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Post Info TOPIC: Customers Lack Any Concept of Personal Space
Anonymous

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Customers Lack Any Concept of Personal Space
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This isn't a serious issue, I guess, but is a anyone else finding that customers will swarm around you, touch you, and take from your cart or hands? I work in Produce, and whenever I'm filling, they see me stocking and will congregate by my cart, and get close to me and touch my shoulder (intentional) to get my attention. Why do they not just wait until I'm done? 

Then they try to justify it: "If I take from your cart, it's less for you to put out!"

I usually smile and nod. But really, they don't realize that it urks me, because then I can't properly make the displays.



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Anonymous

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I work in produce also, and I know it bugs you, (personal space and all) but it doesn't bother me at all. I love it when a customer comes by, and (for instance) I am in the process of putting cucumbers on the shelves. They ask "may I take some from here" (meaning take them directly out of the RPC or box), I am like 'sure, take all you want, choose which ones you want". I'm glad they are happy to get it right out of the case, and I am happy that they are happy. 

Most customers appreciate it if we are friendly, casual, and yet attentive to their needs.  If I am stocking a shelf with some type of produce, when they take it directly out of the case, that saves me a few seconds of work, since otherwise I will be replacing what they have taken from the shelf.  



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Anonymous

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I usually am, but it's hard on busy days when several people are doing it at once or consistently.



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Anonymous

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Plus, we're supposed to rotate, so I'd prefer shelf items be taken.



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Anonymous

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I've noticed this is almost entirely an issue in poor areas where people have practically zero manners, care, or respect for any other person, especially us "chumps" working at Kroger.



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Anonymous

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4 of my pet peeves are when people stand there all day looking for the greenest or yellowest bananas, that or when they split bananas leaving 1 or 2 behind like seriously bananas are cheap why cant u just buy the whole bunch. How they complain about how soft or hard the avocado is. And the last is oh "im gonna shop at so and so competitor cause its cheaper" i dont really care lady i know u will be back here next week.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

4 of my pet peeves are when people stand there all day looking for the greenest or yellowest bananas, ..........


 

I'm always thinking of goofy things to say (but I dare not to, as they might get mad and tell a manager).  Like........  "yes, maam, those things you are staring at are called

B A N A N A S!  [pronounced very slowly and carefully like teaching a small child]  Have you ever tried one before?  They are really good!"



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

4 of my pet peeves are when people stand there all day looking for the greenest or yellowest bananas, that or when they split bananas leaving 1 or 2 behind like seriously bananas are cheap why cant u just buy the whole bunch. How they complain about how soft or hard the avocado is. And the last is oh "im gonna shop at so and so competitor cause its cheaper" i dont really care lady i know u will be back here next week.


 Customers love to threaten to shop at other places for produce. They always end back up at Kroger though when they get tired of paying twice as much or having to go to a local fruit stand that only sells produce and nothing else. I feel like they just like venting. 

 

What really irks irks me about produce is when customers are shopping and all the items aren't the best quality so instead of asking us if we have any fresher items or what the deal is with the unfavorable product, they just storm off and mumble and maybe throw the plastic bags on the floor.



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Anonymous

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OK, if we're venting about produce rants here, I had a woman once get steamed at me when I told her that scallions are the same thing as green onions! "If I wanted green onions, I would have BOUGHT green onions!", she ranted. Another time, a gentleman was buying scallions for a recipe...His wife specifically asked him to buy SCALLIONS...When I pointed out the green onions, he asked me, "Are you sure? I don't want to be getting the wrong thing or my wife will kill me!" I told him that Martha Stewart once said on TV that they are THE SAME THING, and when it comes to produce, Martha doesn't lie! I trust her 100%!

http://www.marthastewart.com/919461/differences-between-scallions-onions-and-chives

SERIOUSLY, people???!!!confuse Good thing I didn't mention bunching onions or spring onions! That'd really confuse 'em!biggrin



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Anonymous

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I love it how when we are out of an item and a customer ask u if we have it and u say no somehow they think you're lying to them and they have to ask 10 more clerks in the store if we had that item.



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Bakerchick25

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I'm not in Produce. But can totally relate to you in regards to taking food off your cart. We often use tall boys with trays of packaged cookies and so forth to re-fill the holes and lows on our floor in the bakery. But regardless of how many times we point out where our markdown section is. People, will forever swarm around me when I have a tall boy out. Peering at what's on there. Even reaching out to try and pull something off and then realize it's for full price and put it back(at least some of them do). While others don't even care about taking something and trying to play it off as "This is what I've been looking for". And I seriously just want to karate chop their hands off the goods and say something to the effect of, "back away from the goods heathens!!!" lol. Which I know I can't say. So been trying to think of an eloquent way of saying, "Please do not take stuff off my tall boys, I need it to replenish the sales floor." But even saying that, some people will give you a look like WTF are you talking about? This stuff on this cart is for ME. Not to do your actual job with.



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Veteran Member

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Posts: 93
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Particularly on Sundays, I hate being asked for something by a customer as I'm already working something else, grabbing a case, and when I get back out there being immediately crowded and have to wait until I have less than half the case left to put out because they can't be patient.

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Veteran Member

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Yup, and customers will move right up next to the next customer in line while they are still paying. Just SCOOT BACK



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Donald Trump Jr

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Anonymous wrote:

... or when they split bananas leaving 1 or 2 behind like seriously bananas are cheap why cant u just buy the whole bunch.


