Retail owners and employees: Let's talk about your customer experiences

[Missy Vixen]

After almost two months of wondering if I was making the right decision, I closed the doors on my shop permanently earlier this afternoon. I loved having my own business. At the same time, I hope I won't ever have to work in retail again.

Most of my customers were people I truly enjoyed seeing and working with. The small number that were unpleasant, patronizing and outright rude made me finally decide (besides the fact that the particular industry I worked in is experiencing a major downturn,) that I'd had enough. Most people aren't interested in shopping at smaller retailers -- after all, they can save $2 if they go to the big box store. It's more important for them to have it NOW than to wait a few days while a smaller retailer (who can't afford to carry every product known to mankind,) will obtain the product they need.

I understand that we're all busy. I understand that time is money. I also understand that those who insist that those of us who are on the front lines daily "just don't care" should have spent one day in my shoes, or in the shoes of anyone else who deals with the public.

Here's an example: I'd been open about two weeks. A woman came in with probably the most unruly child I have ever met. The child proceeded to do cartwheels (no, I am not exaggerating, I wish I was,) through the center of my small shop. I asked her politely to stop. I told her mother that I was not insured for that type of activity in a retail store. It did not stop until I asked the mother to leave the premises.

That same mother and child came into my shop yesterday. The child was in the shop for less than five minutes when she tried the cartwheels routine again.

I wish I were kidding, and the above story's tame compared to some of the other stuff I've heard from business owners.

Julie

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. I refuse to do retail...

People are just so rude, I would end up in a bad mood every day.

I'm sorry you had to close your shop. :(

[tsuki]

2. If you want to read about what others on DU think about small

business, this is the thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1700848&mesg_id=1700848

What ever happened to the American ideal that everyone is valued for the contribution that they make?

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. I'm in retail now.

Recent personality tests, taken with a career counselor, have confirmed what I've always suspected: Retail is the exact wrong job for me.

Retail is only for those who:

1. Like having 200-500 different bosses a day;

2. Like that your day can change on a dime no matter what you do to try to stop it;

3. Like working with people who are satisfied or qualified to work only for close to or at minimum wage, with very little ambition (and the ones who have ambition could care less about what you have to say about anything).

I have to stress that this is coming from someone who's good at his job, whose store was recently rated #1 out of 1300 stores in customer service.

Retail sucks. Congrats for getting out. :thumbsup:

[NYC]

4. I wait.

I go out of my way to shop at small stores. I wait for them to get the product. Recently, there was a mixup, and I waited through 3 attempts.

I got what I wanted, they got the sale, and I am supporting a small store that is not a chain store. That benefits everyone, as far as I'm concerned.

[Missy Vixen]

5. Thank you, NYC

>I got what I wanted, they got the sale, and I am supporting a small store that is not a chain store.<

I really appreciate your dedication to helping small businesses. I know it's harder to shop with those of us that may have to order a product or maybe might have to charge more for it to pay our overhead. At the same time, I like the idea of doing business daily with people we know.

BTW, DH has been in and out of New York City multiple times in the past month and a half on business; he has nothing but nice things to say about New Yorkers and your beautiful city! ;-)

Julie

[NYC]

35. Tell your DH I said hello.

I don't really know how New Yorkers got a reputation for being rude. It isn't so.

Not only do I give tourists directions, I walk them there if I have the time. I point things out along the way.

Come to think of it, I'm an experienced NYC tour guide. I've taken my friend's sister from Germany on a tour each time she visits.

To be honest, I took Flat Stanley (the children's doll) on an exhaustive tour of downtown NYC, and I didn't even cheat. I took him everywhere I should have, even walked him across the Brooklyn Bridge.

:hi:

[phylny]

14. We do this as well, and in addition,

I make it a point to be very polite to retail workers and thank them for their assistance.

I worked in retail in a hoity toity section of Long Island, and I could write a book about the rudeness I encountered. Blech.

EXCEPT for Susan Lucci, who is a soap opera star - maybe All My Children? SHE was kind, sweet, and adorable way back in the 70s when I waited on her :)

[rucky]

6. My wife has a kid's boutique.

Cartwheels are par for the course, but what's really hurting us is that the people in this charming little town are proud of their charming little town, but don't see how close it is to turning into a ghost town because when they shop, they go to the Big Box stores on the other side of the freeway.

