to wonder why the fuck do people pick up loads of things, walk to the till

[deai]

and then dump half the shit there and say 'oh i changed my mind on these actually i only want this this and this, but not ALL THIS OTHER SHIT I HAVE'
why? why did you even put that stuff in your basket then? why didn't you put it back when you decided you didnt want it?
Today someone handed me two kitkats declaring "just one of these please!"
wtf. why didn't you just pick one up then!? it's a 3 second or so walk to the till, how did you change your mind in that time? why are you giving me the kitkat you dont want?
is it just me or is this really fucking weird?
do people just walk around shops, putting things they think they might want in their basket, wait until they get to the till and then decide if they actually want any of the things they picked up??

Put things back, especially if they're fresh. And do grown ups really write 'my bad'?

when a customer does what you describe (and they will, frequently) the staff will smile cheerily and say 'no problem' and move on. There won't be a sense of passive aggression on their part or smiling through gritted teeth. That's because they have been really well trained to understand that their customers are paying for great service

Just because we rant online, or to our co-workers, or whoever when we're off the clock, doesn't mean that us lowly people who are there to "essentially serve" customers aren't professional when we're doing our job. Yes there may be some workers who can't hide their frustration or are a bit passive agressive, on occasion but you will find them in every shop at some point.

I might only work in Asda not Waitrose, and there might be days when my retail smile slips after dealing with the hundredth problem of the day, seven hours into a ten hour shift on the Customer Service Desk, but that doesn't mean I'm not good at my job. It means I'm a human, with emotions and feelings and even if I am there to serve someone else, I am not 100% perfect 100% of the time.

I'm a till supervisor... we have a returns trolley in the corner where it builds up during the day

Then someone goes round putting it back when time permits....it's a nice break off the tills for them

It's only a problem if you want it to be. I use it as a training opportunity (very large non food store)

JigglyTuff: It appears one does.

Conversely, if I pop to the loo mid shop, I have found that my basket has vanished from where I left it, presumably some poor member of staff has put it all back.

I can imagine it's very annoying if you're the person who has to re-shelve everything, but sometimes it's not the person paying's fault.

I remember well the time my twin sibs managed to half fill the trolley with jars of shrimp paste, crab paste etc (remember those?) and we got to the till before Mum noticed. Of course she didn't have the funds to pay for them all, so the poor till person had a pile of them left there. But it didn't happen often and Mum was morto about it, so I guess she's not really the sort of person you're talking about.

Ideally if you change your mind you should put it back where it came from. Dumping anything frozen/chilled in the bread aisle for instance will result in it having to be binned as the staff don't know how long it's been out of the chiller for and there are rules.

I have had to pop to the loo mid shop and I left my basket at Customer Services.

Just be grateful it's keeping you busy and in a job!

You remind me of my bil, Bill. He throws litter out of his car and when my DH asked him what the hell he was playing at, he responded that it's the job of the street cleaners to clear it up and it keeps them in a job! He was serious! 😮😒😡 Tbf, I shouldn't be surprised that there are dicks that genuinely believe that, just like the ones that scream "that's wot I pay my taxes for" when demanding a cup of tea from a busy nurse.

It always surprises me when a staff member is delighted when I offer to put a garment back on the rail, when it doesn't suit/fit me. So depressing that so many people feel that those providing a service are their own personal skivies. ☹️

FFS. What's wrong with you people? I've worked in a shop. It's expected. It's the JOB. It's factored in to rotas and working hours. People who work in shops aren't doing you a favour. They are paid to be there by a business whose aim is to make money, and that money is made by keeping the customer happy and buying stuff. And, yes, that does mean if a customer sees something else they want or changes their mind you don't expect them to traipse around 40 aisles looking for where it came from. Your only job, what you're employed for, is to give customers a nice shopping experience and make them feel valued so that they want to spend money with your company. And yes, that does include putting back unwanted stuff. It's part of the job description. It's like a secretary saying they don't want to do minutes because having meetings is selfish or a nurse refusing to record medication because they should remember what they've had.

It's what you're expected and employed to do. If you said in an interview that you thought this you wouldn't get the job.

I've done it, everybody who's worked in retail's done it. And most people who've worked in retail have also worked with the sour faced fucker who views customers as an inconvenience and then wonders why they never get promoted.

povertypain I haven't seen you for ages, I used to always be nodding away to your posts.

