Ranting and Venting of a Pissed Off Retail Worker

You are a hero. Seriously. Men only dream of having balls like yours...even if you're a woman. But I've decided to vent, for the me from the past, on courtesy clerks. I'm actually revising it so you guys get the best possible experience and not some half assed, unthoughtful rant.

I get that from my parents every time I complain about the day. My dad acts like it's nothing compared to being a construction worker, which I plan on never becoming, see how miserable he is having taken that career path. But those who've never been in retail before, there's a certain stress you feel different from physical stress. To be honest, I'd rather be physically stressed out then be emotionally stressed out at my job.

Funny thing is, how much I hate those people and all, I plan on becoming a psychologist. The human mind just fascinates me to no end. Hopefully that can be considered higher class than this shit hole.

Stress bro. They think you can't do shit against them, "customer's always right" and all that, so they unload their shit on you head. Don't mind it, as they're probably normal folks elsewhere. Just think of it as a job hazard inherent to retail.

I dealt with my share of bad customers enough to know that if they gonna bitch, it's mostly either they can't control their temper, or they came in planning to raise hell. Either case, only upper management can douse the flames, since they won't be listening to the subject of their ire.

I actually just remembered something about a job I had when I was 16 working in a grocery store, our store policy is the customer is right until proven wrong.

Customer bitching about price being wrong. so naturally I'm helpful(this was when I wasn't so jaded) go to find said right price, check the UPC number's because the product they had wasn't there, then checked it against what they had.

I calmly explain to him that someone put it in the wrong place and that is not the right tagged price,(the right places is across the store in dairy) and explain the price that is ringing up is the right price.

Bitch bitch bitch moan moan moan, he wants to see my supervisor, supervisor does the same thing, and tells him the EXACT SAME THING as I did.

Bitch Bitch Bitch Moan Moan Moan, Customer Service Manager(My boos) does the EXACT SAME as me and my super.

Bitch Bitch Bitch Moan moan moan

Store Management and even the district manager who is stationed in the store the same exact thing. The guy refused to believe that he was wrong.

Left with out buying anything, said something about not shopping here again.

That was the only time I saw that manager say anything bad about a customer, verbatim "Well it's not going to make a impact if you don't."

It's nice to hear all these stories from disgruntled retail workers. Makes me feel not so alone and jaded. Also, my next rant will be up tonight. I'm going to the lovely fairy tale land right now, so I'm sure I'll be fired up.

Today I actually had a heartwarming encounter. I helped a customer put an order in for multiple packages of ground beef. He was very kind, and when I brought the paper to write his info down, he insisted that he do it. At the end, he even asked for my name and thanked me. It's moments like these where I come to realize that not everybody is bad. It is sad, however, that these moments are so far and few between.

Anyways, you guys seemed to like my rant earlier, so I think I'm in the safe zone by ranting about my past job at the store. The courtesy clerk. Ahhh, what a marvelous feeling it is to think back on my days as a courtesy clerk. It’s a feeling comparable to that which is felt when at a funeral. A feeling of dread and worthlessness. To put things in perspective, imagine a totem pole if you will; the totem pole of a grocery store. First you have your head manager, then your assistant managers. Next come department managers, then department workers. Then come your checkers/cashiers and at the very bottom is the night crew. The courtesy clerk is buried far beneath the pole.

Let’s take a look into the day of the courtesy clerk shall we? The first and most foremost important duty of the store’s bitch courtesy clerk is to push carts. It sounds like an easy task at first. Well, it is…if there were no customers. Sadly, the ignorance of retail shoppers begins even before they enter the damn store. It’s like a damn game of Operation as you try to avoid cars, old people, dazed bystanders, and that creepy guy with the bicycle, all while trying to keep a train of carts steady. If you even tap one of them, you’re done. Prepare for the anal rapage that the manager will deal you. This wouldn’t be so bad if people would just actually take people pushing carts for what they are. They’re not a mystical being that we must stare at, not someone willing to race you to the fucking entrance, not some annoying fool who’s just fucking around and not actually needing to get a job done, and certainly not someone who can stop the carts on a whim with a magic brake. To the cool asshole who tried to beat me to the cart corral, I hope that dent is still on your car.

