Ever work retail? It is tragic the way the quality of customer service has deteriorated, but there are lots of reasons for it. For one thing, it sucks working for some megalo-mart where the pay is low, the work is hard and unchallenging, the hours are bad, you have no identity as a human being, plus customers can be real jerks sometimes. I found a forum where people who work with the public can blow off some steam called "Customers Suck". Note: there is a "Blueberry" posting over there but it's not me.
I found a link there to an article about customers getting cashiers fired because they forgot to verbally mention an Xtreme Value item to the customer. If the customer points out that they forgot to mention it, the item is free! Trouble is that after 3 slip-ups on the cashier's part, the poor schmuck loses his or her job. Of course, the main blame here resides with the ruthless employee-unfriendly policies of the retail giant, an easy way to replace an old warm body with a new one. This story is disturbing and is going to change my attitude about taking advantage of a big retailer by legitimately claiming stuff. Sticking it to The Man is a fine concept, but it's good to keep in mind that The Big Guy is going let The Little Guy take the fall for him without feeling a thing. Ruthless.
I generally have a tolerant attitude toward the working person ringing me out. It helps if everyone tries to remember that we are all human and just trying to get through the day. Did you accidentally cheat me out of a dime? That's OK, it's not worth going ballistic over it. But, if you are a cashier, don't be mean to me for no reason. I realize it sucks to be you, but passing along your mis-directed aggression and frustrations onto an innocent victim like me is not going to get you anywhere. It's also not going to get me anywhere to do that to you.
So if everybody from the customer up to the fat-cat CEO would just make a few allowances for humanity once in a while, daily life would suck a whole lot less... especially this time of year when hostilities peak (where's that Jesus when you need him?)
- shopping - retail -
2 comments:
"SUCKS 2 B U" I bet somebody's already got that band name, huh? And the name of album is "RETAIL HOSTILITY"? (You're right about all this, of course.) Happy Hostilities!
"Happy Hostilities" is the perfect religiously-generic-secular greeting for both unfortunate people with few benefits who will be given no time off at all this year because the actual holidays fall on the weekend... and for people who work with the public and have to work the holidays because "somebody has to be there". HALLMARK? Are you paying attention?
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