Sunday, 05 July 2009
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The Do's and Don'ts of Department Store Shopping
If you're like me, you like to shop. Or at least, you DO shop. Either way, you must spend some amount of time in a department store.
Now I'll admit, before I took this job at my local TJMaxx, I was just an everyday, normal shopper. I have been guilty of several of these transgressions during the 19 years I've been shopping. (Yes, I've been shopping since infancy. I loved grabbing shoes off the shelves when I was in stores with my mother.) But in the almost month I've been a sales associate, I've realized just how many things any shopper does can further complicate the job a sales associate has to do. Thus, I've compiled a list of the do's and don'ts of department store shopping.
DO try and find an item with a price tag attached. If it isn't the right color you are looking for, bring both items to the register with you, and we can check you out with the item you want. If you can't find another item of the same, ask an associate on the floor to help you out. We can do price check runs from the register, but just know that it will take time; 5-10 minutes at least, so don't get upset with the cashier because you have to wait. We are going as fast as we can, and doing the best we can with the resources we have.
DON'T ditch half your cart at the cash register. Know exactly what you plan on purchasing before you get to the register and before we have completely rung you out. Now, I don't mean if you have gone over-budget and you need to remove one or two items. That's not a big deal. I mean coming up with a cart load of things and then deciding as you are being rung out that you don't want every other item you have with you. That causes unnecessary items behind the counter and takes away valuable time from the sales team that could be used to help serve you and our store better and more efficiently.
DO put things back where you got them. So you think that top is cute but want to take a better look? Go ahead, take it off the rack and look. But if you decide it's not for you, for goodness sake PUT IT BACK where you found it. That goes for anything, anywhere in the store. And please, don't carry a million things around the store and then drop them all in a pile in an unrelated department. There is nothing more annoying to a sales associate than having to spend two hours doing recovery, picking up juniors clothes strewn all throughout the home department. Just please, have some respect for our store and for us. We want your shopping experience to be easy and enjoyable, but it can't be if your associates are spending all their time cleaning up after you and your fellow shoppers.
DON'T use the kids/toys department as a daycare for your children. By all means, bring your children to the store with you. But please, keep an eye on them. Don't send them to wreak havoc throughout the toy section while you shop for shoes across the store. Sales associates are not babysitters, and cannot be blamed for any trouble your children get into. We want your children to be safe, but accidents do happen, and if you aren't watching them, it is more likely your child could get hurt. No one wants to see that happen. Just use common sense when you take your children shopping with you.
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Now these guidelines are good for use in any store, whether it be a Wal-Mart, a Macy's, or even just your local grocery store. Not only is it just good practice, and respectful of the store you are visiting, but following these simple tips will help all of us sales associates help you, the customer, have a more pleasant shopping experience.
Are any of you guilty of these shopping transgressions? Have any of you experienced a change in the way you shop because you have worked retail? What else would you add to this list?
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- From: Allyson_Singsxo@xanga
- Name: Allyson
- Location: Jamestown, New York, United States
- About Me: allyson rae. 19. freshman music major. I'm a daughter. I'm a sister. I'm a friend. Give me a pillow, a blanket, some junk food & a House marathon, & I'm happy. Give me your heart, & I'll love you forever.
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Comments (82)
This is a great list!
nope, that sounds about right ^^
People actually leave their kids alone in the toy department?! Are you serious?
@choyshinglin@xanga - That's definitly one of my pet peeves!!
Good list(:
Sometimes if my sister and I are in a hurry, we leave the clothes we don't want on the rack in the dressing room instead of putting them all back on their respective racks... but it says that's what it's for, so I don't know if I'd consider that a "transgression," since we're not just tossing them in some random department where they don't belong. Thoughts?
the only thing I've ever done is the one about not taking things back... I usually do though. I've even brought stuff to the front to an associate that other people have left around the store because people are idiots... unopened frozen things in the clothing aisles and things O.O so I vote that negates the few times I've been in too much of a hurry or forgot where something went.
I've always shopped following those rules as well as many others, and its hard to wrap my head around just how horrible some shoppers are.
AMEN to the last one!
oh yesss you are sooooo right on all of them.
@GodsGirl62@xanga - Yes, they really do. & the kids run rampant through the store and the parents just ignore it. It's ridiculous.
@choyshinglin@xanga - Agreed. I've had customers ask to do that, & I had to tell them they would have to finish this purchase and then make a second one when they return. It's just impossible to keep things running smoothly otherwise.
