The OMG!Magic Back Room

[been_there]

As mentioned, I didn't consider it sucky to ask - it began The Suck when a customer refused to accept a well-informed "No." As in...

[Our scene opens in a crowded toy store, two weeks before Christmas...]

Soon to be SC: Do you have any **most popular item of the holiday season that everyone's been sold out of since Halloween and I'm the 37th person who's asked about it in the last half-hour** in The Back?

Me: So sorry, but no. We may receive a drop shipment Wednesday morning.

Now SC: There's none in The Back? You're sure?

Me: Quite sure. Perhaps Wed--

SC: How the *^*% could you know? You didn't even loooooook...

How could I know? Because you, Dear Sir/Madame are not the first person to ask me this question today. You're not the 10th, nor the 20th. You are the 37th. In the last half-hour.

[StarsAreFixed]

I love the computer system at work, you can check any item in any size in the stockroom or any of our stores in Northern Ireland, the UK or Spain. Sadly the item often is in the (MASSIVE) stockroom, which entails going down in the dodgy lift which gets stuck sometimes. I LOVE seeing a coworker head to the lift with an item I just checked and is not in the stockroom for the SAME customer.

[BookstoreEscapee]

We actually do have a lot of backstock, organized on carts by section (for shelving purposes), so it's not entirely unheard of to find something. Whether I would go look depended on a few factors:

Does the computer say we have one, it's not on the shelf, and it was last received in the past few days or so? Then I'll look.

Does the computer say we have one, it not on the shelf, and it was last received 6 months ago? Then no, I'm not looking.

We can also see if something is due out for return, in which case it may be worth looking on the return shelves (organized by vendor); if something is a customer order, it will tell us there are X copies on hold, in which case, no you can't have it. Whether I would look can also depend on how much backstock there is. Some times of year we have so much stuff that we start piling boxes in front of the carts. I'm not going to go through a stack of 5 boxes (which generally are not organized like the cart is); I'd look on the cart and maybe the top box, but if it's not there, I'd just offer to order it instead.

[lastofthesummerwine]

Go in the back.. pull something that's about 50% similar... and tell the customer, "As said before, we're out of stock.. but I found this between the nuclear generator and the time machine in back."

Just when you think you're beyond shooting Pepsi through your nose...

[AirHostess]

Try being on an airplane...hmmm yeah I'l just pop into the Starbucks tagged onto the tail fin and get some more sandwiches

When you say you have no cheese sandwiches left they always say "can you find some more?" Er...where from? We have no magic backroom!

[mattm04]

During the nice weather we keep a grill out back. I had a SC ask em to look for a grocery product i the back. I happened to have a scanner with me and scanned the UPC. It sad we had two left. They had one. I told them this and offered to check w/ the Grocery Manager who was standing a aisle over to see when we would get more. I asked him said it was a back ordered item, no idea on when we will get more. I tell SC, SC throws hissy fit and demand I check the back room, which was just inventoried and organized. I walk to section, see none, go tell SC. The SC demands i look as log as it takes to search the entire back room.

I go back, head to the grill whee the GM was cooking some burgers (and a steak for himself) I ask what I shoudl do. He says "sit down, grab a bite to eat and take you time." Myself and others enjoy a nice break by the dumpsters. I go back in the store, a little sweaty from sitting in the sun and tell the SC we don't have nay. Total SC time wasted about 25-30 minutes. I still don't know why they stood their for that long.

[IT Grunt]

Try being on an airplane...hmmm yeah I'l just pop into the Starbucks tagged onto the tail fin and get some more sandwiches

"We may be flying over a sandwhich shop at the moment sir, why don't you step outside and check?"

[DevilBoy]

Ahhh yes... the mysterious "Back".

Don't you know that is where "The Other Guy" hangs out?
You know, the employee that only seems to surface and assist customers on a day and time that you aren't scheduled?

You: Unfortunately, we're out of stock.
SC: That's not what "The Other Guy" said when I was in the other day. He said you had tons of them.
You: Oh? Whom did you speak with that told you we had it in stock?
SC: "The Other Guy"
You: Do you know his name? I can go double-check with him...
SC: I don't know his name.
You: Can you describe him to me? I'll probably know who it is if you can tell me what he looks like.
SC: I don't know... it was just "The Other Guy"
You: .............

[Becks]

Me: Just one minute, I'll go and look. (Goes out back, spends a couple of minutes chilling, returns) Nope, we don't have any, sorry.

