Do Retail Workers Just Not Care Anymore?
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: happiness, work
Most of us have been there before ourselves: working some minimum-wage retail or service job as a teenager to make a bit of spending money. We might not have liked those jobs very much, but we took them anyway all in the name of earning a few bucks to blow at the mall. We’d flip our burgers, ring up purchases on our cash registers, and assist our clueless customers while still managing to keep a smile on our faces.
Then again, I can’t remember the last time I saw a retail worker with a smile on his or her face.
In the last few years, I’ve seen growing evidence that our nation’s retail workforce–a vital part of our economy–just doesn’t give a hoot anymore. It seems that a serious outbreak of apathy has afflicted most hourly retail workers, and it shows in how they interact with their customers. I’m sure you’ve experienced your fair share of workers who are less than eager to be making six bucks an hour to bag your groceries or pump your gas; I’ve certainly seen these types myself, and it usually doesn’t affect me too much. But a small, almost inconsequential encounter last night made me realize just how little many retail workers care about doing a good job anymore.
My wife and I went to Target to pick up a new flashlight. With our purchase in hand, we went to the top-floor checkout lanes and entered a line behind a 30-something woman accompanied by her young daughter. She had an assortment of items, and the cashier–a woman who couldn’t be older than 20–scanned and bagged them all without much chit-chat. When the cashier tried to scan a metal teapot, she discovered there was no barcode. She looked up at her customer who said, “It was the only one over there, and I didn’t see a price.”
The young cashier flipped the teapot around in her hands a few times, perhaps hoping a barcode would mysteriously manifest itself. It didn’t. She turned to her customer again and uttered words I’ll forever recall whenever I enter a retail checkout line: “I can’t scan it, so I can’t sell it to you.” She proceeded to put the teapot on the counter behind her and continued processing the customer’s other items.
At this point, the customer appeared almost dazed at what had happened. She opened her mouth to speak as the cashier continued to ring up her purchases, but then she closed it again. Instead, she turned to us, still waiting patiently in the line right behind her. If her facial expression were an instant message window, it would have said “WTF” with an obscene number of question marks after it. I looked back at her, almost equally stunned at the cashier’s actions. All the while, the cashier continued to scan the rest of her items.
The woman opened her mouth to speak a second time, but she was interrupted by the cashier’s announcement of her transaction total. She looked back one more time at us but proceeded to whip out her credit card, paid for her purchases, and departed without saying a word.
I learned a very important lesson from that experience. It wasn’t that retail workers are becoming more and more uncaring, unresponsive, and unwilling to do more than their basic job functions; I already knew that part! My lesson learned is that people seem to be willing to let retail workers get away with that apathy and laziness. Had I been that woman, I would’ve had the cashier on the phone asking for a price check in two seconds flat. And then I would’ve spoken to her manager on the way out.
I can maybe understand why the woman might not have responded at first to the cashier’s rudeness and stupidity; it was a downright shocking experience. But to leave and let the cashier think that her actions were anything resembling proper behavior is almost as bad as the actions themselves.
So thank you, woman in Target, for allowing the apathy of the retail workforce to blossom unhindered. I’m sure we’ll appreciate your inaction even more in a few years when we consider a good customer service experience to be one where the cashier actually comes out of the break room to stand by her register as we scan and bag our purchases by ourselves.
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14 Responses »
1.
Larry
July 6th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
This had to be in Gaithersburg Target! Or Wheaton…I go to the one in Rockville and they are generally pretty good. Which one was it?
2.
Nick
July 6th, 2006 at 9:59 pm
Hahaha, you’re absolutely right! It was the Gaithersburg Target. And you’re right that the Rockville Target is much nicer.
3.
mbhunter
July 6th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
One time a cashier at our local Borders rang up the wrong price on a drink I bought. The price difference was three cents. Not really a bank-breaker, but it was more the fact that she refused to figure out how to ring the drink up correctly. After that, I heard the cashier say that she overcharges people for drinks all the time. She was still complaining about me (I told the manager about the incident) when my wife went through the line.
She wasn’t working there long after that, thankfully.
4.