Funny how our livlihood is a piece of scenery for most folks.

THEN... just today, the Main Street business association and our idiotic leader delivered the coup-de-grace: A bike race - that we helped sponsor - closed off access to ALL downtown shops, ALL Day long. Our sales covered today's running of the A/C. You should see the emails exchanges between the downtown merchants.

On the bright side, I think they're finally pissed enough to take my suggestion of teaming up with wakeupwalmart.com and go on a frontal assault against the big boxes. Maybe a little awareness about what these big-box are doing to our community is in line.

Any time you're regretting your decision, please feel free to check in. This is our second business, and I'm wondering if hiring a dominatrix would be a cheaper way for us to be masochistic. Or maybe we just have something against weekends?

:shrug:

[napi21]

7. I don't own a store myself, but I o sell a lot on Ebay. What you need

to do is get things that the big box store doesn't have.

You already can offer better customer service, bu you have to have things people can't buy at WM!

When things becomne a commodity, the lowest price wins.

[rucky]

9. We do. But people simply don't think to go downtown to shop.

We sell upscale kids' clothing and gifts, and make a conscious effort to stock boutique items only. The people who shop there love it, but the effects of the Big Box aren't always from a product-to-product comparison - it has just as much to do with the traffic the big box clusters take away from main-street-type shopping districts.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. you need a plan like my city...

It's awesome, I live within a few blocks of shopping and mass transit, and there's a wetland park off my balcony. Big plans for the future too...

http://www.ci.tigard.or.us/downtown/downtown_plan/default.asp

makes up for living in the burbs. :)

[Missy Vixen]

19. I've been through it, too

>A bike race - that we helped sponsor - closed off access to ALL downtown shops, ALL Day long.<

One month ago, community festival -- most festivities were located in a park two blocks off Main Street. Merchants were pestered for $ponsorships as well. Guess where all the shoppers went? Our city is actively seeking to drive out small business, if the associate city planner can be believed.

>hiring a dominatrix would be a cheaper way for us to be masochistic<

It's fun to work for free while building the business, isn't it? :scared:

Julie

[RoyGBiv]

8. Oh, where to begin ...

I could write a book, possibly multiple volumes.

I've been working either in retail or some sort of customer service type of job since I was 16, which (ack!) is 21 years now. Even though some of these have been management roles, the nature of the business means you deal with the public day-in and day-out, and it can turn you into a hard person. I do credit these experiences with bringing me out of my shell when I was younger and also for teaching me, or allowing me to learn, how to handle conflict in ways that do not end in violence (because I can tell you if in my younger days some of this crap had happened to me on the street, it would have turned violent even though I am not a violent person), and I've even formed relationships with some customers I have found fulfilling. But, you can have a hundred customers a day that are at least decent, but it's that one Super-Asshole(tm) that can ruin your whole week.

The retail job I worked the longest was managing a liquor store. By law, liquor stores in Oklahoma cannot be chains and must be owned by someone who has had ten years continuous residence in the state, so in essence, they're all "local," but that's not really how it works out. Aside from that, the customers were either some of the kindest individuals you'd ever want to meet, sad stories that broke your heart, or total wastes of oxygen. One guy, who was the bane of my existence yet someone the owner insisted I deal with, always waned "a deal." Per orders, I gave him deals, but sometimes the deals weren't good enough. A 10% markup was about the break-even point, but he'd want us to go lower. The bastard had some contact in the wholesale business who let him know the wholesale cost of his favorite items, and he'd always use this as the starting point for his bargaining. Unfortunately, the pricing mechanisms for wholesalers in Oklahoma is far more complicated than this idiot thought it was. (Without going into detail, the wholesalers were committed to a certain markup for a 2 month period, and it went through regular up and down cycles. Like the stock market, the goal was to buy low and sell high, but that requires volume retail sales to make it workable on any given item.) Mr. Idiot would get fed a new wholesale cost of, for example, $10.00 and would want to pay $10.60. However, the price we had paid on the item we had in stock was $11.00, and he was the only individual who ever purchased it. So, he'd argue and argue, and eventually the owner would force me to relent. Through a lot of speculation and working out various calculations, I made it work so we at least didn't lose money all the time on this guy, but we never made a profit off him.

