time I'm at Target I'll put some bras back on the hangers, or whatever! I'm not the mess making type - but I AM the mess-ignoring type, no reason I can't help out a bit.

Good observation about the chain store v. neighborhood store comparison.

You have a really good attitude. If I worked retail I would probably turn into Queen of the Human Haters in about a week!

[Mythsaje]

2. Most people are pretty decent, actually...

And they do respond very well to a good attitude. Very seldom do I have any kind of problem with a customer, even if they're disappointed by something being sold out or missing. A lot of it's sincerity and a sense of humor about things.

I just don't understand how weird some people can be. They drag things all over the store and just drop them wherever, or rifle through something and leave a mess behind them and wander on. Or let their kid drag something through the toy section and leave it in the middle of the floor for someone else to trip over. I spend a LOT of time picking stuff off the floor that doesn't need to be there. Sometimes that bothers me more than anything because it's such a safety hazard. It's so thoughtless and I guess I expect adults to take a minute to consider such things.

[PCIntern]

6. True, but it only takes a very few

to ruin a day or a week.

[kdmorris]

3. I worked retail one Christmas season

And it was enough to cure me of EVER doing any of that stuff. I always hang stuff back up, take it back where it belongs, etc.

Being treated like an invisible servant really pissed me off more than it probably should have.

[Silver Gaia]

4. I can relate... spent over 10 years in retail, from sales clerk to cashier,

customer service, floor supervisor, and asst. mgr. Yep, the same things always bugged me, too. We had a fabric department in one store I worked in and this one lady always let her kids (was gonna say "brats" but thought I should be nicer... they were, though) go over to the thread racks and push the spools of thread back up and over the edge in the back of the rack with their grubby little fingers. It would take hours sometimes to sort out that mess and get all the spools of thread back in the right slots. She KNEW they were doing it, but never said a word to them. They used to ride the tricycles all over the store, too, and just leave them wherever they were when they got tired of it. argh!

I'm the kind of customer now who picks clothes up off the floor and hangs them back up. Just force of habit. heh But I KNOW what it's like to have to clean up all that mess when the store closes every night. It'll only get worse as Christmas madness descends on the shopping hordes. You've got my sympathies.

[PCIntern]

5. try being a dentist and deal with

that and much more.

On top of everything else, people try to saunter out of my office without discussing follow-up issues including payment. Try that at a pizza shop or Wal-Mart. I am so liberal, so forgiving, so willing to work things out financially with people who are having problems, that even then, people are horrified that they actually have to pay and get really really aggressive and downright weird.

We won't even go into the waiting room and chair antics: the sloppy eating, the rudeness, the entitlement of immediate attention no matter what else is going on, the narcissism, the downright obnoxiousness of about 10-15 percent of people from all walks of life.

We try so hard here to be nice and a fair number ofpeople just try to shit alll over us. It's universal and more than beginning to get on my last nerve.

[B Calm]

7. I drive a truck for a living. Makes me sick to see our roads littered.

I wish cops would write more tickets for littering!

[Mythsaje]

20. I don't like littering either.

I don't think most cops think about it much, unfortunately.

[durrrty libby]

8. By the time the holidays get here. you will want to slit throats.

guaranteed:hangover: :hangover: :hangover:

Face it. There are many inconsiderate, filthy slobs.

They can't even bother to wash their hands after using the restroom

[Mythsaje]

21. It's funny, but every time I use the restroom

everyone who's in there washes their hands...with very few exceptions. Surprised me at first.

Even the kids.

[Greylyn58]

9. I am so with you on this rant

I work in the Electronics dept of my store and every day, I have to clean-up after the pigs--yes I said pigs-that whiz through my area. They leave half eaten food , empty, sometimes half-full, drink cans, chewing gum stuck everywhere and other things. It's disgusting.

What ticks me off the most, is how people come into the department, pull things off the shelves, open the boxes, even though we have the same items on display, pull the items out, look at it, then leave the opened box and take another unopened box to the register to pay for it.

I actually had a customer ask me about a tv we had on display, wanting to see the one in the box. I explained it was the same tv, but did as he asked and opened it. After viewing the tv, they said they wanted it, but took another unopened tv box instead. WHY!!!! GOD that makes me so angry.

I'm like you, what is wrong with people? Do they treat their own homes this way? :rant:

[Mythsaje]

22. I've had people ask that I open a box for them...

I give them a look and, after a few seconds, they promise that they'll take the open box.

LOL

[riverdeep]

10. You sound like a good employee there.

I learned long ago my tolerance for dealing with the public is limited. I prefer to work with things rather than people, although some people are awesome.

