Do's and Don'ts For Customers Shopping in Retail Stores (sell, clothing, used)
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I'm in my 30's and I had never worked in retail before (other than food service in my teens). I wanted some xtra cash to help w/finances and thought working in a department store would be great b/c my family could use the discount on clothing. Wow has it been an eye-opening experience for me! Most customers are great, but of course there are a few rude ones.
My biggest pet peeve is ppl trying on tons of clothes, and leaving them in the dressing room. The signs in the dressing rooms clearly state to bring the stuff out and put it all on the designated rack. I mean come on if you can carry it in, what is so hard about carrying it out? It wastes so much of my time gathering a bunch of stuff up from several dressing rooms - when I could be spending that time cleaning up other areas of the store (to make your shopping experience a nicer one).
Another slightly irritating thing is ppl expecting me to shop for them. It's fine if someone is looking for something specific (i.e....a button up shirt for work), but some ppl come in there "I need something for ..... event, what do you have?". um.....3 sections of women's clothes? Can you be more specific on what you are looking for?
On the other hand I get customers that feel bad for asking for help. Or they feel bad about handing me the 15 items they just tried on & they don't want. I don't mind putting your stuff away....I'd rather do it than find it on some random rack. Since I know exactly where everything goes I can put it away quickly.
I've been in this job for almost a year, and I actually really liked it. But I could not do it as a full-time job....I would go crazy! The pay stinks considering what you have to put up with from customers and managers. I will only be working there a few more weeks as working 2 jobs has become too stressful. Plus with the economy not doing so great they are really cutting back employee hrs (yet still hiring more ppl?). It's not worth my gas money & time to work a 4 hour shift.
Customers need to learn a little thing called patience. I am employed by Lowe's Home Improvement, and it is not at all uncommon for me to be alone in my department during heavy sales volume periods. I work in the inside lawn & garden department, which at this time of the year is a mish-mash of Christmas decorations, grills, lawn mowers, and snow blowers all next to one another, making us a VERY high foot-traffic department at the entrance of the store. Here are some of my gripes:
If you see me already assisting another couple in the adjacent aisle as they ponder making a purchase, then why on Earth would you walk over and push my call button, knowing quite well that I'm the only one in the store at that point in time with sufficient knowledge of the products in this particular department to assist you to the best of our ability? This is just flat-out RUDE, as I then have to excuse myself from the couple whom I was helping FIRST to go de-activate my call button and help YOU first because our store keeps close tabs on call button response times. We're supposed to de-activate them in under one minute. Usually by the time I'm finished helping you I return quickly to help the first couple only to see that they have left because they felt neglected by me.
You may ask yourself "why not respond to the call button, tell the customer(s) who pushed it that you are busy with another customer and will be over to assist them shortly, and then return to helping the first couple?" Well, Mr. & Mrs. "Not Living in the Real World," let me tell you what OFTEN happens when I do that---I'm met with sighs and eye-rolling in return from people who think they are "more important" than the other people who were there prior to them and grabbed my attention before they did. Either way I, the sales clerk, am doomed to aggravate someone. The most foolish decision that big-box stores EVER could have made was to install those call buttons. Obviously if a customer has to push one it's because every other nearby employee is already engaged helping another customer (meaning...gasp...you'll have to WAIT YOUR TURN...or that, as is often the case, there is quite honestly nobody working in that department that day). When I'm not busy I can respond to a button at the "Plumbing Repair Area" and approach you with a smile, but what good will that do me (or you, the customer) if I have no clue about plumbing problems and have no plumbing associates or even knowledgeable managers available to refer you to?
