What's really "IN THE BACK"... r/TalesFromRetail | fresh

what is that my aesthetic boys it's fresh back with another video today we have an episode of tales from retail and if you've ever wondered if a store has some extras in the back you're about to find out it's called self-serve for a reason so I'm the cashier that works the self-serve checkouts at my local grocery store we have four registers in total that I have to keep an eye on we got a little bit busy and this customer walks up to me as I'm standing at the podium which shows all the registers orders as they're rung in and shoves newspapers in my face and doesn't say a word I knew that he wanted me to ring them up for him but rude I go over to an open register and ring in the papers and get it set up to the payment menu all he has to do now is pay with the cash in his hand by putting it into the machine well as he's paying another register goes off and that customer needs help I go to help her because I think this guy has it under control nope I help the lady ring in the bananas she couldn't tell if it was a nine or a four for the code so I put in the code and watch to make sure it weighs properly that's when I hear the guy um miss you were helping me first remember I have to help whichever machine goes off and I came here so you could do it for me so I wouldn't have to wait so long in line all that happened was the Machine wouldn't take his crinkled money so I fold it at the point where it was almost straight and the Machine took it I then didn't get a thank you but also thought to myself it's called Self Serve for a reason this just added to my already stressful day but what can you do but be nice the local grocery store near me actually also has for self checkout areas and oftentimes later in the day especially at night they'll close down almost all of the traditional registers and keep all of the regular self checkout lanes open I often feel bad for the single employee that's standing at the podium staffing all of these self checkout areas because Wow do some people do some stupid things because they literally can't read the most basic instructions as they pop up on the screen you're not going to open another register I'm a supervisor at a grocery store today basically half my front-end team called out and I wound up staying an extra half hour to help put out all the fires anyway I was finally heading out I walked past the registers with my apron in one hand and my phone in the other there were a few lines but it wasn't bad and I couldn't bring myself to extend my 9 hour shift any longer as I'm walking past one of the registers this absolute nightmare of a regular puts his arm out to block my path and just says you're not going to open another register I was so done so so so done it was a nightmare of a day usually I would have said something or explained why I wasn't but I legit just shrugged my shoulders and walked past him I legitimately do understand the frustration that people experience when it feels like there are too few people staffing the registers but if they're just a couple lines maybe I have to wait four or five minutes to check out you're seriously physically trying to stop a manager from walking out because they're clearly not going to open another register come on I hate to break it to you but those employees have lives too and if their shift is over they're welcome to leave your life isn't that much more important than theirs credit card processing is down take it up with the deli department that makes sense another post recently reminded me of a story from a few years back when I worked in a grocery store deli department there was some glitch with the credit card processing that day and they couldn't accept credit cards for buying stuff it was rather widespread not just our store people could still buy with cash or cheque though anyway they had put up a sign by the front door and were making announcements over the PA system every so often the front end was busy with people not realizing until too late that they wouldn't be able to buy their groceries all of us in perishable departments were busy running back and forth to collect shop backs that weren't sold it was frustrating store wide anyway I get a lady at the deli counter that wants some deli meat sliced a certain way I get that for her and she goes on her way about ten minutes later there's an announcement over the PA about the credit card system being down Q angry customer coming back to the deli angry customer hey how am I supposed to buy this now basically throwing the package of meat him sorry I don't have my checkbook or enough cash to buy all my stuff yeah I'm sorry about that there's some glitch in the system from what I've heard and they have no idea when it'll be back up now what do I do well there's an ATM near the front of the store if you wanted to get cash out to buy your stuff did you want this deli meat still no I want to know how soon it will be back up I'm sorry I have no idea since I work back here not the front end it's your job to know these things it's really really not a fine you've just lost a customer she leaves her carts sitting there in front of the deli counter and leaves and then came back the next day when the system was back up got her deli meat sliced exactly the same as the day before neither of us said a word about what happened the day before either it was like it never even happened what an abysmal e empty threat of you just lost a customer for a system malfunction that was a hundred percent out of their control if this is someone who consistently Shops at the grocery store closest to them has the items that they want at the prices that they accept do you seriously think that something as stupid as that may be an empty threat that they say in a moment of emotion in the middle of a grocery store is really gonna change their shopping habits no the next day or whenever they need to buy groceries next they're just gonna come back to the same place and honestly at that point those employees see so many people they probably won't remember you or the bizarre threat that you try to make in the first place trust me if you ever say you've lost a valuable customer the employee doesn't care I