The owner felt he was the kind of "upper class" guy that would steer business to us, so he looked at the no-profit transactions as an advertising expense. What I could never make him realize was that A) the guy didn't send us much business at all, and B) what he did send wanted the same damn deal that he got. It was infuriating.

Random anecdotes:

In my retail experiences I have been:

Spit on, many times
Called every profane name you could imagine and then a few you couldn't
Shot at
Had my life threatened on multiple occasions
Kidnapped (long story, but that's what it was)
Been accused of being "racist" against every ethnic group there is, including my own.
Falsely arrested (underage kid who bought booze at another store told them I sold it to him so he could protect his source, and the cop was overzealous and arrested me without warrant)

Oh, this is just depressing.

And people wonder why we don't always greet them with a smile. I don't trust customers, any of them, even the ones I like.

[napi21]

10. I can only smpanthise with you.

I've never been through what you have been and my experience in retail has alwas been at the home office level, but my hubby has workde retail in a grocery stor for 40 years. The stories aren't as colorful as yours but just as nerve wracking.

There are many diffeent personalities in this world, and those in retail have to dal with all of them.

All I can tell ou is what I told m son 40 years ago. Always smile, say thank you, and go into the back room and swear up a storm!

[RoyGBiv]

22. In fairness ...

Most days aren't like that. I had a customer whom I'd helped with a billing issue, which is my job basically when I'm not selling people crap, set up a payment scheme for him that allowed him to be out of the country for two months without getting his services disconnected, and he was so thankful that he brought me back gifts from Nigeria, his home country. He'd been visiting to see family he'd not seen in a decade and didn't have the money both to make the trip and pay all his bills in advance. I -- my company -- was the only one that helped it, but it turned out to be enough. One of the gifts was a lovely, hand-carved statuette with a meaning I don't understand at all, but it's cool anyway. He also brought me some native beer, which was surprisingly good. I still do this job because of these customers. If I can genuinely help someone and at least receive the acknowledgement of a "thank you" on occasion, the days when people blame me for everything from their mother dying to the price of gas are tolerable.

Last week I only had one person (out of well over a thousand) do anything that could be called infuriating, and it reality it wasn't all that bad considering the circumstances. The guy was a nutjob, possibly high on something, also possibly suffering from some sort of heat related dillusion. (It was about 104 outside, and he'd apparently been walking around in it.)

He came up to me and wanted to know about closed captioning. Needed to speak to a supervisor about it. This being a question I had never been asked before, except how to turn it on, and it not really falling within the realm of things that we deal with, I decided I needed more information, thinking maybe he didn't know how to work his television. Trying to turn on a friendly face in front of this obviously agitated man, I just asked something to the effect of, "So tell me. What's up with the closed-captioning?"

Let me set the scene. This took place about half an hour before we close. No one else was in the building except employees and the security guard. He walked in, profusely sweating, carrying a broken fishing pole and a fish that had also been out in the heat too long. He stank. The fish stank. And he was asking about closed captioning. I'm sitting behind a desk constructed so as to make it difficult for people to reach over it, or worse, jump over it and get at me, and he's leaning over it as far as he can, holding the fish by the mouth in one hand, the broken pole in the other, and railing about something involving television. The whole situation was bizarre.

After asking him to explain further what it was he wanted, he freaked the hell out.

"OH! So that's how it is. Goddamned racist bastards. I'll get you. I'm gonna get my lawyer, and we're gonna come back down here and sue all you bastards, and you'll all go to jail, and ... I'm gonna GET MINE!" At this point the security guard is wandering over in this standard, semi-casual way he has that also happens to just scream, "Oh, please, give me an excuse ..." Pyscho guy looks at the guard, sees the hand on the holster of his weapon, then starts screaming at him, "And you TOO! You're going to jail!" And then he stormed out of the building.

When he got outside, he stood in a sprinkler that had turned on to wet the grass slightly, and just turned in circles for about ten minutes. He made a move toward the door again, with the security guard there to greet him. He took one look inside the glass, then saluted, did a military-style about-face, and walked away. I wondered later if he was an Iraqi veteran who had snapped.

Other than this guess, I have NO idea what that was all about. It's funny in a sad sort of way to me now. If I didn't laugh at these things, I'd lose my mind.

[Avalon Sparks]

25. Thanks for sharing that story so vividly......

Sorry, but it made me laugh. That is so bizarre - stinky fish and all.

