Customers expect us to know if other shops in the area sell certain items

[Auburngal]

When at work, when a customer asks where is x or do we sell x. If we know that we don’t sell x either from experience or looking at the shelves where you expect to find the product.

If we don’t sell the item in question, customer asks “do you know if (name of shop in the area) sells it?” When we say we don’t know, a few customers have flipped. We don’t know the inventory of each shop. Unless we buy the product or seen it in that shop, we haven’t got a clue.

So why do customers presume that we know what other shops in the area sell?

The one I had yesterday was something pet related. I don’t have pets so I don’t go down the pet aisle of section

God I never recommend competitors at all, unless they're other small businesses that need a leg up. They'll just go to M&S every time in future without even thinking about you.

I don't think that with flowers and a local shop it matters if you're as cheap as M&S or not. I'd buy because I'm passing and it's convenient, I'm not going to price match daffs to the nearest quid or two. I get it if it takes up shop space you don't really have and could sell more high margin stuff at though.

There is a big difference between being able to tell a customer that there is a bakery or a pharmacy in your town and being able to tell the customer every item that those other shops sell.

Just say yes, they aren't going to be bothered to come back and yell at you, and if they ever did just say you must have made a mistake.

I used to do the same thing when dog walking, people would stop and ask me for directions for somewhere that was several miles away (I lived in the suburbs and didn't drive, but any route would have been difficult for them to follow anyway because it was all random minor roads with lots of turns for ages that they'd never have remembered) and they'd get mad if I said I didn't know so I just sent them in a random direction.

Someone got really mad once because they insisted there was a Laura Ashley on the retail park and I was lying to them that there wasn't. There wasn't one for miles, and there had never been one on the retail park.

My favourite one was when I was walking home from B&Q down a B road carrying just a large strawberry plant and just wearing jeans and normal t shirt and a car stopped me for directions just saying "Are you local?" (I'm mixed race). I felt like saying, "No, I just got off a small boat in the middle of an industrial park hours away from the coast and thought the best and only thing to bring with me from the middle east was a large B&Q plant."

Why people don't just look it up before they leave somewhere or put it in GPS I don't know. Or just get the passenger to use their phone. Jeez.

But so many customers don't see why they should have to do anything for themselves with they have a thick skivvy to do it for them.

I have never ever walked into a shop and asked immediately where such and such is because I am not that lazy or entitled. If I can find said item I will ask and I guess if I was in a tearing hurry I would likely ask but I very much doubt that all the customers that asked me where an item was as they stepped one foot in the door were in a tearing hurry

Service levels have dropped and prices have gone up since COVID too, which may have some bearing on this.

(And yes, I’ve worked in retail).

Then the customer goes and asks someone else in another part of the shop if it's in stock. Then other staff member comes and ask me because I know what's there because it's my department, followed by the customer. I always used to love saying sure I told you we didn't have it and it will be in tomorrow!

Shouldn't swear, but a "so sorry that my time off for an important surgery has caused you inconvenience😊" would've been good and if the twat customer complained to a supervisor you could just say it was a genuine explanation for your time off and an apology for the inconvenience.

Oh god i get this. I work in a shop in town, customers come in and ask me for something, i say im sorry but we dont sell that. So customer says where can i buy it then? I say im sorry i dont know. Customer huffs in my face and walks away from me.

Now i work part time and if im not working i dont go near the shops. I earn minimum wage, retail is poorly paid. How would i know what every other shop in town sells?

Would these types of customers go into a doctor's and say where can i get a certain pair of glasses? Or into a hotel and say where can i buy vegan cheese??

I mean i just dont get it. I work in a department selling small electricals and people ask me where can i buy a tent and am shocked when i dont know?? Ive never bought a tent!!

Whats wrong with these stupid buggers???

I don’t see the problem TBH.
It’s not affecting your business because you can’t sell them what they need, they COULD ask someone in the street for example but seeing as they’re already chatting to you they’re asking you.
I always remember the shops that are helpful and I shop there again, I couldn’t be arsed with someone being huffy over a question about the local area.

Do customers ask in tesco if asda sell something they cant get in tesco???

Thats whats going on, you are expected to know what other shops sell, just because you work in a shop.

People are fucking nuts.

You say local area, thats maybe say a handful of shops. I work in a large city centre and people still get huffy when i dont know what shops in other areas, ive never been in, sell.

Explain that one!!!

I mean i just dont get it. I work in a department selling small electricals and people ask me where can i buy a tent and am shocked when i dont know?? Ive never bought a tent!!

I really don't know why you think that's such an outrageous question?

