Unbelievable...well, I guess it IS believable.

[WHShit]

Ok, so I am on my lunch break. I am standing outside the shop with my coat on (it is freezing here in London), handbag slung over my shoulder, and smoking a cigarette.

This woman goes to walk in the shop, stops, looks me up and down as I am puffing away and says "do you work here"?

<Now, I get this all the time, even in other shops, but this time it caught me off gaurd as I was SMOKING!>

As I am caught off gaurd, I stammer a "yes, but I am on my break". She says "well, can you help me"? I say "sorry, I said I am on my break" and I hold up the cigarette as to show her that I am, in fact, on break.

She says "well, an you show me where your glue is"? I say "no, sorry, I AM ON BREAK"

With that she finally goes into the shop...and I watch her. She goes straight to the first person she sees. Now, if she would have spent about 30 seconds actually looking for herself, she would have seen the friggin' glue.

She didn't even step foot in the shop before she asked me for help. How do people like this live? I hate people that can't shop for themselves. If they can't do that, then I am afraid to think of what they are like at home...and if they have children...OH MY!

And most people would steer clear of a !GASP! smoker..we are the epitome of evil in Britain...so I am suprised she even approched me.

[customersruinmylife]

Gargh! I hate people like that. When I have my break at the bar, I find a table to sit at that is as far out of view as possible, put my coat on, then put my i-pod on, yet people still come up to me! Even when I'm sat eating a meal!

SC: Can you find me some more ketchup?
Me: *eating meal* Sorry I'm on my break, but if you go up to the bar they'll help you out.
SC stands there for about five minutes looking confused.

I had one SC who shook me because I had headphones in and didn't hear him!

And for some reason, our toilets seem to be in another dimension to the customers. We arent even that big a bar! We have four sets of toilets! If you just open your eyes you will see them! Do not interupt my meal to ask me to show you where they are!!

[bigjimaz]

Just as a curiosity WHShit, what does a pack of cigarettes cost over there. For the most part they cost around $5.00 a pack (2.54 Pounds) or around $40.00 per carton (20.36 pounds) here in the US for the national brands (Marlboro, Camel, etc.) The thing about this is that I remember telling myself that I would quit when they hit a dollar a pack. (Sorry for the crude conversions. I used an online conversion site and that is the way they listed them.)

And to keep the thread on topic, I have had the very same thing happen to me when I worked in the same hick town I live in, at the only grocery store here. I have even been asked where something is when I was a half mile away getting gas in my car on my day off. (as in...Hey Jim! I'm heading over to the Big Bird. Where the hell are the oyster crackers. I can never find them.) Still to this day, 2 years after I quit, I still get asked where stuff is when I go there to shop. The sad thing about this is that I still tell them. As long as they haven't moved it since I left, I'm right all of the time. Dang, how sick am i?

[Imogene]

Jimaz, that's okay, when I worked at Chesterfield, I had such a large recollection of our inventory, I could be elsewhere in the mall, on break, before my shift started, whatever, and have someone ask me: Do you have...? More often than not, I could tell them: 1) If we had it, 2) How many of it we had, and of course 3) Where in the store to find it. Bonus points if we only had enough copies for an end cap.

[rvdammit]

Just as a curiosity WHShit, what does a pack of cigarettes cost over there. For the most part they cost around $5.00 a pack (2.54 Pounds) or around $40.00 per carton (20.36 pounds)

Jumping to answer the question, it's close enough to say the numbers are the same (£5 a pack), or about about double the US price. Mostly tax.

[Rapscallion]

Didn't someone work out that cigs and fuel were eighty percent tax or something?

Rapscallion

[Banrion]

Im NH I get ciggy's for about $3.50/pack $35.00/carton. But in Boston about 30 miles south you are looking at almost $7.00/pack.

[Jester]

And most people would steer clear of a !GASP! smoker..we are the epitome of evil in Britain...so I am suprised she even approched me.

Funny....I thought the majority of Britain WERE smokers, based upon the ones I have known and the ones that vacation here, and their attitude about smoking in general, and what my ex-fiancee, The Brit, told me about it.

[Kiwi]

Haha you should have said

"sure I can tell you where they are... they are inside the store....thats right....inside, Im outside... your welcome"

that is why I put on my jacket the moment im on my break, with headphones. No way someones bothering me!

[Rapscallion]

Funny....I thought the majority of Britain WERE smokers, based upon the ones I have known and the ones that vacation here, and their attitude about smoking in general, and what my ex-fiancee, The Brit, told me about it.

I think the last figures I heard were about 20-25% of the population smoked.

Mmm - found some boring figures that appear to only go up to the year 2000 - http://www.statistics.gov.uk/lib/viewerChart136.html

Rapscallion

[Mark Healey]

And most people would steer clear of a !GASP! smoker..we are the epitome of evil in Britain...so I am suprised she even approched me.

Try California. In a suburb of San Fransicso (the smug capital of the universe) they are going to make it illegal to smoke everywhere except in single family homes. That's right, they won't even let you smoke in your appatment, condo or car. They cite the ususal fradulent studies on second hand smoke and health as the reason.

And they consider themselves tollerent.

[ditchdj]

I remember Andrew Dice Clay all the way back in '89 cracking jokes about that. He said something about "you can smoke the baloney pony (I think that's the way he put it) but not a Marlboro."

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Here in my house we have a good reason to kick people out for smoking, my dad is asthmatic and takes 3 pumps a day.

The apartment/car thing's a bit exagerated tho...

[Becks]

She didn't even step foot in the shop before she asked me for help. How do people like this live?

Wow. That takes laziness to a whole new level.

[WHShit]

Just as a curiosity WHShit, what does a pack of cigarettes cost over there. For the most part they cost around $5.00 a pack (2.54 Pounds) or around $40.00 per carton (20.36 pounds) here in the US for the national brands (Marlboro, Camel, etc.) The thing about this is that I remember telling myself that I would quit when they hit a dollar a pack. (Sorry for the crude conversions. I used an online conversion site and that is the way they listed them.)

Well, they are £4.85 - £5.85 here. You don't get the 200 cartons here, you get 100. That costs about £25.00 - £30.00. When I go back home to North Carolina I pay about $18.00 for my 200 cartons (great price!).

I would say that the £4.85 here is about $6 - $7, which is expensive. That is why when I go home I buy about 4 cartons and bring them back. And if anyone at work goes on vacation to any Euopean country (especially France or Spain) I get them to buy them for me. It is very cheap everywhere else.

Expensive habit to have in a major city or town, but I am too stressed out at work to quit. It is my only crutch when I want to kill the customers and the staff!