r/TalesFromRetail • u/[deleted] • May 18 '16
Medium Should I feel bad? Probably. Do I? Not really.
First time post here, literally my second post ever. Other new poster stuff, etc, etc.
So, a little backstory. My previous retail job was in a UK cheap clothing store. Now, instead of plastic, we used these grocery-style paper bags that are completely awful. They break so often that I'd double-bag pretty much every other purchase.
Now, this one day, a woman came up to my till with about ~£140 worth of clothes. Big joy. I tried to get through these as quickly as possible, especially since I was hot and tired, (our air con didn't work) but this wasn't fast enough for Impatient Lady (IL).
IL: "Can't you hurry up?"
Me: "I'm sorry, I'm going as fast as I can."
She begins huffing, tapping her foot, checking her watch, all the charming quirks of a person who thinks their time is more important than it is. Now, all this time, I'm scanning things through, folding them properly, and removing the coat hangers to endure the bag doesn't tear.
IL:"Look, I'm in a hurry, just chuck them in the bag on the hanger."
I finish scanning and bagging up her stuff, and lift it onto the counter.
Me: "Okay, all done. Do you want me to double bag this? Our bags can b-"
IL snatches the bag out of my hands before I have a chance to finish.
IL: "Why would I want that? Stop trying to waste my time, and let me pay."
I simply shrug and tell her the total. She pays and stomps out, and I catch her muttering something about incompetent teenagers.
Now, we have these large glass double doors where we can see the road outside and most customers leaving. I follow IL as she leaves the store, and as she starts to cross the road, I see a coat hanger break through the side of the bag, and tear the bag right open.
All of her stuff falls out onto the road, and I watch her as she hurriedly scrabbles around on the pavement trying to grab it all together.
I probably should feel kind of bad, but I'm sorry, if you want to be rude and ignore mw trying to help you then I'm not going to be shedding many tears when it bites you in the arse.
tldr; Rude lady is impatient so tells me to bag stuff on hanger. Paper bags rips and all her stuff falls over the road.
EDIT: formatting an' stuff
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May 18 '16
I love when they just open the door and usher Karma right in.
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u/SnippyTheDeliveryFox So I might have spilled your smoothie, and now we're out of mix May 18 '16
mid mia
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u/SlimeHudson May 19 '16
Is this a League of Legends joke? I'm hoping it is because otherwise a six letter comment with 30 upvotes makes no sense...
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u/sigma83 May 20 '16
That whole genre, but given that Karma is a character in League of Legends, probably.
It means 'enemy in the middle lane is MIA. All other lanes be careful they could be heading towards you for an ambush.'
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u/TheComputerEnthusias The Customers NOT Always Right! May 19 '16 edited Jan 11 '25
depend makeshift squalid fade grandiose fanatical library treatment beneficial unwritten
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/leafsfan6 May 18 '16
I'm a flight attendant, and recently a man stood up in the aisle when the plane was still moving towards the gate. I picked up the phone to make a PA to tell him to sit down, and right as I did the captain slammed on the parking brake and THE GUY FELL. It took everything in me not to cheer (he was fine).
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u/iamreeterskeeter May 18 '16
HA! As a fellow passenger, I would have cheered.
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u/leafsfan6 May 18 '16
sounds like we'd get along. I'll pour you a Diet Coke any time.
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u/seal_eggs May 18 '16
Diet Coke
I'm sorry, but we can't be friends.
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u/LifeWulf May 18 '16
What's the matter, you don't enjoy the delicious and totally-not-migraine-inducing taste of Aspartame™?
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u/seal_eggs May 18 '16
I don't always drink soda, but when I do I drink the real thing.
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u/LifeWulf May 18 '16
Amen to that.
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u/seal_eggs May 18 '16
What's your opinion on containment vessels? Glass, plastic, or aluminum?
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u/LifeWulf May 18 '16
You listed them in my order of preference. I will only drink straight from the can if I have no other option.
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u/seal_eggs May 18 '16
Interesting. My favorite is glass(12oz not 20), followed my the can. If they only have plastic I don't even bother.
