Shoe Store Hell: The Time I Didn't Let a Customer Keep Bleeding on the Carpet
From u/MyAlterEgoIsTaller Tales From Retail:
I worked in a shoe store and we had a policy of not letting customers use our bathroom. (That was partly because we kept stock in the bathroom - so next time you buy shoes just consider that they might have been living in the employees' bathroom for a few months!)
A customer was sitting on a bench trying on shoes and all of a sudden he yelled some profanities, so of course I rushed over to see what was going on. He had cut his finger on a staple that was sticking out of the shoebox. It was a pretty good long deep scratch, and was profusely dripping blood on the carpet, the bench, the shoebox, etc. as he waved his hand around yelling. I said I'd grab our first aid kit, and he asked if he could wash the cut out in the bathroom, and I thought that would be the right thing to do from a first-aid standpoint, but also so that the bleeding would be happening in the bathroom where it would be easier to clean up and out of view of the rest of the customers. So I let him use the bathroom, and I handed him some bandaids, and I went to get the manager.
The manager was super apologetic to the customer about the staple, and gave him a discount, and asked him if he needed paramedics, which of course was a little overkill but we wouldn't want to get sued for not doing that. The customer was fine by this point, and seemed to understand we're not the ones who assemble shoeboxes and can't be expected to know about every dangerous staple, and he was happy because he got a discount (and I don't think this was the case, but who knows, he could have cut himself on purpose just for that purpose!).
I thought all was well with the world again. But as soon as the customer got out of the store my manager called me into the office and threw a fit because I let the bleeding guy into the bathroom, and I ended up getting fired. Oh well, at least I didn't have to clean up the blood.
Fired you for letting him use the restroom? I would think a write-up at most would suffice!
Posted by: Misty Meanor | Tuesday, October 02, 2018 at 10:30 AM