Just because I work in a shop...

[LunasOrchid]

... doesn't mean I'm thick! 😡

I had a woman approach me on checkout and demanded (didn't ask) that I convert the size of something for her from mm to inches e.g. 270mm by 540mm.

I get my phone out and use google to convert 27cm and 54cm. I tell customer is x inch by y inches. Customer immediately says I'm wrong? That the box says medium and y inches is this long whilst holding her arms out to show me. I explain it is correct and show her my phone. She says no you can't be right. There's no way it's that big.

At this point, I reiterate what I've typed in, and explain that it is definitely correct. She snatches the box from in front of me and says she's going to ask somebody who actually knows what they're doing

I have to admit I did lose my temper here and told her not to bother coming to my till as I won't be serving her. Luckily my supervisor heard everything and backed me 100%.

I was fuming. Why do people assume that people who work in shops are thick and speak down to them. I have a first class degree and a post graduate degree. I work in a shop because it's stress free (most of the time), flexible hours and I enjoy it. I am not thick

I used to work on the deli counters for an upmarket supermarket in a wealthy town. Often got treated like shit (and got called a stupid girl once because I was one gram out when cutting this woman's cheese - you have to guess, so only one gram out was actually pretty good going).

People from all backgrounds%walks of life work in retail. When I was a sales assistant, I worked alongside those with masters degrees. At least you are working and contributing and not sitting on your bum

I wish people would stop handing over piles of change after the cashier has put it into the till. It's just being a lazy customer, to be honest. Get all your money counted before it goes through. When you're serving a huge queue of people and have been up from 5am and worked until 12pm the night before, you aren't as sharp as you can be sometimes (and yes, this is legal if you sign a waiver which you usually have to).

Try not to be a nuisance. Oh, also- a shop isn't a bank. Stop coming in wanting notes swapped etc.

sickandscared thank you. I didn't trust myself to speak as I was tempted to say something I shouldn't or I would have got upset. When I told my manage he said I should have told him to fuck off. Unlike this customer I actually know how to behave.

@GiveHerHellFromUs I love your response 😂

I quit the rat race (think graduate central London career ladder) to start my own business in a sector where there's a lot of time spent being public facing.

The number of customers who assume it's not my business Where's the man in charge or who treat me like I'm probably a bit thick is notable.

I personally think everybody should spend at least a month of their life either in the hospitality industry or retail. (Hands-on healthcare and sanitation workers can be excepted. I'm really thinking those posh eejits who've never done anything much more in their lives than drive a desk or move pixels around on a screen.)

I worked as a waitress briefly when I was a student. I was terrible at it (I have lots of funny stories now that weren't at the time though). It gave me a real respect for those in those industries. I'd never, ever assume that the person bringing me my meal or ringing in my purchases is thick or uneducated.

I might assume they're really tired from having to be nice to eejits all day though, and I'd always tip unless the service is absolutely diabolical or there's been a 15% "service" charge slapped on without any warning and neither the food nor the service was worth the price charged. (Yes, particular historical and allegedly haunted pub named after deer meat in the middle of Salisbury with wonky floors, I'm looking at you....)

And all the comments about mathematics - I'm reasonably well educated. I find Maths tough (my sister got the mathematical genes, not me). So if there's technology there to help me, why wouldn't I use it? That's what it's for.

I resisted using a satnav for years as I'm lousy at finding directions too. It was a revelation to me that there was tech available to help. If we didn't use the technology of the time to help us we'd still all be stuck in the caves....!!

People are dicks!! I’m a nurse and people always speak to me like I’m thick too. Not even my surgeon colleagues, but patients and their relatives!

I work in child care and get parents speaking to me as though I am stupid too. There is a perception that people work in childcare as they are not clever enough to get another job. In reality many like me are educated to degree level working around school hours for their own children
I am in my 50s and would not have been able to do the metric to imperial conversion without looking it up. I could measure in either but I always use metric. For a while in the 70s there was a concerted effort to change and only metric was taught in schools. The government seems to have gone back on this idea somewhat.

I don't think your thick
Oh! The irony......

@spongejack nice one, totally ignoring my second post. Not looking down on anyone. Realistically anyone can work in a shop, that’s a fact. It doesn’t mean shop workers are any better or worse than anyone else. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t think anyone should treat other people badly based on their perspective they are some how superior.