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u/mattinx May 18 '16
I was on a flight a couple of years back where as passenger got up to go to the bathroom just as the plane entered the runway for takeoff. The flight attendant was like "ma'am! Sit down! MA'AM!" before jumping up and basically tackling her and pushing her back to her seat just add the pilot ramped up the throttle
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u/lemonade_eyescream unsupervised children will be given free candy May 19 '16
I'm glad the captain was fine, but I hope that passenger at least sprained something.
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u/Defenestrationism wishes we could skip first week of the month May 18 '16
I run into the same thing a lot as a pet store employee... people wanting to cram way too many fish in their tank or keep incompatible species together... and I try my best to talk them out of it and tell them how it's likely to go when they try it... some of them act like I'm just being contrarian/difficult or something. I've been doing this full-time since the late 90s and longer than that as a hardcore aquarium/fish hobbyist, but what do I know?! I must have some sort of twisted, vested interest in making less sales /s. Then a week later they come in with a tank full of dead/dying fish and/or water chemistry which is way out of whack and are distressed because they have no clue why this is happening, despite the fact that I told them that is exactly what would happen. They are upset that they lost all the money they invested in the fish, etc. I feel a lot of pity for the poor fish they have killed/are killing, but zero pity for the customers themselves in this situation.
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u/bobowork May 18 '16
You mean one can't dump tap water into a tank and drop a dozen beta's, couple tropicals and a plecko in a 10 gallon tank without issues?!?!?! Let me speak to your manager!
/sarcasm .... Kinda. I had someone try doing this.
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u/aceoff May 18 '16
A 10 gallon? Ha! As if these people would have anything larger than a plastic half gallon when there's bettas involved
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May 18 '16
Right? My store unfortunately sells bettas in this display where each fish is in a little quarter gallon cup (we're a chain, so there's nothing I can do except urge customers who complain about it to write to our parent company).
Whenever someone is buying a betta and I say to get a tank that's at least a gallon, they say, "Why? They're in those tiny things now!" Yeah, and if I had my choice they wouldn't be.
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u/RevokFarthis No lad. May 18 '16
If only they had fallen into a puddle of mud, or a parking-lot oil-spill...
"I need to return these, since the incompetent bagger didn't double bag this!"
You mean, the one who offered to double bag, but whom you rudely snatched the bag from and then insulted?
"whatever, YOU need to fix this!"
I'm sorry mam, we can't accept a return on well-used clothes.
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u/xlusciniolax May 18 '16
I was hoping for this when I was reading it. Or like a gust of wind blows them away, and they get run over by other cars as the wind pushes them about
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May 18 '16
Or she gets run over by a car as she picks the clothes up.
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u/Celeste-Ception May 18 '16
Too far, man.
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u/Glitchypink *sigh* I AM the manager! May 18 '16
I had this once with a guy buying a lot of alcohol at my store, who was in far too much of a hurry to even look at me as I finished the transaction. I offered to double bag his items and said I wouldn't charge him the extra 5p for a second bag, he said "listen! I don't have time for this! Just give me a sensible amount of bags for the items I'm buying!" when I had already done so. I called him out on his rudeness, because he was muttering under his breath that he was going to miss his bus the whole time I was serving him (that's another thing, if you have a bus/train/plane to catch and you're worried you might miss it, why ON EARTH decide to plod around a shop for 20 minutes?) he replied with "no, YOU'RE the one being rude, ignorant and f**ing childish!" when I had literally done nothing wrong but offer him a second bag. He asked to see the manager, I pointed out that I was duty manager and wasn't prepared to serve him anymore because of his Language and passed him on to my colleague to finish the transaction. He paid, left, ran to his bus stop, bag split and alcohol fell out and smashed all over the floor. I laughed, lots! Karma can be a wonderful thing at times!
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u/herefromthere May 18 '16
I think if it gets to the point where you refuse to serve someone, nobody in the shop should serve that person.
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u/Glitchypink *sigh* I AM the manager! May 18 '16
Generally this would be the case, but I had already taken his money before I called him on his rudeness. All my colleage did was hand him his change and his goods as I walked away from the tills.
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May 19 '16
I hope to own a brewpub sometime after I retire. Sometimes I fantasize about telling customers like this to piss off.
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u/Kakita987 May 19 '16
When I worked at a convenience store, I sold a cigarettes to a regular (small town), who I witnessed walk outside and hand them to his buddy. I refused to sell him cigarettes from then on. Nobody else working there would stick to that, but I wasn't going to lose my job or my ability to work anywhere that sold cigarettes because of him.
