So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do."
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
Im not sure what your really asking you have way too many questions and its not pleasant to read..
Anyways if its not in set if either because it isn't made anymore or not profitable enough in your store but actually still able to be ordered. Customer service should have a product request card they give a Name of the product, size, a couple questions and a contact information section.
If they know they bought it at your store I would take a second looking. Apologize. Explain why we might not carry it anymore and tell them a manager might be able to look it up in the system and special order for that customer. and ask them to fill out the card up at customer service. After that its up to the managers. This is really second day stuff..
At my store the store manager said we all have up to $20 to accommodate an unhappy customer for a replacement item. I doubt all stores would follow that but it seems to work I have yet to give a free item, but I have offered the store brand at no cost, they declined but seemed happy enough knowing they were taken care of.
I had a customer insist on buying the "Great Value" cookies. I don't know how many times the manager and myself had to insist that we don't carry them.
Eventually, we just caved in and said "Yes ma'am, we'll order them for you. They'll be here later in the week."
I had a customer insist on buying the "Great Value" cookies. I don't know how many times the manager and myself had to insist that we don't carry them.
Eventually, we just caved in and said "Yes ma'am, we'll order them for you. They'll be here later in the week."
I once saw an older couple get into an argument about whether or not they were in Walmart. Why are these people still allowed to drive?
Im not sure what your really asking you have way too many questions and its not pleasant to read..
Well, I wasn't so much asking for proper employee protocol (believe me, I know), as I was ruminating about the odd behaviors retail environments sometimes inspire. (Example: What would make a sound-minded person lie about having bought an item at this location last week when he/she most definitely did not?) However, I'm a goofy bloke who gets a kick out of over-the-top cynicism and arcane language, and I often forget that others don't share my enthusiasm for those things. Sorry for any confusion.
I had a customer insist on buying the "Great Value" cookies. I don't know how many times the manager and myself had to insist that we don't carry them.
Eventually, we just caved in and said "Yes ma'am, we'll order them for you. They'll be here later in the week."
The same has happened at our store. Glad I didn't have to deal with that one personally, because I doubt I would have maintained a poker face.
Easy Peasy. I had a customer that was certain they bought the product at our store. So, I send them to the Produce or Seafood Manager...Then, I leave to go home.
I think most people get us confused with products that Walmart and Meijer carry.
So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
So, did you like...use a thesaurus for EVERY word of your post or something?
__________________
I thought people were joking when they said working for Kroger sucks...
So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
So, did you like...use a thesaurus for EVERY word of your post or something?
I graduated high school. I understood his post perfectly fine. :P
Anyway, yes, the old "I bought it here last week"-line. People don't know what they did last week. They can barely recall what you last said to them.
__________________
Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
I must say I enjoy the varied verbosity of your discourse, to dissemble otherwise would be a falsehood. A mulitfaceted vocabulary is refreshing in this epoch of truncated verbiage, and I, for one, salute you.
I fear I possess no profundity for the seemingly vacuous interrogatives from our erstwhile patrons, such as the cherished favorite "But I got it at [insert banner name] in [insert state], why don't you have it?" Whereupon we can but placate them with platitudes and profound and profuse apologies, and perhaps a subistitute product of similar ilk. And so it goes.....
So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
So, did you like...use a thesaurus for EVERY word of your post or something?
I don't know why people are acting like this post is difficult to read or uses too many big words. No thesaurus required, these are words you should know.
Anyway, I can't tell you how many times people come up to the deli and order something we've never carried in all my 7 years of working there and then insist that they bought it just the other day. No...you didn't. When you say "maybe you got it at another Kroger's?" they insist it was this one.
So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
So, did you like...use a thesaurus for EVERY word of your post or something?
Nah. Caught the highfalutinitis from a reading habit and a couple years of college Latin. Guess I should have used Saran wrap or something. ;)
I must say I enjoy the varied verbosity of your discourse, to dissemble otherwise would be a falsehood. A mulitfaceted vocabulary is refreshing in this epoch of truncated verbiage, and I, for one, salute you.
I fear I possess no profundity for the seemingly vacuous interrogatives from our erstwhile patrons, such as the cherished favorite "But I got it at [insert banner name] in [insert state], why don't you have it?" Whereupon we can but placate them with platitudes and profound and profuse apologies, and perhaps a subistitute product of similar ilk. And so it goes.....
Supersubstantial! Made my day, this did!
Interestingly enough, I recently had a customer scold me about the lack of a proper fishmonger in a tiny, VERY landlocked store. I really need to take up poker.
So we've all been there: Customer desires a product not present in set, so clerk awkwardly fumbles through the standard "If a replacement won't do, we'll try to order some, and we apologize for being such bad people" rigamarole. Then comes the parry: "But I bought some here last...whatever."
I cannot for the life of me figure this one out. Yes, in some outlying cases, I'm sure it's the result of a genuine mistake and/or a harbinger of encroaching senility, but this obviously is not the mean. And yes, I can empathize enough to grasp some of the other common passive-aggressive balderdash on a "futile thrashing of a pathetic soul" sort of level, but what in the name of Sweet Lord Saturn is this one supposed to accomplish? Am I supposed to play along? Continue squinting at the display? Pretend to ask a coworker? Shame-shuffle to the back and return empty-handed? Beg absolution via free swag? Does this provide some kind of weird jolly I'm not comprehending?
Please help me understand what is being sought here. And please feel free to share some baffling retail psychology of your own.
Oh, and before someone comes along to speculate that I don't know my department and a substantial chunk of its history, I can only reply, with an existential sigh ", Trust me, I do
-- Edited by TaterTart on Wednesday 11th of December 2013 10:58:23 PM
So, did you like...use a thesaurus for EVERY word of your post or something?
I don't know why people are acting like this post is difficult to read or uses too many big words. No thesaurus required, these are words you should know.
Anyway, I can't tell you how many times people come up to the deli and order something we've never carried in all my 7 years of working there and then insist that they bought it just the other day. No...you didn't. When you say "maybe you got it at another Kroger's?" they insist it was this one.
Amazing, isn't it? Shoot, I've had some of my good deli/bakery colleagues relate stories of customer outrage at the failure to have a cake order prepared...only to have it come out that the order was placed at another store. And I'm not even talking another KROGER location, mind you.
We once had a customer try to return a gallon of great value milk and what make it even funnier is they actually accepted it and called for a milk return at customer service
And don't forget the high hilarity of the consumer searching in vain for the advertised items so prominently displayed in their advertisement circular...from a competing chain. Yes, madam, I do believe we are just fresh out of Sam's Choice hot dogs. I prostrate myself before you, and beg your forgiveness for my short-sightedness! Perhaps my firstborn will suffice as a paltry recompense?
We once had a customer try to return a gallon of great value milk and what make it even funnier is they actually accepted it and called for a milk return at customer service
In this case you should do absolutely everything you can to not embarrass the customer. Get another gallon of milk, bring it up front. Sit it next to their gallon. Say, "Is this the correct type of milk?"
Something should click in their head, at that point. Hopefully. You know, the different packages and all. Once they realize they screwed up, exchange the milk anyway.
No thesaurus required, these are words you should know. 
