Writes Stephanie in Houston: “Looks like someone got a little tired of folding shirts.”
related: Thanks for NOT shopping here!
If you’ve worked in retail, you can probably relate
August 8th, 2012 · 114 comments
FILED UNDER: Houston · retail hell
Writes Stephanie in Houston: “Looks like someone got a little tired of folding shirts.”
related: Thanks for NOT shopping here!
FILED UNDER: Houston · retail hell
114 responses so far ↓
#1
Kathy
In addition to not wanting to keep refolding the shirts, the sign is also directed toward the customers who inevitably come up to us and say, “do you have any other sizes or styles?” after clearly seeing that there are no other sizes or styles. If we had other sizes and colors, folks, they’d be out on the shelf, too.
Aug 8, 2012 at 9:30 pm rating: 22
#1.3
jen
that’s just thoroughly untrue, travis. i used to work at j.c. penney. our stockroom was huge, and many people, once an item had been sold out on the floor, didn’t bother to restock or didn’t realize the item had been sold out. this is a fairly common phenomenon. it might not be true for your particular store, but it happens often enough that it isn’t out of line or crazy to ask an associate if there are more in the back.
Aug 8, 2012 at 10:02 pm rating: 82
#1.4
shwo!
Well, jen, if that’s thoroughly untrue, then hustle your butt back into the stockroom and bring me Rosebud and the Ark of the Covenant. Hurry up or I’m taking my business down to Macy’s.
Aug 8, 2012 at 11:28 pm rating: 25
#1.5
JK
Sorry. I’m Team Travis. I’ve worked retail too. The frustration of explaining “No we don’t have it in back” and “No we don’t know when we’re getting more” drives you insane. People think you’re lying to them or are being lazy. I don’t like telling them I’ll go check if I can avoid it because I wanna train them to know, we may have a huge storeroom, but it’s packed with stuff we have a surplus of. Employees on the floor are busting a gut all day to get it out there and aren’t gonna leave empty spots on the shelf for fear of being yelled at for not doing their job quickly enough.
JC Penny at my mall seems to move at a more leisurely pace because people come there for a different shopping experience. It’s not all about fast and cheap because they focus more on customer service. The major chain standalone stores seem to go through more freight, more quickly, e.g. Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. Probably the same thing with places like Harris Teeter or Home Depot, but they’re slightly different animals so I’m just guessing. You’d think Home Depot is a giant stockroom you get to wander around so there’s really not a place to store much, but I bet they get asked all the time. It’s a function of the type of store, but if you’re in Walmart, no, don’t ask if there’s any in back. There’s not. Order it online if you can. It’ll get there a lot quicker. I joke that I bet they wanna make you use the website so they deliberately don’t stock properly, but I’ve never been able to prove it.
Aug 8, 2012 at 11:35 pm rating: 19
#1.6
Poltergeist
There have been plenty of times I’ve been in a store and asked for something that’s not out on display, and they have brought it out for me. I was nice, they were nice, and we went on our merry way. There’s much worse things people have to do on the job than answer a damn question, which may in fact be a perfectly valid question, so suck it up.
Aug 9, 2012 at 12:32 am rating: 104
#1.7
makfan
Team Jen. If I see a shirt I like and there are 3 small, 4 medium, 2 large, 2 XXL but no XL, you bet I’m going to ask if they have an XL in stock. I don’t expect the clerks to have any idea that all the XL have been sold when there are at least 11 shirts in that style and color on the rack on in the pile.
If that kind of request ticks you off as an employee of a retail store, YOU may be the one with a problem.
Aug 9, 2012 at 12:44 am rating: 90
#1.8
Piggy
I work in a bookstore.
We have “a back” – or should I say in our case we have “a downstairs” (where we hide away books that are no longer covered by the fixed book price agreement) and we have “an upstairs” (where we hide non-book if it won’t fit on any of our decorated tables). We even sometimes hide books somewhere (e.g. on the top shelve the customer can’t reach or in our incoming goods department or on a cart, simply because it hasn’t been shelved yet).
For a while we sold shirts. In a bunch of different sizes (kids and adult, from small children’s sizes to XL adult size). None in the back and no I can’t check which sizes we have, you’ll have to look yourself, sorry. For weeks all we did was fold shirts. Pick them off the floor. Pile them neatly (according to size). I am just so, so happy that we finally got rid of those.
