|
Witnessed yesterday... Woman: 'I really like this dress- I think it hides my fat!' Husband: 'It doesn't. I will be in the man chair when you are done spending my money'  Also, gently caress 30 degree heat with no air con.
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2010 08:00
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:24 |
|
|
I currently work as a supervisor at what you Yankees would call an Outlet Store- we sell seconds and overstocks from large UK retailers, as well as our own brands of crappy crap. This basically means we are a magnet for the elderly, the stupid, and the sheer loving nuts. The store is in what used to be an indoor market- lots of small independent stalls selling clothes, cheese, pet stuff, local produce etc. For a number of reasons that I've not quite grasped, the market and all it's stalls went under, so the company I now work for moved in, renovated and opened up. Bear in mind I live in a seaside town that brings in a lot of tourists who have been coming here for years, and therefore LOVE to make a fuss about any changes to their lovely destination. About 2 weeks after I started this happened:  cashier me mad old man, past retirement age. *bell goes* "supervisor to tills please" What's up? This guy is demanding to speak to a member of management (fake smile) Hello sir, how can I help you? THIS WAS THE MARKET WASN'T IT?!?!? Yes it was, I'm afraid the stalls ceased trading around 4 months agoHe smacks his hand on the counter SO YOU BASTARDS BOUGHT THEM OUT DID YOU?!?!? ...No, they went out of business and we moved in after the market was shut down. We didn't put anybody out of a job. *mutters* Pardon? (Very Loudly) SO THIS IS THE FACE OF PROGRESS, IS IT? I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU BIG CORPORATIONS! RARGH RARGH RARGH CAPITALISM RARGH RARGH PROGRESS ...Errr *storms out* *hides behind counter laughing his rear end off*Now, I've dealt with many people asking where the stalls went, or 'did this used to be a market?', but this guy was beyond enraged, he was frothing at the mouth like he just caught his daughter masturbating with his toothbrush. tldr: mad old man comes in, demands to see a manager specifically so he can rant to them about capitalism.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 11, 2010 00:30
|
|
|
OMG JC a Bomb! posted:God loving drat I hate online retail employment applications, nevermind that I hate the fact that I need a retail job to make any money with my useless degree. I just spent half an hour dealing with this one site. Once I finished the 90-loving-question "assessment" it kicked me back to the main page and said that I hadn't completed the assessment. And the questions are the most degrading poo poo imaginable. I found out today that I have to fill out both Bronze and Silver 'workbooks' for my supervisor job. These include such riveting tasks as naming every member of high level management, and explaining what 'good customer service' is and how I employ it. The best bit by far is the end of book 'project'; "Go to two nearby stores owned by different companies, and, in no less than 2 pages, explain how they merchandise their stock and how good their customer service etc is" So... go spy on competitors and produce a report on them. This is what happens when upper management consists of a lot of people from very different backgrounds (ranging from Arcadia and Marks and Spencer through to Lidl) who all want to make the company like where they used to work, but can't actually agree with one another on how to make it viable. EDIT: WOOOOOO Go useless degrees!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2010 22:48
|
|
|
MaxDuo posted:
I love the 'BUT I'M DOING YOU A FAVOUR BY BUYING IT AT A REDUCTION!?!?!?!' mentality. You aren't. We'll return it for credit. So, to start a mini-thread, when did y'all start having to put out Christmas stock? we started on the 15th September.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2010 23:30
|
|
: Yes. I would like to know how much I can get this for because the box has a scratch on it.
: I believe we had several more of this over there if you would like me to have someone bring one up in better condition.
