Odd Questions. (Bit long perhaps)

[Hoops McCann]

These aren't sucky customers, just some of the odder people that I've run into this week. They brightened my day a touch anyway.

- While pretending to work by shifting stock around on the shelf I was approached by a customer. Despite my best efforts to psychically tell her not to bother me she still did. In her hand was a plastic container, a tall one with a flip lid so you can pour things out of it. She politely stopped me from my ever so important duties to ask-

"Can I put cereal in this?" (waving the plastic container in my face)

Me - "I guess so"

"Ok then thank you"

Why would there be limitations on what you can put in these containers? I figure unless you're gonna use to transport nuclear material it doesnt really matter. Anyway onto number two.

I was called to the customer service desk to answer a query one of our beloved shoppers had. She had in her hand a cheap CD boxset, since thats part of my department I had to field her potentially daunting question. Which went like this -

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Me - "Yes, those CD's will work in a CD player, no problems there"

Jesus Christ, why in God's name wouldnt something play in the thing it was designed to play in?!

And finally I had a gentlemen moan at me that some obscure thing wasn't in stock. Trying to maintain the facade of being concerned I told him to go to our competitor. I shop there because they dont suck quite as much as my employer does. At the very mention of the competitors name the man explodes (not literally thank god, my job sucks enough without having to clean up exploded human) and says

"I would NEVER shop there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Followed by a far to long tirade about the evils inherent in capitalism. If didn't already know them all might of been quite interesting.

And thats all, cheers for reading.

[Gurndigarn]

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Me - "Yes, those CD's will work in a CD player, no problems there"

Jesus Christ, why in God's name wouldnt something play in the thing it was designed to play in?!

Considering how some electronics designers like to bugger up electronics with strange bugs... er, "features", it's not a bad question for a clueless idiot. It's much better than "BUT NOBODY TOLD ME THIS WOULDN'T WORK WITH THAT! I WANT A REFUND RIGHT NOW!"

[SCSlave]

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Um..no..these CD's are the magic CDs that only work in cassette players.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I was called to the customer service desk to answer a query one of our beloved shoppers had. She had in her hand a cheap CD boxset, since thats part of my department I had to field her potentially daunting question. Which went like this -

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Me - "Yes, those CD's will work in a CD player, no problems there"

Jesus Christ, why in God's name wouldnt something play in the thing it was designed to play in?!

If the CDs have already had music recorded on them, I can't see why they wouldn't play on her portable CD player.

That said, I believe CDs that are burned on a CD burner will not play on some older CD players. I mention this because my boombox has "CD-R/RW Playback" stamped on it, like that sets it apart from other CD players.

[Geek King]

Why would there be limitations on what you can put in these containers? I figure unless you're gonna use to transport nuclear material it doesnt really matter.

Nuclear material would likely cause the plastic to degrade over time, so the plastic container would not be proper storage for such material if you planned to keep it fresh for an extended period of time.

[tollbaby]

If the CDs have already had music recorded on them, I can't see why they wouldn't play on her portable CD player.

That said, I believe CDs that are burned on a CD burner will not play on some older CD players. I mention this because my boombox has "CD-R/RW Playback" stamped on it, like that sets it apart from other CD players.

The other issue could be that her CD player might not be mp3 compatible. If she's recording media on the CD as audio files, then yes, it will work. If she's recording it as data (mp3 files count as data, last I checked), then it wouldn't necessarily work. Just because she didn't exactly phrase the question properly doesn't make it a stupid question.

err... am I the only one who finds it odd that you admit you were "pretending to work" and signaled the customer to leave you alone? I work hard for my paycheque, and stuff like that tends to just perpetuate the stereotype that we're all lazy mouth-breathers...

[Becks]

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Me - "Yes, those CD's will work in a CD player, no problems there"

Jesus Christ, why in God's name wouldnt something play in the thing it was designed to play in?!

I don't know...some recordable CDs won't work in the car's CD player, but will work just fine in any of the CD players we have in the house.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I don't know...some recordable CDs won't work in the car's CD player, but will work just fine in any of the CD players we have in the house.

I have the opposite problem...I have one disk that I burned from the computer, and it plays fine in my car but won't play in the house

Quote from tollbaby: err... am I the only one who finds it odd that you admit you were "pretending to work" and signaled the customer to leave you alone? I work hard for my paycheque, and stuff like that tends to just perpetuate the stereotype that we're all lazy mouth-breathers...
I thought that too. But perhaps we can give the benefit of the doubt here. Some days, if I'm not feeling well or something, I just really don't feel like working and hope to be left alone as well. Usually I would try to find something not too taxing to do, or go zone in an out of the way aisle. ...Perhaps Hoops was having such a day. If not, well, then, GET TO WORK

-ams-

[PhotoChick]

Not really sure what his job is but most mornings my store is dead and therefore I have nothing to do. Yes I can clean and such but that doesnt take to long. The rest of the day (in between customers) consists of me pretended to work so I don't get yelled at.

[Dips]

Nuclear material would likely cause the plastic to degrade over time, so the plastic container would not be proper storage for such material if you planned to keep it fresh for an extended period of time.

It depends on the nuclear material. In the research lab we frequently used sealed Rubbermaid containers to soak Southern blots in a liquid full of P32. They held up quite well.

As a funny side note, the building we worked in was endowed by the estate of Earl S. Tupper (the inventor of Tupperware). When we were asked by admin to tidy up for a tour by members of the Tupper family, I asked if we should hide the Rubbermaid so they wouldn't ask why we weren't using Tupperware.

Me and my big mouth. They actually took me seriously and we had to hide it.

[Pagan]

I was called to the customer service desk to answer a query one of our beloved shoppers had. She had in her hand a cheap CD boxset, since thats part of my department I had to field her potentially daunting question. Which went like this -

"Will these CD's work in a portable CD player?"

Me - "Yes, those CD's will work in a CD player, no problems there"

Jesus Christ, why in God's name wouldnt something play in the thing it was designed to play in?!

Um, I took him to mean a pre-recorded CD box set, like say, Sublime or Grateful Dead??? See "cheap" is a relative term. We've got some that are 3-CD sets of 80's music that are, like, $16.99.