[acmejack]

11. I cannot work service industry & I love people

People have become so rude over the last 30-40 years though, it has changed everything. When I was young, it wasn't a problem, for by and large, people were generally polite, at least down here in Texas. But now, I find the majority of folks to be very pushy and inconsiderate, I would hate to be a retail employee. Rudeness seems to be the order of the day.

I make a special effort to be nice to the people I deal with, even if I have an issue because I know the grief they take. Perhaps my perceptions have changed as I have aged or it has come about as a result of my traveling and staying in asian societies were manners are important, I don't know. But as a disabled person, I do see the young people on the bus refusing to surrender the seats for the mobility impaired, refusing to offer seats to ladies, even ladies who are pregnant or with infants. I believe the new generations are much ruder, but I am sure my parents said that about my generation too.

[Missy Vixen]

17. I have to agree

>Rudeness seems to be the order of the day.<

People seem to believe that it is their perfect right to say anything to anyone at any time, no matter how inappropriate or nasty. I'm not sure why this has become the vogue. Then again, with those like "Dr." Phil "telling it like it is," perhaps people have just become inured to the fact that the world does not revolve around them, or that in-your-face confrontations belong solely on the Jerry Springer Show.

One thing's for sure: When I am out in public, even saying "please" and "thank you" to those helping me or ringing up whatever I've bought at any business gets a big reaction. It is sad that I have heard multiple times now "you're the only person who's said "Thank you" to me all day".

Julie

[NuttyFluffers]

12. i've learned 2 critically important things:

1) everyone, and i mean everyone, should work retail for 1 or 2 years. it should be mandatory for citizenship or something. why? because it exposes you to the best and worst of humanity. and in the end, some of the best people i've ever known worked retail at some point in their life. you leave treating people politely all the time, you tip better, you smile to employees even if you have a bad day, you actually keep children around you in line, you learn what it's like to walk to the edge of anger -- and still walk back into civility. retail, as miserable as it is, teaches you to be a better human being. in the end you realize that Confucius was right all along -- don't care what you believe, or why you believe it, or under whose banner you believe it for, all i care is that you are polite.

2) the customer is rarely right, but you have to pander to them anyway. this teaches you to listen to employees/owners/"experts"/etc about stuff you aren't familiar with. actually, more importantly, it just teaches you to listen. and then it teaches you the skill on how to ignore negativity and develop a thicker skin, to some degree, while pushing you to your breaking point. it hardens up the timid and weak, it breaks down the arrogant and pushy; it's about as close to compressing a lifetime into brief moments as possible. so many people, so many deserving of aggravated assault...

[annabanana]

13. You sure do develop sympathy

for people who do "customer service", for waitstaffs, for clerks and cashiers...

J.Q.Public is a sonuvabitch!

[fishnfla]

15. I totally, totally agree

I dont think I've ever been in more agreement with any post ever. Every word rings true.

Every single capable adult should spend time on both sides of the counter. It should be mandatory, like military service.

I was that asshole customer, until I had to be the one getting faced.

As far as the customer always being right, we have drawn a line. If they are blatantly lying to get their way, or they are abusive and hostile, no they are not right. We have adopted a policy with our employees. If a client swears at you, they are gone, O-U-T. They are told why, many times they wise up and start to act more humane.

[NuttyFluffers]

26. "We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service"

one of the few silver linings to a cloudy day at retail. the small amount of profit isn't worth the large amount of abuse, and the really good owners/managers know it. besides, and this is really more of a general sales open secret, only 20% of your customers are really worth keeping. they are the regulars who routinely plunk down the money and keep the shop going. the rest are either mere potential waiting to get into the "20% club," retail "butterflies," or just a royal pain in the ass. it's easy to figure out which customers are most expendable in such a business relationship; those are the weakest links that get refused service!
;)

the moral of the story is... don't be a pain in the ass.

[Missy Vixen]

18. I need this on a needlepoint pattern

>so many people, so many deserving of aggravated assault...<

I agree with the poster further upthread as well. I typically very much enjoy people. After this experience, though, I walk away knowing that I'm not made for retail, and I'm more than happy to let those who are much better than me at it continue in this field. I promise that I'm a better customer because of it.

