Aibu with shop assistants comment 'wrecking the place'

[Harmonyrays]

Browsing in a large charity shop wuth a toddler pottering about. In the childs section, i was looking at books while she was looking at toys getting things out admittedlt leaving 3 or 4 on the floor. I was just turning aeound to pick them hp when an assistant came over and said 'could you please not let your child wreck the place'.

Thoughts please as im annoyed at the comment as shes a very yound child who was doing what kids do, i was close by ready to put things away and was going to help the charity by buying several items.

@Sjofn It's not very kind to make fun of people. You may consider yourself better than me because of your grammar police antics. Surely you could just sit on your thrown and look down on the minions, smug in your superiority without needing to write something to take the piss.

Do you ever stop to consider why people make mistakes? Could be as
a) English is not their first language
b) They suffer from Dyslexia.
c) They went to school in a very deprived area.
d) They suffered an abusive childhood.
e) They were a young carer, so their English homework wasn't their priority.
f) They left school at 15 to work in a job that doesn't require them to write regularly (such as leisure / hospitality.)
g) They were just trying to help and made a mistake on a forum, not a message to the Queen.
h) They are rushing as they have a young child/ children to tend to and no help.
J) They have fat fingers and were typing on their phone with autocorrect ( not relative to my post but just in case you want to belittle someone else soon)

And before you say anything, I left I out because I just bloody well wanted to !!!!!!!!!!!! Bet that sentence hurts your eye balls.

I'd be complaining about that nasty nasty rude piece of work shop assistant and get her fired

The management don't want to fire me because they don't pay me.
I give them my time for absolutely no pay, out of the goodness of my heart.
They'd rather lose a customer than lose me, and that's a fact.

Is it really hard to get volunteers? I would volunteer and loads of old folk do it when they retire to keep busy^

It is hard to get volunteers, yes. But even harder to get volunteers who are reliable, will put up with the crap and stay the course.

We have men on day release from prison as 'volunteers' in our shop.
They rarely last, as they are invariably caught receiving drink and drugs from their 'customer' chums.

I continue to volunteer because I've done it for years and they'd be stuffed without me to call on when somebody lets them down.
I am indeed an 'old folk' but I do not require my volunteer position to keep me busy. I've plenty to do including a part time paid job, and sometimes have to neglect other responsibilities in order not to let the shop down. That's not a problem for me. My volunteering job is important to me, it's not just a pastime to keep me busy. I'm already busy enough.

Charity shops run on a shoestring. No paid staff. Volunteers come and go. Some have been sent there by the jobcentre, having been told they need to get retail experience for their cv. Some come and do community service. None of them really want to be there. None of them stay for long. Except me and people like me.

And so if I ask you to keep your kid in line whilst you're in the shop, complaining about me to the management won't cut it. I'm far more valuable than you and your £2.50 for a jigsaw.
They won't fire me. They can't fire me. They need me. I'm really good at my voluntary job and have been for over 10 years.

So just pay attention to your child when you're shopping. Not difficult.

So, yes. It's really hard to get genuine reliable volunteers.

I think she's an battleaxe. And you're fine. I'm in charidy shops often and my kids and others always do this. In my view the rummaging is one of the best bits. As long as you clear it up... whats the problem, miserable bat.

In fact she could of engaged with your child if she was so concerned. She could of looked at the toys with her, showing her how to tidy them. I'm sure it would catch your attention, without being so aggressive

Eh? What? The woman was manning the shop and the till!
Not childminding! In what universe would you expect a busy staff member to entertain a random child!? She has a hundred other things to do!

Would you expect the same of a retail person in John Lewis?
To engage with your messy child and help her put stuff away?
The world has gone even madder than I thought it had.

We deliberately designed it that way so people would buy the toys

Toys represent the most minimal income in charity shops. They are approx. 0.5% of our sales. We are going to stop selling toys. It's really not worth the hassle. We will continue to sell childrens books at 20p each. (Has been 20p a book for past 2 or 3 years)

Toys are not a big seller.

26 and making more money than any of you guys I'm sure

:) Bless.

YABU.

It's a charity shop and likely one of each item. If it gets sticky toddler fingers on it or dirty from the floor they either can't sell it or have to clean it and you are costing the charity.

In a different shop there might be toys laid out that children can try out and then boxed new ones to buy. But you were not in a different shop.

In my view the rummaging is one of the best bits

You are mistaking a charity shop for a jumble sale. In a charity shop, you don't need to rummage. All the items for sale have been cleaned and pressed and valued and priced and put up on display.

A charity shop is not a rummage sale. Every single item on the shelf has been processed by the manager and a volunteer. None of it is rubbish. We throw the rubbish away.

A rummage sale is different. Then you can rummage away to your heart's content.

There are shelf display manuals in many charity shops that have sections on keeping the kids items in easy reach of children. Also more space is devoted to toys during school holidays and the Christmas season to encourage sales and make sure children can see the merchandise. That is literally the reason they are shelved so low. It's nothing to do with safety hence why electrical goods (PAT testing permitted) and vases are on the top shelves.

