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[malfcn]

I have to vent after today.

So our store has been in a bit of a spiral.
We had some injuries, mostly minor, but almost all preventable.
Had to be on a safety call to discuss all of the incidents.

My incident came up. I was returning shopping carts to the store, and part of it was damaged and sliced my finger open. I got put on blast over it. They asked if I had a safety meeting with the store after cutting my finger on a defect part of the cart.

I am all about safety, but this just got me smh.

 

[Chunky]

Yeah, seeing a jerk's attitude change on a dime is so weird, especially when they're some flabby time-ravaged oldster who just threw a tantrum over the size of their coke or whatever. No self-awareness, no empathy or consideration for other people. It's "Me, me, me. I'm going to be a child until you give me my happies, then I'll turn on the charm and be a big boy .

I think because I'm a pretty smiley sort of person I've found that most of the time when someone tries to get proper pissed at me they end up changing their tune before they leave. These types of people just need confrontation to inflate their own fabrigé egos and they know they will 9/10 win a fight with someone who doesn't want to lose their job, so I just smile through their bullshit and the temper tantrums usually fizzle out.


To add my bitch to the pile: unpaid fucking work. Luckily I'm at a place now that gives its staff a bit of respect, but at my old job they had a pisstake policy for closing down the place. The shop shut at 11, and we were only ever paid up to 11 on the fucking dot, but the shutdown jobs would always take us past 12 or 1.
When I first asked one of the supes what was up and if I would get paid for all that extra time he just kind of wearily shrugged and laughed it off saying that management's excuse was that if we were working fast enough we wouldn't need to work extra. Not only had I had given this shithole over a full 24 hrs unpaid but they had the FUCKING GALL to call me lazy. Fuck. That. Really glad I didn't try and stick that one out.

Work to live m8

 

[Shmuppers]

try foodservice

 

[malfcn]

Man.

I had a call from LP today about a hotline call about me.
The girl that put in her 2 weeks, talked her way back into the store has continued to be drama. The store manager and district manager want her gone now, but they let her come back.

Anyways, she had some food and personal items stashed at her station. While helping a customer I came across it and removed the food. Unfortunately, someone else in the store took it upon themselves to eat that food. It sounds like I am fine, but it still bothers me that I have a hotline complaint about me from someone that was breaking policies, and already quit once.

I let them know that the person was a disgruntle employee, and was probably going after me since she is always looking for trouble to start. So I let LP know that she was taking breaks on the clock with her BF.

The other day was my last day, as I was transferred and happy to be out of that location. However, I found key marks on my car and I suspect it is tied to the person in this story. At least I don't have to see this person at work anymore.

 

[Rest]

I used to get scheduled to close one night and then open the next, less than 8 hours later. I did that once, and thereafter told the manager I wouldn't be in until I'd gotten a full 8 hours sleep, taken a shower, had breakfast, and commuted to work.

They always seemed to ask "why weren't you here this morning," and I'd just remind them that when they posted the schedule I told them closing one night meant I wouldn't be opening the next.

 

[Moonkeis]

I've worked retail before and I definitely don't miss it, especially the crazy customers. I'm online retail now, so any sort of bitching is at least in text form.

 

[norm9]

I don't do retail, but I'm in the customer service industry. I wake up each day hoping that I won't have to deal with assholes, but then I do.

 

[lastflowers]

sounds awful man. I'm glad the retail shop I worked at in Houston was owned by a fantastic family. Though we were vigilant while watching for shoplifters (basically kids in groups, and watch for hoodies/bags), they never wanted us to 'upsell' to customers. Simply ask a question or so if they looked puzzled and/or let them know we were there to help with anything if they were looking at cases that required employee keys.

And the owner typically let me put on music since he liked my taste, haha.

 

[entremet]

Never worked retail. Well one day only. Never again.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I worked retail for years at Software Etc., and while there is a lot to dislike, I enjoyed quite a bit about it as well. I would happily work retail again if I was already wealthy and ran my own store. All of the things I hated about it were the result of corporate policies and interference, so if I was able to call the shots I think it would be fun.

