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When I sold coffee for a living (what a loving awesome job that is) I made sure to make people exactly what they asked for. Unfortunately what they asked for is not always what they wanted. Luckily I had a boss who didn't give a gently caress and he'd sometimes make a big show of demonstrating to the customer that I'd used the right proportions of coffee, milk and foam.
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Jan 17, 2011 20:27
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three posted:It sounds like you'd be eligible for government assistance, is that not a route you've pursued? I tried this in the UK a few years back. I was working two jobs, an hourly notetaking gig that had good rates but far too few hours to make ends meet, and also a few shifts a week at Blockbuster. Probably would have totalled about US$13,000 a year. I went to the benefits office and they told me that I worked too many hours and that because I didn't have a kid and could technically afford to pay my rent, that I wasn't eligible for poo poo. I would have been better off (or certainly no worse off) getting fired, knocking up my girlfriend and pleading impending homelessness. loving bullshit. It might be different where you are, but I found it really hard. I eventually found myself in an amazing career, but I've never forgotten what it's like for the working poor, i.e. most retail slaves. Incidentally, my way out of retail started with a call centre job I only stayed four months at, but once you're in some kind of office it's a lot easier to keep moving upward.
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Jan 28, 2011 23:45
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Occasionally I think about going back into retail part-time, strictly because I don't need the money. It's a very pleasing image to think of being able to stand up to lovely management and customers without worrying about being fired. Then I realise that it's a stupid idea, I'd probably be taking hours away from someone who really needs them, and that I can actively call arsehole customers out without fear of repercussion anyway.
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Feb 2, 2011 20:43
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I'm amazed to hear of mall cops being so good at their job. I was at a major shopping mall in Sydney a couple of years back and spotted a guy surreptitiously taking photos of girls and women. I got one of the food court people to call security, and two gormless idiots came up. I told them what the guy was doing, and they went over to him.  He denies it, but we told him not to do it anyway.They walk off, and sure enough the guy starts taking photos again the second they're gone. Then his wife and kids walk up and join him at the table.
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Feb 3, 2011 20:45
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Hietala posted:First I catch a woman opening & eating half an orange and leaving the rest on the table. So I give her the orange and tell her that she has to pay for it. She looks at me, looks at the orange, puts the orange back on the table and walks away. Tell me you called security. Holy poo poo.
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Feb 11, 2011 23:25
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Hietala posted:I looked around for my boss who used to work in security before transfering to my dept., but he was nowhere near (probably because our stupid company cut hours so much that we end up having 1 person on the whole floor for the dept. at the time). By the time I would've found him and brought him over she would've finished paying for her other stuff and been gone, and I didn't see any of the current security guys all day either. v Ah well. Let's hope karma is true and she gets hits by a bus.
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Feb 12, 2011 00:13
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ProfessorDandypants posted:What would you do? Would you swallow your pride for that amount of money, or look for a job with more integrity? I'm not saying you have to forget your morals when you get into sales, but it sure helps.
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Mar 9, 2011 09:05
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To those of you working in retail that don't like it (presumably 95% of you), I would highly recommend getting an office job of some kind. After five years in supermarket hell I got a lovely job in a call centre, but it was miles loving better. After four months I got wind of another job opportunity which put me on a career path and 10 years later I'm living the high life (comparatively). Honestly, if all you've ever known is retail, you don't know what you're missing. EDIT: To elaborate, I worked in Safeway/Morrisons from ages 16-21. Part-time through high school and uni, until I dropped out and went full-time and into a supervisory role. When I worked out that I'd have to work another five years or so there to make £12,000 (about US$20,000) a year, I realised that I was busting my hump for no good reason. A 15c raise was the straw that broke the camel's back, so I started to look elsewhere and got wind of this call centre position. I have to say, selling insurance on the phone 9-5 beats the poo poo out of cleaning floors at 6am, making pizza and stocking shelves. modeski fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Apr 23, 2011 |
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Apr 23, 2011 02:20
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Rohaq posted:Well it boils down to what you want to do, and what you need to do to get there. Rohaq's right. It's a matter of setting goals and working towards them. The problem is that it's not easy. It is easy to stay in a lovely retail job, though - I did it for five years. The only person who's going to improve your lot in life is you. EDIT: I don't mean to poo poo on anyone still in retail, especially in the current economic situation. I got out 10 years ago, way before the GFC etc.