: NO I DO NOT WANT IT! *shoves item off register and storms out*
|
There are merely three things that you need to survive retail: 1. Patience 2. Common sense 3. A fuckton of Weed.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 24, 2010 23:59
|
|
|
My store sells some decent stuff at a decent price. It also sells some real weapons-grade bullshit. Case in point- we were allocated some iPad-wannabe tablet pc things that run on Android. We have sold three out of the six so far, and all three have been returned the next day because they either flat out refuse to connect to wifi, or run at a rate that makes dial-up look like broadband. It's just like the lovely £99 netbooks we had over the summer, where a good 70% of them came back because they were hosed from the get go. And the fake 16 bit Wii rip-off. In this week's store newsletter from head office, they ask if we have any suggestions to increase profits and improve the business. My suggestion? Stop selling cheap, poo poo electronics that we end up having to refund the majority of the time because they are hosed or simply do not work.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2010 22:31
|
|
|
Meow Cadet posted:I can't imagine anyone getting $300 worth of joy out of lights.  Seriously though, people are actually buying your Xmas poo poo? Ours has only started to shift now the prices are slashed.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 15, 2010 21:58
|
|
|
For those bitching about working 30-40 hours and it not being enough, I am the ONLY unsalaried person in my company (about 160 shops) on a 30 hour contract. All other supervisors are on a 20 hr. The average for staff is 16 hours a week, and since we are in the January slump, everyone is on contracted hours, no extra.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 27, 2011 21:56
|
|
|
My issue with retail is not lovely customers, not insane workloads or hours, not even retarded HO refund policies, like the dreaded 'Just Say Yes'. It is the area manager, the single most heartless, condescending, blinkered bitch I have ever met. Now, a little backstory; My current manager, who I shall refer to as T and started late last November, has recently (around February) split with her partner of 7 years, who kicked her out their house, refuses to give her any of her stuff back, including her dog who is basically starving himself to death since she 'left'. She is living on a friend's sofa, commuting 80 miles to work a day, which is epic in UK terms, with no extra petrol allowance on top of a meagre salary. She was initially just training at our store awaiting a new store much nearer to her to open for her to run, but the landlord welched and she was told either run my store, or gently caress off, which sets the tone for how much of a gently caress this company gives for its employees. On her third day with the company. She has literally nothing but this job. Which she has been told she will lose if she doesn't shape up, meaning a visit from the oval office of an AM every month for three months, and if it isn't to her satisfaction at the end of this period, then T is out. And it will NEVER be to her satisfaction, because she seems to forget that we actually have a shop to run, 3 massive deliveries a week to deal with, both tills running non-stop from 10-5.30 and we have a staffing budget of about 67 pence. Which we cannot go over without a royal bollocking. This is even before her wanting the entire store totally remerched every 2 weeks, plus the influx of pointless paperwork they have introduced this fiscal year, the charity events we have to organise and run, the constant leaflet/offer launches etc etc etc ad infinitum Fair enough, some of you non-retail goons might be thinking- can't do the job, shouldn't have it. T CAN do this job, every single day customers comment on not just how much nicer our store is than others in the area, but on how much it has turned around since T took over. The atmosphere amongst staff is the best it has ever been, the takings are MASSIVELY above daily targets (consistently top 3 in the area, top 40 in the 180+ strong company) and we have many repeat customers who shop with us due to the great service we provide. In comparison, the temp manager we had before T (who has been with the company a while and thinks of herself as Harvey Keitel's The Wolf, going round fixing 'problem stores'- we were struggling because the original manager left, meaning there were 2 of us, [with no training or help from the AM] for 2 loving months trying to do four people's worth of work) spent her entire 8 week tenure sat in the office doing rotas that made no sense and left entire shifts with only 1 person on and crying about the stress of it all. In 8 weeks (didn't work weekends mind, I did all day both weekend days running the shop on my own) I saw her on the shop floor working (as in, not just bitching at staff or Hitlering me around) precisely twice. A grown hambeast of a woman, supposedly the manager, sat on the floor putting out sweets. After those HIDEOUS 8 weeks, she moved on to run another new store. She lasted 3 days (that store opened 18th Dec last year) before going off on sick leave due to this apparent 'stress', leaving her brand-new, barely trained sub-management team to deal with it. Her store is roughly comparable to ours, only slightly smaller, yet takes about a third of what we do despite being in a central location in a town highly suited to our particular business model. I can only assume she knows some deep dark secret about the AM- if it was myself (deputy manager) or T, we'd have been kicked the gently caress out long ago. Oh, did I mention that this temp actually bailed on T, not bothering to tell her she was 'unable' to work their changeover week? She rang the store and told me on the Saturday, I gave her T's mobile, but did she call? Did she gently caress. Anyways, during her visit today, the AM had only, out of nearly 20000 sq ft of floor space, a positive word about one 1M bay and an 'It's ok I guess' about my bulk stock table in menswear. Everything else was poo poo, apparently, despite nearly all of it being to her EXACT specifications. As is typical with these types, the AM comes in, rants about how departments should look, we do it exactly to her specs, then she returns 2 weeks later, having forgotten her previous instructions, and then rants about how it doesn't fit the dreaded Model Store plan. Which our shop never will because it is L-shaped and has a bunch of weird ramps everywhere because it was a car showroom/repair shop back in the 60's. I like my job, I like my staff, my AM is horrific. TLDR: Area Manager is a favorites-playing oval office. fakeedit: I love me some parentheses. NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Apr 20, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2011 00:24
|
|
|
Apocalypse Please posted:What are the canned answers that managers at retail stores like to hear? I'm being interviewed again for a couple supervisor spots and as pre-interview brush-ups they have thrown some questions at me. We are currently looking for a new supervisor (as well as a couple of floor staff) and the most important thing, bar none, is that it is someone we can get on with- anything else can be learned, so long as the person has a modicum of intelligence. The best, most qualified and experienced supervisor in the world could come in tomorrow, but if he/she is a dick, then we wouldn't hire them. Be yourself (within obvious reason), show willingness to work (enthusiasm goes a long way) and emphasize 'team' qualities. Good luck!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2011 21:23
|
|
|
 I think it's disgusting you have to work during the Royal Wedding. It's a national holiday and everyone should be able to enjoy it. It was Head Office's decision ma'am. Well I think it's shameful. Just these teabags please- I've nearly run out and have company over to watch the wedding. ...
