<p>I work at two places where I take a lot of verbal abuse, at one job this includes threats on my life and people throwing things at me. One where I deal with life or death situations and one with overdramatic parents. You really just have to put on a thick skin and kill them with kindness. I will never defend this kind of behavior but remember that you don’t know what’s going on in their life and that you’re only going to be here a while longer.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think this is an important idea that some companies lose track of when they’re dealing with customer satisfaction. Yes, it is always the store’s goal to please the customer, but they have to remember there may be times where pleasing one customer will upset many other customers. To me, not enforcing something as trivial as item numbers in an express line is one of those things that would actually make me not want to shop somewhere. One of the main reasons I like the supermarket I shop at now is because they’ll always have enough cashiers open so that you’re never more than three deep in line. This is a small, local store, and my ability to reliably get in and out of there pretty quickly is well worth the extra dollar or two I might pay versus a crappy major chain down the street.</p>
<p>Marina, ever read this? Deals specifically with working at Walmart [Nickel</a> and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America: Barbara Ehrenreich: 9780312626686: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681]Nickel”>http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681)</p>
<p>No, you, no one deserves to be sworn at and berated. The manager does not have appropriate skills, but it leaves one to wonder what support HE is getting from his supervisors. Or if there is a corporate policy on such matters? </p>
<p>Feelings of over entitlement unfortunately are all too common. Regardless, acknowledging the customers frustrations while attempting to elicit an understanding of the difficulty of the situation for her as well as others in line and yourself sometimes works. But who knows. Attempts at eliciting compassion does not work for all, but I’m amazed at how often it does. I work in a hospital, and we see all sorts there as well.</p>
<p>OP, here, this will help 
:
[Funny</a> & Stupid Customer Stories ? Not Always Right](<a href=“http://notalwaysright.com/]Funny”>http://notalwaysright.com/)</p>
<p>There’s also [Bad</a> customer service, bosses and co-workers ? Not Always Working](<a href=“http://notalwaysworking.com%5DBad”>http://notalwaysworking.com) for the view from the other side.</p>
<p>welcome to retail.</p>
<p>It is one of the best job experiences that you will ever have had – people lie, they cheat, they steal – and you get to experience all of it in a short time.</p>
<p>But just remember, you get to leave after your BS/BA.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Here’s one obvious possibility: Customer A brings 100 items to the limit-20 line. Customers B, C and D have adhered to the limit-20 sign. As they wait through Customer A’s lengthy checkout, their irritation builds. By the time they finally get to check out, who do you think is going to get the brunt of their frustration? Not Customer A, whose disregard of the sign and lack of common courtesy caused the problem. Not the manager, who is going to throw the cashier under the bus. No, Customers B, C and D are going to direct their anger at the cashier, who is forced to accomodate customers who break the rules, at the expense of customers who don’t. If I were the OP, I’d find that annoying too.</p>
<p>Your manager should have been able to back you up and handle it at the same time. Simply time for them to step in, tell the customer that the policy is 20 items but that they’ll take care of it this once . Or open another line so people can actually pay their money and get out of the store in a timely fashion which is what should be happening–they’re the manager–so manage already!</p>
<p>At most good stores I’ve been to when things like this happen I hear “all cashiers to the front”.</p>
<p>Of course it’s annoying. It’s Walmart. I have been to Walmart twice. The most annoying spot in the universe. And I have no doubts that your manager is a moron.
That being said,I have a small company that is customer service oriented. I manage eight employees who have been with me for a time ranging from ten to thirty years. They know that I have their back, but saying this they also know that we do not correct the behavior of our customers. Treat even the jerkiest slobs with dignity and aplomb and then take their money.Take the high road and kill them with a modicum of patience and kindness. All of my employees know that ultimately it is the money from the customers (nice or otherwise) that pays their mortgages, electric bills and even their purchases at Walmart. Essentially they do not need me to denigrate the customer for them to feel good about themselves. As I said before, living well is the best revenge.</p>
<p>And I can’t count how many times that we have had initially irate customers call back and apologize for their behavior.</p>
<p>take David Foster Wallaces speech to heart:[William</a> McGuinness: David Foster Wallace’s Brilliant ‘This Is Water’ Commencement Address Is Now a Great Short Film](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>David Foster Wallace's Brilliant 'This Is Water' Commencement Address Is Now a Great Short Film | HuffPost College)</p>
<p>Walmarts by me have many self-checkout lines without real human cashiers. I refuse to use the self-checkout lines because, in a small way, I feel I am contributing to keeping a job for someone as a cashier.</p>
<p>I wish Walmart had special checkout lines without any magazine covers on display in magazine racks by checkout registers plastered with photos of: any Kardashian family member; Justin Beiber; Lindsey Lohan. I’d be in a better mood and frame of mind not seeing their mugs while having to pay for my purchases.</p>
<p>darn it…for some reason that short film that takes place in the check out line has been removed from the internet universe!</p>
<p>
Did the woman yesterday do both of these things? Yikes! Pretty nervy for someone getting handouts from taxpayers for free food!</p>
