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Please, send an email to radio shack letting them know you disapprove of the practice.
So many retail places have gone to this, it's now a required part of the job for many cashiers and it's horrible!
Sometimes it's tied to a small (think nickels or dimes) for each item sold, and usually it counts for a part of the employees performance review too. If you don't "sell" you don't get much in the way of a raise, and sometimes your job can be in jeopardy.
Stores keep doing this because their are enough people buying so that it does generate a little bit of extra profit. They need to hear from all the customers who abhor the practice, before they'll stop doing it.
It isn't just here, believe me it is everywhere, as I have traveled much. This is the "plopped in front of the TV since infancy" generation. Noone is home when you look in their eyes, if they will even look you in the eye.
My 20+ year old daughter worked in a cashiers job. She is one of the friendliest people I know and she was upset after working for a while. When she would try to be friendly with the customer she was waiting on invariably the next customer complained or even rudely interrupted telling her "To hurry up, they didn't have all day". Some even complained to her manager that she was too slow and too friendly with the customers. However, her manager saw her strong points and moved her to Jewlery where she became the top salesperson in the store. As customers we may not see or observe what others are doing or the stress put on these young people. In another instance she was having to run a price check as there was no tag and the lady customer( around 60) reached across the counter and slapped her. Then left the store. She has told me of customers who had kicked, slapped and in one case of shoplifting ran over the cashier who attempted to chase the shoplifter. Whenever I am at the counter I always attempt to be nice and smile, not engage them in too much chatting as I know how irate the person behind me might become. I always get at least a smile in return and most say something positive. I imagine that every one of them is my duaghter and know just what they suffer through each and every day just to earn minimum wage.
Northerncalif, my God that's the most awful customer service stories I've heard - from the cashier point of view. Wow. What city is all this happening in? Glad your daughter got a job that allows her to be friendly and successful.
You make a good point though that there is a general incivility which is probably fueling the cashier incivility. Next time I get fired up I may start a thread on that. The question of civility in the different regions of the country vs. Portland is an interesting one to me.
Last edited by Sprightly; 03-21-2010 at 03:53 AM..
Reason: moved driving comment to the driving thread
I'm curious if this is a pattern for the Portland area, twenty-somethings, or just a trend sweeping the country. To give you the perspective I'm coming from I'm about forty now. When I was teenager and twenty-something I worked a lot of customer services jobs sales clerk, waitressing, etc. Back in those days being polite and keeping the customer happy was a big deal and if you didn't it could mean being fired. I and my peers were nice to customers even if they were jerks because we knew our paychecks depended on it. The trend I've noticed now is indifference bordering on rudeness, almost a "whaddya want?" type of response. There's rarely anymore "Have a nice day" or even a "Thanks come again" at the end of any transaction. You pay your money, they stare at you with a blank expression till you go away. To be fair not every single transaction is this way but a big percentage are - more than I've ever seen. Is it because they are poor? hate their jobs? I was in the same boat then too but I was decent to people when it was my job to serve them.
So what gives? Anybody know what's going on?
This has not been my experience.
I have seen some people behave as if the people working in service jobs are somehow their personal servants; perhaps this attitude plays a part in how they are treated.
So I went forth today as a secret shopper to deliberately make (potentially) annoying conversation with cashiers. Out of three people a 30-something male, a 20-something female, and 20-something male only the 20-something male responded with the "why are you still talking?" attitude. I have seen the same attitude from women as well though. I think it is generational and am planning to just be very business focused unless these 20-something people themselves to want to be friendly.
Am I reading this correctly? Why go out of your way to deliberately annoy people who are trying to do their jobs?
I think it's generational as well but my thoughts are a bit different from yours. We do some amount of customer service in our business, and the baby boomers seem to be the customers who most believe that the world revolves around them. And no matter what someone's age is, treating one of our employees badly is a very good way to get thrown out. Strangely enough, the only people we've had cause to throw out were both over 40.
Uh Metalkatla, if you'd read my posts more carefully you would realize I'm one of the people who treats cashiers like human beings instead of servants - it's one of the reasons the rudeness really annoys me. I did a lot of customer service jobs myself and I have a huge amount of sympathy for the amount of crap they have to put up with - so yeah, when they can't even say "how are you?" back to me or look at me like I'm ruining their day if I make one comment about the weather....well yes, I think it's rude. And my secret shopper attempt to be "annoying" was very minor indeed - basically just a few random weather comments or questions about the store - that's it. I see both sides of the situation - do you?
