OT Any Retail Workers?

[CoachJessNHS]

I work in retail, and have for about 6 years...my whole family does as well! At the dinner table we can talk for hours about stories from crazy customers that are anywhere from psycho, to adorable old people! So my question is what are your stories?! I loooove funny retail stories Like the ones when customers freak out when you ask them if you can look up their rewards card by their phone number...or the ones who pitch a fit because of a price difference of 20 cents? If you need to vent, do it here!

 

[ikarlyyy]

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2207489697&v=wall
^^ reading some of these stories has calmed me down after a bad day at work haha.

i have tons...but probably one of the most recent ones was a customer who got really angry and yelled at me because the store didn't have wifi. um, i was working in a clothing store in the mall! I told her she could go to starbucks.... haha.

 

[ACcheerleader]

Best. Website. Ever.

http://notalwaysright.com/

 

[kristenthegreat]

I've worked two different retail jobs (both under the same umbrella company) VS and Bath and Body Works. My two things:
*I'm sorry we no longer carry your favorite scent/style/color/bra/item. I don't make these decisions. Stop treating me as if I knew you were coming in today and personally saw to it that you could never get it again. #ijustworkhere

*This one woman came in with a HTF (hard-to-find/hard-to-fit) bra style. As a former employee, I will admit: VS does NOT have the best options for women of certain sizes outside the 'main' smaller band/cup sizes. She requested a certain style, and I showed her what we had in that version, but she wasn't pleased with the color options. I asked if she had ever been shown a different style that was similar, she hadn't. I brought her over and showed her her options, she was positively ecstatic. She told me it was the best customer service she'd ever received there. Needless to say, I was tickled pink .

I think any of the service industries (food and retail) I've had crazy up and downs. I've had a customer cuss out a co-worker when she accidentally tripped and spilled a little chocolate milkshake on her sweats. Promptly after cussing her out and calling her an idiotic fool, she told us she was all messy for CHURCH. In sweats. Shockingly enough, her mother was adorably sweet. (The woman was probably in her 40s, mother older) I've also had a little boy come up to me all blushing and tell me I was pretty. The differences boggle my mind.

 

[CoachJessNHS]

Haha those websites are HILARIOUS!!! Kristenthegreat - isn't it crazy how up and down people can be? I will never understand how some people are just so insanely nice, and then a crazy lunatic comes in right after!! But the nice ones definitely make up for the mean ones....

I live on Cape Cod (work at Staples), so there is a lot of old people...some that don't want to buy anything, they just want to talk! This one guy came in and just walked around for about an hour. As he was leaving I was standing at the register and I said "Thank you have a great day! " and he waved...walked out the door, turned around and said "WAIT I have to tell you about my DOG!" (I have no idea who this guy is btw, so it's not like we were old friends or anything!) And then he just proceeded to tell me about how he dresses up his dog and puts little bunny ears on her for Easter, and sweaters for Christmas, etc, and how she is the greatest dog ever! Then he just left. Haha!! I loved it!

THEN we will get very awful mean people...I was walking back up front from the bathroom, and as I walk by customers, I will always say "Hello", or "Do you need help with anything?". So this nice lady just needed help finding some toner, and I had to get back to the service desk to ring customers out. So I paged the ONLY person we had in that department that night to help her. Right after I paged him, another lady needed help in that department as well. I told her it would just be a minute. He starts helping the first lady, and the second lady comes up while I'm ringing out customers and says "SO, you paged him up here and he helped her before ME?!?!?" I said "Ma'am, she was first.." and she got so mad and walked away. I continued ringing out customers, and before I knew it, I had a line...So I forgot to tell my co-worker another customer needed help, so he went back to work. OHH EMM GEE! After she runs around the store looking for him, he finally helps her, and I saw her talking to him. She said "Thank you, you were very helpful, and SHE (pointing to me) WAS NOT!" She came into my line to check out, and I apologized to her for not telling him to help her after. What did she say back? "Your customer service SUCKS" I said "THANK YOU! " with a huuuge goofy smile! She said "I will be sure to let Corporate know that too" and I said "Okay thank you have a great night!" Oh, and let me just tell you she was a TEACHER and had a 4 year old child with her. The nerve of some people!!!!

 

[kristenthegreat]

People boggle my mind..my favorite is when I worked at DQ and people ordered, I brought them what they ordered, then they either A) Changed their mind and wanted something different, usually which involved a different price or B) Said 'That's not what I ordered.' I show them the receipt, which is exactly how they ordered it. All written out. 'Well, that's not what I wanted.' Well, sir, I'm sorry I'm not a mind reader. Maybe if you'd ASKED for what you WANTED instead of something else, you would have gotten it. Them and Banana Sundae Man (who always wanted his sundae presented a certain way with his bananas cut just so [in perfect circles adorning the edges] and with a VERY SPECIFIC amount of pineapple and a cherry. Sometimes he would change and ask for cherry sauce instead and it always confused us).

