uh i totally agree. though i never worked at retail, i worked at superstore & they have some of the worse customers because..
a) if the lines are longer than usual they yell at you for not opening more lanes and it's like: hello i cant do that, the managers do, and plus we have a schedule on when employees work and get off.
b) the phone one is absolutely correct. i had that 2x
c) when you get harassed by customers because you wont put in their damn expired, incorrect item- coupon.
d) getting mad at you because their credit card/ debit doenst work. it's not my fault that maybe you went over your limit on your credit card or you dont have enough in your debit card. thats your and the credit card's company. not mine.
e) when your items dont scan through properly and you're calling someone to get it fixed and they cant wait and scream at you because we work there and we should be able to fix it. we're not managers, we're just cashiers. we cant do everything we dont have all the rights.
f) especially when they tell you that you're not going fast enough. if im not fast enough, go to the next lane. im trying my best under pressure without making a mistake ==
g) when the scanner scaned an item wrong, and you cant "trust" that they wont lie to you, so you have to call your manager, ask for assistance, and the customers find out that they're right, after managers leave they bitch at you that they were right in the first place. "customers are always right." ==

those are just some of my problems while i worked at superstore :P i feel your sympathy! that's why when i go to retail/ supermarkets i understand their problem and wait patiently and not force the coupon through :)

@Shy___Away@xanga - Working in a restaurant wasnt too bad for me personally. I just hated when I as a hostess got yelled at for the food or if people were "eating too slow". I told a customer once that if she wanted something fast, McDonald's was down the block. But yes, retail as a whole can be a killer. Some people thing retail workers are their servants & try to treat them as such.

@kristentsuii@xanga - OMG YES!! I hate when credit cards dont work. I feel bad when things like that happen & I talk low to the customer so they wont be embarrassed & then they blow up at me asking why their shit doesnt work. I swear retail workers should be allowed to slap 5 people per shift before getting in trouble because some people really deserve to have sense knocked into them.

And I agree with the item scanning. I had a shirt not ring up & this man tried to tell me it was $23 when it was really $29 then I got a dirty look for calling the department for confirmation. I dont get why people who can afford things will try to steal. I wish we had stricter rules to ban people like that from the store because we get this all day, all the time!

The absolute best (and most hilarious) blog on this subject: http://notalwaysright.com/

I've worked at Safeway. I know it's not exactly retail but I totally understand where you're coming from.

I worked at Mervyn's before the whole out of business mess and I experienced all of that but that was all part of the job. So......I couldn't really do much about it.

@WhenHateIsTheOnlyOption@xanga - That's not true. Just because things happen on the job doesnt mean it's acceptable & you shouldnt just take it. Any good manager will tell a customer something is not needed & ask them to leave or call authorities of their behavior becomes violent. Last year when had a mother & her vile child (I say vile because she was rude to us & locked all the fitting rooms!!) go off & we had one of the stock boys call a manager because we didnt want to escalate the situation & he told her to leave & we didnt need her money if she was going to treat us this way.

@just_the_average_jane@xanga - I hate idiots like that in retail. Just because a customer doesnt understand does not mean they deserve less respect. The town I'm in is often a popular spot with tourists but I dont assume they dont understand. I still say hello, goodbye, please & thank you.

In their ignornace, some salespeople will look at someone & assume they wont understand things & start speaking a foreign language & get the shock of their lives. I've seen it happen. We had a white woman complain to the managers when associates started saying things about her in plain sight because they assumed she wouldnt understand them & I swear they looked ready to piss their pants when the manager came over!! XD

I should write one of these for fast food workers. Some of the concepts are the same, like people talking on their phones and getting pissed when something is "wrong" with their orders.

And dont' EVEN get me started on children, a lady is trying to sue the ChickFilA I work at because her child went face first down the slide and busted his face. That's not OUR problem. We're not babysitters!

YESYESYES! on number three!
And to add to the list, "When I say we're out of a certain product, we're seriously out of it." I work at Bath and Body works and I have people complaining about not having something and then asking 3 other sales associates if we have it/ -__-'
It's also really annoying when people get mad at us for something the company does. Like when we discontinue certain scents, people yell at us like it was our fault. O_O OMG. I'M FREAKING SORRY.

I agree with these, some customers can be annoying but so can some people who work in retail >.>

omg thank you! thats how i felt when i worked in retail! I learned that people can be such snobby &^%$$s

I found this only since I started working that the Mall of America (woo yay minnesota) but my biggest pet peeve is getting hit on or asked for my phone number at work. I once had to get my manger involved because I was so uncomfortable and he reminded them that it was sexual harassment and that he could press charges against them for harassing his employee.

Absolutely.  The store I work for right now is actually EXTREMELY lenient with returns, so people can wear shoes for a year (until they're beat up and gross) and bring them in, say, "They were the wrong size" and exchange them for a new pair.  If they kept their receipt, they even get full price for the shoes.  The company will basically do anything for customers, so people have figured that out and walk all over the associates who work there.  I get sick of:

1)  People complaining that we have to put security devices on merchandise to keep it from being stolen.

2)  People who yell at me across the store instead of finding me (it's a very small store - I'm easy to find) and politely asking for help.  Also, people who get to the register and yell across the store that they're ready (we don't have someone stationed at the register at all times where I work).  Normally, I've SEEN them approach the register and I'm on my way there when I hear, "EXCUSE ME!"  One day I had a woman yell, "Um, there's a lady who is ready to check out!"  The lady who was "ready" to check out was still across the store from the register, shopping in the aisles.

3)  People who pull me away from standing on a ladder and trying to pull down a stack of boxes so they can ask me if we have a shoe . . . especially when they were standing three feet from the shoe and there were six of that particular shoe on the shelf.  Or people who want to know if we have more merchandise "in the back."  This probably isn't helped by the corporate policy, which is to say, "Just a minute.  Let me go check!" and then go into the back room, where there is NO merchandise being stored, wait an appropriate amount of time, and then come back out and tell the customer, "Oh, I'm sorry.  We don't have that in the back either.  How about this item instead?"  Why lie to people?

4)  People who insist an item is on sale because a $5 tag happened to be laying in the box they picked up.  Then, when you explain to them that the tag has fallen in by mistake and that if it were on sale, it would be attached to the box, insist on getting it on sale anyway.  And when you explain you can't mark the item down, they insist on speaking to your manager or district manager.

5)  Customers who get their nose out of joint for various reasons and call the corporate office with a made up story to get you in trouble.  Working at a shoe store, we're supposed to offer to measure children's feet if they're younger than 8 years old.  I had a woman come in with her 16-year-old son once.  After a bit, she had him ask to have his feet measured.  Teenagers do this all the time to entertain themselves, so when he asked I responded, nicely, "Are you serious?"  He said yes, so I said, "Oh, ok.  Sure." and helped him measure his feet.  The mother called the corporate office, told them a sales associate had refused to measure her "small child's foot" and had said, "You've got to be kidding me!" when the child requested it.  Fortunately, the manager knows me well enough that she refused to write me up when she heard my side of the story.  But that was NOT funny.  I may not like my job much, but I really like that it pays the bills and I'd rather not get fired for a dumb reason.