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Apr 23, 2011 02:56
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Skulduggery posted:We get to apply for our jobs again....after potentially 9 months of being unemployed. Are they really going to fire everyone and make them reapply? Surely they'd be relocating you to another store or something. That seems incredibly harsh to lay people off like that for no good reason.
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May 28, 2011 02:22
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Ulysses S. Grant posted:This happens twenty times a day. Tell me that when they ask you this you simply repeat: "Thanks for calling T-Mobile blah blah blah blah blah my name is Ulysses, how may I help you?" Over and over and over again.
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May 30, 2011 06:51
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The General posted:The working world sucks. "The man" literally sits and watches you, waiting for any gently caress up at all. You could be a loving rockstar 99.99% of the time, but that one time you miss your mark it's just "What the gently caress are you doing? Do you wan't to keep working here? Smarten up!" It's only retail and McJobs this happens in, to be honest. Once you get a real job it's immediately different. "The man" in this situation is retail middle managers, who have a deadly combination of a tiny bit of power, and increasing resentment over their staff, who are often bright, ambitious students with a future, working in poo poo jobs to pay their way through college.
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Jun 18, 2011 09:25
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I hate all bullshit euphemisms. If I ever run my own retail company (doubtful), employees will be called employees, supervisors will be supervisors, managers will be managers and just for shits and giggles, the HR department would become Personnel. When I worked retail, I'd never refer to myself as an associate or team member or any of that bullshit. It's like telemarketers calling themselves consultants or account executives, and it's insulting to everyone's intelligence. 
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Jun 24, 2011 12:57
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silversiren posted:Didn't happen to me (thank god) but last night at our peak hour, some lady went through one of the express lanes with a huge cart full of poo poo, and had several separate orders including WIC and EBT purchases. She single-handedly managed to back up an entire checkout lane for close to 45 minutes. Ugh, I wish the cashier had the balls or spotted the customer in time to turn them away. Whenever I worked the express lane my only meagre pleasure was turning away people who went hugely over the item limit.
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Jul 12, 2011 21:22
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Pidmon posted:Also the fuel voucher is a godsend. It's a total false economy, though. I shop at Aldi for most of my staples and save far more than the 4c a litre would net me.
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Jul 13, 2011 12:28
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Volcano posted:
It's baffling (and amusing) that there are still people like this in 2011, where the entire sum of human knowledge can be accessed via a handheld device. When I was 18 and about to start training as a barista I googled coffee drinks just so I knew the difference between a latte and a cappuccino etc. There's no great mystery, it just takes the teensiest bit of effort. Evidently that's too much for some people. It's like the anxiety people have over smelling/tasting your wine in a restaurant. All you're doing is checking to see if it's corked, not identifying the where the grape was picked and what the weather was like that day. I might just be mind-bogglingly middle class, but perhaps there's a place for this kind of information to be taught in schools. FAKE EDIT: Also that gazpacho soup be served cold (see: Arnold Rimmer's failed career).
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Jul 25, 2011 10:29
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FROTHY COFFEE
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Cuckoo posted:I just wish it were legal to make the cheap customers real Machiatto and watch them poo poo their pants with rage at the tiny amount of liquid in comparison. I'm pretty sure that islegal, although it may be frowned upon by your employer. When I no longer gave a poo poo about my barista job, I would stop questioning suspected clueless people and give them exactly what they ordered. Seeing people fly into a rage when I calmly explained that no, that really was what you ordered was funny as hell. It pleased my coffee snob punters too. FAKE EDIT: I should add that nine times out of 10 I would remake the drink however the customer actually wanted it, but I like to think a few people got schooled.
