What size is this there isn't tag

[georgiab]

I have posted quite a few times but for those who do not know ..I work at the Salvation Army thrift store. I really enjoy my job but to be honest most days i am so mentally drained from all the ignorant questions I ask myself how much more I can actually handle.

1) The main question that makes me want to tear someone's throat out..."What size are these pants, there is no tag. Okay how in the hell am I supposed to know that...if you know there is no size tag then how am I supposed to know. People will actually hold them up from across the store and expect me to know this. It's a thrift store folks not a JC Penny's or Wal Mart even still if the tag is ripped out even they will not know. PLEASE STOP ASKING ME THIS!!!!!!

2) Can I use your phone, then proceed to calll your son's probation officer and tie the line up for thirty minutes bitching "But he never got a notice to be in court". Bull shit he got arrseted for something He Knew!!! . My favorite a woman comes in the store makes me look up the dry cleaners number who apparantly gave her the wrong order and not only write it down but every other store of the same dry cleaner and write down the address of each store...she was not a customer of the store by the way.

3) Could you go look in the back for another one (insert item) but better or could you look in the back and find a child's size 4 jacket, blue, and with a hood. Could you see if you have a mattress in the back (all matresses are on the floor if we even have any). So you don't have one in the back or you don't know...Uh I just said NO there is not one at all in the entire store including the back. Look folks it's a thrift store not a shoe store we don't go to the back and just pick out your size...If it is back there it will be a month before we find it so stop assuming we have this magical back room that is all organized and everything is put by size it's not it's a montain of donations and we have one person to sort through it.

I have several issues with the people who shop here but not enough time to bitch...oh one more thing If we are closed and you go to walk in and we say I am sorry we closed at four but we reopen tommorow at 9..Do not ask Well what time is it...Obviously 4 or after because we just said sorry we closed at 4.

Thanks Ya'll...Knowing there are others who can relate makes working with the public a little bit easier. Good luck to all on Black Friday!!!!

[Clintmax]

Hi, Georgia! I can't even imagine some of the questions you get at your store in addition to the ones you posted here! I get some real winners too (don't we all?) but nothing, I'm sure, like what those of you who work in a thrift shop have to deal with. Keep your chin up! Black Friday, here we come!

[Becks]

Look folks it's a thrift store not a shoe store we don't go to the back and just pick out your size...If it is back there it will be a month before we find it so stop assuming we have this magical back room that is all organized and everything is put by size it's not it's a montain of donations and we have one person to sort through it.

Too true!!!!!!!!! I remember times like that!!!!!!

[friendofjimmyk]

Two of my sponsees work at a thrift store that is sponsored by the Veterans. They have this huge, I MEAN HUGE, back area that is just mountains upon mountains of crap and ONE person to sort through it all.

Things don't come to thrift stores in neatly packed boxes (maybe some stuff that people who donated took the time to make a nice box up of stuff) most stuff comes to thrift stores in trash bags or old boxes or just piles.

[Seanette]

My husband used to work at Deseret Industries (doubles as quite good thrift store and vocational retraining program. That's where he learned to run a forklift). They had a pretty organized setup in the back, but you were NOT going to get access to an item until it had been processed, priced, and put out on the floor. Simply wasn't happening.

[Imogene]

Ah, huge piles of junk? Left all alone, unsorted?
A perfect hive for scum and villainy? And likely, spiders of the brown recluse type?
Well, the right side of my brain wants me to get right to it sorting things out and making the 'back room' generally navigable, and the left side of my brain says, "Ohhh! I do NOT want to threaten myself with giant spiders who might possibly be radioactive... I mean, Spiderman's cool and all, and the industrial-size strength would be useful for moving TV's and such... but I'd have to go through one of those creepy, Sam Raimi, spiders in your blood sequences..."

[chainedbarista]

brown recluses are small spiders; that's part of the reason why they're so hard to detect.

i'd go into thrift stores more often, but the crazies keep me away; nuts haggling over ornaments, crock pots, beanie babies and asking sizes for which their is no answer but, 'hm, gee, why not try it on? if it fits it's YOUR SIZE, if not, well, move on.'

[friendofjimmyk]

Ah, huge piles of junk? Left all alone, unsorted?
A perfect hive for scum and villainy? And likely, spiders of the brown recluse type?
Well, the right side of my brain wants me to get right to it sorting things out and making the 'back room' generally navigable, and the left side of my brain says, "Ohhh! I do NOT want to threaten myself with giant spiders who might possibly be radioactive... I mean, Spiderman's cool and all, and the industrial-size strength would be useful for moving TV's and such... but I'd have to go through one of those creepy, Sam Raimi, spiders in your blood sequences..."

Well, the piles are not left alone. They have too much stuff coming in to quickly sort through it in a timely manner...so, it's quite the mess. There is always someone back there - but usually only one person for the entire mess.

[Imogene]

brown recluses are small spiders; that's part of the reason why they're so hard to detect.

*sticks out hir tongue*
Okay, you're right, however, the intent of my rambling was to suggest my imagination got away with me.

[georgiab]

well imagine this...Everyday donations are brought in ranging from small bags to entire truck loads. Saturdays is of course yard sale days What does not sell comes to us we are not allowed to turn any donations away. Example last Saturday our Downtown store calls the manager is panic stricken she has absolutely NO room left and an individual wishes to bring yet another truck load from a huge church yard sale...she asks if we have any room (we do) and graciously thanks me for allowing the individual to bring the items to our store. The truck load of items takes over thirty minutes to bring in and we are left with no space to move. There are only three of us who are employeed here...most days there are only two of us...one to watch the front and one to help with the front and sort donations....So no we just don't LET them sit there!

[karma_gypsy]

oh one more thing If we are closed and you go to walk in and we say I am sorry we closed at four but we reopen tommorow at 9..Do not ask Well what time is it...Obviously 4 or after because we just said sorry we closed at 4.

That drives me nuts as well. I was just locking up the doors (we close at 6), I did the whole, "Sorry, we're closed, open at 9 tomorrow" (and you know, you kind of have to holler so they can hear you on the other side of the door . . .)

and then I get the, "What time do you close?"

"6 . . ."

"Well, what time is it now?"

Well, myself, not having a watch or being nowhere near a clock, say, "uhh, it's after 6 . . ." (it hadn't really struck me at that moment what I had just said . . .) Needless to say, my co-workers were rolling after that . . .

[Slave to the Phone]

How to tell if pants will fit

Close the button and zipper. Put pants around heel of hand and elbow. As a general rule, the pants will fit as snuggly or as loosely on your waist as they do to your arm.

As to the "will these pants make my butt look big?" question, never EVER say "its not the pants..."

[Primer]

Close the button and zipper. Put pants around heel of hand and elbow. As a general rule, the pants will fit as snuggly or as loosely on your waist as they do to your arm.

only if you are HWP....the rest of us have to try them on.

[chainedbarista]

i have to try them on as well; my waist is small, but hips aren't so small, so just grabbing something and buying it doesn't work too well. i make a good guess, try it on; if it fits, yay, if not, try until i find one that does.

it's not hard, and yet...