I've done that.

Hell...my MANAGERS have done that.

[SG15Z]

At my store our managers have cool wireless phones so they can page, or talk on the phone (to a customer or employee) anywhere in the store. Nifty huh? Well one day a guy asked if we had some item in "the back". I call my manager and he was already back there so he took the two steps to the area for that particular aisle. I even here him move stuff around. Nope nothing. kthanxbi! I tell the customer.

SC: What?! That was way too fast. No way he could have already checked!
Me: Uh sir he has a wireless phone and was right ther-
SC: Tell your manager I don't appreciate being lied too!!
Me:....
SC:....
Me: Um he wasn't lying.
SC: WHATEVER!! <leaves>

Kthanxbi!!

[Captainmeowmeow]

It's up you're back room, sir/lady!

I hate when people do that, pretty soon I'm going to make up some bullshit that an guy I dunno who appeared from the Future and demaned for the item to save the world in the future.
Oh, and by the way he told me to "protect" Sarah Conner.

....I've told an customer, when I was working at Subway.

"If it's in the back, I would bring out to the front. But, it's not."

And asshole responds:
"I better get an free sub the next time I come!"

After; he rants and raves on and on about him only coming in ONCE an month and that are manger should know about this and blah and blah.....

I wanted to beat him with an loaf of bread, the frozen rolls in the back.

[Animae]

My back room isn't that big, so if I go back and check for your pound of coffee, and I say no, trust me, it's no. There are three stores less than two miles away from mine. Go annoy the drive thru.

[Iris Kojiro]

Try being on an airplane...hmmm yeah I'l just pop into the Starbucks tagged onto the tail fin and get some more sandwiches

When you say you have no cheese sandwiches left they always say "can you find some more?" Er...where from? We have no magic backroom!

That reminds me of when I was really little, not to mention before I flew on my very first plane. I used to believe that airplanes had massive rooms and even enough space for a swimming pool.

On Topic: At my day job, we have a tiny backroom. About a couple of years ago, someone actually stood at the back door and tried to get someone's attention (while I was on break! Keep in mind he couldn't actually see anyone). After he rudely kept it up, I asked him if he needed anything (albeit in a rather irritated tone). He asked if we had something, and I told him I didn't know and to ask my co-worker, who was actually on the clock. He walked off and I shut the door.

At my night job, we have a fairly large backroom with two different levels of stock. As I am a cashier, I don't actually go back there anymore.

[LadyAndreca]

When I worked for the Bullseye, the computer system was usually at least 24 hours behind the in-store handheld scanners. I tended to trust the scanners, since they were (usually) updated the back room in real time as boxes were processed and added/pulled. (Especially as I had a magic touch with the search function that awed all my coworkers. Don't ask me how I could narrow a vague question into a manageable list that would include the right item in three searches or less, but I could.)

Oddly, most people would trust me saying "we don't have it in stock" or "everything we have is on the shelf, if there's none there then we've sold out" if I've tried two systems. And the ones who didn't...well, the back room is going to check the same handheld system I did, so I was VERY rarely wrong.

On a related tangent...I hated people who would DEMAND I check the back room for things on the day it was frozen for inventory. Few people get so angry as someone told "we have the item, but we can't get it for you, please try again tomorrow". I can't blame them for not being happy, but it's a necessity that only happens once a year.

[valhar2000]

When I used to work restocking shelves at a supermarket I was solely in charge of an aisle, and the part of the backroom where the merchadise for that aisle was kept. No-one else restocked it (unless they were covering for me), no-one else touched the merchandise that went into those shelves. The people at the loading bay unloaded the pallets from the truck for me, but that was all the help I got.

Consequently, I knew where everything was, both in the back and in the shop, since I had put it there myself*. I remember I actually had a picture in my mind of the shelves in the back room where my stock was kept, and could palce any product in that picture when asked. Thus, I did not need to check the backroom to know if I had something, I just needed to check this picture of the backroom I had in my mind.

My boss eventually learned that I did remember where everything was and trusted me when I told him what was available and what was not, but, obviously, some customers wouldn't beleive it. Still, I felt offended whenever somebody doubted my ability to remember what I had.

Does that happen to anybody else?


* Ever since then, I have beleived that the reason why wives traditionally can find stuff in the fridge and husbands can't has nothing to do with female spatial perception: they know where to find the stuff because they put it there in the first place.