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Jul 26, 2011 21:50
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Septic Knothead posted:I'd love to hear more about this. What did people get vs. what did they think they were going to get? Stupid customer stories are my favorite thing. A common one was ordering a machiatto (an espresso with a tiny dash of milk) when they really meant mocha, which is basically a latte with chocolate (powder/syrup). The expressions on people's faces when presented with the tiny cup were hilarious. I had one guy swear blind that a cappuccino shouldn't have foam on it, and he stormed out in a huff when no-one agreed with him. He was pestering other people in line, trying to get them to agree that I was the idiot. One particularly baffling one was the woman who wanted an iced coffee, but not cold. Turns out she just wanted a flat white, so why she insisted it was a hot iced coffee I'm not sure. modeski fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Jul 27, 2011 |
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Jul 27, 2011 09:07
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Cowslips Warren posted:Maybe I just need to accept the fact she enjoys working for no money, but for playing games all day and night, rather than be around enough to even talk with me. I can understand why you would have a hard time accepting this (I do too), but maybe for your own sanity that is the best option. I guess if she's happy being exploited like this then there's little point trying to persuade her otherwise now. Work is a transaction - your time/labour for money. As soon as you take money out of the equation it becomes completely one-sided in favour of the employer. I'll never get why people work for free.
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Jul 31, 2011 21:23
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Lemony Fresh posted:Yes she doesn't work. This is how she makes her living. We aren't allowed to call the cops on her as she technically isn't doing anything wrong. Our managers are looking into it to determine if there is anything that we can do. Surely since the store is private property you can simply ban her? At the VERY least, I would mandate that she is not allowed to stay after-hours. At five minutes to close you should finish up the transaction and send her on her merry way.
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Aug 2, 2011 21:45
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Big Taint posted:How could it possibly be their fault? They went over their minutes.
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Aug 4, 2011 21:25
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Big Taint posted:I know. I forgot to put the /sarcasm tags on, I guess. gently caress me, I feel dense now. Thank god it's Friday!
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Aug 5, 2011 13:24
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Duckman2008 posted:Have I strayed too much off of the "I hate retail" part by pretty much going nuts trying to stay in it? When I worked retail, I worked my way up as much as possible so I got the best possible deal for myself while staying in the industry. You may as well get as much out of it while you can before you leave for another job/career.
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Aug 16, 2011 21:15
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In ALDI recently, a young boy (5-ish) was playing with the slide-across freezer doors. His mum rushed across, raised her hand to him and said: You'll hurt yourself on those things! Leave it alone now or I'll hit you.
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Oct 24, 2011 09:08
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Fil5000 posted:See, no. I am not submitting to a search just because "I should have nothing to hide". They're working on an assumption that everyone is shoplifting, which isn't supported by the majority of legal systems these stores operate within. If you want to look through my stuff (that I've just this minute given your business money for) then tough, it's my stuff. If you think I'm shoplifting then call a policeman and have me arrested. I'm a Brit living in Australia and this is precisely my attitude. I am not a thief, have nothing to hide, but absolutely refuse to have my bag checked between the checkout and the exit. To me, when you've paid your money to the cashier and are on your way out, that is the end of all transactions. This applies even more where the route between the checkout and the exit is clearly defined and presents no opportunities for theft. It's probably to do with the way I shop. I only buy what I came for and want to spend the least amount of time possible purchasing it. gently caress browsing, gently caress Flybuys points, store cards, discounted bullshit at the checkout, and especially gently caress some uniform-wearing retard getting in my way and treating me like a criminal for no good reason. Pick stuff up, pay for it, leave. That's it.