My 20+ year old daughter worked in a cashiers job. She is one of the friendliest people I know and she was upset after working for a while. When she would try to be friendly with the customer she was waiting on invariably the next customer complained or even rudely interrupted telling her "To hurry up, they didn't have all day". Some even complained to her manager that she was too slow and too friendly with the customers. However, her manager saw her strong points and moved her to Jewlery where she became the top salesperson in the store. As customers we may not see or observe what others are doing or the stress put on these young people. In another instance she was having to run a price check as there was no tag and the lady customer( around 60) reached across the counter and slapped her. Then left the store. She has told me of customers who had kicked, slapped and in one case of shoplifting ran over the cashier who attempted to chase the shoplifter. Whenever I am at the counter I always attempt to be nice and smile, not engage them in too much chatting as I know how irate the person behind me might become. I always get at least a smile in return and most say something positive. I imagine that every one of them is my duaghter and know just what they suffer through each and every day just to earn minimum wage.
Your daughter is a better person/cashier than I. I wouldve lost my job and had to explain myself in court.
Ive seen coworkers threatened, harassed (sexually and otherwise), lied about because something didnt go the way the customer wanted, cheated, screamed at, and more.
I am a retail "veteran" of 4 years, and I have told my bosses to their face that if a customer EVER lays hands on me, jobs over, and its ON like Donkey Kong. Somebody's gonna go out in a stretcher. No job is worth being slapped or handled in any way.
People treat clerks like servants. We get insulted, snapped at, even solicited at times by perverts. The pay blows, and after standing for 5+ hours your legs and back are killing you. Your hours get cut, your line gets backed up because some fool is writing a check in the express lane,and somehow its your fault. If a price is wrong, its your fault in the eyes of the jack*** you're waiting on.
You see 100+ people a day, and the first half of the shift the smiles are easy. However, if you're the 200th person that comes through the line, that smile begins to fade and you get sick to death of talking to people. No customer is special to someone who deals with people all day...You're just another face.
Rest assured, if they're smiling to your face they're probably thinking things that would shock you in their minds. We're all a little crazy in retail, and if you're not already, we'll train you :P. Things done/said in the breakrooms would curl your hair.
I get to the point where I dont even remember the face of the customer I just waited on.
So, to those who treat us like human beings, you'll often find we do the same.
To those who think us "beneath" them somehow....You can already guess what I think of you, and I hope someday you catch one of us that's burned out and that you're the one they turn on. If nothing else, when you come back to that store, every.single.cashier. probably knows who you are and that you mistreated one of their own.
I personally dislike my job (Easy to tell, isnt it?)..it is the friendship and closeness of my co-workers that has kept me sane all this time. We are tight-knit bunch.
Last edited by Colddiamond102; 03-23-2010 at 12:50 AM..
Uh Metalkatla, if you'd read my posts more carefully you would realize I'm one of the people who treats cashiers like human beings instead of servants - it's one of the reasons the rudeness really annoys me. I did a lot of customer service jobs myself and I have a huge amount of sympathy for the amount of crap they have to put up with - so yeah, when they can't even say "how are you?" back to me or look at me like I'm ruining their day if I make one comment about the weather....well yes, I think it's rude. And my secret shopper attempt to be "annoying" was very minor indeed - basically just a few random weather comments or questions about the store - that's it. I see both sides of the situation - do you?
Yeah, I read your posts; I think I've just had different experiences than you have. I really can't remember the last time I felt I was treated rudely by a person working in the service industry.
One of the most horrific examples of baby boomer style arrogance was witnessed by myself and another long time Alaskan in the port city of Skagway. The Bulgarian student waiting tables at a local cafe was being completely harassed by some old bag who seemed to think the world revolved around her petty little needs. There was no management visible in the place, and when the "lady" yelled at the girl to give her change for a dime so she could leave a tip, the girl ran to the back table area where us locals would sit--she was totally upset and crying. The guy and I made sure the lady left rather quickly. She'd been yelling at the girl for at least a half an hour for not being able to speak perfect English (what she spoke was good enough) and for not being an American citizen.
But...I spend a lot of my time in parts of the country where tourism is rampant, so my experiences are different than for instance someone who spends most of their time in Oregon. When I am home, I hardly go anywhere but the grocery store, and we all know each other there, and it's a small town so there is time for minor conversations---usually the clerks instigate them.
Do you ever wonder what happens to people when they finally sicken of slaving away in the service industry for peanuts while their loans mount? At some point they crack, realize that if they're not famous ...
The man who wrote these words jumped off a bridge in Portland just the other day.
No, the service industry didn't drive him to it. His demons were within him in the first place.
My point is is that the people employed in this sector are human beings in their own right and that the world isn't going to end it they don't reply in the appropriately correct octave to someone's inane conversation.
Really, I wish all I had to worry about is how a store clerk responds to my comments about the weather.
I'm sure that many clerks et al feel the same.
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No job is worth being slapped or handled in any way.