 

[cheermeup]

I worked at Gymboree and I'm here to tell you, it's where Suzie's mom likes to shop. Those women were psycho about their ensembles. Gymboree donates a lot of the marked out of stock stuff to Jerrys Kids. This woman came in and wanted to buy some socks from a line that was 2 years old. I told her the line was too old for us to have any merchandise left and that it had been MOSed and donated. She got really pissed and said; " you mean to tell me that you donate stuff to welfare mothers and when a paying customer needs it they can't have it?" She was seriously angry.

 

[ohhh lindss]

DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON DUMB PANERA CUSTOMERS..........

 

[CoachJessNHS]

lol i love it when customers come in and say
"I need to get an ink cartridge.."
me "Okay, which one do you need?"
"I dont know."
"Do you have the empty one with you?"
"No"
"Do you know the model number of your printer?"
"No"
"Do you have any one at home you can call?"
"No"
"Have you bought it here before, because maybe I can look up your past purchase?"
"No"
"Well your guess is as good as mine..."
Our ink wall takes up over 30% of our entire store.....good luck

 

[ohhh lindss]

Customer: "What type of soups do you have today?"
Me: *Points up at the board* "They're all listed under the big word 'SOUPS' "

Customer: "Can I have the You Pick Two with the broccoli cheddar soup, a half a classic salad and a turkey sandwich?"
Me: "You can only pick two items."
Customer: "Then why does it have three choices under 'You Pick Two' "
Me: "It's telling you what items you can choose from for the You Pick TWO...."

Me: "Would you like chips, bread, or an apple as your side choice for your sandwich?"
Customer: "Wait... Doesn't my sandwich come on bread?"
Me: *thinking to myself* No........... You have to pick bread as a side choice if you want it to come on bread. -____-

And my personal favorite....
Customer: "What's a bread bowl?"
Me: "The bowl is made out of bread."
Customer: "Oh cool! I'll have one of those! Can I eat the bowl, too?"
Me: *thinking to myself* Nope we want our soggy bread bowl back.

 

[ALittleBitTwisted]

Customer: "What type of soups do you have today?"
Me: *Points up at the board* "They're all listed under the big word 'SOUPS' "

Customer: "Can I have the You Pick Two with the broccoli cheddar soup, a half a classic salad and a turkey sandwich?"
Me: "You can only pick two items."
Customer: "Then why does it have three choices under 'You Pick Two' "
Me: "It's telling you what items you can choose from for the You Pick TWO...."

Me: "Would you like chips, bread, or an apple as your side choice for your sandwich?"
Customer: "Wait... Doesn't my sandwich come on bread?"
Me: *thinking to myself* No........... You have to pick bread as a side choice if you want it to come on bread. -____-

And my personal favorite....
Customer: "What's a bread bowl?"
Me: "The bowl is made out of bread."
Customer: "Oh cool! I'll have one of those! Can I eat the bowl, too?"
Me: *thinking to myself* Nope we want our soggy bread bowl back.

I seriously think you should start your own blogspot "Day in the Life of a Panera Employee" haha and post funny stories/bad days/good days. I don't even care if I am the only person who reads it..ahaha I doubt I would be though!! I think everyone would love to hear your Panera stories!!

 

[retiredl5cheer]

DISGUSTING STORY. WARNING, if you have a low tolerance for grossness, SCROLL PAST THIS!

In high school I worked at Hollister. One girl went in the dressing room to try on bathing suits. My manager went looking at feet under the dressing room doors and he noticed that the girl trying on bathing suits had removed her underwear to try them on (they was laying on the floor). Gross, yes. It gets worse...there was a dirty pad in her underwear. This means she took off her underwear and tried on bathing suits with her period.

I almost vomited. We damaged that bathing suit out and scrubbed our hands afterwards.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Here's another one. I work at the Children's Place.

MOM: Do you carry hefty sizes?
ME: No, I'm sorry.
MOM: This is absolutely ridiculous. My daughter is 7 and does not fit in your size 16. What am I supposed to do?

Um...I don't know? Put your daughter in an athletic activity?

 

[ohhh lindss]

"Can I have the cheddar broccoli soup/cheesey broccoli/cream of broccoli/broccoli and cheese/etc?"

It distinctly says 'broccoli cheddar' on the sign -_____-

 

[KRECCheer]

We used to get tons of horrible customers at Starbucks. But this mistake was totally me:

Customer (a horribly rude one at that): How old do you think I am?
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: No really, just guess. I wont mind.
Me: No, no, Im a horrible guess at age.
Customer: JUST GUESS!
Me (def thought I was being nice!): Um, 57.
Customer: What a b****.

Seriously lady, you looked horrible. I thought you were 70! And I told you I didnt want to guess.

I also had one person ask for a dunkacino. Um, girl, this isnt Dunkin Donuts. Read the menu if you have no clue.