got caught checking the back by a customer I work at a popular southern grocery store chain at the customer service desk for whatever reason numerous produce trucks haven't been making it to our store for the past couple of weeks so our stock has been very low as we're a neighborhood store and small anyways we usually direct the customers ten minutes down the road to another location if they're that desperate for strawberries our story is great about keeping the shelves stocked there's never anything quote in the back if we have it it's on the shelf if the shelf is empty we're out of stock during the day there's a two to four hour window where there is no one working the produce department so customer after customer kept coming up to the desk and insisting we checked the back for more strawberries despite us telling them that were out and at the time I was helping this customer the truck was an hour away even if there was a back to check I have no idea where they store the extra produce or how to add strawberries I found in the back to add it to inventory so I could sell it to this one grouchy guy this customer was insisting I went to the back to check both coolers there's no coolers just one cold prep room so I don't know what he's talking about and was trying to convince us to let him go back and check himself which of course we couldn't let him do so I went to the prep room to look there was absolutely no produce in that room but it was also cold as hell so I stood in the hallway next to the room for about 30 seconds to make him feel better about me looking around I'm sure every retail workers been there the customer always believed in the magical back where we hide all the merchandise from them but this guy came and pressed his face up against the door so he could see me standing there looking mad and that he was taking me away from my job whoops why on earth would any guy grouchy or not think that there would be strawberries in the back I'm pretty sure it's where the horses are kept damnit I already made that joke I'm sorry but it's true among every customer every mall every store every grocery store of any kind it's always the fabled back that holds that one item that you're looking for maybe they have the clothing item in your sizer in this case maybe they have strawberries half the time there isn't even a back and all the time if the employee says they're going to look in the back they're probably just gonna spend two minutes on their phone come back out and tell you of course as they already knew that they don't have the item nor do they have a back you give five dollars to charity you get five dollars off why is that so hard to understand I worked at a retail store a few years ago and we'd a special sale where customers donate to charity and get a 20% off coupon for the whole day now the point of the sale was to give money to local charities 100% of the money donated went to charity it was a five dollar minimum and the customer receives five dollars off their first purchase plus a 20% coupon to use all day on anything in the store so basically the customer is not out any money they don't lose money by donating so in walks this Karen she comes up to my register and wants to purchase a dress and get the charity coupon okay so I'll add the five dollar donation you'll get the five dollars taken off the price and then I can apply the 20% to your total no I don't want to spend five dollars I just want the 20% oh you can only get the 20% when you donate five dollars to charity but you get the five dollars off your purchase as well as the 20% I don't want to give money to charity well that's kind of the whole point of the sale well that's five dollars I could spend on myself you aren't losing five dollars you get the five dollars off the dress plus the 20% you get both discounts just give me the 20% I can't do that unless you donate this is ridiculous yeah it is Karen refuses to donate so I sell the dress to her for regular price and she goes on her stupid way I really don't understand why she was so hostile refuse to donate I do know some people are very picky about which charities they give money to but we had the charities listed at every register and they were all local places and all the money stayed in the local area so it wasn't like it was going to a CEOs jet or something now I definitely understand initial confusion if perhaps terms of sale aren't clear the cashier messes up the introduction to the sale whatever the case may be I understand how Karen might be initially upset at the thought that you'd have to spend $5.00 to get whatever discount is being offered but as the cashier attempts to explain the sale instead of even trying to clarify on her end Karen just gets upset it's a classic Karen move but it's not gonna get you anywhere as far as discounts go in retail in general being rude to a cashier won't get you anywhere in retail this character was so obsessed with having that five dollars to spend on herself that she missed out on 20% of the price of the dress congratulations Karen you played yourself crazy customer accuses me of stealing her coupons I worked in retail for seven years and this is the only time someone screeched at me it was a pretty busy afternoon and this woman walks up to my register with a couple items and a coupon I bring up the items and let her know she still has a dollar amount to reach before she's eligible to use the coupon we had a few stands of jewelry with low price points that I pointed out so she walks over to them with coupons in hand I put her stuff to the side and help another customer this woman comes back a few minutes later and says she can't find her coupons so I offered to help her look as she may have set them down in a pile of clothes she starts getting upset not even wanting me to help chidden starts accusing me of stealing the coupons loudly I tell her I didn't touch them but I did witness her walk away with them and I again offered to help her look she accuses me again so I chirp in my headset that I needed a manager manager comes over and we go through the whole scenario again and this crazy woman ends up getting a discount anyway because my manager just wanted her to shut the hell up man I leave