It's always been my goal to incorporate something of the readers into The Last Clerks, and in that inclusive spirit I put out this entreaty for comments that also gives folks the chance to contribute something to the canon.
I'm sending a call out to those of you who have ever worn the nametag, asking for a truly terrible story from your experiences. Something that you have, ideally, buried for months or even years trying to forget. When a customer did something obnoxious and you had to let them get away with it. When a manager gave you a browbeating you surely did not deserve. When some thoughtless store policy got in the way of you just doing your job quietly and without complication.
Sound off in the comments section, and if your tale is deemed the most sorrowful, I'll insert it into the mythos, rewritten with a desolate, violent ending in sparse, laconic prose.
Get to it!
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ok, so I was working as a stocker at bass pro shop. I had just helped the clothing department set up for the rainy season. Hanging above myhead was a bunch of acrylic rain drops with the words rain wear above my head. So this lady walks up to me and says "Can you tell me wear the rain wear is. I look behind me up to the sign and then back to the lady. I walked away shaking my head.
ReplyDeleteWhile working at Jewel one day we had this old hag come in. I work in a small Jewel so our products available is always in flux. She wanted something called Breakfast Cookies. All of us on crew that night think she means oatmeal bars or something, but they don't fit her discription:
ReplyDelete"They are Breakfast Cookies about this big [size of a twix fun size] and individually wrapped."
We're thinking everything from granola bars to wafer cookies. Nope, none of those, so we tell her we just don't carry it. She walk off with her walker in a huff. About 5 minutes later the crew leader is called up to the desk, they ask him, he says he'll look again. Not a minute later they call someone from grocery up to the desk again. I go this time, and the lady is glaring at me as I walk up. I just walked up to the desk and said "We don't have the cookies she wants, we don't carry them" and walked back to my work with her still complaining.
Next day she came in again, and she had completely forgotten about it all. Probably some cookie they made when the lady was a girl during WWI.
this one time I took an hour to close office depot straightening all the products. All registers were closed, doors were locked, and lights were out. Some Indians banged on the door demanding to be let in cause it was owed to them. My fat stupid and ugly manager let them in and made us re-open a register just for them. They came in and threw everything they saw that they didn't want on the ground. They bought a few pens, and left. I had to pick up all the items that they trashed for another half hour.
ReplyDeleteI thank god every day that I'm too smart to work retail anymore.