Customer laughed at my misery . . .

[chocoBug]

My shop is shutting down; me and the other girls have 6 weeks left in a job before we are made redundant in the recession, a month until Christmas. The stock and morale is running low. So, I wasnt in a good mood when my shift started.

3 well-to-do ladies came in (SC, friend1 & friend2), one of them, (SC) saw a necklace she liked and barked at me how much it was. I was in no mood for shit so I said 'the price tag is on the necklace.' She tried it on and then looked round my empty-ish shop;

SC: Pretty empty; are you shutting down?
Me: Yes, unfortunately.
SC: Ah - will there be a better sale on when your shutter is down? HAR HAR HAR!
Me:
F2: I'll take this handbag; can you take the stuffing out of it?
Me: Yeah, sure.

I begin tossing the bag stuffing over my shoulder and SC comes up, still laughing at her own humour.

SC: Ahhh theres no help sweeping that up scine you'll be closed soon! HAR HAR HAR!!
Me: Excuse me, I going to lose my job.
SC: Putting on concerned face ahh yes, that time of year.

You know NOTHING, you old bint. How DARE you go into a shop and LAUGH about it shutting down to the employees?! when those employees will clearly lose their jobs?! You do it because you are such a self involved bitch that you dont THINK about other people. The more I think about it the more angry I become. I hope I see that woman again and I'll give her a piece of my mind. . .

[lineswine]

Damn, but that sucks on FAR too many levels *offers home-made peanut butter cookies to you* *Gives arse-kick of doom to nasty old bint*

[chocoBug]

thanks lineswine. . .I think I'll have to save the cookie and pawn them on the street they might fetch me a good price!

[HawaiianShirts]

SC: Ahhh theres no help sweeping that up scine you'll be closed soon! HAR HAR HAR!!
Me: Excuse me, I going to lose my job.
SC: Putting on concerned face ahh yes, that time of year.

That is not funny at all. That's low. That's really low. She makes me mad. And what the frak does she mean by "that time of year"? People typically lose jobs in October, and she's trying to tell you that you should just deal with it?

Ugh. It's just further evidence that retail workers are often viewed as soulless drones.

You have my sympathies, chocoBug. Fortunately, when the big economic troubles started last year, my employer didn't have to shut down, but everyone had to deal with shorter shifts, including managers. It was rough times.

Around that same time, one of our top three competitors went out of business. We had a store meeting the day after (coincidentally), and the store manager made the announcement. I think he captured the feelings of all of my co-workers pretty accurately when he said, "First, a cheer for us for being better than the competition. [cheers] And second, a moment of silence for the soon-to-be unemployed. [solemn silence]" We knew those people, and we were genuinely concerned.

That SC has a lesson to learn in humility.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I would've told the bitch off.

What do I have to lose? I'm already losing my job. What's the worst that can happen? I get fired from a place that's closing down anyway? I'm shaking.

People like her really need to understand the employees of a soon-to-be-closed business have no incentive to be nice as they're having schadenfreude rained down upon their heads.

[videodrone]

When my shop was shut down we didn't get any jokers, we got angry people instead. I used to hear "oh, great. Now I have to drive all the way down to the other one. I think I'll just stop giving ______ my money". Yeah, cry me a river, customer. I just lost my job. Oh, and the other store? Less than two minutes away. We were shut down because there was another store so close to us.

I'm sorry your store is closing. I hope you are able to find a new job quickly.

[Rapscallion]

Went through a shop closure myself a while back. The sheer insensitivity of some people, and their blindness to the actuality of the situation, was staggering.

I assume you're already looking for alternative work? Good luck.

Rapscallion

[hotelslave]

Kind of like what happened to me today. My store has a big sale the first Tuesday of every month. So my responsibility today was to empty out end caps so that tomorrow we can bring the stuff thats for sale out of the stock room. This lady came up to and started bitching about how we must be going out of business since the store was so empty and that we should give her at least a 25% discount for going out of business.

[bainsidhe]

Back when Media Play was shutting down, I'd have customers ask for a deeper discount and when I told them no because it was stealing, they'd crack how I was losing my job anyway yuk yuk. All this lovely humor for the sake of a damn discount. And sadly, I'd have a few of these a-holes making the same joke about how we were losing our jobs every. single. shift.

[tropicsgoddess]

What a bitch. How would she like it if somebody did the same thing to her?!! Time to give her a ride in the .

[chocoBug]

aww you guys have cheered me up!

and i doubt that woman hads ever had a job in her life - ANYONE who has worked in retail or customer service knows that if premises are shutting down that means redundant employees.

and in reply to Raps, yeh I am! I've got a 2nd interview tomorrow for a developer job at an asset management company. Bit of a change

[chainedbarista]

hope the interview goes well, choco.

bitch isn't strong enough of a word to describe someone so insensitive and inhuman...

[trailerparkmedic]

Good luck with your interview choco!

I can't even believe that woman. I went to Circuit City the night they had announced they were closing. I wanted to give everyone hugs--they all looked so sad

[ThirdGenRetail]

You know, I bet that woman wouldn't last two hours doing a retail job. There is no job quite as thankless as cashiering - At least people compliment the cooks in even McDonalds, I'm sure. When my store made Store of the Year, praises were sung for every department of the store... But not the cashiers. We the cashiers, the lowest of the low, got no mention. On the flip side, neither did the loaders, but at least they have the freedom to move around the store and parking lot in pursuit of carts, orders, and the like.

-Gives Choco cake- Much luck in your interview!

[Bloodsoul]

I think that might be why my store is having a "Cashier Appreciation" month.