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2011 19:13
|
|
|
I stand up for my staff. Whilst I often get in trouble with my H/O (I got absolutely reamed for following our 14 day return policy once, was told to 'Use common sense, not company policy', so why have said policy in the first place?), I will not put up with customers treating my staff like poo poo- They get told to leave. End Of.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2011 23:08
|
|
|
iwik posted:Flat White stuff Did you manage to get The Pattern? We sell a reasonable amount of soy drinks, apparently we're the only one of maybe a dozen cafes in the town to stock it. There's one lady who demands her soy cappuccino to be so dry there isn't actually any liquid milk in it, it's like a horrid blamange sat on top of the espresso. Which she eats with a teaspoon.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2012 22:15
|
|
|
The coffee chain where I work actively encourages the customers to bitch on an online feedback form. These two show up in various forms every month: THERE WERE 3 STAFF BEHIND THE COUNTER SERVING AND THE TABLES WEREN'T CLEARED or  THERE WAS ONLY ONE MEMBER OF STAFF BEHIND THE COUNTER AND THE OTHERS WERE CLEARING TABLESYou can't win. We've even had somebody posting complaints about the queue whilst still stood in it. That makes you part of the problem, not the solution, buddy.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2012 17:27
|
|
|
ChiaPetOutletStore posted:We always get complaints about milk and sugar on the counters, from the people who don't know how to pour things. I don't want to imagine how disgusting their houses are. I'm amazed at how adults seem totally incapable of getting their food into their mouths and not on the floor. My heart sinks every time I give them a knife, knowing that they are going to play 'Operation' with their muffin. My favorite is always when they storm up to me with 'THE LADIES TOILET IS DISGUSTING' (normally means the last person left a scrap of bogroll on the floor) with their tone implying that it is my own personal fault. Because I, a male, go into the ladies' restroom of my own workplace and throw toilet paper about so I can clean it up. No turds on the walls as yet, but my god can the elderly lay some cable and leave a toilet out of action for DAYS.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2012 01:56
|
|
|
Oh joy, my chain's (barista here) latest POS pack actively encourages the customers to 'tell us how your visit was', ie bitch and lie in the safety of anonimity. If you aren't happy with your drink, please tell me, I'll remake it no problem, don't go straight to the website and make out that we're a bunch of cunts who ignored you when in fact I rearranged half the store to accommodate 4 generations of your family and will spend a further 20 minutes cleaning up the shitstorm left in your wake. Head office takes customer feedback as gospel (which doesn't help when you live in a town full of retired over-privileged Tories) and we get the poo poo for it. Couldn't they at least phrase it 'tell us what you ENJOYED about your visit'? It's gonna be a wakeup call for them when average customer satisfaction across the whole country plummets because they've reminded them they can bitch freely without actually having to speak to a member of staff who could, you know, FIX IT. NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Aug 28, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2012 21:08
|
|
|
iwik posted:I think I managed to piss off a customer well enough to stop them from coming back for a few weeks, hurrah! It's weird how the Soy (or, god help us, DECAF) people are always so much more difficult than other customers. Not that the drinks are any harder to make, they are just picky as gently caress- I got properly reamed the other day for daring to ask a decaf Americano if she would like any milk, which led to a massive tirade in a tone that suggested that I had spunked in her drink. It's not a case of hygiene or allergies or anything, they just seem to be DICKS, they always bark their order at you, then ignore you until you are pretty much yelling 'DO YOU WANT SPRINKLES WITH THAT, MADAM?' at your maximum vocal capacity. Sly Edit: 'Barista Soy' is exactly the same poo poo you can buy in Spar, it's just in a brown carton instead of a blue one. NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Sep 29, 2012 |
|
#
¿
Sep 29, 2012 23:24
|
|
: Do you have that Barista Soy?
|
IndenturedHobo posted:
Whilst small boys and old men seem totally incapable of flushing away their piss, on the whole, it's in the bowl. Women, however have some bizarre habit of trying to carpet the floor with toilet paper. It's normally clean(ish), but every time a woman leaves one of our toilets there is paper EVERYWHERE. Is it 'two sheets for me, three for the floor' with each wipe or what?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 31, 2012 23:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 2, 2024 08:24 |
|
|
Giant Goats posted:It's because they've torn off strips of toilet paper to put on the seat. *cue The More You Know music* That makes sense. Still, found an empty bottle of White Zinfandel nestling amongst the paper on the floor today- classy!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2012 00:50
|
|