Also more space is devoted to toys during school holidays and the Christmas season to encourage sales and make sure children can see the merchandise

That's really not the case in the charity shop I volunteer in.
Christmas is more given to decorations and wrapping paper and Xmas trees and baubles and cards.

We don't really make much money from toys. Toys represent a small fraction of our income. Wouldn't miss it, tbh. Our shop is challenged for space and big cumbersome plastic toys take up a lot of room that could be filled with more lucrative goods. We are seriously considering turning away donations of toys. Apart from childrens books. That's really very important. I would never agree to stop selling books for children.

she could of engaged with your child if she was so concerned. She could of looked at the toys with her, showing her how to tidy them
Surely that’s a wind-up?? Shop assistants doing the job of the parent?! Christ I dread to think what your kids are like! Lazy parenting expecting everyone else to look after your little darlings/brats

This thread has more holes than a block of cheese

I would assume the Tinkersock duo have been deleted and banned.

26 and making more money than any of you guys I'm sure

Of course you do. That sounds very likely. You earn more than any of the 30+ different posters on this thread.

We are seriously considering turning away donations of toys

This is interesting. Almost all of the shops round here have already stopped taking toys and I hadn't thought why, but you're quite right it's a lot of space to give over to get 0.5% of your income.

Out of interest, if you want to say, how do other types of items fare. Are clothes your big sellers? There's a trend here towards warehouse style out of town shops which are almost all furniture and clothes but the former needs a lot of space

You are mistaking a charity shop for a jumble sale. In a charity shop, you don't need to rummage. All the items for sale have been cleaned and pressed and valued and priced and put up on display

The charity shops near me have toys in large boxes on the floor, and more expensive ones/complete sets on the shelves. Kids rummage through the boxes, get things out, have a play and approach mum with a handful of selected toys asking 'can I have these?' And mum feels obliged to pay! The person on the till has a look at them and comes up with a price, sometimes consulting with a colleague. Only the toys on the shelves are priced (the ones out of reach). I spend quite a bit in charity shops, last week I bought a crate of Melissa and Doug wooden playfood for £10 and in the past I've bought Grimms blocks for £15 (a fraction of RRP). I've spent £20 on a beautiful wooden dolls house. And a few £ each time on random plastic cars/trains/animals toddler fishes out of the 50p box while I'm browsing! Staff always encourage her to rummage and even bring extra toys out of the back room to interest her. If staff were stuffy about a child playing quietly I'd shop elsewhere!

When I worked in retail the most annoying customers were adults who unfold all the towels and tshirts! Or drunk people who fall into the wine glass display (happened twice on my watch! 😳)

Our shop has a computerised till so when you sell something you choose what category it belongs to. So we do get accurate sales figures about catgeories (assuming that people press the right buttons). Bric a brac, pictures and homewares are our biggest sales category, but by value not volume.

We do quite well on toys but probably because we are super picky about what goes out in the first place. Nothing grubby, nothing broken, nothing without a CE label, nothing handmade, nothing with bits missing.

I would think the top three categories of sales in our shop would be homewares, books and women's clothing, in that order.

When I worked in retail the most annoying customers were adults who unfold all the towels and tshirts

Aghhh. It was a long time ago for me but this does bring back the rage!

Oh my gosh the comments on here!! Seriously, the child isn't safe in ops care?

Children do touch toys in shops, you have to teach them to look and not touch, but it's a process to get there, it's amazing how some people on here have children born with instant manners and the ability to behave perfectly at all times!!

The shop assistant was being ott but at the same time has probably seen mess being made and left many times, maybe just monitor her more closely next time, but the comments you've had on here you don't deserve!

@mummy2oneandtwo thank god there are some normal people still on here 🙌🏻

Out of interest, if you want to say, how do other types of items fare. Are clothes your big sellers?

Most money is made from household and home decorative stuff. Plates, vases, cups, ornaments etc But good quality stuff, it has to be presentable. Clothes come second, and those mostly womens'. Men don't seem to buy their clothes second hand as much as women.
Not so many books as you'd imagine, and even fewer toys.
Those big plastic sit on childrens toys take up a lot of room and are an invitation for little ones to shunt round the shop. With all the clothes racks it's sometimes a bit dangerous as you can't see where they are - and they don't sell very well - they just get played with in the shop. We take about £300 a day so I'm also interested to see if that goes up when we get more popular stock out. We have the stock as we get tons of donations. Just not the room on the shop floor.

The charity shops near me have toys in large boxes on the floor

Fair enough, yes, I've seen that often in shops. For some reason we've never done that - I expect there's a reason but it must be before my time - all our stuff has always been on shelves.

I was in a greengrocer's shop. I had put my shopping bag on the floor and while I was trying to get one of those awful plastic bags open to put some carrots in I looked down and there was a small child busily rummaging in my shopping bag and taking things out. I said "leave that alone" and the mother swooped down on me in a fury saying "Don't talk to her like that; she's only SIX. Flabbergasted...….
I knew quite well when I was only three years old that I should never touch other peoples belongings.

26 and making more money than any of you guys I'm sure

And still basic grammar eludes you. Bless