ReTales: True stories from Retail

 Ok I wish I didn’t have to type this but here we go. I am sure many of you I am not personally addressing with this because you are decent human beings. However unfortunately the past week has been proof that not everyone is like that.

I have had two separate incidents within the space of a week where I have had to defend one of my colleagues. The customers both times have also wanted me to serve on tills while I have been doing other tasks. Now if it is busy I will of course make the tills my priority but both times it wasn’t. It has been sheer refusal to be served by my colleague and them seeing me as the only other option. This hasn’t been due to my colleague’s actions or way of serving customers. It has been due to people’s discrimination against their race of beliefs. 

This isn’t right in any shape or form!

If it was something the colleague had said and done I wouldn’t have minded so much, believing that people are responsible for their own actions. However this was not. I, like pretty much any retail worker, am NOT going to tolerate racism or any other kind of discrimination towards either my colleagues or other customers. Workers don’t get paid to deal with your closed mind and hate. People don’t deserve hate just for existing. 

Lets all be humans and respect each other or might be better to stay silent

and if all else fails remember...

We have the right to refuse service and aren’t afraid to both use that and report you

*The tills are quiet so I am putting returns and unwanted stock back on the shelf*

Customer: Hello. I need a basket

Me: Ah ok. There are baskets by each of the doors

Customer: I want YOU to get me a basket

Me: *takes a breath and puts my customer service persona on* I'll be back with it in a moment

Customer: Hurry. I have a lot of stuff

Me: *goes and grabs a basket before returning to that aisle. The customer was nowhere to be seen.*

People. If you ask someone to do something for you, wait for them XD

Cashier: That is £7.20 please

Customer: *hands over an old £10 note that is out of circulation*

Cashier: Sorry but that note isn't legal tender anymore

Customer: *deapdan expression* It's english

Cashier: Yes but it's an old english note. They went out of circulation over a year ago

Customer: No it isn't. I got this in change yesterday

Cashier: *takes a breath* They aren't legal and I would get in trouble if I took it i'm afraid.

Customer: Fine but they shouldn't be given out

Cashier: unfortunately I can't control other shops.

I thought I would start this blog off with a few passive aggressive tips so I really hope you enjoy them even if we may not agree on them all, 

1: If you don’t want it, put it back - The lovely people serving you probably already have about 6 baskets full of returns and things customers have left around to put back in the right place. We’d appreciate you not adding to that thank you

2: Leave your phone in your pocket / bag - It can be considered pretty bad manners and it gets a bit confusing to hear you having a conversation with both the cashier and the person on the other end of the phone. I’m sure your call can wait one minute.

3: Don’t push in front of others - If you decide to ignore this one please don’t be offended when we ask you to join the back of the queue. We aren’t blind and we do notice what you’re trying to do. 

4: Listen to your cashier - If we are trying to tell you something we are generally trying to help you out. Of course you can always ignore our advice and get exactly the same from our manager but I wouldn’t recommend that. 

5: No receipt, no refund - If I had money every time someone tried to return something without a receipt I would be out of retail and living it up. If I only got it for how often they succeeded, however, I wouldn’t get much extra at all. It’s just not worth it people. Keep your receipt and we all end up happy.

6: Remember we are just people - You might be looking at the tips above and thinking “So what do these people want?” It’s simple. Treat us like you would anyone else. A greeting, kind words or a smile goes a long way to making our jobs easier.

This is by no means the full list but a few examples for you all