 

[Waddle Dee]

I worked at a Smart & Final for around 6 months a little less than 2 years ago. Most depressing shit. Management pretends you don't exist until you do something "wrong" and then you get screamed at. Customers (it's always the old white men and middle aged soccer moms, I swear to god) who call you retarded, gay, ugly, and all types of other shit. It was the fucking worst.

My first warning of what was to come was when I learned that employees either bring their own soap or they don't clean their hands ever. Yeah, don't fucking go to a Smart & Final unless you want literal shit on your food.

 

[CadetMahoney]

Retail threads are the only ones that give me legit goosebumps.

 

[Guileless]

I remember working two 12 hour shifts on consecutive days over Christmas. There was one point I almost cried because of the music. (They had ONE 50 minute CD on repeat from late November until January.)

This made me laugh.

 

[Evo Shandor]

I remember being a clerk at a pharmacy and helping people out. Many more people than I thought abuse prescription medication: two or three groups of adult Americans coming in as a group and buying bottles of 200 generic tylenol 1's and bottles of Gravol and taking off; the people on oxicodone was also really startling. Still, the owner was kind and fair and I worked with a group of funny old ladies so it was fairly positive.

 

[Lego Boss]

I genuinely try to be nice to people who work retail as that is soul-destroying work.

Most of the time the people are great, l ca't honestly remember the last time l had a bad experience.

East Midlands Trains though? Don't get me started.

 

[friskykillface]

eh, I only work my retail for the following reasons

I live within walking distance
I could use the cash while I'm in school
its actually a decent work out since I stock groceries

I miss getting paid $14 an hour though but I left full time

 

[Frankenstrat]

I bike for Jimmy John's. The concept of a "delivery range" seems very foreign to some people. Nothing like calling up a dude to tell him that even though we delivered to him by mistake once, we really shouldn't, then having him call back five minutes AFTER that call with a fresh rant for the manager loaded up. Really the only thing, aside from people who communicate poorly and act like it's our fault for needing them to repeat their orders.

 

[creationtheory]

I worked in a retail pharmacy when I was younger and I got desensitized to being cursed at and generally mistreated by customers. It was actually pretty fun once you don't give a fuck.

 

[FyreWulff]

Working overnights and everyone on days shitting on you working overnights. Why. Fuck you, eat a full D82 pallet.

 

[MarioHead3]

Retail threads are the only ones that give me legit goosebumps.

I still have nightmares about working in food service.

No, that is not a joke.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

However my current job gets, and how challenging it is; I will never have to be folding clothes at 5am on Boxing Day again. Really I think an early job in retail hardens you appropriately for life; if you can be a retail slave, you can take most forms of punishment.

 

[Bacon]

Working retail for a year was the push i needed to go back to school. I know it's unfeasible for a lot of people but I was in a position where I was able to drop down to part time and go to school full time.

It really is a soul crushing experience. I work at a whole foods in the coffee and juice bar. We make smoothies and can add a higher quality coconut water than the one we typically use for a small upcharge. One day we ran out of that higher quality coconut water and I explained that to a customer and he got very upset. He asked me why he was being punished because I didn't know how to do my job right. Yes, using the standard coconut water was considered a punishment to this gentleman.

 

[Glix]

The thing about retail/waitingcall center that would get to me the most is the amount of people that are so frustrated with their lives and feel so helpless and not in control that they are will to scream at a stranger at the top of their lungs KNOWING FULL WELL THIS PERSON IS NOT THE CAUSE OF THEIR PROBLEM (and i mean their current problem cant return item/online area outage/food didnt taste good/etc) AND DOES NOT HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THE POLICIES THAT LED TO THEIR FRUSTRATION.

Edit - at above, same, it was the reason i signed up for tech school. Of course my first gig was call center but once i moved past that, no more dealing with customers for me, and its so much better

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

I think for me the most crushing thing about retail was how INTO it people get. The term "jobsworth" applies, people who know this is the only job they'll do and input so much faux passion into it. And get irate at you for not being on the same level.

 

[Bacon]

I think for me the most crushing thing about retail was how INTO it people get. The term "jobsworth" applies, people who know this is the only job they'll do and input so much faux passion into it. And get irate at you for not being on the same level.

