Most of you know that I work at a grocery store that is part of a large chain in Arizona and owned by a national chain. I worked on Memorial Day, which I didn't mind because I can use all the hours I can get during the summer break. We were busy because apparently it makes the most sense to do all your holiday shopping on the holiday in question. For the most part, our customers were polite, well mannered, fairly sane, and reasonably intelligent. There were, of course, exceptions.
We were sampling ribs, so we had our store grill out front being used to cook said ribs. Now I am sure that most of you know that when a grill is being used, it gets hot and it would not be a good idea to play around with it. We set cones up around the grill, but seeing as we do not have, "leave the grill alone, it is hot, stupid" cones, we used the ones that simply said caution and have the falling man on them. Most of our customers were smart enough to figure out that the cones meant that we did not want them to get too close to the grill when our grillmaster was not there to physically prevent them. However, we had a customer, a grown man, decide that since the cones did not specifically say to leave the grill alone that it meant he could start investigating it. I scared him off just as he was about to put his hand on the side to see "how hot it gets when you cook it." My coworkers said I should have let him burn himself, but I hate to see anyone, even the stupid, hurt themselves.
Later in my shift, I was in the lot grabbing carts when a customer approached me. He had a look on his face that I've seen before, the "I have a problem and I want it to be your problem" look. I took a breath and smiled like a good wage slave. I then had an interesting conversation with him, I'll call him Captain Idiot...
Captain Idiot : "Hey, my car is over there, the green truck, and if I turn it off, it won't start up again. I have to run in really quick to get something. Can you keep an eye on it?"
Me: "No, I can't. We can't be responsible for it."
Captain Idiot : "Don't you have a security guard or something?"
Me: "Yes, but he can't watch it for you either. We cannot be liable..."
Captain Idiot (interrupting me): "I won't hold you guys reliable"
Me (walking away): "It doesn't matter, sir, our policy is clear on this."
Captain Idiot (shouting as he walks into the store): "Sorry you have to work on Memorial Day!"
He was in the store for half an hour and when he came back out, his piece of junk was still there, running and wasting gas.
Yeah, my husband currently works for a grocery store.. the same chain I worked for in college. It's a good store, they really take care of their employees, but awesome benefits and guaranteed wage increases don't protect from stupid customers. I used to come home all the time with tales of idiots in action. Now it's the husband that gets to regale me with the stupid people he runs into.
ReplyDeleteI once had a lady get upset at me because I (the cashier, mind you) apparently never order enough Ovaltine for the day foodstamps are distributed. She bitched me out because she's "always here on the day foodstamps come out and it's always gone when I get here. You need to order more. Why don't you order more of it? I want the big tub and it's never here on this day." It was all I could to do to not point out that A.) I was a cashier, not the freight manager and B.) if you want your damn ovaltine on foodstamp day, don't come in at 11pm and expect us to still have some. I managed to keep my tongue in check and merely tell her that if she wants to ensure there is some for her, she should call the day before and put the item on reserve. She didn't seem to impressed by the suggestion and said something along the lines of 'you should just make sure you have enough.' Because I totally have control over inventory.