What is your most problematic SC ?

[Rapscallion]

I remember an occasion where an elderly lady collapsed in the entrance to one of the local parking areas, and the only people to help her for several minutes were a couple of school children. I was serving customers at the time and was expecting someone to help, but my opinion of the area was lowered even further by the people peering down as they drove around her. They parked up and just walked away.

Granted, we knew her as Drunk Mary for a reason, but...

Rapscallion

[Jester]

"I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies. Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices." --Vincent, from the movie Collateral.

Truth is stranger than fiction, though very often fiction echoes truth.

[Lulu]

I think the worst repeat offenders have GOT to be the elderly. A sweeping generalisation, maybe, true DEFINITELY! They just will not accept that prices rise and books that were around when THEIR children were small are most likely out of print now!

They come in with books wrapped in a carrier bag because the glue in the binding has shattered with age and then go off on rambling hissy fits about how shops just aren't up to the standards they used to be when you tell them it's out of print. In fact, you're pretty lucky if you can get them to bend their minds around the concept of "out of print" at all to be honest. Honestly, I have told people that something is out of print, gone into a lengthy explanation of local places that deal in second hand books that MAY be able to obtain a copy of the title for them and then ACTUALLY had the question:

"But...WHY can't you get it?"

Is it REALLY that hard a concept to grasp?! And I'm not talking about the genuine enquiries, the ones who really don't know, I'm talking about the repeat offenders here, the regulars that come in knowing perfectly well that we do not deal in second hand books and then STILL throw one when they're told the book they want is out of print! Just grrr

[Slave to the Phone]

-the vermin who go shopping on holidays like Thanksgiving, Easter and New Years Eve, thus making it necessary for me and others to work.

The first time I slept with my husband (wasn't my husband at the time) was the night before Thanksgiving. That was the night I knew he was the one for me!

I was doing prep work and realized that I was out of onions. Conversation was something like this:

Me: Crap, I forgot to buy onions and I've been hitting the cooking sherry, could you run to the store and buy a couple onions?
Handsome Guy I Married: Its pretty late and I don't feel like going out again. How about I run to the 7-11 in the morning, get a couple of onions and cut them up so they are ready when you start cooking?
M: You can't shop on Thanksgiving.
H: The stores are open.
M: The clerks want to be with their families as well. People like you are the reason the stores are open.
H: Yeah, but they get holiday pay and probably volunteer for it.
M: No they don't. They get the same crappy wage they always get. Most of them hate it and shopping on holidays just keeps more and more stores requiring people to work on holidays. Like 7/4
H: OK, I'll get onions tonight and then tomorrow we can drive around and see which places to boycott.

We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night

[Jester]

H: Yeah, but they get holiday pay and probably volunteer for it.
M: No they don't. They get the same crappy wage they always get. Most of them hate it and shopping on holidays just keeps more and more stores requiring people to work on holidays. Like 7/4

Um, some of us DO volunteer for it. I work virtually every Christmas and Christmas Eve, under the understanding that I get New Year's Eve and New Year's off. Christmas is pretty much meaningless to me religiously (I am not Christian) and pragmatically (none of my family lives within a thousand miles of me). I also usually volunteer for working on Thanksgiving, not only for the above second reason, but frankly, Thanksgiving? Eh. Whatever. Besides, working that day always gets me the day I really want off, the day AFTER Thanksgiving. No, not for the shopping. THAT is the day that Arizona State plays Arizona in football! A TRUE holiday! GO SUN DEVILS!

Anyway, my point is that there are people, besides me, that do volunteer for certain holiday work for certain reasons. Besides, in the food service industry, tips are often great on Christmas and Thanksgiving. I call them "pity tips." Hell, they pay the rent just as well as regular tips!