shockingly rude employee at grocery store

[novicecrafter]

I went to the grocery store this evening and witnessed an unbelievably rude employee! There were two employees working together to push in a very long line of carts inside- one male and one female. The female employee was at the front of the carts helping to guide it.

There was an older customer slowly pushing his cart/items out of the store. He could obviously not move very quickly and was trying to get out of the way of the incoming carts. Instead of slowing down or at the very least attempting to stear the carts away from the customer the female employee kept going like he wasnt even there and missed hitting the old man by inches!

He was understandable shaken and said (not unkindly but a little surprised) "you almost hit me" and something along the lines of you should pay more attention.

Instead of apologizing she was extemely rude and argumentative. I couldnt hear the entire conversation but she distinctly said "well its not like I hit you". He asked for her name and she gave it (once again with extreme attitude)

He walked back into the store and found a manager to report the incident. The manager didnt really take it seriously (I guess its because there are a lot of grumpy older customers- but still its not really an excuse). After he left I went up to the same manager and told her that I had witnessed the incident and that she was indeed extremely rude. She still didnt take it seriously.

I cant help but remember the ridiculous amount of butt kissing I had to endure at the various retail jobs Ive had- I just dont understand how any employee could get away with behaviour like that!!

[ditchdj]

Call their district manager. I hear that complaints like that make them very hungry for blood.

[obod7x7]

I realize that it was wrong of her to have such an attitude to that man, but I can totally sympathize with her in this situation as I used to do carts at my store all the time.

When you're pushing a row of carts, it is almost always impossible to slow down or stop them unless you are going up a hill (and even then it is difficult). To stop them, you need to run around to the front of the row and stop them. If there was an older customer in the way, running around to the front may have caused more problems (if the customer was close enough)

Also, it is very hard to get a row of carts going again once it has stopped. The employees were probably tired from pushing carts for hours and did not want to have to expend any more energy.

Plus, when doing carts, people have a knack of getting in your way and making your job even more difficult. Maybe she had been working for hours and was simply sick of it? I rarely have any temper problems at work, but every time I did carts, I would come home extremely irate (from people blocking the entrance, people leaving their carts everywhere, hot/cold weather, physical tiredness, almost getting hit by cars, etc...)

She was rude, yes...but she didn't hit the man. I don't think anybody would allow an entire row of carts knock over an old man. They may have known that they weren't going to hit him.

[Strange Magic]

How do we know what he said to her 1st? He might have said something that justified her jumping him. I known that managment thinks folks are not supposed to ever react. But being human-she might have been provoked.

[Becks]

She was rude, yes...but she didn't hit the man. I don't think anybody would allow an entire row of carts knock over an old man. They may have known that they weren't going to hit him.

I wouldn't take the chance of "knowing that they weren't going to hit him". I have watched the cart boys at work, and sometimes the cart line is VERY hard to stop.

[Slave to the Phone]

I don't think anybody would allow an entire row of carts knock over an old man.

Our neighbor, who is a very sweet little old lady, was getting a cart when she was hit from behind and crushed by a kid pushing a row of carts. Her broken back will probably never fully recover.

First the kid claimed that neighbor had "darted" in front of him. When it was pointed out that 80 year old women are rarely able to "dart" anywhere, he said the controls to the cart pusher thingy locked up.

Security tapes were reviewed and lawyers are involved, but no amount of money will make up for her loss of mobility and constant pain. I do most of her grocery shopping now because she can't stand up that long and the electric carts are usually being used by people who don't need them.

[obod7x7]

Our neighbor, who is a very sweet little old lady, was getting a cart when she was hit from behind and crushed by a kid pushing a row of carts. Her broken back will probably never fully recover.

I'm sorry to hear that. I suppose there are some horrible people out there. I don't know how anybody could do that on purpose. Hopefully that was just a careless mistake and the kid did not do it on purpose.

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm sorry to hear that. I suppose there are some horrible people out there. I don't know how anybody could do that on purpose. Hopefully that was just a careless mistake and the kid did not do it on purpose.

