People who have NO lives!

[Neo_Classic]

There are two kinds of customers who fit under this description:

1: Trying to come into your store very early, especially at a ridiculous time. I remember when I use to work at Sears and we would have customers trying to get in at 7, 6, even 5 in the morning! WTF do you need at Sears that is that important?! I could understand if you were trying to stop at Home Depot (you might be a contractor) but Sears? C'mon!

2: The I-just-want-to-walk-around-and-look-and-ask-a-million-questions-and-then-buy-nothing.

Yeah I can't stand you. Why are you wasting my time? Why are you wasting my co-workers time by asking him all these tech questions and then not buy anything. At least make me feel good by buying SOMETHING. Hell, you can even return it later on because I know for a fact you will be back.

[katie kaboom]

2: The I-just-want-to-walk-around-and-look-and-ask-a-million-questions-and-then-buy-nothing.

Yeah I can't stand you. Why are you wasting my time? Why are you wasting my co-workers time by asking him all these tech questions and then not buy anything. At least make me feel good by buying SOMETHING. Hell, you can even return it later on because I know for a fact you will be back.

That happened to my boyfriend a couple weeks ago. He works in a luggage store and he helped this one couple for 45 minutes, answered all their questions, showed them all the features on the stuff they were looking at, and what do they do? Leave without buying one damn thing. Boy was he pissed off after that. And rightly so!

[Neo_Classic]

Is your boyfriend on commission or hourly pay?

It's worse when you work off commission because in their case the old adage, "Time is money", is true. I feel so sorry for the guys in the appliance department at Sears.

[katie kaboom]

Is your boyfriend on commission or hourly pay?

He gets his hourly pay plus commission. But he said by them not buying anything, he missed out on at least a $1,000 commission.

[Boozy]

1: Trying to come into your store very early, especially at a ridiculous time. I remember when I use to work at Sears and we would have customers trying to get in at 7, 6, even 5 in the morning! WTF do you need at Sears that is that important?! I could understand if you were trying to stop at Home Depot (you might be a contractor) but Sears? C'mon!

2: The I-just-want-to-walk-around-and-look-and-ask-a-million-questions
-and-then-buy-nothing.

I'd bet my last dollar that it's primarily your elderly customers that do these things. That's the case at my store.

I've noticed that old folks get up at the crack of dawn and like to get their shopping done really early. And its the retired people who have all the time in the world to browse around without necessarily needing to purchase anything. I guess sometimes they're lonely and just want someone to talk to.

But if you're say 25 years old, show up at Sears at 6 am, and then spend three hours walking around bothering the staff and leave empty-handed, you really do need to get a life.

[sarahj]

Bf likes to chat with employees in the TV/DVD/car audio sections of stores. I try to stop him because obviously, these people don't care about his opinions on brands if he's not buying anything. If he gets annoying, I'll just be like, "sweetie bear, I need to use the bathroom, come hold my purse for me." And that's the end of him being taken seriously.

I was doing a training shift the other night, my first time on registers, and I was with 9 other new employees. We were given 5 minutes to become acquainted with the produce (the things we have to identify, like apples/onions/oranges), and a guy asked me where the ginger was. So, like a good new employee I took him over to it. And then he says, "you pass the test," and walks off! His female friend looked suitable embarrassed.

[Catwoman2965]

I'd bet my last dollar that it's primarily your elderly customers that do these things. That's the case at my store.

I've noticed that old folks get up at the crack of dawn and like to get their shopping done really early. And its the retired people who have all the time in the world to browse around without necessarily needing to purchase anything. I guess sometimes they're lonely and just want someone to talk to.

But if you're say 25 years old, show up at Sears at 6 am, and then spend three hours walking around bothering the staff and leave empty-handed, you really do need to get a life.

I actually prefer myself to get up early, and go...there's nothing better than being able to wander around Target, getting what you need, without crowds of annoyting SC's, screaming children, etc. - but I'm in for as long as it takes me to get my stuff, and out. My goal is to be at the store when it opens, get in and out and home, so by 12ish on a saturday, I don't have to fight the traffic.

That being said, I would never just come in to chat with the staff, and keep them from doing what they needed to do...i just like to be out and about before the masses.

[RammsteinGirl]

Yeah.. I can never understand why people decide to go to KMART of all places at 8 AM on a nice Saturday morning.. I mean seriously, if I wasn't at work at that time, I'd be in bed. I think it's the highlight of some old folks' day to get up and make a big trip to Kmart.

