Retail Hell Pet Peeves: The "Mess" Question

Everybody's got their pet peeves, those things that, however miniscule they may be to most people, drive you up a wall.  One of my biggest is a question that grates more than "Do you work here?" 

It's the dreaded:

Did somebody make a mess?

Today I noticed that 8 pack Gatorade was empty on the shelf, and we had a few on the end.  We also had 3 stacks of single bottles that looked like they would just perfectly fill the end.  So I take the packs from the end to the shelf and move one of the stacks to the end.  Physics takes over, gravity wins out over my desire to finish quickly and efficiently, and SPLOOSH, 3 bottles break.

Now cleaning up a spill is not my favorite thing in the first place.  It's a negative proposition all around: you've damaged product, you've created a slip hazard, and you've eaten up at least 5 minutes of your day that would have been better spent picking your nose and digging out some ear wax. 

I blocked off the area, got the spill powder and a trash can, and knew that somewhere, lurking, waiting for a vulnerable moment, The Question was approaching.

Surprisingly enough, I got through most of the cleanup, about 5 minutes, without springing the trap. 

Then, when I had just begun to scoop up the debris, a fellow employee, of all people, says "Riferous, did you make a mess?" 

Did I make a mess?  Why no, what would make you say that?  Couldn't be the big blue puddle on the otherwise off white floor, could it?  The broom in my hand? Or the huge pile of blue dust on the floor next to the 55 gallon trash can?

And then, as if the flood gates (pun intended) had opened, no less than three customers in a two minute span had to inquire as to the obvious.  "Make a mess?  Somebody spill something?  Oh, somebody made a mess!" 

No shit, collective Sherlocks.

Fellow RHUer Then Let Them Eat Crack then happens by and I vented to him.  At least my people were astute enough to realize that there was something on the floor that could potentially cause a problem.  He was cleaning up two broken bottles of wine in a congested area and had the area blocked off as much as possible when a random custy stops, looks at the mess, and proceeds to walk over it.  He said "Really?  You're just going to walk over this huge spill?" 

"Well I didn't know what it was..." 

Because not knowing what something is apparently negates its existence.

After I finally got everything picked up, I went back for the last stack of Gatorade.  I'm sure you can't guess what happened.  Apparently I haven't learned my lesson yet, because I knocked over one more bottle.  The lid on this one didn't shatter like the others, so only a few drops spilled.  I went to get some paper towels and before the first one even got wet, "Did somebody spill something?"  All I could do was turn my head and keep wiping.

Oh well.  First World Problems, right?

Stay classy, RHU.

--Riferous

Comments

[Burger Bitch]

I've only ever gotten that from coworkers and each and every time it felt like someone was smashing my head open with a StupidStick.

Nope, that lonely ghost that wanders the fucking restaurant made the mess, cocksucker.

[Kat]

I always say it in a "LOLOLOL YOU TOOL" sort of teasing way, hahaha. We're jackasses at my workplace XD

But yeah, those kind of questions get annoying >8[

[carotte]

I think the brain sometimes shortcut everything and the mouth just wants to fill in the void because the ears are getting lonely.

It's the same thing as the quite original "did you cut your hair?", "did you broke your arm?" - (to someone in a cast),or more specifics one depending on the personal situation like " oh, did you go grocery shopping" - said in a 2 person household and in front of a now full fridge.

We're all guilty of some of those.
(Yet when we are the one asked this kind of things our answers would be along " no, they fell of their own accord, in style", "nop, just thought it would be fashionable" or " no, the magic fridge fairy did it")

[NC Tony]

"Have an accident?"
"No thanks, I already had one."

At both the Bullseye and the Kohl Mine my co-workers only do that as a joke. For example when someone drops something, and they know they dropped something, I'll point and say "You dropped something." I usually get a sarcastic dirty look and an equally sarcastic "No kidding. Could you stop making stupid comments and help me?"
"Nah, I'm having too much fun watching you struggle."
Then there was the one time I walked into a sign (fortunately it was just a laminated sheet of paper so it didn't hurt) but I hear one of my co-workers say "Watch out for that sign."
"Gee, thanks for warning me before I did something stupid like walking into it."
But in those cases it's all done in good fun.

[Drug Store Diva]

I get people who say "There's something on the floor"...yes you dope, it's me cleaning up this mess.

[Laughing Barista]

I love the "Are you the manager?" question when I'm the only person wearing a shirt with a different colour from the rest of the crew AND my nametag says manager.

