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For those who have or do work retail

11BravoCrunchie11BravoCrunchie Member Posts: 33,423 ✭✭
edited June 2007 in General Discussion
Have you ever had a customer approach you and ask, "Excuse me, do you work here?" while you're wearing some sort of uniform?

Had that happen Sunday. I almost gave the woman a piece of my mind. Had she been asking about anything except where the restrooms are now located, I might have.

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    buschmasterbuschmaster Member Posts: 14,229 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    when I was actually working at a store, yes, and I thought it was a damn stupid question. "where's the hair spray?" "on the shelves." I got in trouble for that one.

    I used to wear a shirt and tie a lot back in the college days. many times I'd be in a store looking at something and someone would come up and ask me if I was the manager. sometimes I wouldn't say "no" but I'd help them find their stuff anyways if it was nearby.
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    aramisviaramisvi Member Posts: 4,589
    edited November -1
    yes. wearing nametag and all.
    my sister is a manager for a big box store similar to wallyworld. she has people ask her to "wash the dirt from the bags of planting soil because i don't want to get my truck dirty" and "i want 20 bags of soil can you load them into the trunk of my 64 stingray, but don't get it dirty."

    yes, she told me these two zingers last night.

    she has also had people buy frozen turkeys and then call back to complain that they are still frozen by the time they got home.
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    jbw1776jbw1776 Member Posts: 3,056
    edited November -1
    I get asked in Home Depot if I work there from other customers all the time. No uniform though. I guess it's because I'm actually doing something (unlike the employees) that are nowhere to be found.[}:)]

    Ben
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    Ba SardoBa Sardo Member Posts: 562 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Working retail was an unending parade of dumb questions and "excuse me, do you work here," I would have to say is the least retarded of them all.

    Bar-none, the dumbest question I ever heard was, "Can I leave my child here? I just need to do some quick shopping."
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    SuburbanNoizeSuburbanNoize Member Posts: 10,142
    edited November -1
    Whn i was working at taco bell, people would make stuff up that sounded like mexican food, and then get angry when i told them i have no idea what they were talking about. We had 2 windows, one for money taking the other for food and drinks, i would always tell stupid people to pull up to the middle window. Any before they made me manager, people would drink half their soda at the window waiting for their food and ask us to fill it up again, or "top it off" Certainly, with water.
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    Stink FootStink Foot Member Posts: 897 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I dont know how you could bear it.
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    p3skykingp3skyking Member Posts: 25,750
    edited November -1
    In time you will get used to it. I don't look at "Do you work here?" as a stupid person question as much as it is an introductory from a customer to an employee prior to asking the real question.

    All other stupid questions come from stupid people.[;)]
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    bobskibobski Member Posts: 17,868 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    people ask, "do you work here" because they obviously asked someone before and they turned out not to work there.
    besides, its normal public custom to identify your purpose for communicating before you do.

    another place you find this is in eatery's.
    you walk in and it looks closed and you ask, "are you open?"
    50-50 it is and 50-50 it isnt.
    especially if you come in at early or late hour.

    the one i hate is the hired INVENTORY PUKES working during customer hours. all they do is get in your way and they know better than anyone where the stuff is, they just dont give a rats. make em inventory after hours, i say.
    Retired Naval Aviation
    Former Member U.S. Navy Shooting Team
    Former NSSA All American
    Navy Distinguished Pistol Shot
    MO, CT, VA.
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    zipperzapzipperzap Member Posts: 25,057
    edited November -1
    You need to BEE in a more distinctive uniform, that's all!

    bee1.jpg
    [:D]
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    Colonel PlinkColonel Plink Member Posts: 16,460
    edited November -1
    I was eating lunch in a Thai restaurant in Denver one day. When we got up to leave, I put on the foul weather jacket I had leftover from my Navy days. It had a badge on the shoulder from a deployment to Lebanon.

    Those of you famaliar with the region know that the official tree of Lebanon is a Cedar.