From what I understand, it was a careless mistake. The kid was distracted by a couple of hotties walking by.

Still and all...my neighbor will be in pain for the rest of her life and the decreased mobility will likely shorten her life. I don't blame the old guy one little bit for complaining that he had almost been run over. I also don't think that anyone tried to intentially run anyone over, but being hit by anything at that age is a big concern.

PS I agree with the others...more cowbells please

[KayEm]

Plus, when doing carts, people have a knack of getting in your way and making your job even more difficult. Maybe she had been working for hours and was simply sick of it? I rarely have any temper problems at work, but every time I did carts, I would come home extremely irate (from people blocking the entrance, people leaving their carts everywhere, hot/cold weather, physical tiredness, almost getting hit by cars, etc...)

She was rude, yes...but she didn't hit the man. I don't think anybody would allow an entire row of carts knock over an old man. They may have known that they weren't going to hit him.

I agree. I too have to give the employee the benefit of the doubt. Too often whenever I'm pushing big dollies or racks, people see me, but they will NOT move. Instead I get the blank, imperious stare meaning "I'm the Customer..I don't care if you have work to do, you'll wait till good and ready to move".

These people seriously piss me off. I always think "I'm only trying to work here..don't worry about ME!"

So if she had to rush past him just to keep the momentum going on the carts, she just had to. I call him an SC for going whining to management.

[kibbles]

Why is it, when in this case an employee is acting sucky they are automatically given the benefit of the doubt, but if this was a customer, they are automatically deemed sucky or stupid?

IMO, this seems a case of a Sucky Employee. If a customer shot off at the mouth, no one says well maybe they had a bad day, maybe they had to deal with a lot, etc. etc. They are automatically called sucky customer or stupid customer, but in the case of this employee they are given the benefit of the doubt right off. Why is that?

And why should the man who had almost been hit and had an employee be rude to him be considered an SC for going to management? Sometimes going to management is actually warranted and is not just a move by a SC IMO.

Just curious,

Kibbles

[One-Fang]

Indeed, the OP states there was someone responsible for steering at the front, so it's not runaway carts, uncontrollable. The guy apparently stayed pretty much where he was, too, so no "darting" about.

Sounds to me like she assumed he wasn't going to be darting about and allowed the carts to come that close because they weren't going to hit him, and doing that meant she didn't have to change their direction. Talk about lazy.

[technical.angel]

I really can see both sides of the issue. Without seeing what novicecrafter saw (how easy would it be for the employees to get out of the guy's way?), it's hard to tell.

The attitude of the female employee was horrible. I will give you that. So, I'm not against her getting called on it.

And kibbles, and One-Fang, I agree with you.

Jenni

[BunnyJas]

IMO, this seems a case of a Sucky Employee. If a customer shot off at the mouth, no one says well maybe they had a bad day, maybe they had to deal with a lot, etc. etc. They are automatically called sucky customer or stupid customer, but in the case of this employee they are given the benefit of the doubt right off. Why is that?

I completely agree. While the carts may have been difficult to move, her attitude was out of line. "Maybe she was having a bad day" is not an excuse. When you are on the clock, you leave your personal feelings at home. Yes, employees are people who have bad days and hard times like everyone else. However, does this ever give you the right to snap at others who have had nothing to do with your troubles? We complain about customers doing this all the time. There is no excuse for their rudeness just like there is no excuse for an employee snapping at a customer who did nothing wrong.

[AFpheonix]

Unfortunately, when one is being paid to do something, they have to act in a professional manner, and that includes keeping tempers in check.

It would have been just as easy for her to stop, apologize to the gentleman, and then go on her merry way.

As in all things: stay above reproach, and there's very little an SC or an SE can do to you.

[RailroadMonster]

Carts

When I do carts, often times there are very ignorant people who walk right in front of a stack of carts weighing over one hundred pounds going several miles an hour... I've never hit anyone but there have been some close calls, and luckily my store has cameras, so if anyone did get hit, we'd have footage of them dashing in front of the lumbering stack because they needed to get home NOW.