@MiladyMasked@xanga - Leaving clothes on the racks in the dressing room is perfectly acceptable. That is why those racks are there, and it's not too much effort for us to run them back to where they belong. It's when people ditch toys in the men's department and shoes in the home goods that upset us. And mostly when people put sizes back in the wrong size section. TJMaxx is set up differently than other stores; we arrange by size, not by style, so sizes in the right place is really a big deal.
bravo ally! =)
ive always tried to adhere to the behavior that you put on your list. i've never worked in retail but i can certainly empathize and see how much of a PITA it can be for sales associates to have to basically "clean up" after shoppers. sometimes when i go shopping with my parents and they get stuff that they end up not wanting, i'll take the unwanted clothing and re-rack it in the original place since they are accustomed to just placing it down somewhere. meh. my aunt works at kohl's now and she constantly has to deal with this frustration, too. blech. here's to hoping for common sense shopping ethic!
this is a good list to go by! also, it just seems like common sense that if you make an article of clothing or anything fall off the hanger, rack, shelf, whatever, to just pick it up and put it back! not THAT difficult.
In grocery stores, if my mom decides she doesn't want something I don't walk it back. Psh, we're already in line and I'm not walking all the way to the other side of the store. In most of the stores I've been to, someone's job is put things back. Other than that, I'm pretty good about using common sense and courtesy. I worked in retail and I hated people leaving trash & all kinds of other things in the dressing room or using them as restrooms. Now that is something to complain about. Everything else I can live with because it was part of my job.
this is a great list. :]
After working at a clothes retail store as a sales associate and fitting room attendant nothing really surprises me anymore... Prolly the most shocking was the people using the fitting rooms as a bathroom. Ugh! It didn't happen often but when it did...ewww! But yeah, people dumping stuff in other departments was right up there amongst my pet peaves. And going through stacks of jeans and simply leaving them in a mangled pile on the floor. (sometimes stepping right on them as they were leaving.)
I worked at a Kohl's for a summer... seriously some of the behaviour was ridiculous. Sometimes people would decide 3 seconds after they'd purchased all their items that they in fact did not want them, so could I please just take off that purchase? No, I can't. You've already given me the cash, the sale is in the system. You'll have to go to returns. Other times, people would take the entire sign with the sale price on it and bring it to the register, so I KNEW what the price was, even if the register said differently. Honestly, why would you grab a sign?!
@TiRocKiinPiinK@xanga - trash is definately awful. Just yesterday, I was doing recovery before we closed and someone left a half-empty Tim Horton's coffee cup sitting on a shelf of men's underwear. I was like...wtf? I've also come across an empty Starbucks cup, and get this -- a condom wrapper. ew. And I agree, if you're already in line, there's no reason to walk back one or two items yourself. I was refering more to carrying a shirt around the store, and then deciding "oh I don't want this, so I'll leave it on top of this bin of clearance kitchen gadgets." That makes no sense to me. You're gonna walk back up to the front of the store to cash out anyway, why not stop and put the shirt back where you found it?
@Chili_Sunrise@xanga - OMG--people actually DID that? That's so gross. ick.
@evil_moxie@xanga - haha sign-grabbing. That's one I haven't seen yet. That's crazy.
i work at target, and most of these things apply there. i think my biggest pet peeve is when we making the closing announcements and people BLATANTLY ignore them. we announce when there is 15 min. til closing and 5 min. til closing over the PA system that is heard THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE STORE. the registers dont close until well after all the customers are gone, but if i see a guest on the floor after the 5 min. warning taking their sweet old time, i tell them the registers will close so they need to leave right then. it pisses me off when people stroll into the fitting rooms at 9:50 with 12 things and take their time. how rude can you possibly be?!
gAh
The worst is when people open packaging for things that are clearly not meant to be opened in the store. Espically when their are signs. Espically when they yell at you for telling them not to open things. Grrrr..
The biggest problems people have today is they lack common courtesy, I worked in a grocery store and saw people put down cold items they no longer wanted just anywhere, so they wouldn't get found and spoil. Plus too many think that those that work in sales SHOULD do all this extra stuff for them, that they can and should treat those that work in sales like trash and slaves.
I was taught that if you decided you no longer wanted an item you personally returned it to were it came from or gave it to an associate to put away, NO WHERE ELSE! To bad more people don't do that.
Wow are you insulting our intelligence?
i recently went shopping for a swim top. i went thru at least 10 stores before i found one that fit me rite and looked cute. only when i went to check out, they couldnt sell it to me b/c the bottom was missing. it was an ordeal for me to talk to two managers to finally be able to buy my product. people who shoplift or mix n match w/o swapping garments are so inconsiderate!