<p>As far as young adults being welcome to post in the Parents Forum and Cafe, perhaps then all parents and adults should feel welcome to post in the kiddie threads. I doubt we’d be welcomed there. I have no issue (and have enjoyed this thread and other threads by young adult posters) with most young posters, including the OP. But then every once in a while there is a kiddie poster that gets out of line, such as the 18 y/o who wanted to censor all posts on Islam on a parent forum because she didn’t like what she was reading.</p>
<p>CTTC, several parents post in College Life and I’ve never seen backlash.</p>
<p>What is kinda sick too is that the $22 steak that the customer can’t pay for will be thrown away by Walmart because Walmart won’t put it back in meat display case out of concern of it having spoiled.</p>
<p>
Fred Meyer (a PNW regional hypermarket chain) has ‘family friendly’ aisles without magazines.</p>
<p>CTTC, I have posted on the “kiddie” forums when I thought a parent perspective would be helpful, or when I wanted a student perspective on something – just as our OP wanted an adult perspective on her question – and I’ve never been treated rudely by the “kiddies.”</p>
<p>I think the other reason for the express line is that if people who just run in for 1-2 things have to wait for a long time, they’ll decide “it’s just not worth it” and leave without buying. The person who has just invested an hour + filling a cart with 80 different items is less likely to do that.</p>
<p>OP - I really feel for you as well. I would find another retail job; WalMart doesn’t deserve you. </p>
<p>I HATE Walmart and will never return. As several posters alluded to, it is the customers standing in the 20-items or fewer (and it’s fewer, not less, my pet peeve) BEHIND the customer with over 20 items that are being mistreated by the store.</p>
<p>Last summer, I went in to buy my mother a $200 gift card, because she does shop at Walmart and it is very convenient for her. I picked the card out and picked one of two 20-item limit lanes that was open, the one with only one guy in it, versus the other lane with 2 people. After awhile (the other lane continued moving along), it became evident that this guy in front of me, with 2 carriages full of large containers, garbage cans, buckets and other various large items, often in duplicates or triplicates, was paying ONE AT A TIME for each item (each individual container, pail, etc. even when he had 3 or more of the same thing). </p>
<p>I stood there with my gift card watching as he had the cashier swipe one pail, paid her in cash, waited for the receipt and change (often directing her how to give him the change, singles, fives, etc.), then he would do the same thing all over again with the next item. </p>
<p>I waited through about 10 of these transactions; it just kept going on and on. I am pretty sure he was working some scam where he would present these receipts for reimbursement at one or more businesses and was really piling up the receipts for these purposes. But it doesn’t even matter why, the point was, he was in the express lane doing this. (btw he had over 20 items total). </p>
<p>Finally, I said - directly to him, not the cashier, because it wasn’t her fault and I could tell she was uncomfortable, “what the heck is going on? You’re in the express lane.” (word for word). He glared at me and shouted: “MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.” I said back to him: “It IS my business; I am standing behind you with one item and you are supposed to be in an express check-out. It’s not fair to every customer behind you.” (there were other customers waiting behind me at this point).</p>
<p>At this point, he started really yelling at me and taking steps toward me, threatening gestures, cursing, calling me all kinds of names. Of course I should have just tossed the gift card and walked out of there at this point, but i was pretty peeved, and I couldn’t believe HE was attacking ME. (the poor cashier just kept out of it, I felt sorry for her). But I was astonished at his response and I wasn’t going to put up with it, so I stood my ground and told him he could call me all the names he wanted to but he was wrong and he knew it and shame on him for behaving this way, etc. So by this time we were in a shouting match (I know, I know, I shouldn’t have sunk to his level). </p>
<p>The next thing I know the store management is surrounding ME (little old lady compared to this young strapping muscular looking guy), telling me to just be patient and wait my turn, and “We treat all our customers the same way” and “You should have just gone to the other check-out lane” (in back of several other customers who’d arrived long after I first started waiting). They just kept saying “We treat all our customers the same.” Because they just kept repeating that over and over again, I would be remiss in not mentioning that the fellow in front of me was young and ethnic (not sure from where); I am just a boring middle aged American mom. </p>
<p>When I tried to explain what the gentlemen was doing, and how was that considered an express aisle if this was something they condoned, manager was completely uninterested (“we treat all our customers the same,” yada yada). Why, I asked, wasn’t I directed to another lane earlier on by someone? I am a customer too, am I not? They just kept defending loud bully in front of me, who was smirking that Walmart management was focused only on me for complaining, not on him for completely commandeering the express lane.</p>
<p>It was a completely bizarre experience. It’s a horrendous store and this just solidified my resolve never to shop there again.</p>
<p>I sent my mom a check instead.</p>
<p>…and the moral of my long story above, and to OP’s point, is that NOT every customer is always right. Sometimes one is right and one is wrong, and it stinks that, as other posters mentioned, the cashier may be the one blamed (I am glad I refrained from involving the cashier in my experience). </p>
<p>And it further stinks if management themselves blame the cashier. Or, in my case, blame me (customer) for standing up (on behalf of myself and all the customers behind me in line) to bad, rule-breaking, bullying customer.</p>
<p>Why do they want his money more than my money? Because surely he will be back, but I won’t be.</p>
<p>Customers can certainly be amazing, can’t they? Once in a while, the customer behind them in line can certainly make your day by being comforting and supportive, which certainly restores your faith in mankind! Those who pay the least also learn that they can pretty much yet what they want by behaving this way, too.</p>
<p>Emergency room personnel can tell some good stories about behavior. They have demanding regulars (as in weekly) who pay nothing!</p>