Retail Rants: Customers & Coworkers

• Today, a bitchy, old, rich lady came in. She yelled at me about not being able to find Clinique in our store. Hello? Clinique is only sold at department stores. Me trying to find Chanel at Goodwill is like you trying to find Clinique at Longs Drugs, except more extreme. Then she yelled at me to stop the conveyor belt because she wanted to put her notebook and purse down on it when there is a nice, smooth, flat, non-mooving counter one foot to her left. I don't control the moving, mechanical object. It's automated via sensor. It did not sense an object, so therefore it moved to bring an object for me to scan.
• I hate when people come in for a product we used to carry, and do not understand that we do not carry it anymore. If it's not on the shelf, it's not there. Don't ask me to check in the back because I will simply go back there, sit down, mess around on or with my phone for five to ten minutes and come back out and tell you that I could not find it.
• I do not understand why customers do not understand the concept of seasonal items. Gardening tools in the winter? Nobody has much of a chance of finding that at a drugstore right now, except places with gardening sections selling plants. Check Home Depot or Orchard Supply & Hardware, but not Longs. Halloween stuff during Christmas? Chances are, our last chance Halloween items are long gone. I guess you should have snatched them up when you had the chance TWO MONTHS ago.
• Yesterday, a customer came in and saw a Santa on clearance for $50, half off the original price. She tried to barter with J (see down below) about the price. J did not know what to do so she called for a manager, and I went over to Register One to see what was up. This is the lady's exact words: "I see you have that Santa on last chance for $50. How about I take it home for $25?" Really, lady? Really? Does this look like a flea market to you? We don't barter; we don't haggle. The price is firm, unless there is a price error or a coupon. You get it for $50. And J, did you really need to call a manager for that? You scan the UPC, the price comes up. That is what you charge them.
  
• I hate all the new Longs Drugs Saratoga employees. They are all annoying and incompetent. Example 1: D. D is the brother of someone I worked with over the summer who now goes to UCR. D is relentlessly annoying, semi-creepy, and fairly dumb. He's been there for several months, yet he still doesn't know how to do anything. Not to mention he tries to act better than me and hand his stocking tasks to me. Today, I was acting FMC (I don't know what that stands for but I do ad signs & price changes & stock counts and stuff.) and I needed to do a stock count of the Martinelli's Apple-Cranberry Juice he was moving from the front-ends to the back, so I asked him where he got them and stuff so I could get an accurate count. Then he tells me that Mark, our store manager, told him to fill the water wall, so I could go grab the Crystal Geyser water on sale and stock it for him. Really now? Then I rang up an alcohol sale for him so that way he wouldn't have to wait for a key with a line of five and growing people. Someone came in to start her shift at 10, so I left Register One to go on my break and give it back to him. He tried to stop me so I could ring him up for a Red Bull when he had customers in line. Example 2: M. M is one of the batshit insane, old people that every Longs Drugs seems to have. She's also been at Longs for several months, but after I left, of course. She's always on Register One because she is incompent and cannot do anything else. She doesn't even know how to page for things (second checkers, price checks, manager's key, mailing, etc.), nor does she know the concept of time. She'll page for someone, and then fifteen to thirty seconds later, page them again. Does she not realize that the store isn't exactly small, and there aren't that many people working, so sometimes it takes a minute or two for someone to appear? Keep paging, and someone will just not come. Also, her voice sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Example 3: J. J is also one of those batshit insane ladies. Except she is Asian to the max, and has breathing problems. I could go on and on about Jane because she is quite the character without meaning to be. She is also incompetent. She has difficulty answering the phone, paging for things, and in general, being a cashier. I know she means well, but she makes my easy job semi-difficult. She enters in too many digits for bills and wonders if she should really give them the change that the register displays. Seriously?