Retail at Christmas

So I guess this could be considered a continuation of my last post. As it gets closer to Christmas I have become more frustrated with the retail industry. This is the first time I've been on both sides of the retail equation as both provider and consumer. And now I'm beginning to treat anyone working retail the same way I've treated food-service workers since I started working for my college's food provider several years ago. I have little to no sympathy for people who think they are entitled to anything and everything and perhaps way to much for the workers catering to these individuals.

My company has survived and profited for over thirty years, in part because of their 100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee. But I feel like people have forgotten that this guarantee did not used to be the norm with most companies, certainly not in my particular industry. The American consumer has to come to expect that not only will retailers bend over backwards to accommodate some people's ever-changing wants (which the consumer inevitably views as "needs"), but that they should be compensated for their changing ideas, new "needs," or the inconvenience of having to return something that was either not a proper fit for its intended purpose or beyond their means at the time of purchase. One time a man approached one of my associates 25 minutes before our store opened and asked if he could browse the store. When told "no," that our registers were not operating yet and no one was available to supervise the sales floors, he responded with (and I'm quoting here,) "Don't you know there's a recession going on? I'll take my money and go shop at [insert competing retailer]." I'm not kidding. Because he was not allowed to do what he wanted (we are located in an area that has issues with loss prevention) he actually threatened the financial well-being of my company. We called his bluff and we didn't see him again. I'm sure he spend the next hour happily shopping at another store (though knowing the traffic in the area, I'll bet it took close to 25 minutes to get to the other retailer).

Now, I am all for a customer being compensated if an item does not perform as intended, but I've had customers return wet, soon to be moldy and maggoty, gloves...well, not me personally, but apparently one of the previous managers allowed it to happen. I'm serious. It looked like someone had fallen into a swamp while wearing these gloves, put them in a plastic bag and returned them. I about puked when I opened that bag.

Like I said before, I love my job 99.8% of the time, but I want to smack that other .2% in the head and tell them to go home.

This is totally a side note, but I read today that Black Friday (3/4 of the way through the fiscal year) is when retailers finally begin to turn a profit for the year. I find it interesting that my company has been profitable from the first month and continues profiting now. Maybe there is something beneficial in that Satisfaction Guarantee.