I wonder to myself if some of these who are so overwhelmingly nasty and confronting got a taste of their own medicine, they may back off a bit. After all, we know that the best cure for any bully is to dish out a bit of what they're giving out. One of the more satisfactory things over the past couple of months was politely telling some real problem customers that they'd be much happier at ______ (Brand X). They're so floored -- after all, we're supposed to grovel, beg and generally debase ourselves for that $3 they're handing over, right?

Julie

[fishnfla]

16. The best part of my job is working with the general public

it is also the worst part of my job. Living in Florida and dealing alot with the elderly, well sometimes it is just like dealing with children. One of my theories is the circle of life. We start out as crybabies needing all kinds of attention and need to wear diapers. Late in life we sometimes end up the same way.

I'll tell you a funny story from just this past week. Old guy storms into the office madder than all get out, starts screaming at the front desk clerk: " I AM MAD AS HELL!! I GOT LOST ON THE WAY HERE!!" the poor gal is quivering about to cry "I'm sorry sir did I give you bad directions?" Guy goes, " Oh, I didnt call for directions, I've been here 3 times before"
Everyone just started laughing at the guy, we couldn't help it.

[jmowreader]

20. The "competitive brand" thing is always fun

Take concrete. Lowe's sells Quikrete brand bagged concrete mixes. I sell Sakrete brand.

The differences: Quikrete has one more letter than Sakrete. And Quikrete advertises on national television; Sakrete does not. Other than that, Quikrete and Sakrete are the same shit--ASTM C91 (Specification for Masonry Cement) C150 (Specification for Portland Cement), C387 (Standard Specification for Packaged, Dry, Combined Materials for Mortar and Concrete) and C1329 (Specification for Mortar Cement) guarantee it.

About twice a day I take abuse because I don't have Quikrete. As compared to the twenty times a day I can convince someone that Quikrete and Sakrete are exactly the same thing except that Sakrete is less expensive because you're not paying for advertising, that one's not too bad.

[Missy Vixen]

21. Okay, I have to mention this

I'm replying to my own self to mention the following. I've written about it on DU before, but I can't stress this enough. The best part about my shop was my youngish fan club. (The younger set sees me in the grocery store or wherever and calls out, "It's the yarn lady!")

I spent an hour or so reading to my young friend Audrey at the store about three weeks ago. Audrey's almost two. Her mama was shopping across the hall from me, my store was quiet, so she and I read, read and re-read some books. I made up a story for her on the spot, too.

This is weird and maybe nobody else will understand, but I knew that day it was time to close the doors. I had more fun and enjoyment reading to her than I'd had in my business for quite some time. I'm not necessarily going to become a librarian or a children's book author, but hearing that little giggle and the excited, "More!" did me a lot of good.

I understand business isn't all fun. At the same time, if one doesn't love it, what's the point?

Julie

[RoyGBiv]

23. I had a similar thing ...

Mostly due to laziness, I wear my hair in a pony-tail. When I was running a convenience store, I came to be known among the kids that frequented the place as "The Pony Tail Man." I'd hear this when I was out and about elsewhere off in the distance ... "Look, mom, it's the Pony-Tail Man."

I always thought it was incredibly cute.

[Vinca]

24. Flame me, but I shop at big box stores or by mail order.

Here's the scenario from the last small shop I frequented. I went in searching for a particular brand of sandal that is not cheap. There were 3 young women working in the store. I began my search and before I could get a word out of my mouth, the first clerk literally brushed past me without saying a word and went on her coffee break. I located the sandals I wanted and hoped to try a pair on. Did I mention I was the only customer in the store? I looked for a salesperson and they were both at the counter having a 3 way conversation with someone on the phone about their evening plans. I waited and waited and waited. They chatted and chatted and chatted. I left the store and bought the sandals online. Now big box. We have an account at a local home building supply store where we've spent tens of thousands of dollars building and renovating houses. One day, a similar "sandal" incident happened. I was in no mood and headed a couple a miles across the river to the newly constructed Home Depot. The item I wanted was there, cheaper, in great supply and I had to fight the clerks off me. Flame away.

[RoyGBiv]

29. Well, there's always one ...

This is not a flame, just an observation.

Employees are the same no matter where you go. The only difference with a Big Box store is that those employees are generally pissed off from the moment they get there until the moment they leave, but with the so-called "sales culture" philosophy having taken over such stores in the past couple years, yeah, sure, they're gonna help you find what you want if you're one of those people who comes in knowing precisley what you want. This is known as a "free sale."

