Stupid things customers ask on Xmas Eve Eve

[Mokel]

I have done enough years in supermarkets at Christmas.

I remember one question raised by a few customers when putting out bread.
”do you have any bread dated after 28th”
I said if you go to a supermarket on any other 23rd, the latest date on loaves is 28th. As the bakeries always put the date as X days ahead, regardless of the time of year. I remember seeing one of these customers on Jan 23rd and asked them could they find a date longer than 28th. They couldn’t. Retail worker 1 customer 0.

”Is it possible to collect my turkey on Xmas Day?” Erm no.

Ellie, did you mean to be so rude?

You didn't need to cancel the check.

Just LTB.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Bonkers

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?

No she's just greedy and claiming benefits.

Deleted :Quoted wrong post, was 👍 meaningless

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.

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).

Yep! The one thing that irks me is supermarkets and shops who put Xmas stuff out too early. Even down to putting Xmas food on the shelves and fridges way before Xmas (such as ready made prawn cocktails, Xmassy desserts etc) that expire within a few days of them being there! Like as if you’re going to buy Xmassy food in October / November that expires in 5 days!!

I love ridiculous Christmas shoppers. I was in M&S with my friend on Christmas Eve and we were slightly drunk watching all the men totally panicking.

My friend worked in HMV. Loads of people turn up 10 minutes from closing, they always want the must have/sold out games and have massive tantrums about it and do the whole ‘you’ve ruined Christmas thing’. Christmas isn’t a suprise.

Eggs in my local CoOp are usually next to the chilled pizzas. Yesterday I hunted high and low….. they were next to the cold remedies and baby food!

I saw a fight over parsnips a few years ago, there was a massive crate of them behind them as well. Tempers were flaring 😂

Items to cook from scratch are in the Ingredients aisle!

I knew this would be a bun fight by page 10 🍿

“Do you have any mince pies/cream/something else vital?” At about on 7pm Christmas Eve.
“no sorry, if it’s not there we don’t have it”
”can you go check out the back then?”
often I will. I will go out, flick through my phone for about a minute and come out all apologetic. On Christmas Eve however and the days leading up, no chance. There is no time for that bollocks.

I'm just back from Aldi and it was fine.
Car park was v busy but had spaces, no family outings in the store.

Was a bit bothered about the man, parked in parent & child, with his engine running and his child in the back.

I thought the idea behind those spaces was to give parents room to get the kid in & out easily.

For context, plenty of parking spaces, child was about 8, he was still there with engine running when I came out.

Why would asking if there are any crackers in stock indicate they’ve left their planning until 23 December. I’ve been planning Christmas for ages and every year I decide I don’t want to do crackers because of the waste - and some years I cave and get them. If I were to cave this year, I might well find myself in a supermarket asking if they have crackers.

Thats obviously not a stupid question - lots of supermarkets will still have crackers today and tomorrow.

By the definition of some folk on here anyone buying anything on 23 December is stupid since there’s nothing you can buy today that you couldn’t buy yesterday.

I remember one Christmas Eve, I was on the PC waiting on my wife getting ready so could go out. I happened to go on one of the neighbourhood Facebook pages, and read a post by someone asking if Morrisons was open on Christmas Day. I don't know why, but I got much, much angrier than I should have about it. I mean, are people not supposed to get any f#cking time off? What the Hell do you need on Xmas Day that you've not already got or can wait for? Take time of from being a prick for one, ffs.

I was asked if our shop would be open on the Saturday before Christmas.

No, we always prefer to close on the busiest Saturday of the year, I wanted to reply.

You can tell the people who have never worked in a supermarket and those that have (I have!) from this thread...

In M and S earlier today the staff were trying to restock the shelves and a middle aged women just shouted out 'move - I need to get something' to the member of staff trying to fill the shelf. I told the women it was very rude to speak like that and she just said she was busy and didnt have time to be ultra nice. The staff member had been on shift since 0300!

Although I dont work in a SM anymore there is a view from certain members of the public that you are too thick to work anywhere else. That and being on the phone whilst running your goods through the till and of course my favourite especially during the pandemic - your credit card/loyalty card clamped to your mouth and then handing it to the cashier.

I could go on...