When you work in retail, you have to have a certain fake quality about you. In no way does that mean you're a bad person or don't genuinely care about your job. In certain situations, however, you have to pretend that you care or aren't extremely agitated because its your job and if you don't have a smile on your face, you could easily get called into the office for a talking-to. But if you ask any of us, we can all easily rattle off a list of things we wish we were allowed to say to those few rude and demanding customers that everyone encounters.
1. I don't get paid enough for this
In case you didn't know, people in department stores work awful hard. Whether its folding and re-folding the same table of clothing for 9 hours, ringing people up nonstop on slow registers, running to the back stock room 7 thousand times in one shift because a customer wants every single shoe in a size 10, or picking up every Chick-Fil-A, Wetzels Pretzels or Starbucks cup in the whole store, we all definitely earn that $7-$9 per hour pay. So when a customer starts getting snappy or demands way too much of us, we're all thinking about if its worth it to finish our shift and get that extra $8 or storm out right then and there.
2. I'm standing right here, why would you throw that random thing in the obviously wrong spot?
I cannot tell you how many times I've been standing folding clothes and someone has sat a random item from the opposite side of the store literally right in front of me. This is another example of when us department store employees have to bite our tongues and paste a smile on our faces. Every time this happens all i want to scream is "DO YOU NOT SEE ME STANDING RIGHT HERE?? ARE YOUR LEGS BROKEN SO YOU CANT PUT IT BACK WHERE IT GOES??"
3. I see you tapping your foot and checking your watch, it won't make me go faster
More often than not, when a register line is really long, that employee is rushing to get the line down as fast as possible. None of us want to be yelled at for a long wait. But sometimes technology is hard to deal with and registers freeze or do the wrong thing. We can't help it and we can't fix the computers, and huffing and puffing and shooting us death glares is definitely not going to make us want to ring you up any sooner.
4. Yes you can talk to my manager, but they're going to tell you the same thing I just told you
Often times when you tell a customer one of your store's corporate policies, they don't like the answer you give them and demand to speak to a manager. Thats all fine and dandy, but a store manager at one branch is not going to be able to change a company policy because you didn't read the fine print on your receipt or just straight up lost the damn thing. And certainly yelling at the manager and insisting you're right (when often times you're not) really isn't going to make them want to help you either!
5. We are not here to babysit your kids!!
I understand that sometimes teenagers want to go to the mall to scout out potential dates, heck I used to do that! But my parents always taught me to be respectful in stores and never run and knock things over. But when a momma in a mini van pulls up outside of your store and 7 kids come piling out and run through your store, it takes a lot of will power to not stop them and kick them right on out of there! The mall, and department stores are not a day care, you should not be dropping your kids off just because you have errands to run. And unless you're paying us an extra 7 or so dollars an hour, you shouldn't expect department store employees to chase your kids down, supervise them and keep them from stealing.
6. You just saw me fold that entire table of clothing... why would you mess all of it up??
Unfortunately, because most department stores are mostly clothing, several people's jobs consist solely of folding and refolding clothing pretty much all day long. So when you watch an employee fix a table and make it look nice again, why would you go grab shirts from the bottom of all those stacks and leave it in complete disarray? I mean, I've literally had someone watch me fold a pile, mess the whole thing up, make eye contact with me and walk away. If that isn't inconsiderate, I don't know what is!
7. We're not stupid, we see you stealing things and you'll get caught
Most stores have several cameras throughout all departments, along with at least one loss prevention staff member and every other staff member constantly keeping an eye out for theft. We know how people steal, what they steal and how they hide it to try and get away with it because we are trained and retrained so our store doesn't lose money. So why would you risk getting caught stealing for a pack of headbands, or a bag of candy when 9 times out of 10, someone either already suspects you, or is going to see you do it?
8. We can see right through your story about why you're returning this damaged item and we're allowed to respectfully call BS
When a customer returns an item that has clearly been used or damaged, most of the time there really truly was some kind of issue with it. But sometimes people make up the most odd stories to try and return items that we could NEVER resell in the store. For example, I once had a customer try to return a mouthguard that he claimed they opened and put on the helmet but never used. He said that the coach just told them it was the wrong one. But upon examination, there was a giant bite mark in it, and he still tried to deny ever having used it.
If you've ever worked retail, I'm sure you can sympathize with and give examples of every single one of these situations. But if you've never worked retail, next time you go into a store, just think about how hard those people work to keep their store tidy, and maybe put a shirt or two back where they're supposed to go. I know everyone in that store will appreciate you doing so!
