As I mentioned before, I work in a deli\bakery. Lucky me, I'm the closer. Every day, day shift fills up the deli steam table with fried chicken, baked chicken, chicken tenders, sides... You get the idea. It's a lot of freaking food, and inevitably after everyone else leaves I have a lot of it that will be timing out soon. So I am supposed to package it all up, mark it down to half price, and put it on the warmers for sale so we can at least break even. Also, about an hour before the deli closes we mark down the last of the rotisserie chickens, following the same thought process.
There are a certain several customers who come to our store specifically to get these various marked down chicken products. They NEVER buy the stuff full price. They have a general idea of what time we mark it all down, and time their visits accordingly. I've had them call and ask me to hold markdowns for them (can't do that - first come, first serve) and get belligerent with me when I tell them so. I told one SC (who comes in every... freaking... day) that the stuff on the steam table wouldn't be ready for markdown for another 45 minutes, so she stood in front of the table for the whole 45 minutes, just waiting and trying to chat me up like she thought I'd change my mind and do it sooner if I saw she was waiting. Then, when the time was up, she actually hollered me down from the back (where I was, um, working (duh) to tell me it was time. That one also complained one day that the 8-piece she had didn't actually have 8 pieces in it. I told her I had made it myself and knew it had 8 pieces, and she implied (in one of those saccharine sweet, super annoying voices that are supposed to seem nice but are, in fact, masking malicious intent) that I must have counted wrong, and could I mark it down some more? Uhh, no. One: I know it has the right amount. I never put less than 8, and if I have odd pieces left it's more. Two: You're already getting it for less than half price. She got all huffy and said she wasn't going to buy it anymore because I was ripping people off. Really?! Surprise, surprise - next day she was stalking my steam table again for cheap food.
The other thing they do that drives me 100% bonkers involves the rotisserie chickens. They know we mark the chickens down at 8. Every freaking night, when I go out at 8 to mark them down, someone will come up to me with a chicken in their basket and ask me to mark it down, too. That's right - they will pick up a chicken, walk around the store with it for God only knows how long, and then bring it to me to get it for half price! I told my dept. manager about it, and she said we are no longer allowed to mark chickens down if they aren't actually on the steam table. I.e. If you picked it up to buy it when it was full price, you're paying full price.
This last is my absolute favorite as far as the chickens at night go, though. I had to close like 15 minutes early one night because I was close to overtime. I had pulled the chickens, scanned them out, and thrown them away. I was grabbing my stuff to leave when one of the MVs approached the counter asking about the chickens.
MV: You don't have any more chickens?
Me: No, ma'am - we're closed.
MV: You don't have any more chickens in the back?
*side note: For some reason they always assume we have a secret stash of hot chickens that we aren't willing to sell*
Me: No, ma'am - I've already pulled chickens for the night.
MV: So you already threw them away?
Me:
Yes, ma'am - after I scan them out I throw them away.
MV: Are they in a garbage can back there, or somewhere you can't get to them?
You guessed it - this MV actually wanted me to dig her a chicken out of the trash can and sell it to her! Besides being completely unsanitary, once a chicken it scanned out it no longer exists, in store parlance, and I can't sell it. Rather than arguing about it (and I knew it would be an argument), I told her the trash can had already been taken to the back and I could no longer access the chickens. She walked away with her head hanging, like her family was going to starve because I wouldn't sell her a chicken from the trash. My level of devastation? I grabbed my stuff and got the heck out of there. But I'm sure she will be back.
There are a certain several customers who come to our store specifically to get these various marked down chicken products. They NEVER buy the stuff full price. They have a general idea of what time we mark it all down, and time their visits accordingly. I've had them call and ask me to hold markdowns for them (can't do that - first come, first serve) and get belligerent with me when I tell them so. I told one SC (who comes in every... freaking... day) that the stuff on the steam table wouldn't be ready for markdown for another 45 minutes, so she stood in front of the table for the whole 45 minutes, just waiting and trying to chat me up like she thought I'd change my mind and do it sooner if I saw she was waiting. Then, when the time was up, she actually hollered me down from the back (where I was, um, working (duh) to tell me it was time. That one also complained one day that the 8-piece she had didn't actually have 8 pieces in it. I told her I had made it myself and knew it had 8 pieces, and she implied (in one of those saccharine sweet, super annoying voices that are supposed to seem nice but are, in fact, masking malicious intent) that I must have counted wrong, and could I mark it down some more? Uhh, no. One: I know it has the right amount. I never put less than 8, and if I have odd pieces left it's more. Two: You're already getting it for less than half price. She got all huffy and said she wasn't going to buy it anymore because I was ripping people off. Really?! Surprise, surprise - next day she was stalking my steam table again for cheap food.
The other thing they do that drives me 100% bonkers involves the rotisserie chickens. They know we mark the chickens down at 8. Every freaking night, when I go out at 8 to mark them down, someone will come up to me with a chicken in their basket and ask me to mark it down, too. That's right - they will pick up a chicken, walk around the store with it for God only knows how long, and then bring it to me to get it for half price! I told my dept. manager about it, and she said we are no longer allowed to mark chickens down if they aren't actually on the steam table. I.e. If you picked it up to buy it when it was full price, you're paying full price.
This last is my absolute favorite as far as the chickens at night go, though. I had to close like 15 minutes early one night because I was close to overtime. I had pulled the chickens, scanned them out, and thrown them away. I was grabbing my stuff to leave when one of the MVs approached the counter asking about the chickens.
MV: You don't have any more chickens?
Me: No, ma'am - we're closed.
MV: You don't have any more chickens in the back?
*side note: For some reason they always assume we have a secret stash of hot chickens that we aren't willing to sell*
Me: No, ma'am - I've already pulled chickens for the night.
MV: So you already threw them away?
Me:

MV: Are they in a garbage can back there, or somewhere you can't get to them?
You guessed it - this MV actually wanted me to dig her a chicken out of the trash can and sell it to her! Besides being completely unsanitary, once a chicken it scanned out it no longer exists, in store parlance, and I can't sell it. Rather than arguing about it (and I knew it would be an argument), I told her the trash can had already been taken to the back and I could no longer access the chickens. She walked away with her head hanging, like her family was going to starve because I wouldn't sell her a chicken from the trash. My level of devastation? I grabbed my stuff and got the heck out of there. But I'm sure she will be back.
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