Retail Hell Underground

Subway Ruling

SNL's Veganville

Custy Not Happy With Subway

Deaf Custy Has Tantrum Over Soup Sellout

Hello RHU!! Long time lurker, first time poster. Call me TimmiHoe, because why not?

Have I got a lovely story for you today!

At my location we get a regular who is deaf and we are all capable of helping him and he helps us by pointing or miming his order. He's super nice and very patient and always tips but this is not about him, I just needed some backstory. Our location also sells soup like it is the last thing on Earth during lunch hour, and making more takes at most 4 hours for it to properly cook.

This day we had sold out of our famous chicken noodle (the horrors!). Most people who wanted it were disappointed but went with an alternate. Now, this lady comes in and goes to my coworker's register with a paper and pen.

We notice she is deaf immediately since instead of responding to my coworker she just starts writing her order. Him being uncomfortable (honestly this guy has never served the deaf before, it can be awkward the first time) sends her to my till and tells me she's not understanding him.

Me, being the "will help the disabled no matter what", gladly takes her and looks at her paper.

Sadly, she ordered the chicken noodle soup combo. I try to tell her we have no chicken noodle, and she just grunts at me angrily and points at the paper.

Now, our store signs are TVs now, so changing them is harder since they are accessed by the managers office so we can't change what soups we have. I attempt to point this out using a clear voice but to no avail, she is completely deaf and cannot hear me.

I take my pen and jot on the paper what I was trying to tell her and offer another soup.....and she FREAKS.

Like, angry grunting and squeaks and jabbing her finger at the TV sign. She fumes around at scares some of the regulars with her tantrum. Thankfully it is short lived and she storms out, leaving me and my two coworkers in shock.

Never in my life would I think someone who is disabled be so rude. Me and my coworkers were being very nice and trying to get her to understand we had none of the soup she wanted and that we had other options. Was she thinking I could pull it out of my ass? Ugh, I'm just glad she hasn't come back since.

Signing out RHU!

--TimmiHoe

 

Random Act of Custy Kindness: Custy Helps Homeless Subway Manager With Two Kids and Cancer

From HuffPo: Jessica, a homeless mother of two who has cancer, does not go to Ford's Chapel United Methodist Church in Harvest, Ala. But the church sure came to Jessica, providing a new home and hope.

With her 9 and 11-year-old kids in tow, Huffington Post.

In a story first reported by WHNT (see video above), the outreach started over chitchat at a Subway sandwich shop. Havens eats at a local store about once a week. He always made conversation with the outgoing manager Jessica, and they became friends.

She told him how she lost her home in a tornado that swept through Huntsville on April 27, 2011. She and her children had bounced around between shelters, her mom's place and motels, rejecting welfare to make it on their own, Havens said. To try to make ends meet, she was working at two Subway locations.

Recently, Havens noticed she was no longer at his lunch spot. When Jessica reappeared a few weeks later, Havens asked where she had been.

Jessica answered she had been diagnosed with uterine cancer and was in the hospital. In the meantime, she was fighting to take possession of a mobile home ruined by a squatter. The place was uninhabitable but she couldn't afford the repairs or utility deposits to move in.

That's all Havens needed to know. He mobilized an army of do-gooders. Ford's congregation redid the place, installing new flooring, plumbing, and electricity. The process took two months and Jessica got her first peek on Sunday. "We had the 'Extreme Home Makeover' theme for her yesterday," Havens said, referring to the once-popular reality show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

"It means the world to me that we can finally call something a home,” Jessica told WHNT. “I can’t believe it. Such a miracle. We‘ve been through so much. I just can’t explain it.”

Others have gotten involved. St. John the Baptist Catholic Church helped with the renovations, the station reported. St. John’s Cancer Ministry, the St. Vincent de Paul Group, and the Knights of Columbus are pitching in too, plus individuals and businesses.

On a more personal front, Ford's congregant Lisa Wolfe has become a surrogate mother to Jessica as she battles her disease, Havens said. Jessica needs a hysterectomy. The chemotherapy has left her unable to work, Havens added, although Subway has promised Havens to keep her job open until she returns.

Despite the obstacles that loom ahead, at least Jessica and family have one less problem to overcome. They have a roof over their head they can call their own.

Said Havens: "Just a casual conversation started this whole thing."

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Custy Pulls Up a Chair

 

Added Food Worker Rule

 

 

 

 

Deli Signage

 

 

Case For Your Wurst

 

 

 

To Bacon Or Not

 

 

Retail Slaves As Custys: Bad Joke Eel Strikes Again

Hello, RHU devotees.  I experienced a little bit of retail heck tonight.  Not quite hell, I don't give the guy that much credit.

The wifey decided that she wanted fried chicken and mac and cheese for dinner, so I pop down to the local grocery (gasp - I shop at the competitor!  If only we had a store less than a half hour away!).  I made my way over to the Deli.  After 15 years in retail, I think I've developed a sixth sense for mayhem.  I see, from a distance, an old man standing at the hot food case, looking around for help.  An old man kept waiting?  Aw, fuck.

So not too long after I arrived at the counter, striving mightily not to make contact with Grandpa Liverspot (call me anti-social), a clerk came up and began to help him. He too wanted fried chicken.  So she packaged it for him and started to label it.  Then my intuition became fact.