Learn that every Home Depot and/or Lowe's employee is NOT AN EXPERT IN EVERYTHING! I can't tell you the number of times I've had someone come over to my area near the grills and ask me something about roofing, appliances, etc. because they couldn't first locate someone in that department. When I whip out my SpectraLink phone and say "Let me call someone for you who can assist you" I have honestly been told "Well why can't YOU help me?!" Do you REALLY want unqualified and unhelpful advice from a 21-year-old college student who is only fully trained in ONE department of the store or would you rather wait another two minutes until I'm able to track down a co-worker who is more adequately prepared to address your inquiries? Why don't I go to the store where you work (let's say Victoria's Secret) and ask you about something completely unrelated (let's say tires), and then complain because YOU are not an expert on everything! Contrary to popular belief, folks, many of the employees of Lowe's and Home Depot are NOT licensed electricians, plumbers, roofers, horticulturalists, etc. Why? Well, if YOU were a professional with a skill would YOU want to work for $10/hr. for a 9 or 10-hour shift dealing with often irritable customers? You pay on the lower end of the pay scale, then you're going to correspondingly attract retirees, students, and others with limited skill sets. Want "licensed" people to consult at your home improvement big-box retailer? Then be prepared to pay SKY-HIGH PRICES so that these retailers can double their wages to attract better-quality candidates. I can safely say that once I have my degree I'll have no future with Lowe's. Many of my co-workers feel the same way. It's just a "holding point" for us to pay for some of our tuition. I'll gladly do my best to assist you whenever I can to the best of my ability with a smile on my face, but if you're going to be unreasonable, then expect no sympathy from me just because you're "having a bad day." Too bad. Nobody cares. We all have problems. Deal with them or don't go shopping with your bad attitudes.
When power equipment is being operated inside the store, PLEASE heed the associates! I can't tell you how many times I'll be on an order picker pallet attempting to retrieve an item for a customer only to look down and see a customer standing directly beneath my pallet because they charged right beneath the extendable aisle blockers! Just so you know, if something should go awry (let's say that the pallet I'm standing on breaks), and you are killed by the falling debris, your posterity have NO LEGAL BASIS to sue the store since every possible precaution was taken to avert a tragedy. We have those blockers up for a reason. We also have "spotters" telling you, in a polite sense of course, "back off" for a reason. We love our customers and do NOT want to see any of you seriously injured due to an accident! If you're too pompous to avoid rushing into a restricted area anyways, then you deserve whatever may befall you. In the 3.5 years that I've been employed by Lowe's and have operated power equipment I've never had an accident. Let's keep it that way!
While we're on this same topic, can I also remind you that the guy standing in the adjacent aisle looking like he is "doing nothing" is actually serving a MANDATED safety function in ensuring that none of you patrons ignore signage in the adjacent aisle and wander into harm's way while I'm suspended in the air above you. Don't stand at a nearby desk staring daggers at him or her with your hands on your hips as you wait for response to your call button because he or she CAN NOT leave that aisle until I'm no longer above the sales floor on the equipment. I can temporarily suspend my actions and immediately lower myself, but that will still take a little while for that "spotter" to get over there to assist you. We only have your SAFETY in mind, folks.
By the way, to those of you who are nasty and say "you should be doing freight work AT NIGHT when there's no customers in the store," do you not realize that many of these stores no longer have overnight crews in order to reduce their expenditures? We, the sales fleet, are expected to have all of the freight completed by 10 AM, all departmental paper work completed by 10 AM, along with helping customers, bringing out display grills and outdoor power equipment, retrieving shopping carts and those big metal lumber/pipe carts, loading purchases for customers, (we have no cart people at our store either), opening up new registers when lines swell, etc. It's not easy to do that all ALONE between 6 AM-10 AM!
I don't work in the type of department where one can help a customer in the snap of a finger. My customers don't do themselves any favors by going on the Internet prior to coming into our store to do at least SOME research on their OWN first. Instead they just walk up to me with an clueless question and an expression such as "I think I want a fireplace, but I don't know. What do they do?" Under normal circumstances I'd be happy to spend 20 minutes one-on-one with you to explain the benefits and features of our entire seasonal heating product line, but guess what? I DON'T HAVE THE TIME TO! Why, may you ask? Well two minutes after you approach me another customer stands right behind us staring at us, rolling his/her eyes, putting hands on his/her hips, tapping his/her feet, sighing, coughing, etc. to tear me away from you! Since I'm the only one in my department I must LIMIT MY TIME WITH YOU! If you're going to need someone to spend 20-30-minutes with you to ensure you are satisfied, then come during either a slow part of the day, a time during which you suspect there will be adequate staffing, or do some research FIRST to limit the scope of your inquiries. I can't juggle several people in several different aisles simultaneously. Don't like it? Not my problem. Complain to management about the staffing shortage. Don't complain to me, as I have NOTHING to do with staffing level! If anything I only shoot myself in the foot because the more productive I appear to be in the eyes of management, the more they feel as if they can cut back on staffing. Perhaps then I SHOULD slack off?
