OH GAWD EVERYONE IS BLIIIIIIND

[Gaki]

I laughed so hard I teared up at this.

Woman comes in and asks where the bathroom is. Now in my store you walk in the door she walked in through (since there are two I'll do the directions from the door she used) and turn left and walk all the way to the back and then look left and there is the womens bathroom. If you just looked straight there would be a door with a keypad by the handle that says in plain English at eye-level "Employee's Only."

You're in a corner essentially with two doors.

She comes in and says, "Where's your bathroom." CW says, "In the back." This usually leads people to look for the sign that has the universal sign for "ladies room" on it, the stick woman thing with a skirt on.

This woman walks all the way to the back, stares at the storage room door for a little, stares at the keypad and then turns to the RIGHT and walks along the cooler doors (the back of the store) to the OTHER storage room, stares at that keypad for a little bit before turning around. I don't know what she did after that. I'm going to assume she found the bathroom (or A bathroom in any case) because she didn't come back up and ask again.

...really? REALLY?! IT WAS RIGHT THERE. ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS LOOK TO THE LEFT. Lesson learned. We now have to say "The last door on the left when you go back." So people aren't wandering around like idiots staring at the keypads and wondering what the number combo is to go to the bathroom. Like it's a puzzle or something because we're that sadistic.

Coffee

The more sucky thing is when people walk in, walk right past the coffee and then come up to the counter and act really offended because "there's no coffees out." What the heck are you even talking about!? There are EIGHT coffee dispensers RIGHT THERE WHEN YOU WALKED IN. How about you look around you for once in your miserable life and become AWARE. Holy nuggets what a thought.

Medicine

Do we have Tums? Yes. Do we have eyedrops? Yes. Do we have mouthwash? Yes.

Do we have aisle numbers? NO. So when I give you complex directions to get to what you couldn't bring yourself to actually look for don't roll your eyes and sigh at me. I'm the only one behind this counter, meaning I can't leave it and you're going to have to go find what you didn't pick up and you're going to waste everyone's time while you stare at our products for five minutes trying to find freaking WALDO even though I told you EXACTLY where it is on the shelf.

Gum

Do we have gum? ARE YOU SERIOUS?! WE HAVE MORE KINDS OF GUM THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS WHOLE FREAKING STORE. (Excluding cigarettes........maybe.) You just walked down that whole aisle that has all the gums down it at eye level. AT EYE LEVEL. There is even gum sitting right next to you at the impulse buy racks. THE THREE IMPULSE BUY RACKS. "I can't believe you don't sell gum."!? HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO MEEEEEEEEEEEE!?

Okay, I'm done...

I just had to rant. Sorry guys. So many sucky/oblivious people. The first one wasn't so much sucky as it was a total fail. TOTAL fail. I hate it when you tell people where to go and it almost like they didn't even listen to you they just turned around, closed their eyes, and started walking. What's even better is when they think we have any of these things behind the counter:

Silverware.
Tylenol.
Salad Dressing.
Croutons.
A sink.
A Water Fountain.
An Ice Machine.
Napkins.
Baby Wipes.
Tissues. (we don't have them because we don't want customers thinking we have them)
Ketchup, mustard, mayo, or any other condiment.
Paper bags.
"Small" bags. (They're all the same size.)
A public phone.
A Towel.

I'll think of more later. Tired now. Must Sleep. Have work tomorrow evening.

[EricKei]

If...IF you work at a pharmacy counter, "tylenol" might be the only reasonable request out of the whole lot. Even then, it ain't free ^_^

[BuffySummers]

I confess I'm one of the morons who will walk right past the bathroom to a sales associate to ask where to find the bathroom, but I'm always very polite, and when the sa points in the right direction, I'm always rather sheepish and appreciative, "Oh, it's by the giant sign saying restrooms. Oops, Thank you so much." I don't blame the sa for hiding the bathroom. . .

[MelodiousBubbles]

If...IF you work at a pharmacy counter, "tylenol" might be the only reasonable request out of the whole lot. Even then, it ain't free ^_^

And even then, the only one we really stock back there is the kind with codeine that you need a prescription for

[morgana]

I confess I'm one of the morons who will walk right past the bathroom to a sales associate to ask where to find the bathroom

I've done it, too. My usual response is, "Oh, damn, I'm an idiot. Sorry about that."

[fireheart]

Umm....I don't get the tissues why do you not want customers to think that you have tissues?

[bhskittykatt]

I can feel for the first woman. I'm not the most observant, either. I am the one who (famously, among my friends) failed to notice a 4 ft high wooden camel in my living room that Hubs brought home until he pointed it out to me. So yeah, I probably would have waltzed right by the bathrooms as well.

For the other things...I always at least attempt to find stuff on my own before politely asking for help.

