Allow me to walk you through the first hour of yesterday's shift.
It starts like any other Saturday shift, with the store buzzing and filled to near dangerous capacity with customers eager to spend money they don't have on shit they don't need.
I open my cash lane and I'm somewhat near the end, leaving me almost completely unnoticed for some time.
A woman approaches.
Her cart is overflowing and her phone is permanently attached to her face.
"I'm tax exempt," she tells me. Well alright. I borrow a tax form from a coworker and have her fill it out while simultaneously continuing her telephone conversation and loading her items into the belt. One. By. One. With. One. Hand. Very. Slowly.
Let's skip ahead to the important bit, shall we?
After all of her items are rung through, her total (minus the PST) comes to just over $1,000.
Not a shock at my store, though admittedly it was a lot of stuff, as it was over $1,000 of accessories, not furniture.
As we all may know, Ikea is a store that runs on a strong self service basis, meaning that customers are to bag their own items.
Now, on a back belt that is about 6' long and 1.5' wide, you can imagine how quickly more than $1,000 worth of merchandise would fill that up.
Typically customers bag as we scan, making the process as efficient as possible.
This woman did nothing of the sort.
After the transaction had completed, she turned to me and said, "At such-and-such a store I spent such-and-such an amount and they bagged it all for me. I guess THERE they just like to spoil their customers."
Oh, well pardon me, your highness, allow me to close my lane and hinder the productivity of the store, so as I may bag your items for you whilst you chatter away on your telephone call.
In fact, that's exactly what I did. I shut down (no one was behind her in line anyway) and started to bag her items for her, while at the same time handing her bags so that she may get the hint and give me a hand.
Nope. She looked at the bags like they were pond scum and threw them on the belt. Not ONCE did she lift a finger.
Eventually I said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry but you're going to have to bag your items yourself. The store is too busy and I have to open up again."
To which she replied, "Ugh, fine."
Shortly after her little fit another coworker came over and started doing the bagging for her (I had made mention to said coworker that this woman was being an entitled bitch).
Again, didn't life a finger.
When she left, she had the audacity to say to me, dripping with sarcasm, "Thanks for all your help."
I could have punched her in the face.
Later...
A coworker on her day off came through my line and wanted to make a payment on her Ikea card, as well as a purchase. Fine.
I process the payment of $20 cash then start on the purchase, for which she wanted to use the Ikea credit card.
It's didn't just decline, but rather, requested that I call the credit card company for authorization.
"Your card wants me to call. Do you want to use another one?" I ask, gesturing to the line that is now about seven people deep behind her.
"Oh, I knew it would do that," she says, smiling politely, "you can just call for it."
You KNEW it would do that and you STILL wanted to use it TODAY of all fucking days!?
You know, had she been just any other customer I would have still been annoyed, but slightly understanding to her ignorance. But this woman WORKS here and she KNOWS what weekends are like, yet she still feels it's perfectly okay to force me to make a 10 minute telephone call to the card company, holding up a line to do so, just so she can make a $50andsomecents purchase on the card with near 30% interest.
The reason I needed to call? SHE DIDN'T PAY HER BILL!
That $20 she gave me earlier didn't even cover the minimum payment, and they were holding the card for that reason.
For whatever reason, they allowed this purchase to go through.
So, let me get this straight, you can't make your minimum payment on your card with ridiculous interest so you're going to add MORE to that bill, putting you farther in the hole?
What?
The part that annoyed me most was that she WORKS here! I can't get over the stupidity of her actions.
I wish I knew what department she worked in (in a store with 400+ employees it's hard to keep track) so I could pester her with some inane task on a day I know damn well she has more pressing things to attend to.
Fucking hell.
It starts like any other Saturday shift, with the store buzzing and filled to near dangerous capacity with customers eager to spend money they don't have on shit they don't need.
I open my cash lane and I'm somewhat near the end, leaving me almost completely unnoticed for some time.
A woman approaches.
Her cart is overflowing and her phone is permanently attached to her face.
"I'm tax exempt," she tells me. Well alright. I borrow a tax form from a coworker and have her fill it out while simultaneously continuing her telephone conversation and loading her items into the belt. One. By. One. With. One. Hand. Very. Slowly.
Let's skip ahead to the important bit, shall we?
After all of her items are rung through, her total (minus the PST) comes to just over $1,000.
Not a shock at my store, though admittedly it was a lot of stuff, as it was over $1,000 of accessories, not furniture.
As we all may know, Ikea is a store that runs on a strong self service basis, meaning that customers are to bag their own items.
Now, on a back belt that is about 6' long and 1.5' wide, you can imagine how quickly more than $1,000 worth of merchandise would fill that up.
Typically customers bag as we scan, making the process as efficient as possible.
This woman did nothing of the sort.
After the transaction had completed, she turned to me and said, "At such-and-such a store I spent such-and-such an amount and they bagged it all for me. I guess THERE they just like to spoil their customers."
Oh, well pardon me, your highness, allow me to close my lane and hinder the productivity of the store, so as I may bag your items for you whilst you chatter away on your telephone call.
In fact, that's exactly what I did. I shut down (no one was behind her in line anyway) and started to bag her items for her, while at the same time handing her bags so that she may get the hint and give me a hand.
Nope. She looked at the bags like they were pond scum and threw them on the belt. Not ONCE did she lift a finger.
Eventually I said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry but you're going to have to bag your items yourself. The store is too busy and I have to open up again."
To which she replied, "Ugh, fine."
Shortly after her little fit another coworker came over and started doing the bagging for her (I had made mention to said coworker that this woman was being an entitled bitch).
Again, didn't life a finger.
When she left, she had the audacity to say to me, dripping with sarcasm, "Thanks for all your help."
I could have punched her in the face.
Later...
A coworker on her day off came through my line and wanted to make a payment on her Ikea card, as well as a purchase. Fine.
I process the payment of $20 cash then start on the purchase, for which she wanted to use the Ikea credit card.
It's didn't just decline, but rather, requested that I call the credit card company for authorization.
"Your card wants me to call. Do you want to use another one?" I ask, gesturing to the line that is now about seven people deep behind her.
"Oh, I knew it would do that," she says, smiling politely, "you can just call for it."
You KNEW it would do that and you STILL wanted to use it TODAY of all fucking days!?
You know, had she been just any other customer I would have still been annoyed, but slightly understanding to her ignorance. But this woman WORKS here and she KNOWS what weekends are like, yet she still feels it's perfectly okay to force me to make a 10 minute telephone call to the card company, holding up a line to do so, just so she can make a $50andsomecents purchase on the card with near 30% interest.
The reason I needed to call? SHE DIDN'T PAY HER BILL!
That $20 she gave me earlier didn't even cover the minimum payment, and they were holding the card for that reason.
For whatever reason, they allowed this purchase to go through.
So, let me get this straight, you can't make your minimum payment on your card with ridiculous interest so you're going to add MORE to that bill, putting you farther in the hole?
What?
The part that annoyed me most was that she WORKS here! I can't get over the stupidity of her actions.
I wish I knew what department she worked in (in a store with 400+ employees it's hard to keep track) so I could pester her with some inane task on a day I know damn well she has more pressing things to attend to.
Fucking hell.
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