Do NOT try to bully me in order to give you sweetheart deals. I don't care if you spend $1 in our store on one day of each month or $4,000 each week per month, you're still just as valuable as a customer in my eyes. EVERY single day I encounter a contractor who demands his "normal contractor's discounts as per the manager." Often times when I offer to call the manager to verify that he has approved the discount for this contractor, he becomes combative and threatens to take his business elsewhere. Well, Mr. "I'm a Contractor," if you truly DO receive special privileges that the rest of our clientèle do NOT receive, then why become so quick-tempered when I ask for verification from management? Obviously you're trying to bully us into catering to you.
On the same topic I don't care if you claim to spend "$10,000 per day" in our store. If you approach me just after an elderly woman on a fixed income who spends $1 a day in our store for assistance, then you will come SECOND, in the order in which you BELONG! Don't like it? Go to any other store that will likewise follow the adage of "first come, first served." Finally, since when did Lowe's officially become the largest flea market in the metro area? If a patio table is already marked 75% off as a seasonal clearance item, don't ask for 90% off if you buy two of them or for 95% off because "people sat in them." Boo hoo! First of all, I have NO AUTHORITY to regulate our pricing. Want to negotiate? Talk to management team members, who are ALSO under strict orders from corporate management, THEIR superiors! I don't walk into Target saying "Gee. I really like that futon, but I don't have $125 to pay for it. I'll give you $75 for it." GET LOST! I don't care how awful our national economy is, we do NOT haggle! Oy vey!
More to come...
Last edited by SteelCityRising; 09-16-2008 at 09:11 PM..
Reason: Text Formatting and Typos
I'm in my 30's and I had never worked in retail before (other than food service in my teens). I wanted some xtra cash to help w/finances and thought working in a department store would be great b/c my family could use the discount on clothing. Wow has it been an eye-opening experience for me! Most customers are great, but of course there are a few rude ones.
My biggest pet peeve is ppl trying on tons of clothes, and leaving them in the dressing room. The signs in the dressing rooms clearly state to bring the stuff out and put it all on the designated rack. I mean come on if you can carry it in, what is so hard about carrying it out? It wastes so much of my time gathering a bunch of stuff up from several dressing rooms - when I could be spending that time cleaning up other areas of the store (to make your shopping experience a nicer one).
Another slightly irritating thing is ppl expecting me to shop for them. It's fine if someone is looking for something specific (i.e....a button up shirt for work), but some ppl come in there "I need something for ..... event, what do you have?". um.....3 sections of women's clothes? Can you be more specific on what you are looking for?
On the other hand I get customers that feel bad for asking for help. Or they feel bad about handing me the 15 items they just tried on & they don't want. I don't mind putting your stuff away....I'd rather do it than find it on some random rack. Since I know exactly where everything goes I can put it away quickly.
I've been in this job for almost a year, and I actually really liked it. But I could not do it as a full-time job....I would go crazy! The pay stinks considering what you have to put up with from customers and managers. I will only be working there a few more weeks as working 2 jobs has become too stressful. Plus with the economy not doing so great they are really cutting back employee hrs (yet still hiring more ppl?). It's not worth my gas money & time to work a 4 hour shift.
I know this is off topic...but do you ever get into Gastonia, NC much? ( I was born there)
ScranBarre: LMAO I feel your pain.
Last edited by Colddiamond102; 09-16-2008 at 09:17 PM..
4. Say "hello" or acknowledge the person waiting on you at least once. Sometimes I get a customer that says " Show me where such-in-such is" and wont say another word after that. No 'thank you' or anything. Yes, we ARE doing our jobs by showing you, but we arent robots. We like some acknowledgement too. Oh, and GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONE IF YOU ARE ASKING SOMEBODY FOR SOMETHING!!!!!