The people at the "small shop"? They've been dealing with people all week/month/the last year who walk in and ask stupid questions and demand service RIGHT NOW. They've become jaded and don't really care about you. This is not a justification. It's a reason. Unfortunately, that reason will lead to the small shops disappearing entirely, even if they employ individuals who do their jobs well.

The sales culture of a big box store basically means you're going to get what you want, even if you didn't know you wanted it. In some, out the ordinary cases, that'll mean you get something you've been looking for and were unable to find or at least find with someone willing to sell it to you without giving you a bunch of shit. Overall, however, what it means is that they're gonna shove something down your throat that is "just as good" no matter what it is.

I understand your frustration. I've experienced it myself. However, I know what causes it, and I know that by my giving in to it, I only make it worse.

[MarkDevin]

27. Those who've worked in retail surely will appreciate this website

http://www.customerssuck.com/

[blonndee]

28. Oh man, that place is good for HOURS of entertainment. nt

[jerry611]

31. Dealing with the public these days is absolute hell

Dealing with the public is something I used to like, but now hate with a passion. People are so god-damn stupid. And they complain about every damn thing!!!

And one thing I cannot stand is the moron that starts screaming at the kid behind the counter making less than $8 bucks an hour. Chances are, he's following what his superiors are telling him to do. Screaming at him will accomplish absolutely nothing.

[adwon]

32. 5 years waiting tables, 2ish in retail

I really could deal with about 90% of the general public. Only two categories ever really got to me:

The terminally stupid:

While working in a Mexican restaurant, a customer tells me that she can't have onions in her food because she's allergic and will die. No onions. In a Mexican restaurant. I said, "Ma'am, that will be pretty tough." She asks, "Well, what do you have without onions?" I replied, "Ice cream." She was not pleased.

Another favorite was the customer who ranted at me because of our checks. Each addition to the original order listed the price and the tax for that addition, as well as the total. This customer yelled that I was taxing him to death by taxing each item. I tried to politely explain the fact that it was not charging him extra, but just showing the added tax due to each additional sale. He wouldn't listen. I finally had to get a manager to print a complete check and add up the tax on the check to show him that the total tax matched on both checks.

Assholes:

While working in a different Mexican restaurant, a customer, who hadn't complained at all before, begins yelling, actually yelling, when I bring the check. She tells me that the food took too long and that they aren't going to pay the bill. I go for the polite approach, apologizing for any delays while telling her that I can get the manager. She tells me she doesn't want the manager, she doesn't want to pay. I say, "Ma'am, you can't do that." Her husband jumps up and yells, the entire restaurant turned around, that he's going to beat my ass for insulting his wife. I snapped. I yell back, "Fuck you buddy, how about the two of you shut the fuck up, pay the bill, and get the fuck out of the store!" Magically, the manager appears and tells me go to the back while she sorts it out. I go back, sure that I'm going to be fired (and not really caring). However, it turns out that they did the same thing to the manager and she told them that if they didn't pay, she'd follow them outside and record their license plate for the police. After they paid, she told them if they ever came in again, she'd report them for trespassing. :P

My other favorite assholes were the ones who would try to walk out without paying. This only happened once to me. After that, I got really good at catching them at the front door. I tell you, if looks could kill. :P

[Maine-ah]

33. I've been working retail for 15 years now.

I'll be done with it this November, when I have my baby. I'm done. Had enough. I'm sick of the public, I'm sick of people who consistantly think their shit doesn't stink. I'm sick of their abonoxious kids and I'm sick of hearing "I can get it for two bucks less at sam's club". I just want to yell "SO GO TO FUCKING SAM'S CLUB, IT'S AN HOUR DRIVE FROM HERE!"

[JNelson6563]

34. So sorry to hear Julie

Sorry you've had to close up shop. As to the public, well! I can understand having played the retail gig for some 20+ years.

Assholes aplenty, no doubt. But then again, there were those who were so appreciative of good service or a small kindness, I'd say it comes out ok in the end. The assholes pay for their assholishness by living in a dark and miserable place, forever.

And the good people, well, they are quite rewarding to deal with and let's face it, the retail world does give us opportunity to touch many lives of good people.

It can be disturbing to see parents and kids interact. The overindulgent parent can be as distressing to witness as the abusive one.

So what are you going to do now? Run for office maybe? ;-)

Cheers,
The Other Julie :toast: