shockingly rude employee at grocery store

[KayEm]

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.

Which is why I'm siding with the employees in this issue. People just don't seem to comprehend OR care that we have work to actually do that doesn't involve them directly. They get in the way and STAY there. They stare at you and completely ignore you. We're human guys, PLUS we don't make an awful lot of money. Only a robot could smile and act "professional" (I hate that term since we aren't paid like professionals) 100% of the time.

[obod7x7]

I don't think anybody should be siding with either the customer or the employee. Nobody but the original poster knows what exactly happened, and even the OP may not know what was said between the two.

I just wanted to suggest a few reasons why the employe may have had an attitude. Cart duty is not a fun job and even the best people will walk away from that job angry. There is a constant flow of carts that you need to get off the parking lot and there is a constant flow of carts that need replaced in the lobby. You have to be moving ALL THE TIME or you will get behind.

[kibbles]

Well if an employee almost hits someone, then the decent thing would be to simply apologize, not be rude IMO. And no matter how sucky a job, it's no excuse or free reign for an employee to be ignorant to customers, just as there is no excuse for someone being a sucky customer because they are having a bad day.

And you said that no one should side with anyone because only the original poster knows what happened...well that can be said for every single post or story about a sucky customer, we can only go by what the op tells us. But people take sides there all the time.

[obod7x7]

And you said that no one should side with anyone because only the original poster knows what happened...well that can be said for every single post or story about a sucky customer, we can only go by what the op tells us. But people take sides there all the time.

Yes, people take sides all the time, but in most cases the poster knows exactly what was said or done. That is not the case in this situation.

Please understand that I am not automatically assuming that the employee did nothing wrong. She very well might have. I realize that there are rude employees. I am just asking people to consider the fact that it *may not* have been the employee who was originally rude.

[kibbles]

I get that, but all I was saying was the in some instances the same considerations should be given to some customers as well

Kibbles

[JuniorMintz]

Which is why I'm siding with the employees in this issue. People just don't seem to comprehend OR care that we have work to actually do that doesn't involve them directly. They get in the way and STAY there. They stare at you and completely ignore you. We're human guys, PLUS we don't make an awful lot of money. Only a robot could smile and act "professional" (I hate that term since we aren't paid like professionals) 100% of the time.

Hey don't get me wrong, I hate just about everyone and everything most of the time, but I have to disagree with you. Strongly.

YES, we are human, and not robots, but the old guy was a human too.

Accidents happen. If the guy had complained to management over a near miss even though the girl had apologized, then yes, he'd be a dick.

But that's not what happened. She almost hit him, and whether or not she meant to has *nothing* to do with it. A quick apology would have likely smoothed everything over, and everyone could have gone on their merry ways. It's just basic manners, really. Pay rates and "professionalism" have nothing to do with it.

She could be cursing him up and down in her brain, and that's her right. But he's an old man, and they can't always jump out of the way like we'd like them to. She acted like an immature little bitch, and he had every right to complain to management about it. He wasn't complaining about almost getting hit, guys, he was complaining about her piss poor attitude about it and he had every right to do so!

Obviously, the customer is NOT always right, but applies to employees too. Remember, sucky customers usually have jobs too!

[Greenday]

People just don't seem to comprehend OR care that we have work to actually do that doesn't involve them directly. They get in the way and STAY there. They stare at you and completely ignore you.

This doesn't seem to be the case though based on what was originally posted. From what was originally posted, an older man was leaving the store and the path he took happened to be in the approach of a bunch of carts being gathered. Now, one person said it'd be hard to go from the back of the carts to the front in time to stop them, but with one employee in back and one in front, there would be time to stop the carts and/or redirect them out of the customer's path. If the customer jumped out in front of the carts, I'd absolutely agree the guy was a moron. But that doesn't seem to be what happened, and the fact that the girl showed no remorse for nearly hitting someone makes her appear pretty rude.

[ladodger34]

Which is why I'm siding with the employees in this issue. People just don't seem to comprehend OR care that we have work to actually do that doesn't involve them directly. They get in the way and STAY there. They stare at you and completely ignore you. We're human guys, PLUS we don't make an awful lot of money. Only a robot could smile and act "professional" (I hate that term since we aren't paid like professionals) 100% of the time.

Just based on the OP, it seems like the old guy made the effort to get out of the way and the girl up front didn't make make an attempt to avoid the guy. At this point, we can probably give the girl a pass on this. Maybe she thought the guy was moving faster, didn't think they were going to hit him, or honestly had a brain cramp and didn't see the dude. Mistakes happen, no one was hurt, etc.

She made the situation worse by her actions afterward. It seems like the guy was pretty calm for almost getting hit. Some folks would have been a lot more hostile and would have been somewhat justified in doing so.

She might have had a horrible day and all, but a simple "I'm sorry, I thought you were going to move to the right or I didn't see you" or some other lame half-assed apology would have been better than the response she gave him.

[novicecrafter]

.

Wow? I had forgotten about this post and didnt realize how many replies had been made. I should have clarified a few things- it was one of those "you had to have been there" expieriences.

Thank you to those who have explained the difficulty of stopping a moving line of carts. I should however mention that the employees were not using an automatic cart pusher of any kind. There were two people (one in the front to guide and one in the back for pushing) pushing approx 10 carts. So it could indeed have been extremely difficult to stop or slow down. Perhaps it was also too difficult to change the direction of the line (even if only slightly).

Honestly what I was more surprised with was her attitude after the fact. The old man stopped and turned to her (after the carts stopped moving) and did not automatically start yelling at her. He instead said "you almost hit me" in a surprised tone (not angry yet). In my opinion this whole thing could been easily remedied if she had simply said something along the lines of "Im sorry sir I could not stop it in time" or "Im sorry sir I did not intend to hit you I thought I had more time/space then I did". I believe that he would have been satisfied with the apology (he didnt seem to be a particularly rude or unreasonable person).