I worked in a small shop for years and always had people coming in and asking me things like that - where's the bus stop, is there a bank nearby, do you sell x, do you know where I can find a map etc.

Most people who work in a certain area have some kind of awareness of what's available around them and what other shops exist.

Yep. When I worked in ASDA they would often ask things like that.

They'd ask if we sold X, I'd say "no, you could try Tesco/Sainsburys" and they'd ask where it was etc. Fairly standard imo.

I quite like it. We're a supermarket in a very small rural location in a tourist area. We find ourselves acting as tourist information centre, vet, doctor as well as supermarket (we get a LOT of tourists who come in after hours needing medicines or things for pets which we don't sell and we work hard to advise on alternatives until they can get to the proper doctor or vet). A lot of 'where's the best place to go to eat/for children/to swim' etc, and I really enjoy chatting with the customers about things to do in the locality.

I will always try to tell them where they can get things they need if we don't stock it, but they often express extreme surprise and doubt when I tell them it will be a sixty mile round drive away.

Unless they’re asking for a green unicorn, you really don’t know any shops on the area that could sell, for example, tents?

I just don’t get this total hatred people have of being spoken to or being expected to be helpful to another human. It’s very odd and totally foreign to me

Saying to people you might get it in asda or tesco is too vague for them, they expect you to know where exactly sells the product they want. That youve never bought, but should know where its sold anyway.
And as i said im not talking about a small local area, im expected to know in depth what shops sell in the city i work in, just because i work in a shop.

I dont know whats so hard to grasp here.

It would seem that the OP of this thread has form for complaining about customers, so I am taking what she says with a large grain of salt. That said, I do agree that politeness and respect go two ways. I am always very friendly and polite to shop staff and café staff, and go out of my way to be pleasant. I find that that pays off, I often get freebies from local cafes and shop staff tend to be lovely to me because you get back what energy you give.

No @YaMuvva , i dont know anywhere in my city centre that now sells tents. I knew of places years ago that did but they have all shut down. So i have no knowledge of anywhere thats opened up recently that sells tents, mainly because i dont buy tents and also because i tend to go straight to work then back home again, like most folk, and not do a detour round all the cities shops so i can answer daft questions from people that are being stupid. If they ask where sells tents and i say im sorry i dont know, the places i knew are closed now, we might have a chat about how bad it is so many shops have closed and agree its difficult to find things these days, but if they ask where sells tents and i say im sorry i dont know, the places i knew are closed now and they huff and puff in my face and are pissed off i dont know anywhere, they can fuck off and take their moods elsewhere.

That sounds very unlikely.

I can talk for England and love chatting to people but day after day after day of customers with really stupid questions and/or being rude really gets tiring especially if you, for whatever reason, are not feeling 100%.

I could fill a book with the stupid questions and rude comments. I once had a customer ask me for "the book that was in your store last week with a green cover"! She was serious and got annoyed when every book with a green cover that I showed her wasn't the right one. No idea what the book was about, who the author was.

A couple of weeks ago, we had no 6 pints of both semi and whole milk. I told my colleagues who, like me were wearing headsets just in case they got any customers during the day to ask if we had any 6 pints in the back.

Most of the fresh delivery goes straight out even though just get one case a day and we could fill 3 cases in the section. There are some lines that never get overs for either.

Sometimes we get customers asking me for things which another customer asked about 20 mins earlier and did check in the back and couldn't find any. Some customers go "hmm would it be on your deliveries later on?" Nope all of our deliveries happen between 6am-9am - supermarket distribution centre, bread (Hovis, Kingsmill, Warbies), milk, Smiths News for papers and mags.

Some years ago, there was a massive accident on the roundabout to entrance to the depot and no lorries could leave, enter the DC. Customers were saying "its not good enough". They think the goods magically appear. When the 3 lorries finally turned up at 2pm it was all hands on decks to get the delivery out

Well, that sounds quite unusual as it's certainly never been my experience in over a decade of retail work.

Oh yes I had completely forgotten about all the customers asking for directions to somewhere, what number bus goes to wherever and what stop they can get it from, where x bank is, the opening and closing times of other shops etc etc

Get that too!

I quite often suggest other shops that people can try, for the item they're looking for. I might end up being wrong, my guess is as good as their's sometimes, but its a bit better than mumbling "I don't know" which is what some of my younger colleagues tend to do 😬

Some people just don't know how to conduct themselves socially though. Like when getting my attention whilst I'm up a ladder with my back to them. They could start with a "Hi" or "excuse me" so I know they're addressing me. Instead they just start muttering about what they need, so I don't realise they're even talking to me because I don't have eyes in the back of my head and I'm 7ft off the ground.