Some stores might not have “a back”. But how am I, as a customer, supposed to know if a specific store (I might be in for the first time) does or does not, if I don’t ask?
Not believing someone if the say sorry they don’t – that’s surely annoying. But simply asking? I always feel checking availability is part of my job. And hey, I can also check the stock of an affiliate store down the road, if they sill have a copy of the book you are looking for, I will tell you.
Aug 9, 2012 at 1:41 am rating: 37
#1.9
JaneDoe
Personally, I don’t mind people who ask if we have more of an item in back, even though the answer is always going to be no. What bugs me, is the people who keep asking, and don’t believe you when you tell them no, and keep asking you to go check. If someone is persistant enough, I admit I will go in the back, do something completely different for a couple minutes, and then come out and reiterate my answer
Aug 9, 2012 at 1:52 am rating: 32
#1.10
The Elf
Depends on the shop, doesn’t it! When I worked retail, floor space was at a premium. So we’d only put a few of each kind of thing out if we didn’t have room for everything. One of my jobs was to periodically check and restock from the back storeroom. I didn’t mind if people asked.
Aug 9, 2012 at 8:39 am rating: 25
#1.11
Wait..what?
One thing I haven’t seen pointed out here…since everything is now computerized, a simple stock check on the store computer/register will tell the clerk instantly if there are indeed more or if they are sold out. Some stores now even set up a kiosk so the customer can check themselves. Not rocket science.
Having worked retail at Macy’s during several xmas seasons, I can tell you people are frigging pigs. It isn’t theirs, so they don’t care. They just drop crap everywhere. In fact one stellar xmas season, some guy took a bunch of Sean Jean (as in expensive) clothing into the men’s changing room and pissed on it..Ho Ho Ho..
But still if I don’t see it, I am gonna ask. After all that is what you, the store clerk, gets paid to do. Sell the inventory.
Aug 9, 2012 at 11:18 am rating: 15
#1.12
kermit
Some store websites do give you the option of seeing what retail outlets near you have the stuff you’re looking for. But I don’t find it to be all that common, at least for the stores I frequent.
Aug 9, 2012 at 1:56 pm rating: 2
#1.13
The Elf
The Raiders of the Lost Ark comment made me laugh. You can just see it going like this:
Customer: Do you have this in a Large?
Clerk: I’ve got top men working on that.
Customer: Who?
Clerk: Top. Men.
Camera pans out to gigantic warehouse, with a crate with “LARGE T-SHIRTS” stenciled to the side is being forklifted to some distant corner, fade to black, and cue the John Williams score.
Aug 9, 2012 at 2:00 pm rating: 24
#1.14
Rattus
@Travis – you may have worked retail, but apparently you weren’t working for commission. I don’t know how many times I’ve been accosted by a salesperson asking me how they can help me when I can’t locate my size on the rack or shelf, to have them flutter about anxiously “oh, I’m certain I can find that size in the back”, leave me waiting on the floor for fifteen minutes , and finally presenting me with four or five of the missing size.
So apparently commission is the key to eliminating laziness in retail staff.
Aug 9, 2012 at 5:50 pm rating: 19
#1.15
Zorin
This is obligatory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/27/
Aug 9, 2012 at 6:37 pm rating: 0
#1.16
Kathy
@Wait what: And I for one appreciate that. Penney’s checked for jeans for me at the register. She looked up the wash and size I wanted and lo and behold, she had one in the back. I was one happy customer!
Aug 10, 2012 at 2:51 pm rating: 9
#1.17
Mrs.Beasley
I’m also a retail alumna, and I’m with Team It-Depends-On-the-Store. Because it does.
Aug 13, 2012 at 8:56 pm rating: 3
#2
megsterftw
that just looks like a nice helpful note to me…
Aug 8, 2012 at 9:31 pm rating: 21
#3
jen
yes, there have been many times i’ve asked and received a different size, style, type, etc
Aug 8, 2012 at 9:58 pm rating: 9
#4
Team Beasly
Also, often the only way to tell what sizes are in a pile is to riffle through looking at tags. (Retail employees arrange things strangely or downright wrong all the time, not to speak of anything customers might do later on.)
