Hey RHUers! Long time reader, first time poster, and so on.

I live in Pasadena, California and have been a Retail Slave since I was 15. My retail experience spans many many years. From Hollyweird Video to Noah's BagHELLs to some roofing company to all things under the goddamn sun.

Anyway, now I am a slave at a petstore that sounds like PetShart. My tale of woe is but a small sampling of what I have to deal with in this "upscale" neighborhood with its rich bitchy customers.

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand spoiling your pet and the fact that they're like your children (especially to the ladies that come through the line with 637 cans of individual cat food that I have to scan...individually) but really...sometimes it just goes too far.

Let me set the scene for you.

It's my first day on the registers...second day in the company. My manager just trained me on the registers (which, after so many retail jobs...and not being an idiot...takes me like 3 seconds to learn) then left to do something else.

The first lady I help on my own is paying with a check...and he didn't train me on how to do checks yet, of course...

It's suddenly gotten busy (as we all know customers see one person in line and decide that THIS is the time to swarm to the registers like the infestation they are).

There are TWO registers open, but the lady behind the lady I am helping, who is being very sweet about the whole thing, decides that I and ONLY I am going to check her out with the aforementioned amount of cat food cans.

My coworker for some reason refuses to call my manager over (only she had a phone that could page on the overhead). I obviously can't just leave the register to wander the store looking for him so I'm stuck begging her to call him over while the whole time this lady who's next in line keeps repeating, "What am I waiting for? Can you tell me what i'm waiting for???" while I AND the lady I'm helping keep repeating something along the lines of, "I'm just waiting for the manager."

Of course I wanted to say something much, MUCH different.

FINALLY coworker pages him and he meanders over. We get it figured out and Bitchy McGee comes to the register with her bazillion cans of individual cat food. She continues to bitch at me while I scan each and every one of these cans and bag them, put them in her cart and continue. She finally leaves and I'm once again happy...for a while.

THEN this self-entitled Rich Bitch comes in telling me that her dog "will only sleep on sheepskin blankets" and how she "has much nicer stuff and can afford better than what we have in here, but she needs something to take to her boyfriend's penthouse when she visits" and whatnot.

I show her all of the beds we have and she proceeds to pull every one of them off the shelves and have her dog "try them out."

I don't know how many of you have ever been to L.A., but people are kind of...well...batshit crazy. She proceeds to tell me that "Spike doesn't dig the vibe of this one." and "He's not feelin' this." and whatever the crazy hell else she said.

I FINALLY get her to the register carrying not only her new dog bed, (Yeah, Spike eventually "dug one"), but also a bag of food, some treats, and HER DOG.

I get no kudos for selling stuff to her, no commission, no "Hey, good job!"...NOTHING. ...Except a "why did you spend so long on one customer, we have other people to help in here!"

BLARGH!!!

Anyway, that's a minor annoyance compared to everything else I've suffered, as I am also a bather in the grooming department, reception for the grooming department, cashier, and the Doggie Day Camp area.

-- PetShart Stevie 

 

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