When I used to work in fashion retail in my teenage years, middle aged customers were the rudest.

Eg processing a return with the customer constantly asking if I was “100% sure” I put the transaction through as a refund rather than a charge. Baring in mind that processing a refund is completely different to a purchase so is an impossible mistake to make, I would have inspected and re-tagged their items/scanned their receipt/verified their card details/taken their address & signature/got a staff witness etc. But no, apparently I’m that dim to somehow charge them again - they were even shocked that their receipt stated “Refund transaction”🙄 so patronising

Or a woman that was shocked and demanded a manager when I wouldn’t give her student discount when she was blatantly buying clothes for herself and trying to her child’s presence as “valid student ID”. At my company student discount was only applicable for the student’s own purchases, valid dated photographic ID was needed and school pupils weren’t included. Same thing happened with a man too, they love pulling out the “manager complaint” card in an attempt to intimidate you, my managers would always take my side though!

I have 2 DD, DD1 works in hospitality DD2 works retail.
Both are studying and looking for other jobs.
DD2 looks about 16-18, but is actually 22.
She manages her store when the manager is away. She comes home either fuming or laughing when people ask her to get the manager, and she explains that she is the manager right now.

She particularly hates thieves

I grew up using feet and inches and admit I have never got used to the metric system which I think is awful, so certainly wouldn’t be critical of anyone else. Put it down to her ignorance.

@woodchuck99
Thank you! It was written with such assurance that I was doubting myself.

Dividing by 2.5 (5/2) is the same as multiplying by the reciprocal 2/5(or 4/10)

She's a dick...

my last job i worked in was retail, one of the customers came in and asked for cigarettes, i scanned them put them on the counter she lifted them started opening them i was saying you havent paid yet she said but im just going to smoke it then il pay i said no you wont you will put them back until you have paid so she threw them at me called me every name under the sun from cow to whore. i answered back saying thanks, she left i messaged the manager to let him know they were open and being left in the office as we couldnt sell them now they were open, the customer then came back 30-40 mins later trying to buy them saying she had money now, i said sorry im not serving you (by this time it was only my till on and nobody else is allowed to use it) the customer started asking why i said i dont get paid enough to take abuse from customers and i am not serving you after what you done earlier, she started again calling me every name she could think of and i barred her. the best part was there was no other shop open she could go and buy them from.
in another job i started at 8am in a bakery, a man walked in with his 3 kids at 8.50am who started school at 9am then shouted at me that his kids were going to be late and its my fault although i apologised saying it was my first day, my manager came and told him maybe he should give his kids a proper breakfast instead of a sausage roll and leave earlier in the mornings to ensure they made the 20 min walk to school.

OP you should try volunteering in a charity shop! Customers assume that you either clearly are too stupid to get a job anywhere else or are too old and doddery to work in a "proper job".

Obviously as our stock is donated, we're not familiar with it and there's no two items the same. If the donor has cut a label out of a coat, how are we supposed to know if it's dry clean only? Or whether you could put that 1970s coffee set in the dishwasher? No, we don't have that blouse in a range of sizes for you to try on either.

The general public is in general lovely, but there are a few total arses who look down on everyone and who are downright rude.

I think I'm a similar age to Graphista. I grew up with feet and inches, but much prefer the metric system. I can do rough conversions in my head, but use a calculator for an exact conversion.

I worked as a barmaid in my late teens, while at college. The number of people who complained and grumbled was an eye opener.

Problem I had was that the till was even at that time an antiquated manual till resembling the till in Arkwright's shop (and almost as dangerous ) so you had to add up the cost of the drinks and enter a total, and work out how much change to give.

I used to have shit mental arithmatic, but I can do this really fast on paper (I work visually, it's always been far easier for me to see the numbers rather than trying to do it in my head). I kept a notepad by the till, and noted down drinks as I poured them. So many people called me thick because of it, but it took no time at all to, I was definitely as fast as those who added up in their heads.

Can I also second @PepePig. We aren't banks and so we won't change notes for you! We need the change for our own customers so no, I won't swap your rate useless £20 note for precious £1 coins that we blaze through !!