Sir, why am I picking up after your child?

[Despina83]

Tonight in health and beauty care this guy walks by with his little girl lagging behind him. She has her arm out and is purposely knocking stuff off of the shelves. How delightful. The guy walks by me, turns around to look at his daughter and goes, "Come on" and waves her forward. I then have to pick up said items, making sure to give a loud "AHEM!!" for the benefit of father of the year. I'm so sick of picking shit off of the floor. What I just love is when I get an aisle looking perfect, say the toothpaste aisle. Then five minutes later I'll walk by and there'll be three boxes of toothpaste and four toothbrushes on the floor. And what's with the bozos that leave frozen or refrigerated items sitting on the shelf (or even on the floor)? The other day we found about six Hot Pockets and a Lean Cuisine (all warm of course) sitting on a shelf in the pets section. God, I hope these people haven't bred. URGE TO KILL...RISING.

[Kristev]

Let's trade stories sometime. You can tell me of the things you find visibly in your departments after you've just cleaned it, and I'll tell you what I've found sweeping under the shelves. It's nearly always stolen and almost never pretty.

[chainedbarista]

God, I hope these people haven't bred. URGE TO KILL...RISING.

you know they have...at least a litter's worth.

i don't work in a grocery store and i'm always irritated by this sort of thing; people leaving things here, there and everywhere, like it was some sort of twisted easter egg hunt.

these are also the same people that bitch about how prices rise but can't seem to figure how their actions add into the rising costs.

[Falor]

Let's trade stories sometime. You can tell me of the things you find visibly in your departments after you've just cleaned it, and I'll tell you what I've found sweeping under the shelves. It's nearly always stolen and almost never pretty.

Since I'm the backup for the person responsible for scanning all of the stolen stuff out I get to see all of those lovely empty packages. For a while we were finding two to four of the four pack 187mL wine bottle cartons stuck in the frozen french fries per week, always the one brand that had plastic bottles so the could pocket them without worrying about breakage being unduly painful. My favorite memory of the 'what doesn't belong in this section' game has to be the six pack of Busch I found while facing up the frozen waffles one morning. Frozen beer foam everywhere...

[MoonCat]

This annoys me as a shopper! How lazy does someone have to be to just toss something they don't want onto whatever shelf they're closest to? And it really bugs me to see frozen stuff left in refrigerators and vice versa. I've even seen heads of lettuce left in freezers. Talk about stupid.

[Despina83]

I've been finding a ton of stolen items. It's usually makeup, either eyeliner or mascara. Yeah, that's worth going to jail for! And as for the occasional stolen pregnancy test I come across: if you have to steal a pregnancy test...I hope to God you're NOT pregnant....

[MrsEclipse]

Sooo, do you find the stolen pregnancy test used?

[Falor]

Sooo, do you find the stolen pregnancy test used?

I've not myself, but I've heard tales...

[Sleepwalker]

The only thing I don't put back is clothing. I can't for the life of me figure out how they fold it the way they do. At least I don't leave it on the floor...

[SourRobot]

God, I hope these people haven't bred.

You know they have.

Edit: I just saw that someone already said that.
Anyhoo, I have customers like that, too. Sometimes it's the parent that makes a mess right in front of their child. Great job teaching your kid how to be a slob. I went to the grocery store the other day and saw a small box of frozen food sitting on top of bags of chips. Tsk tsk.

[KellyHabersham]

Almost sounds like you're talking about some of our library customers - I recall one couple in particular who'd sit on the couches in the children's room and talk/look through magazines and books while their son ran around screaming and making a mess out of the toys we had at the time. Needless to say, they never cleaned up after him, he was never made to do it himself, and it got to where I'd cringe when I saw them in the library........because I knew I'd have a mess to "look forward" to cleaning up at the end of the night.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The only thing I don't put back is clothing. I can't for the life of me figure out how they fold it the way they do.

When looking at shirts, I refold them this way if I can't return them to their original state.

Needless to say, they never cleaned him after him, he was never made to do it himself, and it got to where I'd cringe when I saw them in the library........because I knew I'd have a mess to "look forward" to cleaning up at the end of the night.

And they would be the first to complain if it was messy when they came in.

[Green_Fairy]

ayup. found half a dozen yogurts behind a row of chili once. don't even work at the store...and i don't think i've ever seen an employee as surprised as the dude was when i brought them back over to the yogurt section.

and when i was working at the D-Tree, one of the guys i worked with was too lazy to put things back where they belonged. so he'd just hide random things all over the store. pissed me off sooooo much. i'm glad he quit before the freezers went in.

[flutes_and_fabric]

I was tucking fabrics one day and this kid was following behind me pulling every bolt I touched off the shelf. It was passed closing and I didn't see her parents around. I used my teacher voice and told her to clean the mess up. She turned to run and tripped over the mess she had made. I then got on the intercom and told the parents to come get their child. I refused to check them out until the girl had put away her mess. They actually agreed with me. Even if they didn't I really didn't give a shit because I had already put in my two weeks.

[An Haddock]

I was tucking fabrics one day and this kid was following behind me pulling every bolt I touched off the shelf. It was passed closing and I didn't see her parents around. I used my teacher voice and told her to clean the mess up. She turned to run and tripped over the mess she had made. I then got on the intercom and told the parents to come get their child. I refused to check them out until the girl had put away her mess. They actually agreed with me. Even if they didn't I really didn't give a shit because I had already put in my two weeks.

Good for you! Parents need to take responsibility for their kids making messes! And fortunately they didn't pitch a fit because you *gasp* dared to hold them accountable for the kid's behaviour.

Of course, one wonders why a small child would be left wandering around a store where there's needles, scissors and related sharp items unattended...


All I know is... from the OP's story: if I was wandering through a store with one of my parents and I started sweeping stuff off shelves to the floor my ass would have ended up so red you could have mistaken it for a pair of dodge balls.