Oh yeah you definitely see a lot of this. One woman I work with constantly complains about how hard she works and how other people don't pull their weight. Pretty sure i've never had a conversation with her where she wasn't complaining about something relating to people calling out or not working hard enough. Very tiring to listen to for the hundredth time over.

 

[Blues1990]

I'm pretty sure in the handbook it says we can't.

Off-Topic: Every time you pop up, most of your posts are either barely in-context to the topic at hand, or you try to pull off a joke.

On-Topic: I hear you, OP. I had to work at a variety of different retail and grocery stores in my teens and early 20's, and the overall experience was uneven at best.

When I worked at Wal-Mart, my manager was a passive-aggressive lesbian with anger management issues. For a lack of better words, she lacked balls & wanted (in both the physical and metaphorical sense) to grow a pair. My boss would (with great success) mentally & physically abuse anything with the Y chromosome, by out performing them and do anything to prove she was the bigger man than they were. Now, keep in mind that this Wal-Mart was in a location that didn't have security camera's in the back room, and she would get away with this, on account that she was a terrifying monster that would make life hell for anyone that would tell her off. Until I did, as she brought me to the breaking point and I broke down in front of the assistant manager. I left the store with only working there a year, and I never bothered going there as a customer.

While my manager was a Grade-A bitch, my co-workers were pretty awesome. I got free sweets from one of the bakers who managed the grocery area, and I got a massive discount on video games in the electronics department. I even got 20 bucks when I had to carry a big ass television to a couples car, which is something that you are not supposed to do, but felt bad as I was the only one who was carrying the thing for them.

I also worked at a variety of different retail outlets, and I'm so glad I don't have to do that ever again. The negatives FAR out weigh the positives.

 

[StoneFox]

I work retail, but more specifically computer repair attached to an electronics store that rhymes with "cries". Anyway, we tend to get the super crazies and the unabashed liars almost constantly. It's gotten to the point where new employees are given these crazy regulars has a hazing process since there's no dealinh with them, but if you can manage to keep your cool you'll survive pretty much anyone else.

I don't think I'll ever forget "Illuminati Lady" who thought we gave her computer to the illuminati because of a single, accidental scratch we did on the laptop's underside. She said it was all the proof she needed.

Just today I told a guy his CPU is bad but he insisted it's because he broke his HDD. *facepalm*

Currently looking for a new job to escape this bizarre world.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I worked retail for far too long. Worked for Best Buy, Verizon and Sprint. While I didn't hate everything about I enjoyed the people I worked with and I made a shit ton working at Verizon but other than that...ugh. Never again. The job I am at now is like a night and day difference. I will say however that having done it for so long I have a massive amount of respect for people that do it and would never turn into one of the asshats that I used to have to help on a regular basis.

 

[The M.O.B]

As someone who has only known warehouse work while going through college, the horror stories about retail are disheartening.

Before I was thinking that retail would be a nice reprieve from the back/neck/wrist/knee breaking work of warehouse jobs but now I think it is better I just tough it out until I graduate.

 

[unknownhero]

I still have nightmares about working in food service.

No, that is not a joke.

it really isn't. I'm working at this place and I have a few stories to tell.


I wasn't there but a few months ago, we had this guy try to buy food with a fake 100 dollar bill. The counter girl at the time, she quit shortly after, looked at it and knew it was a fake. The man freaked when she figured it out and started to threaten her and even tried to grab her. thankfully a customer came in and he booked it. The manager called the police and we have his picture in the back to identify him if he ever comes back. Of course, this could happen anywhere but still a shitty moment.

We have this elderly lady that comes in and no one working here likes her. She comes in every time, orders a pizza, and complains about the staff. At one point she made another cashier cry by constantly calling her stupid. She still comes to this day and we are trying to ban her from the store.

a few years back, there was this elderly man who tried to make it to the bathroom but he couldn't hold it in and he shat on the entire back dining room floor. It wasn't his fault but damn if it wasn't a pain to clean. Lost a lot of customers that day.

that's pretty much all the notable stories I have. I want to say that most of the customers are fine but I would be lying. That used to be the case but now it seems everyone comes in looking sour. If you try to talk to them asking how their food was they would be short with you. If there are a dozen clean tables but one dirty one chances are that they want the dirty one and if there's a trashcan nearby then more than likely they will ignore it and put the trash right into the clean silverware containers because fuck it. Don't get me started about those who come in at a minute til closing with their families and stay for an hour.