    So I'm standing there in a green jacket with a pine tree on the shoulder and some chick starts giving me a ration of shyte about a ticket she got at a National Park.

    I asked her why she was bothering me, and she poked me on the shoulder, hissing something about "...you park rangers have nothing better to do..."

    When I quit laughing, I politely told her that I wasn't a park ranger, I was a Navy vet. And if she had a problem with the Nat'l Parks' Service, she could probably find a phone number in the phone book.

    I don't think she believed me.

    Thanks for the memory. I'd forgotten about that.
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    dongizmodongizmo Member Posts: 14,477 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    When I worked in retail, it would never fail, that if I farted, before I could escape, somebody would approach me and ask a question.
    [}:)]
    I know if it was burning my nose hairs, it was theirs too.
    [:0][xx(]
    The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools.
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    yawarakaiyawarakai Member Posts: 2,688 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I work as a secret shopper and there are times we have to ask that question.
    I remember at my grandma's funeral, my brother and I were late teens and wearing suits. All of my grandma's Eastern Star biddies would come up to us and ask us if we worked there and where was the bathroom.
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    DieHard4DieHard4 Member Posts: 2,373 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Zulu7
    Have you ever had a customer approach you and ask, "Excuse me, do you work here?" while you're wearing some sort of uniform?

    Had that happen Sunday. I almost gave the woman a piece of my mind. Had she been asking about anything except where the restrooms are now located, I might have.



    Don't even get me started on that one. We used to wear vests and hardly ever got that question. Then we got rid of the vests and started wearing the same color shirts. Now everyone, and I mean everyone asks me if I work there. I am always suprised that the kids never ask me that, only the adults. I started saying no a while back, and that gets some strange remarks. Either the person will look at me for a second, and then say, "Oh, I'm sorry," and slowly turn away while still looking, and that is when I have to tell them I am just kidding, and they are suprised about that. Or the person looks at me funny, and then says, "Yes you do." In which case I think to myself, "If you know that I work here why do you ask me if I work here, when we all have name tags and the same color shirts and pants?" Just don't get people. And then when I shop at Walmart I have people asking me where something is, as if I work there. Just doesn't make sense. Even worse is that when someone calls the store they hear a message with the days and times that the store is open before the call goes through. So what do they do when I pick up? They ask what time the store closes that day.
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    Locust ForkLocust Fork Member Posts: 31,704 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have people ask me about things in most stores....I must look like I know something!!!!!
    LOCUST FORK CURRENT AUCTIONS: https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Sort=13&IncludeSellers=618902&PageSize=48 Listings added every Thursday! We do consignments, contact us at mckaygunsales@gmail.com
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    JamesRKJamesRK Member Posts: 25,670 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You should have said "No, but don't tell the boss."
    The road to hell is paved with COMPROMISE.
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    ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    The question "do you work here" didn't bother me half as much as some blowhard telling, 'I'm gonna have your job!"

    One guy told me that after I wouldn't give him a refund on a product the store didn't even carry and I just told him he wouldn't like it any more than I did.
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    fu007danfu007dan Member Posts: 1,116 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I work at Gander Mountain, for those of you that don't know.. we all wear HUNTER ORANGE vests with name tags, and gander mountain in big letters across the back and written on the front. I have at least 3 people a week ask me if I work there.. I've become fond of saying no and going back to whatever I was doing. [xx(]
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    shoff14shoff14 Member Posts: 11,994 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't technically work retail, but I work in a store/shop with a retail side. I have to do the retail side once in a blue moon. We also try to make first contact with customers just as a friendly little way of say hi or welcome.


