So dumb it's actually funny.

[notalwaysright]

I was told this by a CW. On Monday we had decent coverage at the cutting counter, four cutters. Honestly, for a weekday during the off-season (such as it is), that's pretty good. A lady was waiting for her number to be called and decided that she didn't want to wait. Not unusual. Most people b*tch under their breath, or wander the store trying to find a random employee who's busy helping someone else to pester.

This lady did something different. She, um. She, she... CALLED OUR STORE. She stood at the cutting counter, and called our store number from her cell phone. When a cashier picked up, she demanded more staff be sent back to the cutting counter. She was informed that all employees were either cutting or cashiering. Obviously.

And... And you know what she did when she finally got up to the register? I can barely type this because I'm laughing so hard. She leaned over the queuing line to the closest register and demanded more cashiers be called up. She happened to be talking to the MOD who smiled and informed her that the rest of the employees were at the cutting counter. You know, where she had just demanded more staff?

I was told that she was very, very, unpleasant but it's really hard to take this seriously.

[Marmalady]

What she wanted was for some of the extra employees to be sent out. You know, the ones who are hired just in case they're needed, and sit out the back playing cards or doing crosswords or knitting, until a customer wants them.

[Mr Hero]

I've done something similar. I don't know if it's sucky behavior or not, but I was looking for an item in a grocery store and not having any luck. I decided to call the store and ask what aisle I would find it.

[snugglegirl05]

Then the customer can apply for a job there since she feels that there are not enough employees.

[notalwaysright]

I've done something similar. I don't know if it's sucky behavior or not, but I was looking for an item in a grocery store and not having any luck. I decided to call the store and ask what aisle I would find it.

Not sucky... So many differences. First, you had a simple question, not a demand. For example, you weren't waiting at the deli counter on an obviously busy day, with multiple employees helping customers, calling the store to demand more coverage. And we're a fabric store. Corporate restricts our hours so badly we have much less people at any given time than a grocery store. We have been known to operate with four people total in the store. If you'd been in our store and called the store to ask where the glitter was, the cashier might have been a bit confused but she'd still have been able to answer the question and move on relatively quickly. "You're in the store now? Um, okay glitter is in aisle A30, you'll see a price checker on the end of the aisle." So yeah, not the same.

[Lovecats]

There was one time when I was a cashier at a certain red circled store (super-sized). It was lunch time which tends to be very busy. We had every available sales floor employee up on registers for backup. Even still the lines were long. A lady in my line actually called the operator to complain about the wait. Then when she got up to the register she complained some more and then just left her full cart and walked out. The customer behind her just kinda looked at her and at me and shrugged. I pushed her cart out of the way. Luckily, there were no perishables in her cart.

[Victory Sabre]

Ok, your store screwed up: you shold have brought out, as many as she wanted, employees from the "back room".

[wordgirl]

I don't think these folks care about more employees at all.

They just want a dedicated employee to follow them around, from the cutting counter ("Six yards. No, wait, eight. And don't give me that piece, you already started cutting it at six") to the scissors aisle ("What do you mean, you have no left-handed scalloped pinking shears with bright blue handles? This orange is tacky!") to the register, where a till will be opened for their very own magical convenience so they can be whisked away to their waiting carriage before the chauffeur turns back into a lizard.

[MoonCat]

I don't think these folks care about more employees at all.

They just want a dedicated employee to follow them around, from the cutting counter ("Six yards. No, wait, eight. And don't give me that piece, you already started cutting it at six") to the scissors aisle ("What do you mean, you have no left-handed scalloped pinking shears with bright blue handles? This orange is tacky!") to the register, where a till will be opened for their very own magical convenience so they can be whisked away to their waiting carriage before the chauffeur turns back into a lizard.

You forgot that after they get all this special treatment because they are VERY BUSY and DON'T HAVE TIME TO WAIT, they will spend the next half hour dicking around looking through clearance bins, the magazine rack, and at the end caps before wandering slowly out the door, while playing on their phone.

[Monterey Jack]

Of course, if the store hired more full-time employees, it'd eventually have to increase prices to offset those additional man hours, and customers would complain about that.

[Mr Hero]

Of course, if the store hired more full-time employees, it'd eventually have to increase prices to offset those additional man hours, and customers would complain about that.

Didn't you know? Retail workers are just robots. Hopefully not First-Law-Compliant.

[Kogarashi]

What she wanted was for some of the extra employees to be sent out. You know, the ones who are hired just in case they're needed, and sit out the back playing cards or doing crosswords or knitting, until a customer wants them.

You mean the robot ones we keep plugged in in The Back Room for just such an occasion?

[bainsidhe]

Heh. Back in the days before *big box retail* slashed staffing, we would have all twenty-some registers running during weekend rush. The lines would still be long, and I'd occasionally have a customer tell me we should open more registers. I'd just apologize for the wait and continue scanning.

[Teefies2]

Heh. Back in the days before *big box retail* slashed staffing, we would have all twenty-some registers running during weekend rush. The lines would still be long, and I'd occasionally have a customer tell me we should open more registers. I'd just apologize for the wait and continue scanning.

Exactly. At one store I worked at (that "W" one), we had 25 registers. TWENTY-FIVE! They could ALL be open, all of us checking people out as fast as we could, and someone would complain "You should open more registers!!!" How the heck am I supposed to do that?????

[Racket_Man]

Exactly. At one store I worked at (that "W" one), we had 25 registers. TWENTY-FIVE! They could ALL be open, all of us checking people out as fast as we could, and someone would complain "You should open more registers!!!" How the heck am I supposed to do that?????

Go into the mythical "back room" and get more registers (take that literally or meaning drop your pants and shit several out of your ass)