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Jan 6, 2012 13:35
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The Lord Bude posted:This is why I always request the bag check when I start serving someone, that way if we need to toss them out of the store they get to leave with nothing. And you're the exact reason I always use self-checkout, usually don't carry a backpack with me, get most of my staples at Aldi (where you pack your own bags) and will complain to management in person and via comment cards when cashiers go deliberately slow and try to upsell me at the checkout. Quite sad what you find entertaining, to be honest. I was never that much of a prick during my teenage retail years. You know, I don't particularly have a problem with showing my bag (when I have one) to the cashier. It's when I've paid for everything and am walking out that I refuse to stop and let someone rifle through my stuff.
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Jan 6, 2012 20:49
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Riscas posted:A lady asked to speak to the manager and when I showed up she said, "You can't be the manager because you are a girl...and young.." She sounds like the kind of woman who's objective in life was to 'marry well' and who lives in some kind of '50s era pre-feminist existence where men are always in charge and women always secretaries or nurses.
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Jan 7, 2012 01:34
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Testro posted:The thing that surprised me most was that the cashiers have to stand in Australian supermarkets. I don't know if that's countrywide, but the ones I went into, everyone was standing. That got to me as well. And it took me ages to become comfortable with someone else packing my bags. At least in Aldi I get to do it myself.
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Jan 8, 2012 12:48
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Retail Slave posted:Seriously? That "uniform-wearing retard" is just trying to earn a living by doing what their bosses have told them to do. Not all of us can wear suits and ties and go to the office in the corporate limo, Mr. CEO. I did retail for five years so I know what it's like to wear a uniform. Perhaps a better adjective would have been "blindly compliant retard". Actually it was probably a suit who dreamt up the idea of harassing people with bag checks, so let's say suit-wearing retard. I don't consider myself better than people in retail just because I have a 'proper' job, but I'm not about to blithely go along with stupid policies, either.
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Jan 9, 2012 05:57
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TontoCorazon posted:Yes you loving do. I really don't. I did five years in Safeway and hated half the things head office made us do, but knew I had to suck it up to stay employed. When it got to the point where I could no longer stand it, I got out. That was in 2002, so it's probably easier said than done these days. The Lord Bude posted:I'm surprised you lasted 5 years with that kind of attitude. attitudes like that are the same ones that lead to people saying 'it's stupid that the law says I can't steal all the movies and music that I want, I'm just going to do it anyway.' Doesn't make them any less of a thief. That's quite a leap you're making there. My contention is that if I pay for something, I shouldn't have to prove it 15 seconds after handing over my cash. As for "rules are rules. they exist to be obeyed.", that's an astonishing thing to say. If you work somewhere, sure, play by their rules or get fired. But customers are not bound by rules unless they sign up to them (Costco etc). Cowslips Warren posted:modeski, usually I agree with you, but tapdancing Christ, you have to realize what an arrogant rear end in a top hat you sound like, right? The rules don't apply to me because they are stupid! I don't have time to be some service bitch's bitch, my time is important! I probably did come across as an arrogant rear end in a top hat, but that's really not my intention. I'll admit personalising my objections earlier was the wrong thing to do, but I'm never nasty to employees in person. All we're really talking about here is my refusing a bag check when it's patently obvious I could have stolen nothing between the checkout and the door. All this has consisted of in real life was me saying "No thanks" and not stopping when asked. It's happened maybe four times in the last few years because I then avoid shops with that policy. When upsold to at the checkouts I don't have an attitude about it, I don't roll my eyes, I just refuse politely. I don't make copyrighted prints or demand expired coupons be honoured, or ask for things for free when a product was in front of the wrong sign, or eat 90% of a pizza before saying it wasn't what I ordered etc. I'm a good customer - but I'm not a doormat and I have no compulsion to jump through hoops. If someone was to get in trouble because I didn't stay put and show my papers (surely quite unlikely), then they work for douchebags. But let's be brutally honest here, most customers are going to consider their free time/convenience/right to not be treated like criminals more important than saving someone a write-up for something out of their control. EDIT: Copyrighted - thanks, marshmallard. modeski fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Jan 9, 2012 |
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Jan 9, 2012 07:45
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Sankis posted:One of the pages made it sound like they'd deduct it from your paycheck ( Surely that's not legal. Can you take that document to your labour relations board, union or some other authority?
