OT: Things that annoy you in retail stores

Submitted by 1974 on
On the eve of MGoBlog football (or non-OT) season, I thought this might make an interesting topic. What behaviors do you find most annoying in retail stores?
 
I'll start with a couple:
 
- People right behind the person at the register who insist on standing at least several feet from that person. I'm all for "transaction bubbles," but I find them annoying when the end of the line extends into aisles where people are trying to maneuver shopping carts, etc.
 
- I don't see this very frequently nowadays, but occasionally someone will park an empty cart in a line and fill it piecemeal while others are waiting behind the cart. (Unless the person looks sociopathic and potentially dangerous, I usually push those carts out of the line or at least behind me.)
 

PapabearBlue

August 25th, 2017 at 2:22 PM ^

The general concept of labeling something costing less as "savings" drives me up the wall.

If you charge me $1.00 for an item then it's $1.00, any other verbage around it is fictional. "But it's normally $2.00 so you're saving a dollar!". No motherfucker, I don't care what the price is any other day, today the price is $1.00, I'm spending $1.00, there's no other situation happening here.

Wendyk5

August 25th, 2017 at 10:52 AM ^

People who park their grocery carts in the middle of an aisle while they read the ingredients, totally unaware that there are other people trying to get around them. 

 

The worst, though, is a person at the cashier who has already paid, has his receipt, and is pushing his cart out of the lane when he stops, looks at his receipt, and says to the cashier, "I thought this was on sale." Then the cashier has to jump through hoops to find out if it was on sale, and if it was, give the person the 20 cents they saved. 

fksljj

August 25th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^

If you hop in line and see somebody ahead of you with a bunch of flyers / newspapers in their hands I would go find a diffrent line. Unless you feel like waiting 10 minutes for them to price match all of their stuff. It's time consuming because the cashier has to do it for every item. I've gotten pretty good about avoiding this.

 

One thing that's a little tougher to see ahead of time is when the person in front of you is one of those problematic customers. They seem fine and then when they get up to the cashier they just whine and complain and bitch and moan about whatever. Something wasn't in stock, disputing a price, etc and now you're stuck waiting for it to be resolved.

 

Or my personal favorite. When somebody with 1,000 items goes to the self checkout lane which states 10 items or less.

Dylan

August 25th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^

I know they are doing it either for establishing a commission sale or because their company makes them, but leave me the hell alone. I don’t need your help. I know what I like and my style / have already researched an electronic I want if it isn’t clothes. Just let me buy what I know looks good.

xtramelanin

August 25th, 2017 at 11:54 AM ^

in a card index.  most of them expired, not even the same product, totally disorganized.  i am not gifted with patience, and when the discussion b/w the coupon person and the cashier turns into begging and bargaining its all i can do not to throw 57 cents up there and say, 'here, i got you covered, can you please let the rest of us check out now?'

 

realfootballfan

August 25th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^

People who hold the line up, demanding to speak with the store manager because they picked up an item that they know was in the wrong spot. "What do you mean I can't get this PlayStation 4 for 97¢?!? I found it in the clearance candy aisle and it was CLEARLY marked for 97¢!!"

PapabearBlue

August 25th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^

Conversely I went to a store yesterday and had an item ring up for more than it was labeled We defnitely got it from the right location, there were several similar but smaller sized objects to the left for cheaper and larger objects to the right for more expensive. When I pointed it out to the clerk her response was, "well that's not what its ringing up here" and she continued on like it was nothing.

 

I went back and took pictures of the entire setup including closeups of the tags, they spent a good 10 minutes looking over our pictures including calling several employees and a manager over. They tried several times to just charge me more for it than it was being sold for without even asking if I was OK with it, like a salesman blowing through my objectives.

 

At the end of the day it was a $18 item that I was being asked to pay $22 for and I probably wouldn't have made a deal about it if they weren't so shitty in the first place. I put myself through college working retail and I always treat retail employees well because I know so many don't, but I absolutely do not respond well when retail employees treat me or any other customer like shit.

mgoblue0970

August 25th, 2017 at 12:47 PM ^

People paying with their phones...

Drives me freaking nuts waiting in line for 5 minutes because people at Starbucks INSIST on paying with their app on their phone rather than the 30 seconds it takes to use your debit card.

PapabearBlue

August 25th, 2017 at 2:12 PM ^

People that walk 4 wide down the middle of the parking lot lanes so you can't drive down them, then just ignore you like they can't hear a fucking car right behind them.

 

When people take their carts to where the food seleciton is and then proceed to stand their blocking that food and all surrounding food for 10 minutes. Jesus just step back 2 feet and look from there. Even worse are the people that see you looking and then proceed to just walk up in there and block everything off.

 

Generally being treated like I should be appreciative that you are so graciously selling me your goods rather than that the store should be appreciating that I'm not just buying it for cheaper from amazon.

 

As I've gotten older stores have started to just look like slightly nicer versions of flea markets selling mostly junk. Dirty floors, broken fixtures, mislabeled items strewn about, trashy shitty employees, bad prices, etc. I don't know if I'm getting older or if it's an effect of the economy being in a sort of slump, but it's not a good look.

BeatIt

August 25th, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^

somehow this has become a thing in south Florida. All the grocery stores are doing it and most of the pharmacy's. I donate to no kill animal shelters whenever I can. It really irks me that I have to respond to a cashier about whether or not I want to donate to their sponsored charities every friggin time I shop. I've complained about it to their FB pages.

UMHockeyFan

August 25th, 2017 at 5:59 PM ^

Idiots who block access to an aisle because they stacked their carts up while they are eating their samples.  I'm trying to get my shopping done, move to the side after you get your sample!