The other day, as I was checking out at “Dollar General,” I was a bit surprised. Instead of the usual small talk at the register, the cashier sneered, looked at my sweat pants and said, “Wow. Sweatpants. Thanks for trying to impress me.”
Suddenly, the backlog of comebacks that rushed into the back of my brain jammed up together and I had a stroke.
There are ever so many things wrong with what the cashier said to me, I was very sad that I’d only be able to make one snarky remark back. Luckily, I blog. The remarks I didn’t make can be included here. It’s the insulter’s equivalent of feeling better by writing about a bad day in your journal.
First off, let’s be realistic. I was shopping at Dollar General. Thoughts of impressing people obviously didn’t enter into this business transaction on any level.
Don’t believe me? Think of it this way. Is there any sentence that begins with, “I wanted to impress someone, so I went to Dollar General and…”? No. And there never will be.
Secondly, this woman was a cashier. Not to be mean to cashiers, but I don’t make wardrobe decisions with the conscious effort to impress them. If there’s some benefit to wearing a tuxedo and really impressing someone who scans my purchases – such as really fast check-out – at this point, I think I’ll forgo it for the ease and comfort of sweatpants.
Thirdly, why was it any of her business? Are sweatpants really so offensive for a quick purchase? If I got dressed up every time I went out for a bottle of soda…well, I wouldn’t go out as often, because I’m lazy.
Fourthly (or, actually, back to the first point again), let’s be more realistic. I was shopping at Dollar General. Is a well-groomed man wearing sweatpants really the worst thing that’s walked through those doors? I think not.
Lastly (and the remark I actually said), was this. “You’ve got an eye for detail.” Now, that might not seem like a great insult, but you have to consider the context. Five seconds before I walked up to her, a father (I assume) was chewing out his son and ex-wife about her new husband. As icing on the socially inappropriate cake, he left the store cursing after cuffing his child on the back of the head and telling him not to talk to “that man who’s not your real father.”
And this is where you walked in – this is the point where I get scolded for how I dressed.
That’s kind of like being distracted from an exploding bomb by someone making popping sounds with their cheeks.
Not to knock on the world of hourly employees, but this reminds me of a time I was at Staples with a buddy who was trying to return couple reams of paper. He had originally purchased them using a debit card and wanted cash back for the return. The register clerk said she could only credit the amount back to his account because it was "illegal" to do otherwise. At this point, being an attorney, I had to chime in and correct her obvious fallacy. I told her that there was nothing illegal about it and that it may be "company policy" to only allow credit back to the debit account, but since debit transactions are no different than cash (in that they are "instantaneous" withdrawals from verified funds in your account) there was no legal reason for cash to not be returned. I then told her it was really inappropriate for her to lie to customers and that I wanted to speak to her manager.
ReplyDeleteShe got very flustered and said she was only telling us what she had been told. She called her manager and needless to say, she gave us the cash.
What really bothers me about the whole situation is that a) people really shouldn't speak on issues which they have no real knowledge or expertise; b) companies feeding misinformation to their "rank-and-file" employees does nothing more than further depress the lowest common denominator in a situation where the numerator is probably already absolute zero; and c) sometimes leaving my house is really a humoungorific waste of my time that could have been better spent gaming.
Ugh. That's rough. Speaking as a previous retail employee, I can definitely say that this sort of behavior was all too common from people who just didn't want to do something. Luckily, it was nothing I ever did. The bottom line is that as easy as it may be to tout "false policy" and "made-up laws," eventually someone will come down on you for it. As they should.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a casino gift shop. Being in a casino, there were actually rules to follow, which sucked, because people couldn't fathom them. Even though they had very good reasons for being in place.
The key rule was the policy that only a set amount of money could be used from credit cards per month to purchase free play cards for the casino. As the cards could be used in various shops and returned as cash, it was effectively a way to bypass credit card cash advance limits. If we didn't follow it, we'd have lost our Visa, Discover, etc. certification. But I would have never told someone it was a law.
I'm no attorney, but I know when something sounds fishy. If it's enough of an inconvenience, I'll question a policy or law and ask for a manager to explain it to me. It generally corrects the issue immediately.
Being an attorney must make it more fun, though. You're lucky. Haha.
I was curious. Is there any truth to that whole thing where cashiers tell you they can't take debit - only credit? Because I just use my debit card anyway and it still works fine.