So in that way, I think the sign is helpful and welcomed, but the customers should well be excused for having poked around previously. That’s what you have to do if you hope to find fitting clothes.
Aug 8, 2012 at 10:11 pm rating: 27
#5
kathlynn
well, I figure this is to stop people from yelling at the sales people. As some one who works at a prepay (by law) gas station, I spend way to much time getting yelled at by customers who cannot seem to understand what “you are putting your card in backwards” means, or “your transaction didn’t go through you chose the wrong account type” and “I cannot turn on the pump you have to prepay”
Aug 8, 2012 at 10:43 pm rating: 12
#6
LOL
Jen is correct.
Aug 8, 2012 at 11:24 pm rating: 6
#7
hugsandkisses101
little boxes, on the hillside/ little boxes made of ticky-tacky/ little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same…
Aug 9, 2012 at 1:17 am rating: 11
#8
Mary
I don’t mind when customers ask me if we have anymore in the back. What really irks me though is when that customer then proceeds to ask every other employee in the store when I tell them no
Aug 9, 2012 at 3:56 am rating: 39
#9
Lil'
I used to work in a grocery store in high school. One day a customer asked me for a raincheck for a sale item. I told her I would issue the rain check, but since she had a cart full of items for me to scan anyway, I offered to send the bagger to our stock room to see if we recieved a shipment on our truck the night before. She ripped me a new one for having the nerve to imply that she was a liar. If she told me we were out, then we were out, PERIOD. I was just trying to be helpful. I wrote out her rain check and apologized. She then cornered our manager and told him what a horrible cashier I was. I overheard him humoring her for a minute about how he’d have a word with me, she stormed out and he never mentioned it to me at all. The stock room – some love it others hate it.
Aug 9, 2012 at 8:00 am rating: 9
#10
Truth
You guys are missing the point. It isn’t whether or not a customer asks if there are more in the stockroom. In my experience, it’s about the customers that unfold every last t-shirt, dropping half in the floor, before asking for a particular size. Then you’re forced to stand there for an entire 8 hour shift folding shirts, on top of your other duties.
While I’ve never thought about writing a note, I have been known a time or two to outright threaten people
Aug 9, 2012 at 8:41 am rating: 2
#11
bob loblaw
If you look closely, some of dem shirts are different.
Aug 9, 2012 at 9:21 am rating: 5
#12
Stacy
Not only is it common to have additional stock in back to save on floor space but it’s also common for people to greet me with, “Please let me know if you have trouble finding your size. We may have what you need in the back”. Often there is exactly one of an item in each size on the floor so that all sizes are available to try on/purchase but when one gets purchased, a size is missing until someone replaces the missing item from “the back”. I can understand annoyance at being asked to “check anyway” when the customer has already been told that all they’ve got is what’s on the floor. I don’t understand the attitude that the customer is supposed to just KNOW that everything in stock is on the floor when, in fact, many of us are used to the routine of asking if there’s anything “in back”, having the sales associate check inventory on the register and asking us to please wait a few minutes while he or she gets the item from the stockroom. When they’re on commission, I’m sure they’re just THRILLED that I’ve asked before another salesperson descends upon me and asks me if I need help finding a size.
Aug 9, 2012 at 10:21 am rating: 12
#13
Sara
Not feeling any sympathy for all the bitter and obnoxious ex-retail workers in the comments. I get greeted all the time by salespeople who tell me that I should to approach them if I can’t find my size because maybe they’ll find it in the back room.
I’ve also been in shoe stores and clothing stores where the employees did indeed find what I was looking for (and wasn’t on display) in the back. Sometimes I’ll ask because I can’t find my size and other times I’ll ask because I’ll see something displayed on a mannequin but can’t find it on the shelves/tables.
Yeah, not every store is the same, but there isn’t some magic way for customers to know that. Your job is to help customers. If answering an honest question is just too much for little ol’ you, then you’re in the wrong job.
I’m sick and tired of people with entitlement issues and bitterness problems working in jobs that are clearly not compatible with their personalities and then try to blame all their inadequacies on the customer. I personally can’t stand the idea of working in customer service. I could never answer phones, be a waitress, or work in retail. So guess what? I don’t apply to those places. If you have no choice but to apply to a job like that because you can’t find any other employment, then suck up your anger issues and accept that answering the same question repeatedly is something you’re going to have to do.