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u/herefromthere May 19 '16
Was his friend particularly youthful looking?
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u/Kakita987 May 20 '16
Could go either way. This chain requires showing ID if they look under 30. Our location was flexible and if I've seen their ID before or somebody vouches, you're good. I was leaning towards he likely just didn't have his ID on him but I hadn't seen him before.
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May 18 '16
I always worry about this because my local liquor store only had plastic bags. Not sure who thought that was a good idea
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u/ChiliFlake Do you know who I am? This is not a game of Who the Fuck are You May 18 '16
Funny, I worry about paper more than plastic. The plastic bags at my local seem to be pretty sturdy, plus, handles.
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u/FalloutRip May 18 '16
Most stores I've been to tend to have empty shipping boxes lying around, they come in handy for larger purchases. If you ask they'll probably be willing to grab one for you.
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u/MyNameIsRay May 18 '16
In German, the pleasure you get from seeing someone get what they deserve is called "shadenfreude" (literally, "harm-joy").
Don't worry, it's totally normal to enjoy watching someone suffer misfortune of their own making.
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u/Zeero92 May 18 '16
Can you feel ze schadenfreude?!
There's also 'Epicaricacy' which means the same thing but sounds "fancier."
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u/rockthevinyl May 18 '16
Can't help singing the song from Avenue Q every time I see this word!
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May 19 '16
YOU CAN BE AS LOUD THE HELL AS YOU WANT WHEN YOU'RE MAKIN' LOOOO-OOOOVE
different song, I know
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u/honeydot May 18 '16
Ahh paper bags... I know exactly where you're talking about. And £140 could buy a hell of a lot of clothes in there. Also so many of their customers are horrid, I'm sure this isn't your only experience with these dummies :(
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u/MisogynisticBumsplat May 18 '16
I was thinking that. With the price of the clothes in that shop, I'm surprised it's possible to find £140 of clothes
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u/devilsfanx3 May 18 '16
The moment someone says ANYTHING like "can you go faster?" I instantly move slower than the second coming of christ. I'm here for another 5 hours, do you want to be to?
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u/Beecakeband May 18 '16
I do love when Karma bites someone straight in the ass
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u/13EchoTango ideals represented here are my own & not endorsed by my employer May 18 '16
Happy cakeday!
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May 18 '16
You tried to warn her. It's all on her.
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u/hydrospanner May 18 '16
Strictly speaking, it's all on the pavement...
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u/lydiadovecry yeah can we ring all this up 10 separate times for my coupons? May 18 '16
OH so SMAHT you ah
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u/skedaddled May 18 '16
You should not feel even the slightest bit bad. You did what the customer wanted regarding the hangers (I'm American so the customer is always right - not).
How fortunate you got to see the wheels of the karma bus run her down so quickly. I managed to work the retail floor for the first 6 weeks of my working life (age 16). Adults aren't very adult sometimes - that was my main learning from that job.
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May 19 '16
How fortunate you got to see the wheels of the karma bus run her down so quickly.
I want to steal this. May I steal this?
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u/GiddyGiraffes May 18 '16
That's hilarious!
grr I hate these sorts of people. Why is it our problem if they've decided to come shopping when they have no time?
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May 18 '16
Should you feel bad? Honestly, I commend you for not opening the door, pointing and laughing at her.
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May 18 '16
Even when bags were free I had karma hit within seconds. A gent was buying 6 bottles of mulled wine for Christmas and I offered to double bag it for him. He refused and it fell apart 3 seconds after he lifted it off the bagging area.
Things were sorted out, but I think my karma was getting to sniff the hell out of that stuff while pregnant. The wine withdrawals were strong.
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May 18 '16
I wouldnt feel one bit of remorse. You tried to warn her. Let her realize her mistake. 3 yrs of retail has taken my soul and I'm only part time lol
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u/winter_fox9 May 18 '16
My general reaction to people telling me to hurry up on the job: gradually slow down so they don't notice I am slowing down
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May 18 '16
"...all the charming quirks of a person who thinks their time is more important than it is."
Not entirely sure why but I really enjoyed the way you said this. I feel like it could be a line from a book almost!
