Retail "Joys"

Everyone has worked retail at one time or another. If you haven't, you were more than likely born with a silver spoon shoved squarely up your ass. There are certain people that every retail employ has to deal with at one time or another. Doesn't matter where you worked, from Wal Mart to Nordstrom, the dressing might change but the costumer underneath is the same everywhere.

The "But they have it at _____" guy. This costumer wants something that your store does not carry. They come in to inform you that the local competition does have it. They seem to be under the impression that if your competitor carries it, and they inform you of it,  somehow magically it will appear in the store. It won't. If you want that item, please go to the competition, and never come back here.

Then there is the "Oh, I have a coupon.. but I think it is at home, can I use it anyway?" dumb-ass. No, you can't, not now, not ever. If you want to use a coupon, you need it with you at time of purchase. No amount of bitching at the register will make up give you a discount. Oddly enough you get this person more at place that don't actually ever have coupons. This might be the dumbest type of customer in existence, or maybe the one with the biggest balls, but then the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Oh and the "When will this be on sale?" asshole. As if the costumer service level person would know. The best answer to this person is "It was on sale a week or two a go, you just missed it by that much". It will go on sale whenever the hire ups feel like it, no one you can talk to can influence that. You will waste more money on the gas coming here to check that you will ever save on the product.

Welcome to your personal hell.

Working retail is a hell we all go through. Some people stay there forever, some move on to entirely different hells. In the end all we can do is laugh at it, because it hurts less than crying. Bonus points to you if ever told your manager what you really thought.

What The Hell Happened To Restaurants?

It seems like the management of restaurants is not what it once was. Lately it seems they are doing something wrong. They seem to running out of items, and not minor items either. It seem they are running out of the items you would most likely go into them to get. Three restaurants had this happen, and all in the same week.

Was with a few friends this weekend, and around about 8pm we decided to order a few pizza for delivery  So we give Pizza Hut a call, as they are the closest pizza available. Well, this idea ended quickly, as they were "out of pizza". It seems they ran out of the frozen dough discs that they make all of there pizzas with. Sure it was 8pm on a Saturday, but that is no excuse. One would think they would have like an emergency stock, just on case, but no. If you are a pizza place, and have no pizza, why are you even staying open?

Right now, at the time of writing this, El Pollo Loco is running a special for a 10$ whole chicken. Seem like a good deal, but you sit in the drive through, engine idling, only to be told they are out of chicken. This has happen to me several times. Everything at this place (nearly) requires chicken. How does even a grossly incompetent manager allow this to happen? This is worse than Pizza Hut, as this not only wastes time, but also gas. One would think they would put a sign in the window, so you wouldn't waste 20 minutes in the drive through with everyone having the same conversation with the window.

The worst offender on this lately is Marie Callender's. There have special that come with your choice of pie. A decent deal, or they would be except for one thing, they seem to have problems keeping pies in stock. So I eat, and at the end of the meal the waitress ask what kind of pie I want. I say "Kahlua, please". A moment later she returns "We are out of Kahlua", very well I think, it is not that common a pie. So I say, "Fine, then I will have pecan pie, please". She goes in that, and comes back "We are out of that too". So at this point I ask "Well what pies do you have in stock?", to which she replies "I don't know". First this waitress should be fired for being this dense, secondly how can more than one pie be completely out?

What happened to the people that manage restaurants? Did they all collectively decide to shove their heads up their asses? Did the large corporations that own these places cut down on bonuses, and they are taking it out on customers? Either way, something needs to be done.