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.

My local Tesco had a staff member walking around dressed as an elf today with a lollipop-type sign with 'I'm Here to Help' written on it. She didn't look too happy about it tbh, probably some manager's brainwave.

@SpiritVaults There is an oft repeated anecdote about a father (and sometimes mother, depending on who is repeating the story) who is in the supermarket with his daughter in line at the checkout and he tells the daughter/kid that if she doesn't study hard at school that she will end up working as a checkout operator like the person serving them, only for the person serving them to say they are doing a Law degree and use this as a part time job to pay their way through college/university. Most young people on the tills at your supermarket are college/uni students.

Tkmax has their staff dress up a few years ago before the schools had even broken up and one poor mum was rushing straight off to work as an elf. Us being amazing friends ribbed her for days as such a happy elf 😂😅

she left tkmax a couple of months later for a job she liked more.

Two of the Tesco I use had refits with nonsensical planning. Bakery section in the middle of the store, so the bakery colleagues have to push their carts full of store baked bread and the dollies of trays of sliced bread across the store. Before they could see from
their area what needs topping up

There were staff with those lollipop signs across the store

But Even if they have no qualifications at all - it doesn’t make them a lesser person than someone with a degree or whatever qualification.

In the 70's I worked in an independent chemist's shop. The amount of indigestion remedies we sold on Boxing Day was phenomenal!

Absolutely. I'm sure this tale is apocryphal anyway, but I think the "I'm doing a law degree actually" type answer is inappropriate. Better to say something like, "Every person is worthy of respect and every job is important. If you think mine is not, the self-service tills are that way--->."

We all appreciated the supermarket staff during Covid.

‘Hi, I’m a bit early. Could I pick up my Christmas food order?’

’When was your slot?’

’Two o’clock. Tomorrow…’

’Well that tricky, as it won’t be delivered until midnight tonight…’

This is another one where I don't get the problem with asking as long as they accepted the answer politely and immediately. If it had already been in the fridges at the back and they could have collected it the day before when they happened to be in the shop anyway, what a win!

In our local sainsbury's they're in a huge stand alone box near where they often put things like sweets on offer (tubs like Haribos and Quality Street), at the beginning of the food part of the store but right at the back near a fridge of pizzas, after the veg and first line on fridges, that iirc contain beef products.
They're absolutely nowhere near the baking section. I usually get eggs elsewhere and after the store assistand kindly took me to them recently we both commented that their positioning made absolutely no sense.

Alex, a colleague who teaches business studies was trying to motivate his (notoriously lazy) class and told them that if they didn't buck their ideas up the only job they would be able to get would be wiping arses in the Old Folks' Home. One of our colleagues' husband had had a stroke which left him bed-bound and she depended on him having carers so she could continue to work. She was totally outraged to discover what Alex had said and told the kids that arse-wiping was a valuable contribution to society.

It obviously is. I wouldn’t want to have to do it because I had no other options though. I’m glad some people do.