Stupid things customers ask on Xmas Eve Eve

My parents were pharmacists and took bets on the most unreasonable 5pm Christmas Eve prescription they would get - almost always someone with a long standing repeat prescription for something rare and expensive that would need to be ordered by any Chemist for those reasons (no chemist would buy it just as stock as chances are it would expire before anyone needed it). The customer would then rant at them because despite taking this for 5 years for a life threatening condition they had left it to 1 days supply to refill the prescription. Ah, happy days. Sometimes we would do the Christmas Day Chemist shift (one chemist in the town would agree to be open for 2 hours on Christmas Day). That was even worse because then the wholesalers aren't open either which was apparently also our fault. We were also expected to telepathically know which other chemists might have these items (before computers were in common use in pharmacies).

Are all these customers really 'up in arms' and saying you've 'ruined Christmas' though?

I went to Makro yesterday for stuff for my business and while I was there picked up a few bits for myself. I wanted one of their small rib of beef joints but couldn't see any. I asked 'do you have any of the...' and before I could get the words out the butcher jumped down my throat and finished my sentence for me, saying 'Oh God, not another one, you mean the ribs of beef? NO!!! I don't have any, I've been sold out for days, I keep saying to everyone YOU NEED TO ORDER if you want this stuff guaranteed. I can't just order extra of everything then risk being stuck with it after Christmas if people don't want it. Just because we are a wholesaler we don't have a limitless supply of everything, you know' and on and on he went, like I'd really touched a raw nerve.

So the only person 'up in arms' was him. I just shrugged and smiled and said 'Oh well, never mind, thanks anyway' and went on my way. It was not of huge importance to me that I had it and if it had been I'd not have left it so late.

Deleted :Quoted wrong post, was 👍 meaningless

No she's just greedy and claiming benefits.

But would you have known that from, "It's got a blue cover and my mum was looking at it in a shop," which is what the customer initially asked?

Bonkers

Thanks to the person who mentioned the Dunning Kruger thing. I didn't know there was a recognised 'label' 👏👍🏻

Will people stop being so nasty about ELLIE the poor girl is obviously autistic or has MH problems or both.

These plans differ between retailers and the planners completely fail in some cases.

There's a logical space for eggs at my local Sainsbury's. They could shuffle the Asian supplies with the eggs and it would make more sense.

I am convinced it is just to annoy me personally.

Eggs are displayed on ambient shelving and dairy in refrigerated cabinets so in most stores you cannot get them adjacent to each other.

Typically store macro space is based on a master template with adjacencies that are logical when you are shopping but as all stores are different sizes, dimensions and sales volumes it’s like an enormous jigsaw puzzle to get all the sections into the plan. As Eggs are a stand alone section when the store macro space is laid down they can be moved around the floor to try and facilitate landing the plan. But the planners will be trying as hard as they can to hit the ideal master template as it’s in the retailers interest to make it as easy as possible for you to find everything you want to buy.

I've worked in retail and hospitality.

I still think there should be a law about where eggs are located in the supermarket and that supermarket should be fined if they don't put beans in the beans aisle.

I used to work at a very old, very posh boys' boarding school. The Registrar once got a phone call, at his home, on Christmas Day at lunchtime from a father wanting to discuss enrolling his son in the school. When he was politely rebuffed, the father threatened to come straight round to the Registrar's house and punch him.

I have great admiration for anyone who works in supermarkets/grocery shops. The endless carnival of entitled numpties they have to put up with astounds me. Thankful for you all. x

Ellie, did you mean to be so rude?

You didn't need to cancel the check.

Just LTB.

Who wants a christmas tree in October? I mean businesses might, but not households!
It sounds like there is space in the market for December only trees. Did they not grow enough or do the christmas tree industry stop work t the end of November?

I actually saw this happen a few days ago. A shopper had left a full trolley at the end of the aisle while they nipped back to the top for something. In the space of the minute or so it took, a woman had begun to rummage in the trolley and was about to put a few items from it into her own basket when the shopper returned and pointed out it was her trolley !!

Or end of aisle with the dried fruit at my regular Asda....

Yeesh, this little bit of banter went a bit AIBU 😂

Yes, ELLIE, you are being VERY U. How old are you? Is this a reverse? A&E, NOW! <Insert your favourite AIBU phrase here>

That’s absolutely mental! 😂😂😂

No it certainly isn’t unreasonable to ask, and the shop assistants generally don’t mind that, but often it’s the way they ask. When you get someone rudely shouting just “Eggs?” rather than a polite “could you show/tell me where the eggs are please?” that’s unreasonable.

Mr Monkey works for specialist running shoe retailer (£170+ for shoes).

Last week and this week he has had a steady stream of confused people looking to buy trainers for "someone who runs", he had had to gently explain x1000 times that shoes at this level need to be fitted for the person's gait and what they want to use it for. Without that information he cannot recommend a shoe for them to buy.

I worked in retail for many years, always displayed the high price tag items prominently on Christmas Eve as the ludicrously inept men would buy anything if we wrapped it for them. It's Christmas not Easter, the date never changes 🙄.

Retail is bloody hard work at Christmas for minimum wage with no tips. Staff are regularly verbally abused and threatened. A lot of the staff are temporary who spend the entire time 🌕 filling shelves in one section so may not know where to find other items.

Cocktail cherries are the hardest thing to find, usually hidden in the tinned goods aisle. 🤞

to add to the "silly places shops put things" moans, DS's shop has the jam in a really daft place (I mean it's by the bread, but right out of the way). He is always being asked where it is (reasonably enough) and really wishes they would move it to a main aisle, maybe next to the pickles?

Tell me that posters on here have never worked in retail or hospitality without telling me

If Ellie is this manipulative and cowardly then Ellie deserves to have it blown up in her face.

Maybe Ellie will learn to be a grown up then.

Coop literally anywhere!