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Jan 29, 2012 10:27
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) but the page I had to sign didn't mention that, and I made sure because there was no way I was going to sign a permission to deduct money from my check. It all seems very convoluted and confusing. Here's the actual process on "cash control".
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SlaveToTheGrinds posted:Ugggh! loving hell, get out of there. It's like reading a post from a slave.
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Feb 25, 2012 09:43
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Cross_ posted:Care to elaborate ? In my store the night crew had been running a scam for years before they got caught. When unloading trucks they'd move pallets out of sight of the cameras and put cases of the most lucrative poo poo - booze, electronics, razors - aside for pick-up later. They hid the losses in things like spoilage, shrinkage, claim some things weren't delivered etc. Either they paid off the drivers or waited until the truck left, then they'd load up their own cars before the morning crew arrived. A little old lady spied them doing this while she was walking her dog past the gate at about 5:30am. She obviously reported it and about eight guys were hauled off in handcuffs.
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Mar 10, 2012 01:57
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Broken Butterfly posted:Well, this week my application to Gamestop goes in. Not only is this the first time I'll be working retail, but my first job ever (seeing as I was one of those lucky assholes who got into college while still in high school and all). Maybe I'll have stories for you soon! Good luck. Remember - only work as hard as your colleagues, you'll gain nothing by being exceptional. Also remember that customers will lie to your face.
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Mar 14, 2012 20:25
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The Lord Bude posted:Remember you must always "thank" our customers when they leave the checkouts. That's brilliant. If you tried to explain it to upper management I'm sure you'd be met by blank stares.
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Mar 17, 2012 11:34
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Meow Cadet posted:I feel like I'm encouraged to act as if I work on commission, but without the compensation. Why should I bust my rear end and wheel and deal when I get paid the same either way? I'm not even a sales floor person, I work the front end. But I'm supposed to offer 'discounts' or whatever needs to be done to get the sale? Does this sound crazy to anyone else? I never understood this way of being made to work. If you're any good at it, though, my advice would be go somewhere where you do get commmission. EDIT: I was my local Westfield earlier today, and at Lenards (poultry) the manager was out the front with a mic/amp talking bullshit. There were no actual customers, which is hardly surprising, because who on earth is going to approach the counter when there's a guy pacing up and down in front of it making VERY LOUD banal pronouncements about chicken? I hate this odious practice and make a point never to shop in stores that do it. modeski fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Jun 9, 2012 |
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Jun 9, 2012 08:34
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Retail with no customers is amazing. For three weeks I volunteered to work night shift deep cleaning our freezer aisles single-handedly. It was exhausting, skin-destroying and sweaty work, but there was utterly no interaction with the public and it was glorious. However I did come away with one observation - permanent retail night shift staff are a scary bunch.
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Jul 2, 2014 11:05
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I got out of retail before the extreme couponing became a thing (but I have retail PTSD hence reading this thread), but I would always take great pleasure in refusing expired or unapplicable coupons.
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Aug 5, 2014 05:02
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The Lord Bude posted:Starbucks went within a hair of bankruptcy over here, and had to restructure and close most of its stores. This is what happens when you sell giant overpriced cups of burnt rubber flavoured milk in a country where virtually every dining establishment does espresso. Even McDonalds does better coffee than starbucks. Australia! I'm quite chuffed that we drove Starbucks out. I have to say I've never tried McDonald's coffee, though.
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Aug 8, 2014 12:01
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fordan posted:You don't have receipt request refusers in Australia? http://consumerist.com/tag/receipt-checking/ I'm one of them, but I'm always unfailingly polite when I refuse. Obviously it's the employee's job, but I am in no way obligated to hang around to get my receipt checked, so I just give a polite 'no thank you' and keep walking. Receipt checking is not as common here as it is in the States, I think.
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Nov 3, 2014 21:36
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