Do you work here?

[Dinguz]

I'm kinda bored and feel like telling strangers about parts of my life, so here goes:

I was in the grocery store where I worked at the time and to my absolute shock and awe, I realized that it was already 6 pm and therefore time for me to head on home. So I go back to the employee cafeteria/locker room/office hall and sign out and change clothes. After that I feel like doing some shopping since the store is open for another two hours, so I go back into the store and head into the vegetable/fruit department, hoping to score *insert fruit that I wanted at the time*. This lady walks up to me and despite the fact that I'm wearing a Korn T-shirt, she asks me to help her find something. Now I'm not really in the mood so I politely explain to her that even though she has cleverly seen through my disguise and uncovered my identity as a supermarket attendant, I'm currently off-duty and on my way home... Guess what happens?
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SC: "You know you shouldn't talk that way to a customer, young man."

It was about that time that I walked away without saying another word.

Seriously, it's annoying enough when customers give you shit when you're trying to do your job, don't come up to us with comments about bad customer service when we're not even working!

[Evil Queen]

Try working for a VASTLY different company.

I work for a hotel that the work shirts are dark blue. The same dark blue that wal-mart employees are doomed to wear for enternity. I'm always being asked if I work there.

[Kheldarson]

I've tried to figure out why people think asking somebody in street clothes works...I still don't know. I've never been asked if I work some place, but often when in Wally World I'll get stopped and asked where something is. I've never worked Wal-mart, hopefully won't ever have to, yet I'm asked where something is. The last time it happened, I explained that I didn't work there, but I thought what the lady was looking for was off in "that direction". She explained that she was from out of town so didn't know the store.

I guess that's one reason...

[Darkwish]

I've rarely had this happen to me (I'm a creepy looking guy so most people avoid me), but it has happened. Most of the time it was when they couldn't find an employee and was hoping another customer might know. As long as they're polite, I usually have no problems trying to help them, within reason of course.

One time a guy that barely spoke English asked me for some help (I obviously wasn't an employee), but there weren't any employees around for him to ask and he was polite. Unfortunately, I couldn't help him at all, but I did manage to hunt down an employee send them over to help him.

If I ever had one that was rude to me like some of the stories on here, I wouldn't hold back. Let them report me!

[smileyeagle1021]

you know... I must admit that I'm guilty of asking people in street clothes for help

in all fairness though I only do that if I see (product I'm looking for easily visible in their cart) and I'll ask them where they found it... but that's the limit

[Piffany]

Unfortunately I get stopped all the time if I shop in my store 'apres-shift'...damn uniforms. Most of the time I don't mind pointing them in the right direction.

On a side-note, I feel like thumping some SC's on the head as I'm standing behind my register, light on, when they approach and pipe up with "Are you open?"

No lady, I just like standing here....

[Snowbird]

I think I'm one of those people that have "Retail Slave" emblazoned in invisible-to-me ink on my forehead. I get asked all of the time, no matter where I am. Thing is, if I know where something is, I'll try to at least point them in that direction after correcting them about the assumption. I'm a pushover.

And it doesn't help that I'll straighten shelves on occasion. It's a compulsion, I can't help it!

[edible_hat]

I've had the opposite...

In a store I used to work at, I was wearing the store uniform (unmistakeable - green shirt and tie that nobody would ever wear voluntarily, even crazy people aren't that crazy), and walking around with a clipboard (taking notes on which shelves need restocking), I heard a voice:

"Excuse me, I know you don't work here but can you help me with..."

[TonyDonuts]

"Excuse me, I know you don't work here but can you help me with..."

I get that at work about once a week.

I'll be stocking something on the floor...

...or doing bookwork BEHIND THE COUNTER

..or working a register

...or scanning shelf tags to do an order

...in my company shirt, MANAGER nametag and all.

And get asked that same question.

And yet, I'll be in another store, in my real-people clothes, and people will walk up to me and start rattling off questions and demands for assistance.

Our planet is doomed.

[SilverOrb]

And yet, I'll be in another store, in my real-people clothes, and people will walk up to me and start rattling off questions and demands for assistance.

Our planet is doomed.

Wicked... I love it.

I must admit to a compulsion for straightening shelves. I also clean up discarded product (like cans of soup people left sitting around that they didn't want) around the register by handing it to the cashier during my order and letting her know it was sitting in the aisle. I can't help it!

[Dinguz]

Try working for a VASTLY different company.

I work for a hotel that the work shirts are dark blue. The same dark blue that wal-mart employees are doomed to wear for enternity. I'm always being asked if I work there.

That has happened to me. I've been asked for help in various stores I've never worked at while not wearing any uniform. But for some reason it usually happens in this place that specializes in bedroom furniture and such...

[poofy_puff]

You can always have some fun when you're in a competitor's store and send the customer in the wrong direction.

If they are looking for power tools or sporting goods, send them to the baby-items or to ladies' shoes.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You can always have some fun when you're in a competitor's store and send the customer in the wrong direction.

If they are looking for power tools or sporting goods, send them to the baby-items or to ladies' shoes.

Actually that might not be so much fun for the actual employees who have to handle the situation after the customer gets lost and starts to become frustrated.

I can't tell you how many threads we've had here on the board throughout the years that deal with this dilemma . . . and still we can't find a solution to the issue.

Makes me wonder if we can't get a research grant to investigate this phenomenon further and maybe come up with some sort of solution to eradicate the stupidity.

[LoTech]

I think I'm one of those people that have "Retail Slave" emblazoned in invisible-to-me ink on my forehead. I get asked all of the time, no matter where I am. Thing is, if I know where something is, I'll try to at least point them in that direction after correcting them about the assumption. I'm a pushover.

And it doesn't help that I'll straighten shelves on occasion. It's a compulsion, I can't help it!

I have a hypothesis as to why this happens: the customers are identifying the 'employees' by body language, not by appearance.

I think that these customers automatically associate anyone who doesn't act just as self-important and selfish as themselves (in other words, anyone who treats the other people in the store as more than the obstacles in their own personal shopping steeplechase) as the subservient life form known as an 'employee', who not only 'deserves' their abuse, but is obligated to sit back and take it (or lose their job.)

It is probably some sort of self-validation done by people whose lives are otherwise empty of any sort of productive activity through which they might derive a sense of self-worth, so in order to feel better about themselves, they find it necessary to demean others.

Wow. That got a little ranty.

But my point is: body language. They don't really want help so much as they want a target.

Addendum: I have been guilty of asking a question of someone who wasn't working at the store, but to be fair, she was wearing a name-tag (just one from a different store.)

I get people asking me questions about where stuff it, as well, and I don't have a retail job!