Also, I can't stand when people come into our store 5 minutes to close. We usually make WTF faces at each other when this happens. There is NOTHING you need at Kmart at 9:50 PM that you cannot go (less than 1 mile!) down to Meijer or Walmart to get, which are open 24/7.

[Rine]

Yeah, I always wonder what people are doing trying to get into Sears at eight AM on a SUNDAY. We don't open until eleven! Don't people go to church anymore these days?

Then, I hate it when those people see me and start banging on the door and waving. Yeah, like I'm going to let you in. Right. This happens more than you would think. I start trying to duck behind the grills or bulk stacks of miter saws if I see a customer approaching the door.

@Neo: we used to open the home improvement department early every week day for people working in construction and whatnot. For some reason, we stopped doing this, even though usually we had some business that would warrant us opening that department earlier.

[WorkAtBBuy]

In my other thread I mentioned the 6:30AM meetings we have. Customers always--WITHOUT FAIL--try to come into the store during them. There is NOTHING life-sustaining at BBuy. You can wait until 10AM when we're actually OPEN to buy the TV or DVD player or CD or whatever. Then there are the people who want to drop $1000+ (In cash) after my register has been pulled and we're already past closing time. And then they have the audacity to be upset about it!

[Daphne]

20 to 30 people are usually lined up outside my library waiting to waste yet another day of their lives on the computer for the next 12 hours. When they see me and other coworkers in the building before opening, they have the nerve to knock at the doors. Idiots.

[Jadedcarguy]

He gets his hourly pay plus commission. But he said by them not buying anything, he missed out on at least a $1,000 commission.

People like that are why I refuse to be in an environment where you rely on a personal commision for your paycheck. I used to do it and had many situations where some slack jaw retard would waste an hour of my time while my co-workers made sale after sale. One guy who wasted a bunch of my time in the morning came back in the afternoon and said "I want to get that system(I sold car audio) but I just have a couple more questions." I thought, "Great!" He asked questions for another 45 minutes or so, some of which were the same ones he asked in the morning, and left! He never came back. I could have killed him.

[Boozy]

There is NOTHING life-sustaining at BBuy.

My husband would argue with that statement.

You'd think I was denying a diabetic insulin by the way he acts when I tell him we can't afford something at Best Buy.

[greensinestro]

The I-just-want-to-walk-around-and-look-and-ask-a-million-questions-and-then-buy-nothing.

Yeah I can't stand you. Why are you wasting my time? Why are you wasting my co-workers time by asking him all these tech questions and then not buy anything. At least make me feel good by buying SOMETHING. Hell, you can even return it later on because I know for a fact you will be back.

Yeah, that strikes a nerve in me, too. It doesn't just happen in retail stores, it also happens on the phone. I'll never forget the guy who called one afternoon, spent nearly an hour on the phone. He was interested in everything we had, from a phone with all the perks, to DSL and beyond. I thought to myself, this guy is really going to make my day with the sales tally. After explaining everything right down to the detail with cost and so forth, he would not freaking buy anything. It was "Oh, I'll have to run this by the wife" and "Oh, I don't know, it seems like a lot." When I replied that certainly he would want to buy because we had spent an entire hour together, he said, "I know, but I'm retired and have that kind of time." I just wanted to rip this guy to pieces for that. Not only that, but he refused to allow me to call him back at a later time. "I'll just call back tomorrow." And, to top it all off, he called back fifteen minutes later, and another rep got what would have been my sale!

When these type of people were younger, how did they feel about people who did nothing buy waste their time because the older person they encountered had nothing but time to kill? Is this a revenge tactic? Let's do it to someone else being the older people we dealt with are long since dead! Ugh!

[BookstoreEscapee]

I mean seriously, if I wasn't at work at that time, I'd be in bed.

When people used to call before opening and ask some inane question, I had a tendency to hang up the phone and yell "What is wrong with you people?! Go back to bed!!!"


At Store2 we laughed at the people who came early thinking they could get coffee...we are NOT Starbucks, we only sell their crap. There is a coffee shop right behind the store in the shopping center that opens at 7 and there is an actual Starbucks not 1/4 mile down the road. Stop staring in our window!!!

Then, I hate it when those people see me and start banging on the door and waving. Yeah, like I'm going to let you in. Right. This happens more than you would think. I start trying to duck behind the grills or bulk stacks of miter saws if I see a customer approaching the door.

Heehee, we had the same problem...unfortunately, employees also come in the front door so if someone knocks we had to look to see if it's an employee or not. If it's a customer we'd ignore them. But then sometimes you can't see until you get close There is a doorbell sort of hidden to the side of the door frame but it only rings in the office/breakroom, so if no one is back there it's worthless.