Advisory: The views and opinions expressed in this entry are fully that of Tora Mulligan, and do not necessarily reflect and agree with the beliefs of any of the mentioned companies below. In laymen’s terms, it’s me venting. Doesn’t mean that the company I work for believes the same.

Ever since I was in 10th grade, I’ve always had a part-time job, with working full-time hours during summer time.

My work experience has covered three major companies: Kroger, GameStop (hah,) and currently Walgreens.

I’ve always enjoyed working at these places, because I love helping people. Whether you believe it or not, ass. I generally like being a nice, helpful person to others and get paid for it.

Yet, over the past five-or-so years, my love of doing the other parts of manual labour, and dealing with less-than-happy customers, has started to diminish. From bad attitudes, to disfunctional cards, to price-tag swappers, to your run-of-the-mill theives, the list goes on with people that have made my attitude towards working retail become sour. That’s why I feel like today I should give people a piece of my mind, since nobody likes to try to walk in other people’s shoes.

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Tora’s Rules of Retail Courtesy for Customers

1. Always Be Prepared to Show ID
In this day and age of where stories of identity theft plague the news like the locusts in The Bible plagued Egypt, it’s become a growing necessity to have your ID with you at all times when you make purchases. Also, depending on the store you go to, if you appear under a certain age, you have to show ID when you buy cigarettes; if you live in the state of TN (or is this a federal law?) you have to present your ID regardless of age.

If you write a check, you gotta show ID.

If you pay with your credit card, especially if it’s over certain dollar amounts you gotta show your ID AND your card you are using. I hate it when I ask for both credit card and ID before people’s purchases, and they either show me one or the other, and then they get antsy with me when I tell them I have to see them both together, even more sore when it specifically says “SEE MY ID” on the back of their cards.

2. Always Pay Attention to Sale/Clearance Tags
This is another issue that constantly irks me a lot of the time. People will misread sales tags, sales papers, coupons, or clearance tags and presume by the picture and the big print that it applies to any and everything that is related to the pictured item.

NO.

If you see a clearance tag, it only applies for the item that it is affixed to, not every related item around it as well. I have so many people who see an item… say, a candle, and see that it’s on clearance, and thinks that the same company’s candle of a different scent right next to it is also on clearance. It doesn’t work that way, bucko.

Also, don’t get mad at the cashier when something doesn’t ring up correctly, even if the sale IS valid and the computer just won’t take it. It is not the fault of the cashier, it is the fault of the computer not correctly downloading the sales coding for that item.

3. Always Have Payment Ready Before Transaction Ends
This isn’t as severe, but it can really irritate me, especially if a long line is starting to form. (Though this mainly pertains to Walgreens.) Always have your card or cash out ready to pay before the cashier finishes ringing up your order. If you have a check, either sign it and allow the cashier print out the information for you, or have it pre-written and ready to hand over. And you better have your ID ready, too.

4. Coupons Are Our Friend, When You Play Correctly
We love when you have coupons, since we know the economy is rough, and every penny/quarter/dollar saved is worth it, but if you have any coupons, please give them to us at the end of the order? We can only ring manufacturer’s coupons after we’ve sub-totaled the order. Not to mention if you try to give us coupons during every item we scan, it slows the line down for the other customers, and in turn they get pissed off.

And please, for god’s sake, READ the damn coupons and make sure you fulfill the requirements for the purchase? I hate having people get uppity at me just because they can’t read for beans.

5. Show Some Modesty If You Use EBT Cards
OK personally, I don’t have a problem with EBT cards. I just have a problem with the users of EBT cards. Most of the people that have it are arrogant, rude and know good and damn well they don’t need EBT, because they’ll usually have wads of cash with them to pay for their non-food purchases.

Not to mention, that the EBT cards here in Tennessee seem to be very shittily made and the magnetic strip on them goes out incredibly fast. If you have a card and you know it won’t swipe, then GET A NEW ONE, IT’S NOT THAT HARD.

Most people cop attitudes when they hand it over going “it won’t swipe, YOU gotta type it in.” I’m well aware of that fact. I’ve keyed in so many EBT cards that I remember the first 8 digits of TN EBT cards: 5077 0122. (I could be wrong right now, I haven’t worked in a couple of days, lol.)

And here is one of the last big peeves of working at retail:

6. If You’re Gonna Shop Somewhere Else, Do It
Even though we can’t call out people’s bluffs, I really want to give people a piece of my mind at times. Damn, I really have too short of a patience for retail anymore, hahaha.
If something happens that displeases you, and even though we try to help you to the best of our abilities, you still get upset and threaten to take your business to another competitor or even another store’s branch? Then fucking DO IT. Nine times out of ten you’re gonna come back; if not to our store then another location. As much as I disagree with my company I work for at times, I still feel like Walgreens has some of the best customer service compared to other competitors like us. So eventually you’re going to come back around to our store and still pour money into our company.

That, and even if you don’t come back, even though the managers say otherwise, if you’re generally a rude individual, we don’t want you to come back. Especially if it makes the shopping experience unpleasant not just for yourself, but for the employees of that store and other customers that have to watch.

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And that’s pretty much the main things I can think about when it comes to retail… I have other rants that partake with me working specifically in the 1-Hour Photo lab at Walgreens, but that’s for later days, haha.

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