This has been building up for a while, but today was a bit nuts, and a couple things put me over the edge to writing this.
(reaches for a beer)
I work as a cashier in Canadain Tire (for the 99% of you who live south of the 49th and are clueless, it's kinda like a large hardware store chain in Canada). The job ain't bad, and the co-workers are good, but there are a few people who make it hell at times. They are called customers, more specifically the stupid ones. Now, I feel I need to set a few things straight here about what people can do to make my job easier, and me happier, and not making me crazy (plus I need to vent).
1. Don't try to slip us expired coupons. It rarely works, and when it does, well, we have bosses too. We don't make much money, and it can become even less if we take too many expired coupons.
2. Keep that in mind, we have bosses too. When we tell you we can't do something, we're sorry, we can't.
3. This is more of a Canadian Tire-specific thing, but there are a few things that we need to get a supervisor down because they are the only ones who have the codes needed (yes, they have passwords to prevent us from doing certain things in order to help you, such as take things off the bill. We're sorry, if we could change it we would, but see rule number four with regards to our position on the totem pole).
4. While we're at it, we're sorry, some things may be a bit overpriced, but we have nothing to do with that. We're on the bottom of the totem pole here, and these prices are set on levels higher than our bosses boss.
5. When purchasing large items, please try to be concious of the UPC. Don't put it in your cart with the bar code on the bottom. I really don't like coming all the way around, lifting it out of the cart, coming back around, and punching it in to the computer. I lift enough crap in one day (lifts beer bottle).
6. If you need to return things, go to customer service. They can actually do that there because they have better computers and know how to use them. On the other hand, the rest of us can't.
7. You can now pay your bill on your Canadian Tire credit card at the checkouts. However, it has to be on its own transaction. It's probably not too bad of an idea, but that's not just my rule, the computer physically won't let us. Don't tell me where to stick it just because you have to put things on two transactions, It's not just store policy, when we try to do it, the computer beeps, comes up wih an error message, and thats about it.
8. When we say we can't do something, and recommend you go to customer service, because we physically can't do it on our computer and they can do it there, it's probably a good idea to walk eleven steps in a westerly direction and go to customer service. It's probably not a good idea to get pissed off, go look for a manager, complain about the cashier, and try to get him/her in shit with his/her manager.
9. When you have a lot of Canadian Tire money, and want to cash it in, please, for the love of god, put it in some sort of order first. It is a hell of a lot easier to count.
10. If you don't want a bag, please let us know before we put everything in a bag for you.
11. The same goes for Canadian Tire Money. Don't try to give it to us after you signed the credit card slip.
12. We don't own everything in the store. At our wages, do you know how long that would take? So if you ask us about specific products that we don't own, all we have to go on is what it says on the box. You can read that too while there aren't a lot of customers waiting in line somewhat patiently.
13. Get the one with the tag on it, not the one without the tag.
14. When we are working in the garden center, and we say "that'll be 22.47," please don't reply with "and a bag of dirt." We sell many different kinds of dirt. You want topsoil? Peat Moss? Manure? Cattle or Sheep? What size of bag will that be? You know what? How about you get your own dirt? It's right over there. You don't go to Wal-Mart, wait until they are done scanning everything, and say "and a pair of jeans." This also compounds thing, because if you look at number three, we can either wait until you get your own dirt, or wait for a supervisor. Meanwhile there are other people who want to buy plants too.
15. We are people too, and we have jobs too. Treat us with respect, and try to be cooperative. We really are trying to help you, and you wouldn't like it if we went down to where you work and tried to be a pain in the ass.
There, my beer is done and so is this rant. Thank you for reading my idiotic rambling, and on the off chance someone in my area is reading this, keep it in mind next time you go to Canadian Tire.
