All you haveta do is ask...

[Shao Feng-Li]

For anyone that works in retail or a supermarket type place, why do customers feel the needs to stare at you silently, or reach across your face for an item on the shelf when you don't happen to notice they're there? Sure, maybe I ought to pay attention a little more to people around me, but wouldn't an "Excuse me..." be nice?

Seriously, retail customers are crazy. I need to write a rulebook for them.

• Do not place your cart and your body in such a way that you block the aisle
• Do not have family reunions in the middle of the main walkway
• Do not stand two inches away from an employee before asking for help. It's creepy.
• Don't tell the worker you need the yellow Gatorade before your colonoscopy.
• Do not use the speaker on your phone for calls. Everyone has a cellphone now. We're not impressed anymore.
• Please shower before shopping. No one likes the smell of 2 week year old urine. If you're classy enough for pita bread, you're classy enough for soap.
• Don't have a fit when the store is out of gift sets at 7 PM, December 24th.
• Old guys, don't flirt with the young female workers. They really, really don't like it. Also, do not lean over them.
• Ladies, do not use your bra strap to hold your cell phone.

If you guys have anymore, add them to the list XD

[Roberts]

This reminds me of the primary lesson I learned working in IT:

When it comes to people, assume idiocy. You'll either be right in your assumption or, on the rare occasion, pleasantly surprised.

[Atria35]

I read the websites The Customer Is Not Always Right and Retail Hell Underground (the latter not advised for those under the age of 18 or sensitive to bad language). What you're saying transcends states and countries. Customers are rude.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

(Some) customers are rude. Not all. That's a huge generalisation. I've never worked in retail but I have friends who have and they met some truely horrible customers - especially in the toy department. The kids were bad enough but the parents/care-givers etc. were much worse! Disgusting behaviour if you ask me. You guys put up with a lot of crap. I treat retail peeps like any other people, with respect.

[Atria35]

^ True, not all are. But man, when I worked in a grocery store, I think I had a sincere urge to snap at about half for various reasons. And then about half of them were just horrendous.

[TopazRaven]

I kind of know how you feel. I used to work at a resturant where I had to make the ice cream/deserts and take care of take out. By myself most of the time. It might not be much for some people, but I'd become so overwhelmed sometimes I'd actually cry a little. The customers weren't always bad, the waitesses/waiters made me want to bash my head against the counter sometimes though. Granted, I wasn't perfect, but yelling at me and giving me an attitude didn't help. xD

[Shao Feng-Li]

(Some) customers are rude. Not all. That's a huge generalisation.

I also happen to work at Walmart XD

[samurai10]

Truth be told, I'm a little scared of people who work in stores. So, I treat them VERY respectfully

But yeah, I've watched a few things, and read some things where customers were horrendous. And the day that customers are the MOST horrendous is Black Friday. Man, do I feel sorry for employees on that day....

[Shao Feng-Li]

Truth be told, I'm a little scared of people who work in stores. So, I treat them VERY respectfully

But yeah, I've watched a few things, and read some things where customers were horrendous. And the day that customers are the MOST horrendous is Black Friday. Man, do I feel sorry for employees on that day....

Actually, in our store at least, Black Friday tends to go pretty smoothly. The worst time is a monthly occurrence I call "welfare week." You wouldn't believe how much ramen and soda we sell. The customers during that time tend to have entitlement issues.

[ShiroiHikari]

I think it should be a requirement to work either fast food or retail for at least six months. That way, maybe more people would learn how to treat retail and food employees.

[Davidizer13]

I think it should be a requirement to work either fast food or retail for at least six months. That way, maybe more people would learn how to treat retail and food employees.

This, so much. I worked for Burger King for about that long for my first real job. It seemed all right at the time, but when I got a better job where I wasn't some expendable teenager (OK, technically, I still was, being a summer worker, but they didn't act like it) I realized how bad the fast food business really was for workers. Which is why everyone should work in the business at least once so hopefully they won't make it any worse with weird special orders during the lunch rush or otherwise make the workers' days more miserable.

[Htom Sirveaux]

I work in housekeeping, not retail. But there have been many times I wished like heck I didn't have to hold my tongue.

-You really shouldn't eat that.
-That's why we tell you not to flush those.
-How the *bleep* would I know that?
-No I will not hold the bottle for you while you go.
-Does it look like I'm done cleaning the room?

And others too numerous to list.

[Furen]

Why can't we have family reunions, as long as we're not in the way of customers, why would it be a problem? I can understand some of these, but then again, I work in Fine Dining (Kitchen Prep), so I would have complaints to other stuff.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Why can't we have family reunions, as long as we're not in the way of customers, why would it be a problem? I can understand some of these, but then again, I work in Fine Dining (Kitchen Prep), so I would have complaints to other stuff.

Heh, reunions usually happen where I need to work and I hate asking people to move

-That's why we tell you not to flush those.

Oh yeah. Though, it's often a stolen DVD case for me XD