With the holiday season in full swing everyone in retail is at their wits end just waiting for the calm of January. My loverly yob has decided for the past few months to not hire people to replace people who have quit or have been fired. Lucky for those left we get to work twice as hard. Part of this extra duty involves cashiering and leaving your department for other people to try and take care of.
If there is one thing I can't stand is being a cashier. Its not the job itself, its how the customers, and management treat cashiers. Half the time they don't pay any attention to you, which isn't too bad. The rest of the time in the hood, people treat you like complete crap. Its the best feeling to get sworn at or money thrown at you.
My store has probably the worst design of registers. While cashiering your back is to the aisle where the cart goes through, so if your not careful your butt gets hit by carts of drywall. There is a strange little bump out of about a foot to keep carts from hitting you, but if they are hit with enough gusto the little bump out breaks off hits you just before the cart of crap. With your back to the customers its not the easiest to put the money in the drawer. There is nothing between the cash drawer and the customers, and people like to stand close. Its scary in the hood, mainly because I know that more than a few customers are packing heat. Ooo Ooo, and my favorite, these strange little swinging wall things that fold out to close the lane. In theory they work well, but when you are near the door, they have a tendency to get caught by the wind and again whack you in the backside.
People treat you like you are retarded. Honestly, even the dimmest cashiers have more intelligence than a lot of customers, they can figure out the right change.When you count the wad of crumpled singles they hand you and its not enough money that's when it gets interesting. Today I had a gentleman who was short a dollar for a bunch of candy, and he asked me for the money. When I told him that I would not give him money he got mad and grabbed his money from my hands and walked out. I also had this extra special person try to purchase a wrench without a tag. The problem was that this wrench was from a set and not sold individually. He got mad and went back to the department to get the right one, but when he returned he decided to cut in front of everyone in line. That unleashed a shit storm of trouble. These 3 black dudes got all sorts of pissed off at this little Mexican guy, and he fired right back at them. It was kindof comical to hear screaming in ghetto speak being answered with Spanish.The best line was "Get yo taco bell ass to the back of the line".
People also think you control the pricing. Like as if by magic I decide to tell the bar code that your purple gift bow should be 3 cents more than the red bow your sister bought. I am not the Grinch that charges more based on the items color, I'm just the bitter cashier than doesn't care.
So next time your at a check out, be nice to the poor cashier.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Never before shared, vintage: Short end of the sucky stick
I wrote this one December 11,2011 while still at the former big box. I never hit post so 2 yrs later here it is:
So I meant to blog about last weekend sooner, however the evils of my retail disaster scared me so much I had almost lost my sarcastic edge.
Anyway, the holiday season in retail is horrific. Anyone who has worked retail knows how shoppers change, and managers change for that matter too. Call it the stress of the situation but people who are usually tolerable become unbearable. While I was going about my typical duties I encountered some of our management staff who took it upon themselves to make me feel like less of a person. I do my job, and I do it well. I even help other people get their jobs done, but when a GM gets upset with you and exclaims your uselessness while you are in the midst of assisting customers, that kind of crosses the line.
Last Saturday I had the honor of helping customers select their Christmas trees. At my past stores this was a fun job. Kids get excited, adults are nice, but at this store the ghetto people are not so kind. They want the cheapest tree to look like a million bucks. Sorry people but no amount of trimming is going to turn that shrub into a masterpiece. The more you cut the less tree there is, and as much as they try cut branches do not fit back in the tree. Picture Charlie browns tree with mismatched branches shoved in the gaps...
Anyway, the holiday season in retail is horrific. Anyone who has worked retail knows how shoppers change, and managers change for that matter too. Call it the stress of the situation but people who are usually tolerable become unbearable. While I was going about my typical duties I encountered some of our management staff who took it upon themselves to make me feel like less of a person. I do my job, and I do it well. I even help other people get their jobs done, but when a GM gets upset with you and exclaims your uselessness while you are in the midst of assisting customers, that kind of crosses the line.
Last Saturday I had the honor of helping customers select their Christmas trees. At my past stores this was a fun job. Kids get excited, adults are nice, but at this store the ghetto people are not so kind. They want the cheapest tree to look like a million bucks. Sorry people but no amount of trimming is going to turn that shrub into a masterpiece. The more you cut the less tree there is, and as much as they try cut branches do not fit back in the tree. Picture Charlie browns tree with mismatched branches shoved in the gaps...
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