The same applies to the store employees. There is nothing more aggravating to be rung up by someone who is on the phone. Additionally, it is also nice to be acknowledged by store staff once on a while. Customers are not faceless"robots" either. Respect is a two way street, that's for sure. There is no law that says we have to like each other, but let's at least treat one another civily and have a smooth transaction. Trust me..I've worked retail and it's no picnic. However, respect is that one little magic that makes things a lot easier for everyone no matter how hectic things can get.
Customers need to learn a little thing called patience.
ding ding ding. where I work, we make drinks. thus, you will have to wait, especially if there's very obviously 20 other people in line, 4 or five other drink orders up, and three people trying to make the drinks.
yes, you will get rolling eyes from me (AND the people behind you in line) if you yell at our baristas saying that "I've been waiting 10 minutes for my drink!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!" when you and everyone behind you know for a fact i just rang you up and put the drink order up about one whole minute ago. it's not like we're just standing around looking at you whine about waiting for your drink, we're all busy helping the people that GOT THERE BEFORE YOU.
ding ding ding. where I work, we make drinks. thus, you will have to wait, especially if there's very obviously 20 other people in line, 4 or five other drink orders up, and three people trying to make the drinks.
yes, you will get rolling eyes from me (AND the people behind you in line) if you yell at our baristas saying that "I've been waiting 10 minutes for my drink!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!" when you and everyone behind you know for a fact i just rang you up and put the drink order up about one whole minute ago. it's not like we're just standing around looking at you whine about waiting for your drink, we're all busy helping the people that GOT THERE BEFORE YOU.
DON'TS----IF THEIR ISN'T A DAMN BAGGER AND I'M SCANNING AND YOU SEE CRAP PILING UP AND FALLING OFF THE COUNTER, HELP BAG!!!
-Sorry this has always pissed me off, customers come in with like 6 of their kids and no one even attempts to help. They just stand around and look as if I'm doing something wrong.
Please just say hello to the worker. I one greeted a customer and they completely ignored me. I was getting audited by a check-out manager, and got in trouble for not "greeting" the customer. I did,but the customer didn't respond.
Yes please put your carts in the cart return thingies! I work in Texas in 100 degree weather pushing carts for 4-6 hrs straight! It's very hard work and it's extremely annoying when you have to walk all the way across the parking lot just to get a basket.
If you have a minimum of atleast 10 or less bags. Don't ask for a carry-out. Unless your handicap. I've done carryouts for people who've only had like 1 bag and they seem to park all the way out at the back of the parking lot.
-I wouldn't be complaining if I was getting paid good money,but I was only making 6:35 a hour!!!-
I/we usually do our own bagging anyway and the cashier appreciates it greatly.
I wouldn't get upset if some people don't return your greeting. Not everyone is going to be nice. Maybe they were having a bad day, or they are just jerks. Either way, you did initiate the greeting and there is really nothing the manager can do. I have found that the nice people overshadow the rude ones by a cosmic mile anyway.
My first job as a teen was a bagger/carryout for a major grocer and this is the one occupation where you come into contact with virtually every type of personality. Not my best job by a long shot, but it really ingrained in me the importance of working with different people and remaining civil even though they are not the most themselves. I will say that I made some nice tips and was making more that way than my regular check some weeks.
I think it's something about food that makes people hostile. I've had more hostile customers in 6 months of working weekends at a food service establishment than i did in 2 years of working full time at a thrift store.
ahahaha! MB, if I could give you more rep points, I most certainly would.
Huh..thanks a million..........at least SOMEONE understands, just WHERE I am coming from, and going with this!!!!
Funny, you just mention the word "lazy" in combination with clients, customers, consumers, humans, services and shopping trends (in general), and all of the sudden, you have all hell break lose.
Seriously though....sure, I am here to help you, give you service, and get paid for it, because it is part of my job.
However, I am the one to decide if I WANT to perform those services, and how WELL.
I have had difficult customers in the past, and make it to a point to walk away, leaving you standing there with NO SERVICE, if you are rude, nasty "in my face" demanding, poking your finger in my face, and start calling me names.
On the same token, if you are friendly and nice, I will do just about anything for you !
Sorry......customer service, or not....the line for "rules of conduct" have to be draw somewhere, and also needs to be applied towards customers as well.
After all, and first in line: I am a human being, and want to be treated as such !
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