Dear, Grocery Shoppers - 9. A Phone Call

Have you gotten mad at something so small because it was something that could've been taken care of literally ten times over, if not sooner. Well today was the day for me. Lately everything has been going smooth at work from my fellow management team, to my staff and even the customers. Yes, including my staff member that keeps giving me gifts, like a bottle of wine and a batch of brownies. Anyway, let's get into what we all came for.

It was a normal day, and I was working my usual mid shift which is 10am to 6pm. Not a bad time right? I’m approaching the last hour of my shit. Let me ask you guys something, why is when it’s your last hour of work, all of the nonsense tends to occur? Yeah, I’m not sure either but this day, a team effort was needed to handle a customer’s nonsense. The customer, a gentleman, who locked his keys in his car came into our store. So far, so good, right? Nothing wrong with that, but do you ever have that feeling of, “Man, out of all of the stores on the strip, why the one you work at?” or when you’re talking to a coworker and a customer comes to you and you think, “Man, I’m not the only one that works here. There was someone else you could’ve bugged right beside me.”

The gentleman proceeded to walk into our store and asked a cashier if we sold a particular item that would help him to be able to pop the lock in his car. The cashier proceeded to ask us the question over the walkie and we told her no we don’t sell anything like that. I’m thinking to myself, “Why didn’t he just pull out his phone and call someone?” As it turns out, the man has also locked his phone in the car. I mean, how often would someone lock both their phone and keys in his/her car or lock keys in the car and phone be dead? All of the stores that are alongside the strip are pretty similar, so none of the other stores could help him.

After answering the question over the walkie, I thought we were done, but for some strange reason, the cashier asked for a manager to come towards the front. There’s no point in going up front if there’s nothing we could do for the gentleman. We already answered the question. After relaying that over the walkie, the cashier kept asking for a manager to come up, at least three more times.

I don’t mind helping someone out, being a team player and whatnot, but I do mind having my time wasted. Time is something we can’t get back, plus I’ve already answered the question over the walkie. After the third call for a manager to come up front, I start making my way there. As I’m walking from the back, the gentleman started walking my way and stopped me by asking me if I worked here. Keep in mind, I'm in a shirt that has the name of the place, the vibrant blue that’s on the front of the building, and I have a walkie that tucked in between the buttons of my shirt. I said, “Yes, I do, and I’m guessing you’re the customer my cashier was asking about, although I’ve already answered the questions.” I’ll give it to the gentleman, he didn’t give up. He asked me if we sold any long dog leashes or anything similar.

I answered the gentleman, “No, sir. I’m sorry we don’t have any dog leashes at all.” So I walked away, proceeding to the front to calm my cashier down. I get up there I ask, “Hey, what’s going on? We answered the questions the guy asked about. Why do you need one of the managers up here?”

My cashier proceeded to tell me what happened, down to the exact tiny detail. She wanted a manager on the front end because he became slightly disgruntled and was indignant with the fact she couldn’t help him by selling a product that our store doesn’t carry. This would be the moment where I get frustrated and walk away. Instead, I took a deep breath and said, “I need you to understand that if we don’t sell a product here, there’s nothing we can do. We’re an outlet store, and we sell whatever comes off the trucks. At this moment, we don’t sell any wire hangers, or lockpicking sets. Just because a customer has a life problem doesn’t mean we can snap our fingers and make everything better. If the customer won’t take no for an answer, that’s when you call us up here, instead of keep asking the same questions over and over again.”

That was the end of it, or so I thought. I was called up front one last time. You guessed it, it was the same customer. As I got up there, the customer asked if he could use a phone. I just had to ask, “Is there a reason you don’t have a phone or even said anything this whole time?” After hearing more ridiculousness from the guy’s mouth, I lent him my phone. This phone call should’ve been a quick one, but no. He’s talking to a towing company a lot longer than a typical conversation of this matter should be. As I’m looking at him on my phone, making sure he doesn't run off with it. If he did, I’m pretty sure I would be going to jail. I also looked at my cashier thinking, “Girl, you could’ve let him use your phone and this guy would’ve already been out of here.”

As the gentleman finally gets off my phone, he offers to clean it. I told him that it's not necessary since we have disinfecting wipes behind the counter. I also told the gentleman for next time not only to take our word on what we sell, but just ask for a phone in the beginning. All of this could’ve been avoided. He gave a nod as he completely understood, I looked at my cashier and she gave a nod as well because she realized she could’ve lended her phone this whole time. Now you see this whole thing could’ve been taken care of at least ten times over within two to three minutes, if not sooner rather than over the last hour of my shift. Oh, did I forget to mention this whole thing ended up taking about twenty mins?

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s someone wasting my time. Anyways until next time!