Even if he wasnt and went on some sort of tirade on the rudeness of young people these days she would have fulfilled her obligation of professionalism (or being a decent human being at least). When it really comes down to it I believe that she should have apologized. Its hard to relate some of the more subtle aspects of a conversation online in text- but she really did have quite an attitude. Both in her words and in her body language/facial expressions.

*shrugs* I just remember having been made to apologize and kiss butt for the most ridiculus reasons (as Im sure we all have) in my various places of retail employment. I just dont understand her reasoning for not apologizing when it would make sense.

[protege]

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 always hated cart duty at Hechinger's. At the time, they had these stupid posts along the sidewalk to prevent the carts from 'disappearing' or being dumped at the bus stops. Stupid, lazy idiots would take a cart from one store, walk all over the shopping center with it, then dump it at the bus stop when it was time to go home. Because of the posts, the sidewalk was usually crowded with carts. It was much worse if management had set up the plant display though.

Usually, I could get the carts done pretty damn quick. Because it was difficult to turn strings of carts on the narrow sidewalk, I tried to not let the strings get too long; 8-10 was the limit. I don't recall hitting anyone, or having people step in front of me. Of course popping both front doors open at once kinda prevents that problem

With all that said, I don't really have any sympathy for the employee. She nearly hit someone, and then got pissy when called on it. Sorry, but I don't tolerate that crap. In fact, I nearly got someone fired for it...after he nearly ran down my 90-year-old grandmother as we were leaving the store. She doesn't walk very well as it is, and the twit clipped (and nearly knocked her down) as he was pushing carts into the store. We were both pissed Trust me, it took all I had not to spear the guy with the nearest flagpole.

But, it gets better! When we went in to complain, it turns out that the store owner is related to the guy who used to rent out some of her farmland Last I heard, the guy got fired for hitting someone else with carts. Karma's a bitch, especially in a small town

[KayEm]

Again..people need to stay out of the way when employees are pushing heavy items. We all get sick of playing the obstacle course game. Staying on the employees side. Sorry. And this is supposed to be a pro-employee anti-customer site anyhow.

[kibbles]

Sorry, but this is not an anti-customer site IMO. This is an anti-sucky customer site. If someone wasn't in the way on purpose and was just shocked at almost being hit, a simple apology was what any decent human being would do. No one said anything about the employee should be playing an obstacle game, just act decently..that's all.

And yes customers should stay out of the way when employees are pushing heavy items. But employees should also have common curtesy to apologize when an honest mistake has been made. And being sick of playing the obstacle game is no excuse for an employee to be rude to a customer who has done nothing to them.

Kibbles

[Rapscallion]

We also have a section for sightings of sucky customers and employees not at work, as well as a section for cursing out co-workers, not to mention the section for appreciating what your colleagues and customers have done. As usual, it's usually a minority of people on each side who act suckily.

Just because you're on our side of the counter does not mean you are always going to get it right. Some people are just not suited for the job of customer service.

Without being there and seeing, we can't say much about the situation as presented.

Rapscallion

[technical.angel]

Sorry KayEm, this is more of a common sense web site.

If an employee is in the wrong (as in this case), we're not going to side with the employee just because it's an employee against customer.

I'm not going into the physics of cart moving. I didn't see what novicecrafter saw, so I don't know if the customer or the employees could have changed the situation.

The thing that the employee was totally in the wrong for was how she responded to the gentleman that was almost hit. He vioced a complaint, without being terribly rude or snotty. She should have aplogized, and gone on with her duties. She chose to be rude. I can not side with that.

Jenni

[Ree]

How do we know what he said to her 1st? He might have said something that justified her jumping him.

Hmmm...well, I guess we read the OP and find out, shall we?

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.

So, a man who was nearly run down by carts tells the person to be more careful in a manner that a witness describes as "not unkind". Apparently, that can be taken as firing the first shot in a verbal attack by a sucky customer? Interesting.

People just don't seem to comprehend OR care that we have work to actually do that doesn't involve them directly. <snip>
We're human guys, PLUS we don't make an awful lot of money. Only a robot could smile and act "professional" (I hate that term since we aren't paid like professionals) 100% of the time.

Sorry, but this is not an anti-customer site IMO. This is an anti-sucky customer site

You know what?
I'm sorry that you work a sucky job. I'm sorry that you are not being paid what you feel you are worth, but the fact of the matter is, customers do not give one flying fart what your problems are, or how much you are being paid, and there’s not a thing wrong with that. They are only there to make a purchase. Your job is to assist them in that endeavour.

You took the job. I assume you knew what your duties would be, and you knew what your hourly wage was. You knew you would be dealing with customers. From what I know this is not your first customer service job, so it's not like this is an entirely foreign concept to you.
I read the previous posts, and I can't help but think of that line, "I'd get so much work done if it wasn't for the damn customers," and envision you, standing in the middle of a well-stocked bakery, sighing contentedly, with not a customer in sight, saying, “Ahhh…at last…my shelves are full.”
I'm sorry, but all those heavy carts that are being hauled around full of stock...and all those shelves you are trying to stock, well, in case you didn't realize...they are for the customers to purchase, because, that is the point of the business. What the heck is the point in getting all those jobs done if there are no customers in the store to buy that stock??

Customers are not getting in our way, inconveniencing us, or interrupting us. They are shopping.
Our job is to work around them, and not the other way around.

CustomersSuck is not, nor has it ever been “anti-customer”. We are all about the trials and tribulations of dealing with sucky customers.
‘Customer’ and ‘sucky customer’ are not synonymous.