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If my retail experience is any indication, acknowledging customers in this situation is a bad idea. Before you know it, the conversation turns to “I just need one thing!” Or “I promise I’ll be really quick!” and you have to become the asshole to tell them no… Even though the store hours are clearly listed on the front door.
Or if you agree even once, the conversation could easily become “but you did it for me/my friend last time!”
I’ve literally had people sneak into the store using an exit, then act all indignant because I tell them to leave. You give some of these fuckers an inch, they’ll take a mile.
My favorite way out of that situation was to tell them that the registers were automatically shut down at closing. Literally no way to ring up a purchase. It worked most of the time
That’s why there’s the JADE acronym. You never justify, argue, defend, or explain. That makes them think there’s a chance if they just counter every single thing you say.
“Can’t you just do it on paper?”
“oh that’s okay, I have cash, coin, and check”
I usually lead with, “That’s out of my control,” or “that’s above my pay grade.” Most of the time people get it.
When I worked at McDonald’s I used to keep the DriveThru headset on after closing while I was doing paper work to tell people “sorry, we’re closed” if they drove up to the speaker board. (Mind you, the building lights and menu board lights are off at this point. Something we call a “clue”.)
That stopped after one too many people screamed “FUCK YOU!” into the speaker board (for us following our posted hours and me politely informing them instead of ignoring them.)You quickly adopt a policy of “just ignore them and they’ll figure it out.”
There’s also a lot of stores with a policy that tills can’t be counted or processed unless everyone is accounted for and all doors locked, if you have to reset that process it can be an extra hour of work.
There’s no way your order is worth me turning everything back on, unless it is way too large to be something quick.
My wife worked at a rental office for an apartment building and had the same experience.
For a moment I thought this was a reply to the McDonalds headset comment and I was so confused, lolll
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It’s only a bad idea if you’re bad at holding boundaries. You can acknowledge them if you’ve developed the ability to say no to people.
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Everyone should work food service and retail at least once in their lives. It would give perspective to, and teach respect for, what those workers have to endure.
The worst part of retail/food service is the inescapable feeling of dread when you stare down the endless abyss of being stuck in that job day in and day out, forever, until you die. Only by resigning yourself to that fate does one gain the perspective needed to truly sympathize with the working class.
And that’s why I went to trade school at age 30. “I gotta get out of these fuckin places.”
It was a good move
Fucking SAME. I bartended and served through college (my degree doesn’t pay well due to YouTube tutorials that have flourished in my industry, lol ouch) and after, and then finally at 30 I started temping in manufacturing, which led to me permanently hired at a huge company with ridiculous benefits, and am now a supervisor in engine assembly that will make 6 figures in 3 years.
I desperately wish I had gone into trade school when I was 18.
Hell yeah! I became an electrician and now I work for myself. Which, so far, absolutely rocks. It turns out I didn’t hate working, I hated having bosses lol
It’s a great path if you’re up for it, to anyone reading
fuck the draft, make everyone spend a year or two in the service industry after high school
I don’t know. Some people who experience abuse and escape it become far worse abusers when they’re in position to do so.
This is very true. I was at my retail job and a customer walked up to me while I happened to be leaning on my workstation because my back hurt. The first thing he says to me is, “when I had a fast food job, if there was time to lean, there was time to clean!“ I looked at him, and then I turned around and walked away. He had this stunned look on his face. I walked into the back room To cool off a bit before I walked back onto the floor. It was probably five or eight minutes. When I walked back out, he was still standing there, at my workstation, waiting for me.
I went to lunch.
Should’ve went and got a broom and handed it to them and responded “looks like you got plenty of time if youre here harassing employees”.
Add call-centers to that list.
Having worked both retail and call center, no, they’re not in the same league. People can be assholes over the phone, absolutely, but it’s quite different from face-to-face. Someone threatens to kill me over the phone, I can say “I’d like to see you try” and hang up, and the worst that happens is I get fired. In person, they can carry out the threat.
And hospitality.
They mad because they wouldn’t acknowledge them or service them after the placed closed? What fucking Karen.
Sometimes it’s just pure obliviousness and you really need to speak up.
One of my embarrassing moments was shopping at a teacher store to supply my ex’s classroom. We were kind of enjoying the afternoon so taking our time, no big deal. Then the store people started coming over more frequently to ask if we needed help. No thank you. Eventually we make our way to the register and were shocked to discover the store closed half an hour ago. wtf, why didn’t someone kick us out, or at least stop being so damn polite and tell us they were closing since we clearly didn’t realize it? I’ll never forget the cringe of keeping people so late, and we were just enjoying leisurely shopping that could have finished long since
My favorite tactic used by several of the coffee shops near me is they start slowly turning the music louder. People naturally start leaving once it’s too loud to think or talk. Place I used to work at we’d turn off half the lights and everyone would just show up at the register no confrontation needed. People were fine with it a vast majority of the time but occasionally there would be someone who asked us to turn the lights back on so they could keep shopping
I like the one with turning off half the lights. That seems like an effective signal while not being confrontational.
