Well it can't build itself...

[ShadowTiger]

About a year ago, my old awesome manager was doing register work because there were only five staff in the entire store on an extraordinarily busy sunday. We are NOT a small store, FYI. Take a standard Home Depot and scale it down to about 75%. That's us. Hi.

It's me at the key desk, paint guy at the paint counter, two cashiers at the registers, and the head manager. It was just us five from 9 PM to 6 PM. How awesome is that.


35 year old Lady comes up to awesome manager (Cutting the line; he's doing cashierwork.) with one of those folding shopping cards, still in its box. She asks him to assemble it for her because she doesn't know how and doesn't have the tools or anyone to assemble it for her.

Manager knows about it, and explains to her that she doesn't need any tools at all, and it's actually very easy to assemble. There's just a bag of small parts to keep track of, and that's it.

She doesn't believe him or something, because she raises bloody murder about him being "too lazy" to get someone to assemble it for her.

"Lady, I'd like to, but there's nobody available today! There are only five people in the store, and all of us are clearly under duress from all of the people wanting the attention of every one of them! I cannot spare anyone at all. I'm terribly sorry. If you come back tomorrow, we'll have plenty of people to spare.


Lady didn't believe him yet again. "No, you're just being lazy. You and your staff are lazy! You get me someone to build this right now!"


Manager had to tell her again (All the while ringing up customers at a steady rate. He's sweating at this point.) that there is nobody available; she could check by the hardware desk (Me. ... Again, hi.) to see if the hardware person is available, but she wouldn't have any of it.

"Well I hope you're happy, you've lost yourself a sale.

"I'm sorry you feel that way ma'am, have a nice day." [/mumbling]

"No! I hope you have a bad day."

[RxBoy]

I've seen a lot of stores that charge a fee to assemble stuff for you. Your store should chage a fee of somewhere around $35 to assemble stuff for people. Maybe then she'd think twice about whether it was worth it to assemble it herself.

[jackfaire]

Oh you mean like the kind of day where your understaffed and some dumb customer yells at you because you won't tell every other customer to screw off so you can help her.

[LillFilly]

Sounds like the kind of cart you snap the wheels on and attach the bottom. 2-min tops. How has that woman gotten through life thus far???

[Ben_Who]

"Ma'am, I would be perfectly willing to assemble this piece of merchandise for you. However, before I do, would you please turn around and address the massive, winding line of customers behind you? Thank you. Now tell them that because of you, none of them will be able to see a manager for the next half hour. They're all going to have to wait - for you.

"Ma'am? Where are you going? Ma'am? You forgot your cart..."

Love, Who?
(A man can dream)

[Victoria J]

"Lady, I'd like to, but there's nobody available today! There are only five people in the store, and all of us are clearly under duress from all of the people wanting the attention of every one of them! I cannot spare anyone at all. I'm terribly sorry. If you come back tomorrow, we'll have plenty of people to spare.

He shouldn't even have said anything about staff availability. It is a product you buy and put together yourself - tough luck.

"I'm sorry but this product is sold for self assembly to reduce costs and make it easier to carry in it's package. Alternative products are sold assembled, though they are likely to be more expensive. We don't stock those (?) but you could try XXX"

Self-assembly is self-assembly. You do the work, you benefit in other ways. Insisting on choosing a self-assembly product (however minimal the work required) and making the store do it just is not a reasonable request.

Victoria J

[EricKei]

"What's that, ma'am? You don't have the tools to do it? You can get some right there on aisle five...Once you wait in line and pay for them, you'll be ready to roll"

[CaptainThrifty]

It was just us five from 9 PM to 6 PM. How awesome is that.

You work in the middle of a temproal anomaly?!?!?!! How awesome is that?

[AccountingDrone]

You work in the middle of a temproal anomaly?!?!?!! How awesome is that?

Maybe they are in Australia, that is on the bottom of the world and everything rotates the opposite way down there....

[ShadowTiger]

LOL, no wonder it felt like time wasn't passing the way it should've. :P I love you guys. XD

I have to stop living in fear of the "I don't care about anyone else, just do what I say!" response, because as we all know, live, and breathe, the customer is always right. Now turn around and tell me that the sidewalk is made of chocolate pudding. You can, because as the customer, you're always right. Now eat it. Go ahead, my blessing to you lady.

[jedimaster91]

But building it yourself is half the fun. How do you know if your swearing is up to snuff if you don't build stuff?

[LadyAndreca]

But building it yourself is half the fun. How do you know if your swearing is up to snuff if you don't build stuff?

I know I learned my most exotic and entertaining curses from my dad the summer we converted the garage into an extra bedroom... It was also the first time I cursed in front of HIM without getting my mouth washed out with soap, just a resigned "Don't do that in front of your mother."

[Salted Grump]

Easiest way to learn swearing. Hit your thumb with a hammer to split the nail open, then show it to an older family member. 90% of the time you'll get a particularly sizable variation on 'Holy Damn.'

[Ironclad Alibi]

It was just us five from 9 PM to 6 PM. How awesome is that.

You work in the middle of a temproal anomaly?!?!?!! How awesome is that?

Nope, it was just your typical 21 hour work day.

[ShadowTiger]

... ... I'm bringing a bottle of white-out and a black sharpie to work tomorrow. We'll see what happens to the schedule.


I forgot to mention that she said she was looking at the "other one we carry" and she didn't think it would fit in her car. The other one is actually smaller than the one she had been holding at the register to display to the manager, and even easier to assemble due to fewer amounts of even larger pieces.