Aug 9, 2012 at 10:49 am rating: 28
#14
redheadwglasses
Wow, WHO’S bitter?
Aug 9, 2012 at 12:24 pm rating: 0
#15
Dane Zeller
I’m amazed at how many retail sales people can see how customers get in the way of doing their job!
Aug 9, 2012 at 1:24 pm rating: 9
#16
Ansco
Looks to me like some young punk that expects everything to be handed him/her was tired of actually doing something and retaliated by putting forth the extra effort and put up this sign. I refer to this age group as the “Entailment Generation” or “Generation Excuse” some of you might know it better as “Gen X”
Aug 9, 2012 at 2:57 pm rating: 3
#17
Eileen
I don’t see why it comes off as bitterness or entitlement to be annoyed at having to re-fold the same stack of shirts twelve times in a six-hour shift, or being asked the same question by seven different customers in a row, sometimes being asked the same question by a customer who stood there as I answered that question for another customer. The answer didn’t magically change in the five seconds it took the first customer to walk away!
Nobody has any sympathy for retail employees. If they had to do this job for one day–one day!–they might be a little more understanding.
Aug 9, 2012 at 6:37 pm rating: 7
#18
Bohica
I worked for a long time at Walmart. Years ago, we did have to go to the back to check for items that were out of stock. This has since changed. It is doubtful that our customers were aware of these changes taking place, so they continued to ask us to check for items in the back. I’ve endured my share of rude people, and spent endless hours cleaning up after customers. But the fact is you are being paid to help these people, regardless of your opinion of their questions. If 20 different people come ask you where the restrooms are, it is completely out of line to get annoyed with them. They are probably asking because they don’t know! If you have to refold clothing because customers have the audacity to want a better look at what they are spending their money on, that is your job! Believe it or not, the majority of customers do not enter the store purely to annoy you. No one says you have to enjoy every second of work, but you are being paid to do these things. If you don’t like it, get a different job. It will probably be no great loss when you quit (or more likely, are fired).
Aug 9, 2012 at 9:11 pm rating: 16
#19
kbee
I work in apparel, and while the job is dull and repetitive, I actually often enjoy interacting with customers. I’m always willing to comply with a request to check the back stockrooms – and I even offer when I know they’re looking for something I may have. It’s my job, there is no point in getting high blood pressure for what the job sometimes entails. Besides, I find my work day is made better, more enjoyable and varied when I do my best for my customers to help them out. Most seem to recognise my efforts, and I’ve had customers compliment my helping them, or their noticeable efforts I make to ensure my section is clean and organised for them.
That said, there are always surly, rude or nasty customers. If they do approach me, I will assist, but they tend to just stomp around and destroy the area I just organised.
If you haven’t worked in retail, then you probably have no idea of the damage some people can do. Most customers see neat and full shelves or maybe mild disarray and not the sheer mayhem a department goes through each day. Customers rip apart stacks, wad things up, throw them on the floor, stomp on them, leave their drinks on the shelves and drop sticky candy on items. I’ve seen things pissed and crapped on, burned with lighters, smeared with food and blood. I’ve had customers knock over 6 foot tall racks with the store scooter, leaving merchandise trailing behind them as they pretend they didn’t do it. While you yourself as a customer may not be responsible for what someone else did, I don’t think anybody could reasonably blame an associate for getting tired of such uncouth behavior in their workplace.
My husband used to say that it should be mandatory for everybody to join the military, just to experience it. I also think people should experience being the little guy working minimum wage in areas like retail and the food industry. It’s hard work, no matter what anybody says. You’re on your feet all day, lifting, sorting, unpacking boxes, checking merchandise, tags, inventory and so on. I’ve got chronic back issues and my knees ache from the physical aspect of my job, part of which includes unloading the massive trucks our merchandise come to us in.
Some people here say some retail workers have senses of entitlements, but it goes both ways. Many people unfortunately treat retail workers as untrained monkeys, and many of us – like myself – are doing it as a means to an end while studying school or looking for better work. And if you do land on the other side of the equation and run into an associate that is rude, unhelpful or hostile, remember: we’re not all like that.
Aug 9, 2012 at 11:26 pm rating: 24
#20
Aude Les
I worked for Carrefour(a French retailer) for 7 years. This kind of joke never happened.