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The thing is, you don’t know if the customer is just an asshole or oblivious. So, I could confront you and risk being yelled at (which I really don’t want to deal with at the end of a shift), then stand around waiting for a half hour, OR I could skip the yelling and just stand around waiting for a half hour.
I work at a restaurant inside a park. We open an hour after the park opens, and one of the store entrances is attached to the park welcome building. The doors for that entrance do not securely lock, and can be opened, with a bit of struggle, while locked. You know it’s going to be an interesting day when you have to kick people out BEFORE we open. We don’t turn the lights on until open, but every couple weeks people still manage to get in and expect to be seated.
You can hear them struggle with the door from across the room. They walk into a dark restaurant. You say “I’m sorry we don’t open for another 15 minutes”. Most of the time their response is not to apologize and leave. I’ve heard the open ended statements “Well we’re here now”, or “your doors were unlocked”, or even the more presumptuous “can we eat in the trolley?”. They are still made to wait outside and are inevitably mad about it.
I will choose to avoid confrontation anytime I can, as most of the time I don’t have a choice.
I never worked food service, but I did my time in retail… That “Well we’re here now” just gave me a PTSD-like flashback…
As someone who works retail, I’m pretty shameless when it comes to kicking people out. I do it politely and with a smile but I have no problem telling customers we’re about to close or are closed.
Shameless makes sense. Rules aren’t shameful they’re just rules.
Had people knocking on the door 2 minutes before we opened the other day. I acted like I didn’t see them and waited until 1101 to open just to be petty.
People like that will be mad either way. There’s no right answer.
Writes a bad review when all he had to do was look at the store hours on the sign. Did he also need their personal confirmation that they were closed? People are getting so strange in 2024.
They’ve always been like this
In addition to that there’s usually also working hours on Google Maps that are up to date for most businesses.
I also hate people who fall for rage bait.
I’m more furious they left a shit review.
These reviews fuck with business, especially without context. Map apps while driving only show you the value.
So much work to hate 95% of everyone
No, its quite easy. People inherently suck.
This does not exclude you; It’s directionless and self abnegating. We’re all a little crappy, so focus on those who choose not to at least try. It’s a much more valuable use of your energies.
Not OP, but sure, I resent myself too.
I have trouble imagining a way I could be impressed with humanity in general, without actual willful ignorance. I’m not a dick about it, though. Kind of the opposite; it makes it a lot easier to refrain from judging any individual person.
Not impressed? We’re the funniest natural phenomenon in the known universe, that has to count for something.
Probably true, but humour is pretty human-specific, so that’s a bit like saying we’re the most conventionally attractive by human standards.
Not really, all it requires is theory of mind, social norms, and the ability to anticipate outcomes. Plenty of animals exhibit comedic behavior patterns, but they all know we’re funnier.
If I was one of those employees, my response would be to smile and wave, maybe give a thumbs up, and go back to ignoring them. They can interpret it how they like, and only I know for sure that it means “Lol, you’re getting nothing from me, you dumb buttmunch.”
buttmunch
I haven’t heard that since the Beavis and Butthead days. LOL, thanks for taking me back.
Edit: ROFL… I’m at a bar and right after I posted this comment I saw a sticker on the beer tap. The bar logo here is a woman in a Martini glass and someone made a sticker with that woman’s face as (what looks like) Butthead. Perfect timing.
Here’s the sticker:
Zoomed out:
I don’t know what platform this is, but such a review should be moderated in some way. If an employee treats you badly during normal service, then fine, it’s justified to drop a negative review, but if you’re as incompetent as to be unable to understand that nobody is obliged to serve you outside of the stated working hours, it’s entirely your problem and it shouldn’t affect the rating of the establishment.
Looks like Google Maps
English isn’t my first language. What does “tossing one’s hair” mean?
Flicking your head to make the hair move, i.e. out of your eyes.
It’s when you rip out a chunk of your hair, add spit to make it into a projectile, and hurl it at the glass separating you from a wayward zombie customer.
Good
Is this supposed to be ragebait or what? This review is obviously non-sensical end of story
There’s a reason on the doors or windows there are openings and closings. Nobody is going to roll the red carpet out for you with 10 minutes left because they know all that you’re going to do is waltz in and take time beyond 10 minutes.
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The workers have learned that they can’t pre-judge the person knocking on the door; that opening the door opens a conversation, and that a conversation can only impact them negatively despite following the rules.
They know a belligerent Karen can cause more problems on a phone than they need, and that it’s easier and safer to play deaf until the person goes away so there’s no specific target for her rage – if she’s that kind of person.
But, as mentioned, they don’t know whether she or he is a Chad or a Karen, and the odds are low but the impact is high. So, best to play deaf and work another day.
