‘I wonder if shoppers live the way they shop’

I’ve been off work for 12 weeks and having only recently in the past month, I have been amazed at some of the things shoppers do while they are out shopping. The behaviour can be plain disgusting, or funny, or some of the things I saw and heard were just sad.  

I change price tags in the store where I work.  I have had customers literally follow me through the store and wait for me to change the prices, then question me when a particular item did not gone down in price, and then further ask why I would not reduce the price further so they could purchase it. I can’t say I have ever conducted myself in such a way when out shopping myself, so I have been completely astounded at this behaviour.

I don’t set the prices for items on sale; this is done through a computer. I simply print the new price and ticket the items.  

I have been knocked off steps stools because a customer wanted a certain toy that was marked down 70 per cent from its original retail price, and rather than aske me to hand it to she pushed the cart into the step stool and reached around me to get it. 

I would love, love, love to see the inside of their homes.  Something as simple as looking for an item of clothing on a table can create quite a stir. Some people, when they can’t find the item in their size, will take each item – neatly folded and placed on display — and unfold them to check the size, without thinking for a moment of tidying up the mess they have just created. They fail to see the irony when browsing other tables where similar messes have been created, and are quick to complain about the shop’s standard of display.

Do all the clothes in their house just get dropped in a heap on the floor?

One shopper was browsing through a rack of clearance clothes, taking items off hangers and then dropping the clothes to the floor. When one of my colleagues came over to assist, and clean up the mess, the shopper rudely stated that she had given my colleague ‘job security’ and that she was ‘paid by the hour’.

“You were looking for something to do. You don’t have anything better to do,” the shopper said. The cheek of it!

On days where there is no school we see an influx of school children in the malls and shopping centres. That’s fine. But have a bit of respect — clothing racks are not there so that your children can entertain themselves with a game of ‘hide and seek’. When one lady was asked by a staff member to refrain from allowing her children to climb inside the racks and avoid crawling around the shelves for fear of the children being hurt the parents response was that the staff member had no right telling her what to do.

We have had a toddler screaming at the top of its lungs while other customers complained and commented about the poor child and how its parent wasn’t doing anything to stop the noise; and a parent wandering the toy aisle letting their child play with all the toys and completely ignoring the tantrum the child throws when told they cannot have a toy, until — after 30 minutes of such disruption — they yield and give the child what it wants.

Do parents allow kids to misbehave and leave clothes and toys all over the floor?  Do they permit the temper tantrums or is it that we have become a society afraid to displine and correct kids?

It would be nice if some customers showed a bit of consideration and understanding.

A colleague of mine was attending to one customer when another customer in the store started loudly complaining about the lack of assistance she was getting. When my colleague was free, she went over to this woman and explained that there was a service button at the counter she could have pushed, showing her the button. The woman’s response was, “Well, if you are going to be that way I will go somewhere else. I will rant any time I want, and I wouldn’t need to push any buttons at all if you had more help here.”

What do these people do at home if they don’t get what they want, or can’t find someone to give them some assistance? Do they abuse their family members this way too?

The one that gets me the most is the bathroom.  Some of the mess shoppers expect employees to clean up is beyond disgusting. I’ve  had to clean c**p of walls, unclog toilets and even flush toilets because people can’t be bothered. Instead of using the bin, people seem content to leave their paper towels on the floor. Do they do this on their own homes? If so, it’s not a home I would want to visit.

What has been your experience when out shopping? What things frustrate you?

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