Aug 10, 2012 at 1:46 am rating: 0
#21
Fae
Who here thinks Kermit’s a troll?
Aug 10, 2012 at 8:32 am rating: 5
#22
Strawberry Creme
Honestly… I’m surprised that clothing stores use flat shelves and tables so extensively. Tables basically require the customer to make a mess to find what they want, and thus take time (and sanity) away from salespeople who have to fold clothes instead of helping customers. They’re also a very poor way to display merchandise.
Tables and shelves take up more space than clothing racks do, and are harder to move. With a table you can only see about half the merchandise (or a sliver of it if the pile doesn’t match), whereas on a hanging wall rack or a clothing rack you can see the whole item with a minimum of effort. Folded clothes on tables also collect dust more quickly, and since the customers have to touch them more to find what they’re looking for, it’s less hygienic and dirties the clothes more quickly.
About the only advantage of display tables over clothing racks is that tables don’t use hangers. And I don’t see how that’s much of an improvement, since the cashiers can just take the hangers out to save them. Perhaps the real solution here is for stores to use clothing racks instead of tables.
Aug 10, 2012 at 5:54 pm rating: 3
#23
Backa
Anybody can ask me if I have more stock in the back, that’s fine. The problem is when they don’t believe me. Forcing me to go back there will not make an item magically appear. Asking every associate in the store as though I’m incompetent will not make an item magically appear. It’s rude and very common for customers to not give up on asking if items are in the back. I can certainly understand the frustration exhibited by this sign, especially when coupled with customers who destroy clothing stacks that took literally hours to clean up.
Be neat, be courteous, be polite, and you will receive the best service in the world.
Aug 10, 2012 at 9:55 pm rating: 6
#24
Miri
The last time I was in a store and asked if they had something in a different size, the girl went in the back and came out way too quickly. I think she only pretended to look. Not nice, but effective.
Aug 12, 2012 at 5:19 pm rating: 1
#25
Damaia
Speaking from my experience, sometimes customers can be a bit pushy. Fortunately at my store, we do have a computer that lets us check our inventory as well as every other store in the company. Nothing irritates me more than the graphic tees though! People will rifle through them and leave them a mess. The one on the top has the EXACT SAME PICTURE as the one on the bottom. If there’s a flaw or you change your mind, BRING IT TO THE REGISTER. Honestly, you’re doing more harm than good leaving your shit on the shelf. It just makes us look messy. We have a recovery room for stuff that just needs to be restocked. Every store has one.
Aug 14, 2012 at 2:33 am rating: 0
#26
Kaz
I never worked clothes but worked plenty other kinds of retail.
Most memorable annoyance was working as a manager for a small newsagents. I could literally see the entire store from the till-point so when something ran out (confectionery, drinks, stationary, cigarettes etc) I could see right away and would have myself or one of the staff restock it immediately. If we were out, we would pull forward any stock that was left and that would be that till delivery day.
What annoyed me was the people who refused to believe me when I told them there was no more in the back.
No, I am not going to look because I looked no less than two hours ago when I noticed we were out. I KNOW we are out….I AM the manager…..because a 22 year old can still be good enough at her job to become a manger….No, I’m not reading magazines, I’m doing paperwork….Now is there anything else not pertaining to this issue I can help you with?
The crap you take just because someone doesn’t understand how your job works and that you might actually have this down by now. It’s just a bottle of coke for crying out loud!
Aug 15, 2012 at 4:25 am rating: 5
#27
Sallie
While I work at Home Depot, i will size up the size of our receiving area: TINY. About the size of our Contractor Desk. We dont have a whole other store back there. No, there are not any more 2×4-12 foot studs in the back, see that area were you just pulled the ones you have on your cart? If it is empty, they are gone. The POINT of a receiving area or back room is not to store things, it is to get it delivered to the store and get it out to the floor so the night crew can stock it. If you dont see it anywhere else, it is gone till the next truck comes in, and that can take anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks. I dont have a magical wand to make truckers appear, make them speed, tell them not to sleep when they need to. Things take time and yelling and screaming at me is not going to make it any better.
Aug 15, 2012 at 11:57 pm rating: 2
#28
Stephanie
I took the photo in a Walgreens. I can virtually guarantee there was no back stock.
Aug 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm rating: 1
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