 LOL... I'm guilty of doing that a few times. I just wanted a couple bananas to eat right away. 



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

4 of my pet peeves are when people stand there all day looking for the greenest or yellowest bananas, that or when they split bananas leaving 1 or 2 behind like seriously bananas are cheap why cant u just buy the whole bunch. How they complain about how soft or hard the avocado is.


As someone that does ClickList, I can only say that doesn't surprise me at all. I don't look forward to the produce part of my trolley runs because of how (sometimes excruciatingly) particular many customers are when it comes to produce... and yes, this does include bananas. A lot of customers do in fact specify three, four or five bananas... and sometimes just one or two even, which forces me to split the bunches apart. On top of that, I'll often times get special instructions that read: "mostly green" or "mostly yellow" or "three green, two yellow" or "blemish free" or "small bananas only". Worse yet is when a customer attaches similar special instructions to the organic bananas. Like really? Do they not know based on previous shopping experiences that the organic bananas come wrapped? And oh yes... avocados are a pain to pick too, especially the customers that want them, "not too soft, but not too firm" or "ready to eat in three days" and stuff like that.

And yes, some customers do definitely lack the concept of personal space and act like whatever is yours is theirs. Like, on my trolley, I'll have both white ClickList bags and the regular brown Kroger bags. I'm not supposed to let customers have either because they could potentially steal product and walk out the door with the stolen product in the bags, so it "looks" like they went through a register and paid (more so with the brown bags since those are the ones that the front end uses; those of us in ClickList use them only for substitutions), so when a customer wants some of bags of my trolley (the reasoning mainly being "oh, produce is out of the big bags and the small ones aren't big enough for the produce I'm buying," I try to be nice about it in how I phrase my answer without making it sound like that I think they might steal something with the bags, but other customers will just walk right up to my trolley and yank bags off. I don't care if it offends them when I then tell them, "I'm sorry, but I need those bags for my customers." I'd rather just say, "excuse me, but what the hell do you think you're doing?" 

Sometimes, I really, really hate how Kroger excessively bends over backwards and panders to customers and treats them like royalty, because then some of them develop this sense of entitlement where they can come in and get away with anything they want all the while being obnoxious, rude and just downright arrogant.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

4 of my pet peeves are when people stand there all day looking for the greenest or yellowest bananas, that or when they split bananas leaving 1 or 2 behind like seriously bananas are cheap why cant u just buy the whole bunch. How they complain about how soft or hard the avocado is. And the last is oh "im gonna shop at so and so competitor cause its cheaper" i dont really care lady i know u will be back here next week.


 I know right?! That was another of my pet peeves, but i was too afraid to say



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

OK, if we're venting about produce rants here, I had a woman once get steamed at me when I told her that scallions are the same thing as green onions! "If I wanted green onions, I would have BOUGHT green onions!", she ranted. Another time, a gentleman was buying scallions for a recipe...His wife specifically asked him to buy SCALLIONS...When I pointed out the green onions, he asked me, "Are you sure? I don't want to be getting the wrong thing or my wife will kill me!" I told him that Martha Stewart once said on TV that they are THE SAME THING, and when it comes to produce, Martha doesn't lie! I trust her 100%!

http://www.marthastewart.com/919461/differences-between-scallions-onions-and-chives

SERIOUSLY, people???!!!confuse Good thing I didn't mention bunching onions or spring onions! That'd really confuse 'em!biggrin


 I've had several people argue with me about that. One lady tried to argue that scallions had slightly bigger bulbs and a milder taste. I said, "then no. we just have green onions, then" Bc I didn't want to argue.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

I've noticed this is almost entirely an issue in poor areas where people have practically zero manners, care, or respect for any other person, especially us "chumps" working at Kroger.


 Nah, I work at an upper-middle-class/rich area that does this.



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Senior Member

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Posts: 186
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Right. For 3 months I worked at an upper middle class Kroger and many of the customers there view you as "the help" not an employee.

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Anonymous

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Lane Hardy wrote:

Right. For 3 months I worked at an upper middle class Kroger and many of the customers there view you as "the help" not an employee.


And don't you dare have the nerve to acknowledge some of them with a smile or a "hello" otherwise you'll get such a disgusted "how dare you address me" look because, you know, they're so much better than you or I.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

OK, if we're venting about produce rants here, I had a woman once get steamed at me when I told her that scallions are the same thing as green onions! "If I wanted green onions, I would have BOUGHT green onions!", she ranted. Another time, a gentleman was buying scallions for a recipe...His wife specifically asked him to buy SCALLIONS...When I pointed out the green onions, he asked me, "Are you sure? I don't want to be getting the wrong thing or my wife will kill me!" I told him that Martha Stewart once said on TV that they are THE SAME THING, and when it comes to produce, Martha doesn't lie! I trust her 100%!

http://www.marthastewart.com/919461/differences-between-scallions-onions-and-chives

SERIOUSLY, people???!!!confuse Good thing I didn't mention bunching onions or spring onions! That'd really confuse 'em!biggrin


 I've had several people argue with me about that. One lady tried to argue that scallions had slightly bigger bulbs and a milder taste. I said, "then no. we just have green onions, then" Bc I didn't want to argue.


 Maybe she was thinking shallots.  Flavorwise they're sort of a cross between a mild onion and garlic.  The bulbs even come apart like garlic gloves.



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