[Gaki]

Umm....I don't get the tissues why do you not want customers to think that you have tissues?

Because one of us would have to BUY the tissues, they can't be written off for store use or anything and when you have tissues behind the counter that customers can see or if you forget and give one to them then EVERY customer asks for a tissue essentially wasting whatever CW's money it was to buy tissues for themselves/us. And then when those run out people are expecting us to have tissues when we don't because it was CW's choice to buy them.

[Seraph]

So people aren't wandering around like idiots staring at the keypads and wondering what the number combo is to go to the bathroom. Like it's a puzzle or something because we're that sadistic.

The Taco Bell where I used to live DID have keypads on the bathroom door. So did the Subways. It was weird, and quite frustrating to boot.

I thought that was bad enough, until I moved and the Subways near the comics store I hung out at....had a key for the door. God help you if you really had to go and there was a line at the counter.

[XCashier]

Do we have aisle numbers? NO.

My fabric store did this when they remodeled; removed all the aisle numbers. I don't know why stores do this; wouldn't it be much easier for customers to find things if the aisles were numbered and/or had signs like "buttons" "notions" "books" etc. over them so customers could, you know, actually find stuff?!

[Miss Maple Leaf]

I can feel for the first woman. I'm not the most observant, either. I am the one who (famously, among my friends) failed to notice a 4 ft high wooden camel in my living room that Hubs brought home until he pointed it out to me. So yeah, I probably would have waltzed right by the bathrooms as well.

You sound like me. I'm constantly failing spot checks.

Two examples:

1) Once, at work, I needed to fill the car fresheners by the registers. I knew where they were, and I was looking directly at them to see which ones needed to be filled, and yet I still couldn't see them. A coworker had to come over and point them out to me before I was able to see them.

2) My mother likes to rearrange the furniture in our house every few months. One day, I went into the living room to talk to her and noticed that one of the chairs was in a new spot. I asked her if she had just moved it that day, since I couldn't remember it in that spot beforehand.
She just gave me a look and told me that she had moved it months ago. It took me that long to clue in. And I'm sure I must have sat in that chair in its new spot a few times since she first moved it, and yet I still didn't notice the new location until that moment.

[dalesys]

...if the aisles were numbered and/or had signs like "buttons" "notions" "books" etc. over them...

I remember a Smith's grocery store being re-deranged.

The sign over the Chocolate Flavored Sugar Bombs aisle said "NONFOODS"

(for a day or so)

[GuardingYourLife]

My fabric store did this when they remodeled; removed all the aisle numbers. I don't know why stores do this; wouldn't it be much easier for customers to find things if the aisles were numbered and/or had signs like "buttons" "notions" "books" etc. over them so customers could, you know, actually find stuff?!

Corporations are not about helping the customer unless it makes them more money. And forcing everyone to wander up and down every aisle every time they come into the store results in many more "hey, that looks cool, maybe I'll buy that" and "oh yeah! I need one of those!" moments = more money for the store than if it was easy to find the one thing you came for and zip right out before being tempted by every single item they carry.

[XCashier]

Corporations are not about helping the customer unless it makes them more money. And forcing everyone to wander up and down every aisle every time they come into the store results in many more "hey, that looks cool, maybe I'll buy that" and "oh yeah! I need one of those!" moments = more money for the store than if it was easy to find the one thing you came for and zip right out before being tempted by every single item they carry.

Well, that's the theory, and it does look good on paper (or computer screen). Real life, however, doesn't work like that. More often than not, the customer can't find what they're looking for, they get frustrated and stomp out without buying anything.

Wheareas if there are signs, they find what they are looking for and think, "what the hey, I'm here, let's look around a bit," and buy more stuff that way.

[BrenDAnn]

Oh, Gaki, I feel your pain. Common occurrences at my c-store include:

"Where is the ice?" Back where it says ice on the wall. No really, it is.
"Don't you have ice cream?" Um, yes, where it says ICE CREAM on the wall. Seriously.
"Don't you have gum?" Entirely too much of it. Front counter. Perfect height for kids to get into.
"There's no pizza in the warmer." Yes, there is. You're just too lazy to walk all the way over there and, I don't know...LOOK.
"You're out of X pop/other drink in the cooler." No, someone just didn't push it all the way forward. Again, LOOK.
"Do y'all have an ATM?" Yep. Turn around and look behind you. 99.9999999% of the time they ask this while standing at the exact opposite end of the aisle from it!!
"Which one is the decaf?" The one with orange on it, which is clearly labeled DECAFFEINATED!
"Where are your lids?" Right. Beside. THE POP MACHINE!

As a side note, what part of EMPLOYEES ONLY do people not get? It's not that difficult to figure out, right? Oh wait, I forgot what website I was on for a minute.