I also love "Wow, you guys are really expensive. You should slash the prices." Yes, because I can control that.

[Riferous]

@Laughing Barista - I get the manager question all the time. "Are you the manager?" Yes. "Can you tell where the kumquats are?" "... and the first part of your question was relevant because...?"

[Logan]

I always hate the obvious questions. I kicked myself awhile back when I was checking out of the local grocery store. I was running my card through the machine when I noticed they were brand new. "Oh you got new machines" She said, yes and everybody had been mentioning it all day. It wasn't an obvious question, but an obvious statement, but as a former slave, I should have remembered how annoying it is hear the same statement a hundred times a day.

[Humor_Me]

If you think that's annoying, its a good thing you didn't grow up in our household. My ex and I suffer from extremely dry senses of humor and have comebacks for just about everything. It all started when he was telling me about a loud noise he heard out in the warehouse section of his job where he was doing some electronics testing. One guy, without looking up or missing a beat said, "Somebody dropped their watch." and continued on like nothing had happened. It became our new "loud noise" catch-phrase. Raising three kids, we developed others like when one of the kids would want us to get up and get them a drink just because they were too busy playing on the computer or watching tv. "Sorry buddy, but are your legs broken?" (I've had knee trouble since age 12) I'm willing to help you carry your glass if it takes 2 hands to carry your plate to the table, but I'm not carrying your cup to the end table because you're too lazy to get up and pour your own milk.

People have a tendency to talk to other people and make conversation, even if it means pointing out the obvious and trying to be "funny". I'm just sure that there has been some study done on it and they can tell you the reasoning for it.

[Chicken Flinger]

I felt bad for my local wal-fart pee-ons yesterday. In the drink aisle, they were moving pallets of beverage around on the top-most shelf. Can you see where this is going? Yep, the pallet broke and from across the store we heard a very loud noise following by crunching and finally, the distinct sound of a hundred glass bottles shattering. We didn't think much of it until we got to that end of the store. No less than 8 people were scooping and mopping up a LOOOT of wet debris. 2 aisles had been closed down.

And then... the smell. All of a sudden, I felt a little light-headed. The contents of the broken pallet were not just any old beverage, but cheap beer. Imagine a tidal wave of beer cascading down 2 aisles as more pours from the top shelf in a beer-fall from broken bottles and busted cans. It was overwhelming. I don't like beer, but even the employees who do were feeling queasy from the smell. There was sooooo much beer everywhere. It ended up leaking under the shelving into a 3rd and 4th aisle. It was madness.

I'm sure I did the stupid "Oh... you spilled something?" but not on purpose, only out of shocked awe at the situation. There was enough beer in the air you could've gotten drunk off the fumes. I pretty much did, actually. They had to throw an entire pallet of beer away, busted bottles and exploded cans. I'm not sure how much goes onto a pallet, but they were hauling away carts full of bottles, cans, beer boxes and trash cans full of the broken stuff. Madness.

I have a feeling that there was a party with free beer after work that night in the back room. Not all the cans/bottles busted, about half, but the other half was supposed to be sent back to the warehouse as damaged...

[ajason495]

I abso HATE "do you work here?" No i enjoy spending my days off from being a cowboy millionaire space astronaut, to come to your local clothing store and not only FOLD the clothes you way to buy but I also found this name tag that says I work here.

The other top up there is "how much is this?" Well the tag says it $10 and there is a 3 foot wide sign with big bold letters that say $10, im gonna go out on a limb and say its $10. The other one that gets me is basic math with sale questions. LIKE- i found this on a half off rack, how much is it? Seriously whats half of 40, seriously, did you dress yourself or did you have help getting that done today kinda question. I once was doing harder math for one of my shoppers which was 30% off $120, I stood there and said the math out loud. Well lets see, 30 off 120 is 3x12 is $36 dollars, so 120-36 is about 84 dollars. To which she replied, "I could have done that". Well then why didnt you?

[snuzzle]

Ugh, ajason495, my mom does that to me ALL THE TIME when we're shopping together. It's like I'm her personal calculator. We'll be walking along and she'll see "Oh, this is ten percent off, how much would that be?" or "Well, mom, you get twenty percent off of this with my employee discount." "Oh, how much is that?"

I even tried explaining an easy way to do it, just slide the decimal point to the left one place and multiply it by the first number in the discount (so for 20% off of a 10.99 item, it's 1.09 times two, or about 2.20 off.) But nope. Every time it's "How much is this discount?" Argh.