Millennial Outpost

“Customers are always right” “Customers are usually right”

If you ever worked in a retail store, then you know what is like to deal with those “special” customers and their “special” situation. You may have your own “Karen” that comes in regularly to argue with your customer service people. If you don’t know “the Karen” then let me define for you – the Karen type is a middle aged woman usually with short brunette hair and constantly flaunts her social status however real or fictional, of being above the commoner and believes to be in need of special treatment. Do not trust the crazy. Even though the “Karen” type is very much real, it is also rare and it is more common to see other type of customers on the daily.

First things first, the returns people make. If you paid with a credit card, then it has to go back on a credit card – we can not just give back cash for purchases made on credit. The money used on a credit card is technically the financial institutions money and not yours. If you use one credit card, then we can not return onto a different card. Why you ask? Because then concealing the original method of payment is used in money laundering.

Non-receipted returns. If you don’t have the receipt, then it cannot be cash back – it has to be store credit. It is just the way to help protect our assets from theft and fraud,, which will help to keep costs down. Thieves won’t be able to just come in steal, the try to come back in to return for cash.

Here’s a true story, my place of work had a guy do exactly that. This customers was able to steal a gun and then had the nerve to change clothes and come back to buy ammo, the cops had arrived around the time he came back, therefore he was arrested right away on a felony charge. The moral of the story is that customers are stupid.

For Instance, When it comes to the Checkout area, customers check out in herds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIO7BvibNXw

“Monkey see monkey do”

• • • If two lanes are open but a customer only sees customers in one lane, then all customers will pile up in that one lane even though the both checkout lanes are open.
    • If one customer comes up to checkout, then all customers in the store decide its time to checkout.
    • If one cashier goes on break, then all the customers left in the store will all of a sudden decide that it is time to checkout.

Lastly, customers are fascinating to watch. There is something that we can all learn by observing their behavior. Especially, as a single man not in a relationship I can learn a lot by the actions of the couples that shop together. People in retail, especially cashiers, get a glimpse of the financial situation of a married couple and the dynamics of the relationship. For instance, a cashier can tell which partner wears the pants in the relationship and which one is the more submissive one. The job would be ideal for future psychologists looking to explore all different types of people and behavior.