A few months after I started working, I guess the company realized that our worthless asses have been hitting too many cars, so they made us use a rope. That’s right, we’re fucking cowboys now. We gotta rangle them sumbitches. While this sounds awesome in theory, it’s fucking dreadful in practice. First, before you move your train of carts, you have to latch one end of the rope to one end, then latch it to the other. By the way, the clamps are inconvenient as hell. They could at least make them actually suitable to be placed on carts. Anyway, you roll that bastard up, then you have to unlatch both ends and then push them in. Now, it may not seem like a big deal, but when all the trash of the town decide to congregate at the grocery store, every second counts, especially when your useless ass isn’t getting every cart on the lot in. No shit we’re not going fast enough, managers, we have this piece of shit rope. It’s like if we made you wait three seconds before you scan every checkpoint in the store. Pretty fucking annoying isn’t it.

Once the bitch courtesy clerk is done pushing carts, they dare not think of sitting down to catch a breather. This is what we call “being lazy.” Doing so will only get these poor fellas a nice lecture on how lazy these bastards are as the manager goes back in to his nice air-conditioned room and sits on his chair, staring mindlessly at the computer. Even drinks were frowned upon out there. Fuck you managers, I want the same privileges as you do. I can understand if I’m camping out in the corner with a fire and some hotdogs with a twelve pack of beer at my side, but can’t a guy just have a drink with him? And it seems like every fucking time I wanted to sit down to catch my breath, the manager on duty would come out. God dammit. As I said before, you cannot defend yourself. Who the hell do you think you are, an actual living, thinking, self-aware human? In my retail?

Another task of the guinea pig is to deal with all the trash. The bins inside the store, not so big of a deal, except when the fuckers at the office dump a whole week’s worth of ads in the trash can. Even the managers in their cozy little room seem to keep their trash to a minimum. But the bin outside…that’s a whole other league. It’s like people play Let’s See How Much Shit We Can Fit in this Fucker. Seriously. Not once was that beast at a manageable level. You won’t believe how much treasure I’ve seen in that black hole of everything. Everything from whole milk jugs to used clothes. Tying it was a motherfucker and the lining would always bust and the delicious trash juice would pour on me. If you haven’t smelled trash juice before, it’s like a mixture of every smell known to man. No, it’s not a pleasant smell. And I swear, people must have been dumping dead bodies in this thing because there is no way trash is supposed to be this heavy. Don’t even get me started on the smoker’s area trash can. One of the courtesy clerks showed me a few months ago a frozen bird that was on the ash tray, holes poked in all around it, presumably from cigarettes. Fucking symbolic. The cigarettes are the customer, the bird is our dignity. They fucking burn it.

Store bitches are also the emergency clean up team. Someone just trashed the bathroom? Better call a courtesy clerk. Dude, some guy just shit on the floor…call a courtesy clerk! There’s been a toxic spill in the store! Get everyone out and send the courtesy clerks to clean it up! You won’t believe the wonders that can be found in a women’s restroom. It was always worse off than the men’s room. I don’t know about you guys, but I think those stereotypes about the women’s bathrooms being cleaner is a bunch of bullshit. I mean, how the fuck does shit get smeared on the floor without someone physically picking up a turd and smearing it. Are our customers that retarded that their shit misses the toilet?

I also still haven’t even scratched the surface of no pay raise, no benefits, and fucked up schedules, but I think this glimpse into the life of a store bitch is enough to know that it’s bullshit. It just sucks.

If I could minus rep you, I would, because you are complaining about your job, which you get paid for. If you don't like your job, go elsewhere. You sound like a bitch who can't handle every day situations.

Finding another job isn't exactly the easiest. Plus, getting paid does not excuse the bullshit that goes on. Plus, I've been getting minimum wage for the past year and a half. And this is not my career. It's a job to get me through college.

Maurice, this is a rant thread. The whole point of this is to rant about the horror stories of retail workers. If you take offense to the rants, just don't enter the thread. You could also try out retail work for yourself and see how it is.

People want to be treated with at least basic respect and dignity, to be treated as human. Unfortunately that does not happen in retail work, so there's nothing else to do besides quitting the job or take their shit and rant about it afterwards.

I recommend you try to look around for some jobs in small shops Razen. I've worked in them and they're awesome. Not only do you get raise and benefits, you also get treated well, and sometimes there may even be perks for the employee, such as my work place giving free leftover food to the workers, and unlimited breaktime. Once you found one you can just quit the retail work, since your basically their minimium wage slave.