Working in retail.

Oh thank you Harmony Queen!!! I hope you have a great day too!

I love going to Vinnies and life line! Good on you! I’m heading today actually for some good bargains hahah!!

Customers can be so rude … I’ve been in line behind someone making a “display”to someone serving them.
all you can do is let them do their thing
Try to move them along ….. Then when it’s your turn be polite and kind.
Freaks are everywhere! Haha natural selection must start working at some point ! we hope hahaha

I am a casual at Vinnies and really enjoy the community spirit from our customers . Difficult customers can be quite rude ( lucky no abuse yet ) and due to my high tolerance in patience , I can easily calm a situation quickly by talking my way out of it. Always listen the customer and just be objective about the purpose of his problem and it will turn out good. Of course easily said then done but its crucial for communication in society .

working as a pharmacist in a retail pharmacy, i always get customers complaining that Chemist Warehouse is cheaper.

Please, it is not fair coming to a pharmacy that gives top notch service because we train our staff properly, and expect a cheapo warehouse price. If you want Chemist Warehouse price, just go there. Small pharmacies cannot compete with the big warehouse that buys medications by trailer loads, and would die soon if you keep squeezing costs.

Of course they can be cheap, their wages are so low and they get better deals buying in large amounts. So be fair to your local chemist and at least be fair if you receive good service.

Coming to a good pharmacy, expect to pay nothing for service is just one of the reasons the health care in pharmacies are failing. It’s like expecting plumbers to work for free and you would only pay for the parts.

I don’t miss working in retail! It did teach me how to communicate with different people.

Reviving this topic so fellow SA’s can have a rant!

Retail is most definitely not for me, I cannot handle rude customers in a diplomatic manner. My first instinct is to be rude back and in avoiding that, end up looking like a scared push over.

I work at JB HI-FI in a somewhat feral area (there’s a Centrelink around the corner)and have had a 2TB hard drive thrown at me and a guy call me 5 times just to tell me to F off.
My boss even had a customer kick her!
Just today, a customer didn’t want to deal with any of the female staff, claiming he wanted to speak to an “intelligent male”.
We also get a lot of people throwing tantrums because they can’t return an item without a receipt.

Working in retail should be mandatory for everyone, just so they can see what we go through!

I worked in retail for about 10 years before having babies.
It’s true that the majority of customers are nice enough, however the ferals are repulsive. I found that when someone came in all guns blazing being rude and obnoxious, they were at fault. most people see the best defense is attack rule as they way to go. I see it as the way to not get what you want. when customers came in and ere honest and nice about things, i’d go out of my way to help them. when they came in thinking they could swear at me and abuse me before i could even say hello, i’d just call head office, let them know what was happening in front of the customer and let them deal with it.
by the time i was finishing up though i did take teh very unprofessional route and tell a few of them where to get off and what i thought of their behaviour. bad – sure, unprofessional – yep, did i feel better – my word. let’s just say there are a few people out there who are behaving a little nicer to the SA’s.
in saying that, i also will not cop bad service, No Way. SA’s get your fingers out and help people. Most instances with ‘nrmal’ people can be avoided if they are served well.

I’ve been working in retail for the past 6 months and I don’t really think I’m cut out for it, although I have improved. I don’t think I have the right temperament because generally when people are rude to me I’ll be rude back and when I first started I had a few close calls. I’ve really had to bite my tongue heaps and have had a couple of complaints against me (although everyone who works there receives complaints and on both occasions it wasn’t really my fault.) One woman was so nasty to me and made me cry. Her son was so embarrassed by how she reacted that he apologised to me. It’s annoying when they hold you personally responsible for the shop’s policies, if they can’t return things, if things aren’t in stock or if you fail to price match their stuff. You also get accused of being “hopeless” if you can’t find what someone’s looking for even though you’ve tried your hardest. People get really impatient and they also think they can speak to you in any manner they like. On a daily basis I come across the strangest people imaginable, but it’s sometimes half the fun. Thankfully you mainly deal with nice people though and it’s nice when you get positive feedback from them. I do agree it goes both ways though because I’ve seen some of the older SAs in my department behave really rudely to customers who were actually in the right. I know it can be so frustrating for customers at times but I try and remain calm when dealing with hospo or retail assistants as I know what it’s like.

My boyfriend feels the same about retail. He recently got a Christmas Casual position at JB Hi-Fi and had the worst time. The management expected him to run a whole department (like DVDs or Games) on his own, then close those departments off at night with no training, often keeping him back without getting paid. Plus multiple managers were very rude to him while they were best friends with most of the other staff. He also didn’t get the legal amount of breaks for time worked. He hated it so I told him to quit, no one should put up with that.

I’ve only ever had issues with nightmare customers when I worked in dodgy suburbs (usually the suburbs where the majority of residents haven’t worked a day in their lives and live off welfare).

I’ve been working in retail for the past 6 months and I don’t really think I’m cut out for it, although I have improved. I don’t think I have the right temperament because generally when people are rude to me I’ll be rude back and when I first started I had a few close calls. I’ve really had to bite my tongue heaps and have had a couple of complaints against me (although everyone who works there receives complaints and on both occasions it wasn’t really my fault.) One woman was so nasty to me and made me cry. Her son was so embarrassed by how she reacted that he apologised to me. It’s annoying when they hold you personally responsible for the shop’s policies, if they can’t return things, if things aren’t in stock or if you fail to price match their stuff. You also get accused of being “hopeless” if you can’t find what someone’s looking for even though you’ve tried your hardest. People get really impatient and they also think they can speak to you in any manner they like. On a daily basis I come across the strangest people imaginable, but it’s sometimes half the fun. Thankfully you mainly deal with nice people though and it’s nice when you get positive feedback from them. I do agree it goes both ways though because I’ve seen some of the older SAs in my department behave really rudely to customers who were actually in the right. I know it can be so frustrating for customers at times but I try and remain calm when dealing with hospo or retail assistants as I know what it’s like.

Before i had my girls and becoming a massage therapist/animal shelter i worked in retail for over ten years and hated it, i copped the brunt of customers bad day, was abused because the items werent what they excepted and had food thrown at me because i wasnt quick enough for them and being a supervisor that i was, was worse. I would never work in retail again.