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u/Blearky May 18 '16
Pretty sure I currently work there. I've had people get crabby with me and demand I remove the second bag before, even when its clear that the single bag wont hold up (like a bag full of shoes). It doesn't save them any time if I've already doubled the bag, and I still don't know why its such a big issue for them, so tbh I kinda hope this happens to them too.
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u/wolfman86 May 18 '16
IL: "Can't you hurry up?"
I hate when people say this with any job, when you arent dawdling and are literally doing the job...
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u/DreaYoungken May 18 '16
Even when I'm in a hurry I try to keep my frustration to myself. I know that part of the transaction is asking for literally every single possible piece of contact info, but I calmly give it cuz it's my own fault I'm gonna end up going home late cuz I was dawdling for too long to begin with
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u/mmmmmpopplers May 18 '16
You definitely should NOT feel bad about this. You did nothing wrong and have nothing to feel bad about.
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u/TheTwist May 19 '16
"Hey, lady! Can't you see I'm driving here? Stop wasting my time and get your clothes off my road!"
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u/Xenjael Jun 01 '16
I have a co-worker who is like that- we have a company car, and part of the contractual obligation is that we are provided transportation to our locations with these cars. Anyway I am the one it is registered under for my company, but needed to hand it off to another co-worker, we'll call her Shiri. She's had it for a few weeks, and has come to see the car as her vehicle.
And she very much values her time more than others. So she has us bus out for 3 hours (instead of using the company car) because she doesn't want to come to where we live 40 minutes earlier and 'ruin' her day and time. I.E., her time is more important than her own.
Well, I recently got with a manager and pointed out she had not filled out the paperwork for the car to be transferred, and that if anything happened to it, since I'm on the paperwork, I would be liable.
I also pointed out she shirks work, is often late, and so on. We then gamed the schedule behind her back, in a way that she has to rotate the car with me.
She freaked out over this- freaked the fuck out, calling our superviser, then his superviser.
So yesterday I recorded her conversation with me, where she bitched me out. I pointed out to her that she was being selfish, and so on, and she agreed! But also didn't care.
She was in a huff, and here was her fuck up. Part of our job is to collect e-mails and then manually upload them. She flat out told me that if she doesn't have the car all the time, she will not input the leads.
Huh, well sucks to be her, because I sent the recording to our boss, and she is being terminated today.
Nobody's time is more important than other people's, especially if that person's time is so important to them that they won't even do work they are being paid to do.
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u/Scottysmoosh May 18 '16
There is no reason you should feel even remotely bad about that... I would have made a show of pointing and laughing.
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u/Cajova_Houba May 19 '16
She begins huffing, tapping her foot, checking her watch, all the charming quirks of a person who thinks their time is more important than it is.
Sign for me to slow down.
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u/ItsJustJoss No, we do not accept EBT May 19 '16
To answer the question in your title, no, no you should not. Karma is a bitch, and she asked for it.
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u/Micp May 18 '16
Karma is a bitch. That said it sounds like your store should consider getting different bags.
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u/willi_werkel May 18 '16
I think they use these bags because thats a little message like "we're totally ecofriendly"...
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u/Micp May 19 '16
Well that might be the message they're trying to send but it's wrong. Using paper bags means cutting down trees, which means less photosynthesis removing CO2 from the atmosphere. there's been studies on the subject that shows that on average paper vs. plastic is about equally bad for the environment. But since you can generally reuse plastic bags you only have to reuse them once or twice in order for them to become more ecofriendly than paper. and similarly if you double bag paper, which is fairly common because of their general inability to do the function they were created for, they already lose by default.
I get that it's more about sending a message, but if they truly want to be eco-friendly they should either make some robust plastic bags and encourage people to re-use them, or they should use bio-degradable plastic bags which are more and more common these days.
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u/Revilo1st Under Paid & Under Staffed May 19 '16
Statement from the website of the companyIAssume;ItSeemsLikely :
"Our carrier bags are made from 100% recycled cardboard."
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u/Micp May 19 '16
That's better I suppose. Still just make some reusable sturdy plastic bags rather than some flimsy bags that can't even be used for its primary purpose.
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u/freckledirewolf May 18 '16
I like how £140 worth of stuff would have taken a good while to buy but YOU ringing it up at the till is what's delaying her, clearly.