"Trifle- well you may as well have just stolen the chicken then? Because it would be going in the bin now that it had been left in a basket."

Maybe at your place of work because you can't be arsed to put items back.

I've left a full hand basket at the end of an aisle once to pick up something at other end of store, realised the aisle was right next to the loo, so went first. Not more than 5 minutes. When I returned, my basket was gone. Started looking about and found a staff member restocking my items. They had clocked me going toward the loo (next to exit/entrance) and thought I had abandoned my shopping.

And poverty, they're only pretending to be delighted. After you've done it they have to go back and check it anyway to check it is done to the store's standard display requirements and shelved in the correct place for size facing the right way. The vast majority of the time when a customer reshelves an item of clothing a staff member has to take it off and rearrange it anyway. It's much easier just to do it yourself in the first place and customers who insist on putting it back anyway are less of a help and more of a hinderance. But the whole point is if that's what the customer wants to do you smile and let them damn well do it.

trollspoop we're not allowed to put raw meat back if its found in a basket/not in the fridge because we dont know how long its been out if the fridge for..

For me, it's just about being a little more thoughtful and responsible. If I pick up an item, and change my mind, it goes back where it came from.

If in cafe/fast food restaurant, I will clear my table and put things in the bin. Even though most people walk away and leave their rubbish.

In a clothes shop, I will always put the clothes back where I found them.

Just because someone has a job that entails clearing up after your mistake or purchase, doesn't mean to say you have to add to it with the defence of 'that's what they get paid for'.

It doesn't take much to behave normally and tidy up after your mess/put things away if you pick up the wrong item.

The vast majority of the time when a customer reshelves an item of clothing a staff member has to take it off and rearrange it anyway.

Yes, but at least the garment is in the right part of the shop - giving another customer a chance to say "oh goody, a size 12" and pick it up.

Abandoning boys school trousers in the bra department (or vice versa) is no help at all.

Anyone else ex-retail automatically tidy up displays that other customers have left like a teenager's bedroom?

Well exactly gluteus. On the thread where the woman said her toddler made a terrible mess for staff to clear up, people said she should take a dustpan and brush and newspaper.

I used to work in a supermarket and putting stuff back on the shelves isn't a fun opportunity to get off the till, it's boring as fuck.

It's inconsiderate and lazy (generalising), and I have every sympathy for shop workers having to put up with all sorts of irritations.

I was in Sainsbury's yesterday and the checkout lady was visibly worn down by the constantly grizzling child she had just served the parents of. I could hear the child all round the store, and I was mildly irritated but at least I could escape it once my shop was done.

I do it because I am an entitled bellend :)

That's honest at least ^

It's not true though. I'm terribly well behaved out

On this thread there are a lot of (presumably) adults not taking responsibility for their own indecisiveness or impulses and then having a kind of 'it's someone else's problem' attitude about it as if they can't help it.

I work in retail and when I'm shopping in stores that aren't my own I hang clothes back up, put them back where they came from (in so much as I put the 16 between the 14 and the 18, not just leave it on a rail within five foot of the original item).
I have been thanked in voices of wonderment from staff when they see me doing it, but when I say " oh, I work in a shop" there's a nodding of heads in the " ahhh, now I get it" kind of way. It's just what you do.
I do walk round supermarkets putting things back as near as dammit and definitely things in chiller/frozen cabinets. It was how I was brought up.

Ilove it's not so much that I can't help it (although I can't physically put back stuff on the higher shelves), as thinking this is part of the experience the supermarket are deliberately providing. They encourage impulsiveness and deliberately move things around so I have to look at more of the merchandise to find what I want and am less sure where things go back. And they have always marketed themselves as convenient. When I worked in a supermarket, my managers would definitely have preferred people to pick up more stuff that they might buy and then have to reshelve some of it, than to have people only pick up stuff they definitely knew they would pay for. I've never seen a supermarket try to discourage shoppers from this. So I think supermarket workers who don't like doing this need to talk with their managers about their jobs, berating customers for doing what they are encouraged to do sounds more like someone who should be looking for an entirely different sort of job.

Has anyone on this thread said they 'berate' customers? We can't anyway - you've already walked away. But we slag you off behind your back (and if you can get something off a shelf, you can put it back, surely?)