Im actually making a webcomic based on the retail life! Too many stories, too much madness as you would agree.
Long before cellphones while working at Peter Piper I got to see some great people at work. No, I dont mean amazing customer service, I mean the forces of nature that can talk a customer out of the store and then close the door behind them.
Your inexperienced customer tale is so good and reminded me of one of the events. Noone looks at the menu while on the long slow line. They arrive at the cashier and uhhhhhhhhh. So supergirl (employee) would just get mad and go open a register and start clearing the line like its no business
cust: uhhh ohhh uhmmmm
SG: We have a medium four cheese ready with a drink its $$ (extends hand to get the cash, this was not a question)
Cust: uhh oh ok ok (hands money)
SG: (looks at second customer in line) Do you want a pepperoni one?
Cust 2: oh me? uh oh yeah (didnt even glanced to the menu as SG had him on her gaze never breaking eye contact)
after a bit the line is clear and she closes her register and goes back to the kitchen area
I was a hostess/mâitre d' at high-end restaurants in Los Angeles for years. Aside from the weird celebrity stuff that only happens there, my biggest pet peeve was when walk-ins would question my quoted wait time. Some random would come in at 7pm on a Friday without a reservation, so I'd put them on the list and say it would be an hour or whatever. They'd look into the dining room and say "but you have an empty table right there!" Like???
I also once had a woman throw a menu (the big hardcover kind) at my face on Valentine's Day after I told her the dining room was fully booked for the evening.
Being a hostess is TOUGH. I feel like people are more rude! And omg yess Ive been there. Like I have a plan for all these tables, lady! Im not just trying to be a jerk!
I was never a server, but I worked in a gas station/mini mart kind of place for a couple or three years right out of high school (back in the mid 80s). You know the place -- not a big chain, but it has coffee and sodas and hot dogs and chips, a pack of aspirin for five bucks. The worst treatment I ever got from customers was the day the state raised the tobacco tax and the price of a pack of smokes went from $1.05 to $1.10 (I did say mid-80s!). You'd have thought we demanded an entire limb or laid claim to their next-born child. Folks swore solemn vows to quite smoking over that additional nickel. I lost track of how often we had to tell our customers the increase wasn't out fault and the whole ruckus took a good month to settle down.
Im actually making a webcomic based on the retail life! Too many stories, too much madness as you would agree.
Long before cellphones while working at Peter Piper I got to see some great people at work. No, I dont mean amazing customer service, I mean the forces of nature that can talk a customer out of the store and then close the door behind them.
Your inexperienced customer tale is so good and reminded me of one of the events. Noone looks at the menu while on the long slow line. They arrive at the cashier and uhhhhhhhhh. So supergirl (employee) would just get mad and go open a register and start clearing the line like its no business
cust: uhhh ohhh uhmmmm
SG: We have a medium four cheese ready with a drink its $$ (extends hand to get the cash, this was not a question)
Cust: uhh oh ok ok (hands money)
SG: (looks at second customer in line) Do you want a pepperoni one?
Cust 2: oh me? uh oh yeah (didnt even glanced to the menu as SG had him on her gaze never breaking eye contact)
after a bit the line is clear and she closes her register and goes back to the kitchen area
retail life is fascinating too! madness for sure lol
as someone who worked in the service industry for 6 years, i SO feel this
but my biggest pet peeve has to be the men who tell me to smile 🫠
Ugh yes! Forgot about that one. The worst!
I was a hostess/mâitre d' at high-end restaurants in Los Angeles for years. Aside from the weird celebrity stuff that only happens there, my biggest pet peeve was when walk-ins would question my quoted wait time. Some random would come in at 7pm on a Friday without a reservation, so I'd put them on the list and say it would be an hour or whatever. They'd look into the dining room and say "but you have an empty table right there!" Like???
I also once had a woman throw a menu (the big hardcover kind) at my face on Valentine's Day after I told her the dining room was fully booked for the evening.
Being a hostess is TOUGH. I feel like people are more rude! And omg yess Ive been there. Like I have a plan for all these tables, lady! Im not just trying to be a jerk!
I always said, being a hostess is hard because you really only interact with the guests when they’re hungry.
Good point!
I was never a server, but I worked in a gas station/mini mart kind of place for a couple or three years right out of high school (back in the mid 80s). You know the place -- not a big chain, but it has coffee and sodas and hot dogs and chips, a pack of aspirin for five bucks. The worst treatment I ever got from customers was the day the state raised the tobacco tax and the price of a pack of smokes went from $1.05 to $1.10 (I did say mid-80s!). You'd have thought we demanded an entire limb or laid claim to their next-born child. Folks swore solemn vows to quite smoking over that additional nickel. I lost track of how often we had to tell our customers the increase wasn't out fault and the whole ruckus took a good month to settle down.
I don't know if you are a fiction writer but I feel like this could be part of short story! haha working with the public can be wild.
As it happens, I am a fiction writer and a poet and most generally a goofball. :)