my space behind the register to go in the back to decompress and probably cry when the customer who was behind her walks up to me and says hey lady is crazy I witness the whole thing she definitely has the coupons with her made the situation a little better knowing that someone witnessed the madness now as crazy as people in retail can be it is genuinely nice on a personal level to kind of get that affirmation that you're not crazy it's very much on the other person actually got into a car accident when I was in high school nothing that I did wrong personally someone literally drove into my lane but you know I was a teenager this guy thought maybe he could take advantage of me scare me and while I could literally point to our cars and say look you are on the wrong side of the road I think the best vindication I got was not when the police officer showed up but when someone from a store across the street came over and said amen don't let that guy yell at you I saw what he was doing and he was way over the line you're in the right here and just that kind of affirmation means a lot on a personal level shoplifter tries shoplifting products pretty much within unknowing warning and cops nearby I work at a mall beauty store in skincare and have been working at this location for almost four years so I've seen my share of shoplifters and strange ass clients here's one where I felt like genuine shock about a shoplifter getting arrested so this happened around two or three years ago and we do get a lot of shoplifters the mall does in general the mall pretty much has its own precinct this was a particularly busy Saturday and the store was crowded I believe it was during the holiday season because I do remember people wearing coats and there was a checkout table near the entrance in case people wanted to check out with card but it's difficult to remember when exactly it happened people were trying to shoplift left and right we already had a few people caught that day all of us were pretty tired of customers trying us especially since we had a crowded store of actual paying clients to worry about near the end of my shift I'm tired from how the day is going in comes the shoplifter my manager asks me to help her make a sample shoplifter is with me as I make the sample she and I noticed the cops walking in and looking around oh wow why are there so many cops frustrated from the day oh well there have been a lot of people trying to steal today oh oh my god really that's crazy I know one after the other they're really trying us I'm tired of it it's just not really worth it I hear family calling from outside it's her husband her mom and I think two to three kids coming it grabs the sample thank you the cops are kind of staggered by the door and so is my LP agent and once she goes to her family they approach her she was in the middle of picking up her kid and she immediately drops her kid in surprise cop gestures for her to walk in the store and escorts her hello ma'am let's talk shall we shoplifter um okay I just watched them take her to the office with her bag feeling shocked and a little betrayed though I admit maybe the bag she had was a sign but when I glanced I didn't see any of the products in there also my rant about people trying to steal and the appearance of cops who knew it was going on didn't set her off so turns out my LP agent was watching her the entire time I didn't have a walkie on me so I wasn't following what's happening she had tried to shoplift $1000 worth of beauty products paid apparently told someone to tell me to stay away from her but I think making her the sample did stall her her husband and mom genuinely seemed shocked that she would do something like this I have seen people who were in on the shoplifting and they would usually try to stay away from the police when the paperwork and questioning process was going on the children were confused I saw the shoplifter his mom and husband and some of the cops talking later and the husband seemed ashamed it was like wow I still can't believe she did something like that just shaking his head the cops felt bad the children were waiting for so long so they went to the ice cream shop in the mall and got them ice cream moments after the family leaves to pick her up at the precinct the shoplifter comes out in handcuffs and her hood on wanting to hide her face so the lessons to take away from it are one not all shoplifters look the same they do follow similar behaviors to get some help if you're a klepto and three don't trust people also wanted to say I spoke to my manager afterward because I wanted to see if her pudding the shoplifter on me was to stall us at the cops could catcher my manager genuinely looked shocked and said who are you but for real no I had no idea now first off overtly I can't understand the mentality to have a conversation about the police presence in the store and the problem with shoplifting when you're actually trying to shoplift an enormous amount of product and two it just makes me kind of sad that a grown woman with a family who was there at the time would try to pull a stunt like this I'm not sure if it was out of desperation or some sad attempt to feel adrenaline but it's kind of awful to her family to put them in that position I'm sure the husband genuinely felt embarrassed and as he put it ashamed for his wife's actions but stalling the kids and the mom being there that's just another level of sap that's incredibly nice of the cops to go and buy the kids ice cream and I'm glad that everything was handled in a fairly professional way it's just unfortunate that this woman ever decided that it would be a good thing to do in the first place thank you to everyone who watched this video be sure to subscribe for more daily reddit content drop a like if you liked the video and I will see you all tomorrow [Music]

Channel: fresh

Views: 220,343

Rating: 4.9145694 out of 5

Keywords: fresh, fresh reddit, reddit, f r e s h, r/, reddit stories, reddit read, r/tales from retail, tales from retail, retail horror stories, employee stories, r/talesfromretail, reddit cringe, cringe, win, fail

Id: doOuBzGrlts

Length: 18min 36sec (1116 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2019