He looked back at me with a grin.  His face said, "Break out your zoot suit, this one's gonna be a doozy!"  (No, don't do it!)

He turns back to the clerk, looks back at me for a second grin to see if I'm paying attention, (OH GOD HE'S GONNA DO IT!) and said, "And an extra thigh for the wait!" (I'm sorry man, I did everything I could!  Via con Dios!)

Now he said this with a smile, and I knew he was joking, and the clerk laughed and played it off very well.  But it still rankled me that he thought he was going to make some grand joke and pull me into it.  I just looked at him, trying to convey "Really?  Did you really just say that?" until he decided that he was funny enough to move on to the next stop.

*    *    *

And on a separate note, do you ever have one of those weeks when people just don't seem to realize that you exist?  

I've had that week this week.  I could be pulling the loudest, noisiest, tooth-rattlingest old busted ass cart full of loose cans fifty feet down an aisle, come up behind somebody who is parked in the middle of the aisle, and have to stop because they have not once even looked up to see where that huge mosquito is that is making all that noise.  

Then if you are lucky you get, "Oh, am I in your way?"  Oh, I don't know, I thought maybe I'd just drag this shit around with me and stop at some random point like Forrest Gump when he decided to stop running.

The worst, though was when I was switching pallets of water out of the entry and pallets of pop into the entryway.  Not once, but twice, I dropped a skid, pulled out the jack, and just as I was about to push it under another skid, people walked between the skid and the jack.  And did not even pretend to look at me.  

Then there was the guy who came out of an aisle in front of me and kept going, forcing me to suddenly bring half a ton of product to a stop so I didn't run over his oblivious ass.

Then came the topper of all the toppers.  Imagine me, pulling a skid of water out of the back room, just accelerating after coming through the door.  Imagine idiot customer approaching from the right, who looks up, sees me, actually smiles at me, fucking speaks to me, and, stunningly, says "Let me get out of your way" as he races right. in. front. of. me.  I damn near ran over my heels trying to get the pallet stopped.  It was all I could do to just look at him in disbelief and not blurt out "That's not fucking helping me, jackass!"  People are actively trying to die!

That's all for tonight.  Stay classy RHU!

--Riferous

Bad Yelp Review Used To Advertise

 

 

 

 

Subway's Scariest Location?

 

 

Nightmare Subway Custys Prompt RHUer To Praise Sandwich Maker

From Candieaddict:

Hi RHU! I have a tale of a customer I saw at the local WaySub where my mom and I were getting dinner for my dad before heading to another place for our own dinners.

This short lady was already in line ahead of us; we greeted the worker like they normally do and got started with the second guy worker that was behind the counter. While my mom was ordering the food, I was glancing around at the lady ahead of us because she was starting to get a little loud.

The woman worker behind the counter was adding on the meat to SL [short lady]’s sandwich, when SL demanded a type of meat that didn’t belong on the sandwich, well that’s what the worker said. So the WW [woman worker] throws the meat back into the stack with the other meat and goes to put on what belongs on the sandwich. That was actually kind of gross to witness since it had crumbs and mayo all over it, but I guess it’s allowed?

The WW then asks SL what else she wanted, and SL had no idea because she was getting the sandwich for another lady. AL [another lady] comes marching in then demanding what was taking so long. She stands there instead of SL and starts asking for this and that, and argues when she couldn’t get the meat she wanted that SL had tried to get earlier. WW goes to finish up the sandwich, and AL demands for this to be added and that to be added, WW looked like she was getting really bothered by this point.

Finally, the sandwich is made! Nope, now we got another problem. SL opens the sandwich and starts sniffing it! Now, we’ve been going to this place for over a year now or so, they never ever have bad food out. It looks fresh as can be. SL starts saying that her sandwich smells bad from something. WW says it’s impossible since their stuff is fresh, and it’s probably something from outside. SL refuses to listen, and demands to have her sandwich remade. There was nothing wrong with her sandwich at all. WW remade the sandwich as quick as she could. She looked like she was about to cry!

They finally got over to the register and SL is paying with GW [guy worker] working the register now. SL pays for the meal and GW asks if she wanted a receipt. SL said no, and went to get her card back and then all of a sudden asks “What was the price?”

Lady if you had taken the receipt, you wouldn’t have to ask!

At this point, my mom and I were getting fed up, and the workers were looking frazzled. My mom was keeping her distance but I moved closer to SL to her get move on since we wanted to pay for our food and leave. SL finally noticed us and started laughing over how she needed to eat half her sandwich before she could drive, and grabbed a bit right there at the register. She left a nice mess of lettuce and other stuff right there, then went off to get a soda.

I felt incredibly bad for how SL and AL acted so I whispered to my mom an idea, and we both, rather loudly, complimented the workers for being nice, and doing a great job. SL and AL heard us and glared at us the entire time we left, but we weren’t bothered. They were the bad customers, not us.

I guess in the long run it’s not THAT bad of a situation. But I don’t see why anyone should be so demanding to the point of making both workers so frazzled without apologizing, or thanking them.

-- Candieaddict

 

Kosher Butcher Offers Advance Apology