But your point about the impersonality of it all I found compelling. 100 years ago, we moved less often, building more ties to place. Walk into the general or grocery store and yeah, it'd be hard to get away with that kind of behavior. Today, we can travel the interstate, get our tank filled from the faceless corporate gas station franchise, stay in a faceless corporate motel, stop at the giant random box store to pick up some supplies, etc. And every one we see at these places will be wearing that company vest, which start to look alike after a while, and more often that not, telling us in a semi-zombie state to "thank you, come again." It's almost like the stores aren't really inhabited by real people. Combine this with many people's increasing entitlement and 'gonna get mine' attitude, and there's the worst parts of your day.

[Mythsaje]

23. We're supposed to ask "can I help you find something?"

One of the kids working there noticed the other day that I will simply look at someone who's passing, smile, and nod slightly. If they look like they MIGHT need help, I may ask them, or ask them "are you finding everything all right?"

Usually when I interact with people it turns out to be a positive experience. But when I'm elsewhere, that's when things get bad...

[progressoid]

11. I think you should grab the microphone and shout it from the PA - WTF is wrong with you people?!?

I'm not in retail, but I agree. Americans have become selfish, inconsiderate slobs.

[melody]

12. You don't have kids, do you?

My son managed to lay waste to his entire room no more than an hour after being
totally cleaned. Halloween costumes = kids. I'd imagine a big portion of the
mess is being made by kids ... and adults who never matured beyond grade school
psychology.

On that note, what are you doing working retail? You're a writer. Retail will
drive you insane -- we're way too sensitive for that stuff. Eek.

[Mythsaje]

24. I have kids, but not custody...

They do tend to leave a mess behind them. Kids I get. Adults--well, that's something else entirely. I've seen people stand by and watch their get devastate an aisle. When my kids were there, they very carefully picked things off the shelf, looked at them, and put them back where they found them.

[zalinda]

13. Simply put, it's manners, that's what's missing

I think that when women went to work outside of the home, because they had to, things started to get more lax. Mom was always the one who told you to sit up straight, close your mouth when you chew, pick up your mess, and so on. Moms and dads are just too tired to make sure junior is behaving any more. And I think after awhile you get the attitude that my life sucks, so your's should too. Then you also have the examples that you see on TV, Leave it to Beaver is not what you see anymore. Manners have gone the way of Mayberry, too bad because it was just a more pleasant time.

zalinda

[tanyev]

14. I mutter that to myself everytime I pull into the Sprouts parking lot.

Sprouts is a smaller, neighborhood version of a Whole Foods Market and I am so glad it's nearby because it saves me a longer drive to WFM. I would like to think that the people that shop there are a little more enlightened than the typical grocery store shopper, but just about every time I go, there are shopping carts strewn all over the parking lot, simply abandoned where the customer left them. Sprouts should have put in a couple more cart corrals, but overall the parking lot is smaller than the local Krogers or Albertsons and it's not that far to walk the cart to a more secure spot. I never see that many carts abandoned at the big stores. I've made it my mission whenever I go there to take at least one cart in, even if I don't need it.

[Toots]

15. Not very many other countries would you witness such behavior

Americans are a very arrogant and self centered people.. You can see it everywhere in america...

[annabanana]

16. John 'n Jane Q. Public are dreadful people...

in the aggregate.

Anyone who has worked retail, or manned "customer service" phones, or had to interact all day with random people knows this.

Some are careless, some are unlucky and, yes, some are real dicks.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. A website for you and all those who work in retail.....

www.customerssuck.com

Some really funny stories on there. Aggravating ones, too.

[madmom]

18. I found a carton of yogurt on a shelf yesterday!

[SaveAmerica]

19. You have to mind when kids mess up the place, that's where it all starts

People need to tell their children to respect other people's belongings, pick up after themselves, etc. It's not that hard to do and should be started when they're young. I have gone to some stores in December and been appalled at the amount of things piled on the floor in the toy department. I think the lack of respect that people have in many areas of life is what's going wrong in the US.

[xxqqqzme]

25. Be glad you don't live across the street

from an elementary school. This is an honest to god neighborhood school - no 'bussed in' kids. The kids who walk to school I can count w/ both hands. The parents bring these kids to school are loud, obnoxious, rude and total trash dumpers. After all the monster SUVs have pulled away at the end of the day, I'm picking up cigarette butts off the lawn, cans out of the gutter, lunch box leftovers out of the side yard. I shudder to think what these people are raising to govern this country.

[LuckyLib]

26. Just imagine what their homes look like. Complete bedlam.

In my middle age, I have taken to calling out to folks who litter in public (including children), "Excuse me, you dropped something." Then I pick it up and hand it to them. Very few refuse it.

[Mythsaje]

27. Somehow I doubt it...

Parents are more likely to worry about that sort of thing when THEY have to pick it up.