I should have said something, but I didn’t.
The young clerk was ringing up and bagging my purchases - two salad bowls, two workout shirts, and shaving cream - and crumpled the shirts inside each bowl to cushion them from each other.
It irritated me to say the least. She could simply have used one plastic bag to do the same thing.
The same type of thing happened in the same store a month prior.
That time the young clerk placed three dress shirts into the same plastic bag as toilet bowl cleaner and a spray bottle of general cleaner.
I asked that she not do that. She simply replied “do what?”
I then said how would she like it if she bought clothes and the clerk tossed liquid dish detergent and other cleaning supplies in the same bag with them?
She looked at me with a clueless look on her face. I then asked if she could place my shirts in a separate bag which she did. It was a polite exchange and she was pleasant.
Still, you would think that a national chain would train their clerks in the nuances of bagging items.
Then again, maybe it’s me. Perhaps it is unreasonable to have clothing not placed in the same bag with containers of chemicals that could possibly leak or have clothing used as packing tissue.
I certainly hope it isn’t because they are trying to save money. About half the time I decline plastic bags preferring to carry my purchases without a bag.
The vast majority of clerks are polite, efficient, and pleasant.
Still you sometimes have to wonder how well they’ve been trained.
About once every few months I’ll get a “do-you-have-a-hole-in-your-head” look from a clerk when I give them money to pay for an item. As an example, if I have no desire to have my wallet crammed with paper bills and the total comes to $10.74 and I have a $20 bill and a couple of ones I will give the clerk the $20 bill and one of the $1 bills.
Sometimes they will give me the $1 back and take the $20 bill. Other times they will repeat what I owe them by saying something politely along the line, “it was $10.74 and not $20.74.”
Rarely do the clerks get annoyed or cop an attitude. Usually it is a pleasant exchange as I explain why I’m paying them in the manner I am. As for the bagging, I will simply move items from one bag to another or take them out and carry them separately before I leave the store. It isn’t worth getting upset.
Having said that, this past weekend I came across the customer from hell in a home improvement store as I waited for staff to try to locate tile I needed from a number of different stores.
A nearby clerk was spending considerable time with a lady who kept insisting the prices were too high on the tile she wanted. She then told the clerk to give her the broken pieces for free. He said he couldn’t sell her broken pieces or give them to her for free. She then spent a good five minutes repeatedly tying to get him to knock the price down because he couldn’t assure her there wouldn’t be broken tile in the boxes. She wanted him to open all 30 boxes. He said he couldn’t do that but assured her that they were packaged fairly tight and if there were any broken ones to bring them back for a refund. Finally, she relented and took her purchase to the front counter.
Ten minutes later I got the special order print out to pay for and found a long line at the service desk as the woman was there once again trying to get a discount on tile that she claimed could be broken although she didn’t know if they were. Finally a manager came over and eventually gave into her by giving her a 10 percent discount on all of the tile.
And even after that happened and the manager walked off, she still asked the clerk if she could have any broken tile for free.
The lady, by the way, never said thank-you or go to hell.
The young clerk was ringing up and bagging my purchases - two salad bowls, two workout shirts, and shaving cream - and crumpled the shirts inside each bowl to cushion them from each other.
It irritated me to say the least. She could simply have used one plastic bag to do the same thing.
The same type of thing happened in the same store a month prior.
That time the young clerk placed three dress shirts into the same plastic bag as toilet bowl cleaner and a spray bottle of general cleaner.
I asked that she not do that. She simply replied “do what?”
I then said how would she like it if she bought clothes and the clerk tossed liquid dish detergent and other cleaning supplies in the same bag with them?
She looked at me with a clueless look on her face. I then asked if she could place my shirts in a separate bag which she did. It was a polite exchange and she was pleasant.
Still, you would think that a national chain would train their clerks in the nuances of bagging items.
Then again, maybe it’s me. Perhaps it is unreasonable to have clothing not placed in the same bag with containers of chemicals that could possibly leak or have clothing used as packing tissue.
I certainly hope it isn’t because they are trying to save money. About half the time I decline plastic bags preferring to carry my purchases without a bag.
The vast majority of clerks are polite, efficient, and pleasant.
Still you sometimes have to wonder how well they’ve been trained.
About once every few months I’ll get a “do-you-have-a-hole-in-your-head” look from a clerk when I give them money to pay for an item. As an example, if I have no desire to have my wallet crammed with paper bills and the total comes to $10.74 and I have a $20 bill and a couple of ones I will give the clerk the $20 bill and one of the $1 bills.
Sometimes they will give me the $1 back and take the $20 bill. Other times they will repeat what I owe them by saying something politely along the line, “it was $10.74 and not $20.74.”
Rarely do the clerks get annoyed or cop an attitude. Usually it is a pleasant exchange as I explain why I’m paying them in the manner I am. As for the bagging, I will simply move items from one bag to another or take them out and carry them separately before I leave the store. It isn’t worth getting upset.
Having said that, this past weekend I came across the customer from hell in a home improvement store as I waited for staff to try to locate tile I needed from a number of different stores.
A nearby clerk was spending considerable time with a lady who kept insisting the prices were too high on the tile she wanted. She then told the clerk to give her the broken pieces for free. He said he couldn’t sell her broken pieces or give them to her for free. She then spent a good five minutes repeatedly tying to get him to knock the price down because he couldn’t assure her there wouldn’t be broken tile in the boxes. She wanted him to open all 30 boxes. He said he couldn’t do that but assured her that they were packaged fairly tight and if there were any broken ones to bring them back for a refund. Finally, she relented and took her purchase to the front counter.
Ten minutes later I got the special order print out to pay for and found a long line at the service desk as the woman was there once again trying to get a discount on tile that she claimed could be broken although she didn’t know if they were. Finally a manager came over and eventually gave into her by giving her a 10 percent discount on all of the tile.
And even after that happened and the manager walked off, she still asked the clerk if she could have any broken tile for free.
The lady, by the way, never said thank-you or go to hell.