 

[Like the hat?]

I work at Target now as a cashier and it really isn't bad. The worst I get right now is when I'm closing, it's 11:00, announcements were made at 10:45 and 10:55, but I still end up after the lights went out with a line 3-4 customers deep.

We close at 11, I get to leave when the last customer does. I've never closed and gotten out before 11:15.

 

[PreyingShark]

On my first full shift as a cashier, around 10 PM this lady came up to me with a bag of Taco Bell's and started ranting about how it was a rip-off (I think a $6-for-3 deal or something specifically?) for several minutes. She even held out a taco and went, "This? THIS IS NOTHING" over and over. I felt so bad for the guy in line behind her.

However, aside from her and the guy who had a mental breakdown when I asked about the red card and who I was scared was gonna punch me, I haven't really had too many weirdos. It's overall not too bad IMO.

The moms and neighbors of girls I went to high school with going, "Oh, you must me PreyingShark! My daughter/neighbor told me all about you!" when they check out at my lane is by far the worst part of this job TBH and I have no idea why that keeps happening to me.

 

[charpunk]

After working 10+ years in retail, I woke up yesterday finally saying enough is enough.

The job hunt begins.

 

[teh_pwn]

From the consumer side, I have to say grocery stores have gotten so much worse over time. I don't know if it's a regional Central Texas thing, but HEB seems wait to open new stores until they're sure that it will be way too crowded. Everyone is running into each other when shopping and HEB seems to intentionally clog up all walking space with random shit that I guess people impulse buy - it really is a frustrating experience. I'm so glad Instacart exists.

 

[peteykirch]

Let me give you some examples of things I witnessed working at a single Wal-Mart store:

• Overnight manager wrote up a clerk for working too slow. She was on light duties at the time.
• Employees fill out an annual, anonymous survey on the quality of their store manager. Entire store was asked to take the survey again because the results were so overwhelmingly negative, they thought it was a joke. It wasn't.
• Another overnight manager stood behind every night crew clerk, watched them take said survey and made them choose all positive responses the second time around.
• Department managers are full time, hourly employees, subject to getting their hours cut. All full-time employees were working 28 hours a week for a few months.
• Cosmetics manager (full time, non-salary worker) was written up for refusing to work during her unpaid lunch break, after she had punched out for said break.
• Every employee was scheduled a time to take their lunch break during their shift. This was enforced regularly. When two neighbouring departments took their lunch breaks at the same time, the on-duty manager attempted to get them to leave to help them do something. When they refused, the manager stood in the lunch room and waited for them to finish their break.
• Night crew members are given a quota of how many skids of merchandise they should be stocking during their shift. Managers would frequently lie about workers not fulfilling this quota to write them up (fuck you Britney, glad you got fired, you fucking bimbo)

Then you've got entitled customers who demand things their way because "THIS IS WALMART!" as if Walmart doesn't have their own policies and standards in place. Employees are expected to work like dogs by their superiors, taking abuse from horrendous excuses for human beings, for money that is less than liveable.

Yeah, Walmart is pretty great.

The 2 years I put in at Walmart were hell on Earth.

I never understood how such incompetent management can lead to a store making money hand over fist but it does. Their business model is such that you don't even really need any sort of management and they'll make moneys.

Some of the things I saw in my short time there;

A manager telling an employee who lost his ID Card that he'll take care of punching him in/out of the system for the day. The next day he was in, he was terminated for a meal exception, he claimed that the manager told he'd take care of the punching in/out, manager denied it. The guy was kind of slow at doing his job, but he always came in, and did his best, plus he seemed like he had early on-set Alzheimer's.

The fact that any request is considering a reasonable request according to management, so if you do one job that only pays $8. They can force you to do another job that pays $10 but they don't have to pay you the difference.

Saw a manager berate an employee for not cleaning feces out of a sink in the bathroom.

Management didn't like my request to put an undercover LP associate outside the bathroom on Black Friday. By 10AM that morning I found about 20 gutted copies of video games. They also didn't like the suggestion of keeping the display cases locked, they claimed they would rather have things get stolen than make customers wait for someone to open the case for each customer.

