I’ll be honest, working in retail has taught me a lot. I’ve seen the measures people go through to get what they want. I’ve a great company falter in its goal to give the customer a fighting shot, either by miscommunication or management striving to make due with what corporate wants, which isn’t for the benefit of the customer.
I was lucky enough to start with a company that was stable, and I never feared about losing my job over petty things. If a customer was nice to me, I tried to be nice to them. If it was a mistake on our end, I would try to fix it. Of course, I wasn’t the best cashier. Hell, I wouldn’t even consider myself a GOOD cashier. I would come into work some days with a negative attitude, and I would struggle to make it through the day.
Point is, I’m happy that throughout my years in this retail job, I was able to gain the knowledge and experience I wouldn’t had learned otherwise. Essentially, be nice to the person serving you, whether it be cashier, waiter, retail assistant, manager, or other sales or customer service position. They will be more inclined to help you in the future, mainly because you made their day easier, better, or just less of a nightmare.
For customers out there, as a former cashier at a retail grocery chain in the United States, I’ve a few words for you all.
1) Please feel free to use coupons. I’ve nothing against them, nor do many cashiers. However, please learn the coupon policy for your store and be understanding. I’m not the one trying to stop you from using your coupons, but I’m the one who has to talk to my manager or store head because I let you through with too many coupons or overrode too many coupons. When I inform you of the situation, please be understanding. Next time I may be more willing because I recognize you and I know what may or may not slide with my managers.
2)Fraudulent coupons are growing more and more frequent. Please understand that I cannot take a coupon that I understand is fraudulent. I understand you probably aren’t the one who created the coupon, but if a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. In fact, a better way to make money is to provide stores and companies with information regarding the creator or origin of the coupon. Many stores nowadays are offering rewards for that information.
3)As you shop, you may notice dates on a tag. If you see that the date is overdue, please feel free to bring that tag to the front so we can give you the proper price. Many stores will give you the tagged price if we left a tag up as it was our fault and we need to give you the posted price. This does NOT mean that if you put an 8 pack of Paper Towels on a 4 pack stand and say it was just placed there that we need to give you the price. We are not responsible for customers placing loose items on an empty rack. Fighting over issues like this is only going to make me less likely to go beyond for you in the future.
These are a few of the issues I want to bring to light as my final day approaches. Retail is a tough job, and it’s not fun, but if you are being courteous to the employee, generally we will go out of our way to help you. If we don’t, we may be having a bad day, but please be assured your kindness does help and we do remember it.
Next time, more anime and gaming news!!
-Ace