    One place that also does that I find greatly helpful is Sportsmans warehouse, not every employee is always wearing vest or what not, but it seems every time I am there I have to swat employees away from me. However, they are also very helpful when you can't find that certain little jig head that I just know should be there but can't find it.
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    akfanatikakfanatik Member Posts: 580 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    worked at a grocery store in my small town and it happened quite a bit, especially from out of towners, one woman asked me that and i told her i didnt, i was planning to rob the place. she didnt say anything and walked away looking scared
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    BigGun74BigGun74 Member Posts: 189 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have worked retail and have plenty of mind boggling "do you work here?" type stories but the best one actually happend to me last weekend years after I have left the big box retail world behind. I was in Circuit City looking for a network card wearing a green t-shirt that advertised a local bar (circuit city sales people were red polo shirts in case there is someone who has never been there)unshaved and otherwise looking ratty in preparation for a day spent tinkering with the computer and swearing, and not at all like a saleperson. I had a guy come up and start asking me to ring up his purchase for him. I am sure if I hadn;t been caught so off guard I would have hit him with one of thousands of sarcastic come backs I had gamely swallowed as a retail wage slave, but all I could think to do was point him in the direction of an actual employee standing ten feet away. It's not just you, the customers really do turn into idiots when they walk in the door.
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    aramisviaramisvi Member Posts: 4,589
    edited November -1
    can i give a reverse situation where i actually had to ask that question?

    we were at a local best buy, we had been there for about an hour and had picked out over $150 worth of dvds to buy. they announced that the store closed in fifteen minutes, so we made our way to the front and went to a register. no one there...or at the other registers. here it was, fifteen mitutes til closing and they had closed ALL registers. i actually had the movies in my hand and went to a guy, nametag wearin manager on duty, and asked if he worked there. he said yes. so i asked him if anyone was going to ring us up. he babbled then said they had closed all registers. so i said, does that mean i don't have to pay for the movies? he said i did and i asked if all the registers are closed before you closed the store how am i supposed to pay? he said come back tomorrow. i said i was there now. he actually said "so?" so i just dropped the movies at his feet and said, you just lost a customer. we called and complained to the gm, he offered us 15% off our next visit. it's been 2 years and we haven't been back to collect on that.
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    matwormatwor Member Posts: 20,594
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Locust Fork
    I have people ask me about things in most stores....I must look like I know something!!!!!


    Its the hair!![;)]
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    WinM70WinM70 Member Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I work for a big box retailer, and I were the other color vest.
    You should see the looks people give ya, it eats them alive, they want to ask so bad but don't cause they know your the "other" guy. Sometimes I just look back, sometimes offer assistance, if they do ask it depends on what it is I have going on or how they ask weather I can help or "I don't know as I don't work that department/area" answer turn and walk away. People never complain cause they think I don't work there, and just look for someone else. Oh so fun.
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    NeilTheBritNeilTheBrit Member Posts: 390 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A couple times yes. I thought it was odd because I was wearing the Company shirt with my 2"x3" nametag and I was behind the counter!!.
    I work in a big box auto parts store and here's todays gems.
    Lady buys a can of R134A refrigerant and asks if I can show her where to pour it in.
    Gent starts rapping on the counter and say's his engine sounds like that, what does he need to fix it.
    Phone call. "Ive just bought an engine that's being used to drive a generator, it's a 6 cylinder, do you know what car it came out of?"
    Phone call. "I need spark plugs for my car", "what year's your car?", don't know", "make?", not sure. Now I'm pissed "what colour is it?", "Not sure, I'll just go and look"
    Gent wants a dash cover. "There special order, if ordered today It'll be here on Wednesday", "great, go ahead and order it". He pays for the special order and then stands there waiting. "Was there something else?", "No I just need my dash cover". Explained VERY slowly, when I'd finished he cancelled his order and demanded not only a refund but compensation as well for his wasted time.
    Lady buys a MAP sensor, comes back in the store a couple minutes later and wants a refund, "was there somthing wrong with the sensor", "no it didnt fix the problem so I want my money back", gave her a refund to which she said "Now I want to buy a TPS to see if that will work". You guessed it, she was back asking for a refund, which she got. After that we were out of stock for whatever she asked for.

    Never a dull moment in retail.
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    buschmasterbuschmaster Member Posts: 14,229 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    what color is it! ha! that's funny.
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