Management didn't reward the employees who were stars, and kept too many people who absolutely did nothing. There was a time where I was wrangling up carts, and I would keep my half of the parking completely spotless, the other side had BOTH of the cart retrieval machines, and their side would be littered with carts. I was reprimanded for not helping them despite there being 3 people on one side, with 2 machines. One of the CSM's came out and found one of them sitting on the cart corral smoking and being on his phone, did he get in trouble? Nope, just told to finish his smoke as soon as possible.

 

[sappyday]

I've been working retail for 3 years now. I graduated high school 3 years ago. I plan on going back to community college cause I cannot stand working in retail. It's soul crushing.

 

[Seraph_Nicholas]

Okay, so, I've had some shitty retail jobs (Special mention to my highschool summer job at a computer store where I was instructed on how to properly fence stolen laptops), but I'd rather note that my current job is about as great as a retail job could be. My general manager gives big speeches about building a family out of his employees, which would be nauseating, except he means every word. All the managers except for one are Captain Slackoff, and the one is my favorite because we actually get a lot done when she's working, and she's not at all bitchy about it, just gives everyone clear direction to keep them on task. The receiving guy is giving my a GTX 670 in exchange for me playing FF14 with him. The assistant manager is like a young version of The Most Interesting Man in the World, having previously worked for intel programming drivers, and then for a fuel rod manufacturer until Fukushima caused layoffs.

And slinging liquor is easy. Especially since I'm on the night shift. Closing is nice, all the customers are people getting off work and gratefully receiving a beer or pint to unwind at home. I don't open often, thankfully, since that shift has the people getting a drink on the way to work...

It's amazing what sensible managers and fun product do for a store. Everything is in a little bit of a disarray, but everyone's happy and product keeps moving.

 

[TheChuggernaut]

Decided to post this here because I'm not sure where else to. I started attending college in a city about an hour away from where I used to live, and I moved out there because I thought it would be easier than having to deal with traffic. I obviously needed a job so I got one at a Target about 30 minutes away from the new city I live in. So it's about an hour and a half away from my old city.

I hit a pot hole on the way to work about a week ago, and despite trying to fill up the tire with air at a gas station the light refused to turn back on. I'm still registered to vote in my old county, and I had a day off this Thursday, so I thought I would pop into a tire place on the way, and see what was up. Turns out my rim got bent when I hit the pot hole causing air to leak out. The tire place recommended putting on the spare, and shipping off the tire to get it fixed. It was going to cost me about $125 which is pretty much my entire first pay check, but I didn't really have any other choice. The tire was supposed to be back on Saturday so I could just stay at my parents place until it got there. Only issue is that I had work from 6-close on Friday night.

The tire place recommended to not drive all the way to my work on the spare. So I called on Thursday and talked to one of the managers and told him the situation. He asked if I could get a ride, and I explained that I only had like two friends in my new town, and that both of them wouldn't be willing to pick me at our vague time that the closers got out, (any time between 11-1am) and that I couldn't get to my new town even if I wanted to. He seemed understanding, telling me not to worry about it, but asked me if I could keep looking for a ride, to which I told him I would.

Come Friday, I decided to call in just to clarify that I wouldn't be able to make it, and it was a different manager who was on duty that night. I told her the situation and told her I talked to the other manager Thursday, but she instead told me to call and Uber or a cab. Now after dumping my entire paycheck into getting my rim fixed, I don't exactly have the money for an hour and a half cab ride, so I told her this, and she responded with saying that I could lose my job over this. Now I'm not sure what to do in this situation, should I speak to another manager and see who is in the right here, or what? I kind of need the money for this job right now, so losing it would not be fun.

TL;DR: Car broke down, I spent all of my money to fix it, and I can't get a ride to work. one manager said not to worry about and the other told me I could get fired. Should I be worried?

 

[Bubba T]

TL;DR: Car broke down, I spent all of my money to fix it, and I can't get a ride to work. one manager said not to worry about and the other told me I could get fired. Should I be worried?

If this is your first call out, I wouldn't worry much about it. There isn't much communication between managers in retail, most of them work in a silo.