Nick
July 7th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Might Bargain Hunter, I’m glad you spoke up to the manager about your situation. I’m sure if we all did the same when faced with similar problems that retail workers would get the message pretty quickly that we’re just as much their bosses as their managers are.
5.
savvy saver
July 7th, 2006 at 10:45 am
You are assuming that their bosses care. Maybe this cashier wasn’t trained and doesn’t get support from her supervisor. My experience is that bad service doesn’t begin and end with the clerk, it usually goes all the way up to the supervisors and managers, and maybe even the corporate culture.
6.
Larry
July 7th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Yep, if you want to see the skankification effect Britney and her ilk have had on the 12-17 year old girls, Gaithersburg Target is where it’s at!
Great website man. I’m a regular reader now, and fellow DC Metro resident!
7.
Nick
July 7th, 2006 at 11:30 am
savvy, you definitely have something there. And I guess when complaining to the manager we have no way of knowing what action will be taken against the worker (unless they’re fired on the spot in front of you or something). And some managers are more receptive to your complaints than others.
Larry, it’s great to hear from local folks! I’ll have to include more DC-oriented stories like this more often.
8.
Larry
July 7th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
DC has a money and finance (and real estate) culture all it’s own, for which I think your wit and mind is quite well-suited. Attack, attack!
9.
Ex Target Employee
July 11th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Nick,
I have been following your blog for a while and always enjoy your posts. I worked at a Target Store for almost 7 years, from the time I was 15 until I was 22. I am now 23. I did many jobs throughout the store from cashier to sales floor to stockroom in all the departments of the store both part-time and full-time so I feel I am qualified to respond. First of all, the cashier should have offered a price check and when she didn’t the woman should have politely asked for one. I am a little concerned that you failed to point out the emergence of apathy and laziness in our culture as a whole not just in retail workers. In a response to a comment, you said, “…retail workers would get the message pretty quickly that we’re just as much their bosses as their managers are.” This statement scares me a little bit. Would you accept disrespect and rudeness from your boss? Because I have several stories of being screamed at by a woman who was angry at another employee (a supervisor), people using profanity, or dishonest “guests” who try to get lower prices on or even steal merchandise. I can go into extreme detail but I would like to keep this response relatively short. I do agree with you that there is a serious problem with the attitude and work ethic of some of today’s young workers. However, I would like to venture that there is also a problem of corporate mistreatment of these “unskilled” workers and a problem with service industry patrons and their sense of entitlement. I think the solution to this problem is pretty basic: following the golden rule. I always try to treat everyone how I would like to be treated. I am certainly not perfect but I believe I treat all service workers (retail, fast-food, restaurant servers, CS reps on the phone) better after working in the industry for so long.
Sincerely,
Ex Target Employee in the Midwest
10.
samerwriter
July 12th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Someday if I’m rich and able to retire early, I’d like to be able to do an experiment (I’ve daydreamed about this for years).
I’d like to buy a McDonalds franchise, and pay all the workers substantially more than minimum wage. Perhaps $10 per hour, plus benefits.
In return, I would demand high quality workers. In my opinion, this could become a very successful business model. In fact, it already is at places like Costco and In-N-Out but I’d like to prove that it can be successful at a place like McDonalds. The payroll might even not increase that much, as motivated workers may be more efficient than the typical unmotivated retail employee.
There is a McDonalds in Cuba, New York where I used to always stop on the way to visit my brother in Ithaca. Not because I love McDonalds, but because the staff was always friendly and helpful, the restaurant was very clean, and the food was simply delicious. I don’t know if that store was more profitable than other McDonalds, but it earned at least one repeat customer by having great customer service.
11.
Steve Corona
July 24th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
I currently work at Target over here in Connecticut. I find it very odd that the cashier acted in that fashion. Target policy for a situation is basically like this; if the item looks less than $20, ask the guest how much they thought it said. If the guest gives a reasonable price the cashier is able to manually add the item to thier purchase with the price. If the item looks more than $20 (which, I don’t think it was in this case) it is the cashiers responsability to call the GSTL (guest service team lead) over to get someone from the Sales Floor to locate the item and find the correct DPCI number. The cashier can even pause the current transaction and take care of other guests while this process is happening. You either got a really bad or a really new cashier. I would not hesitate to complain to the ETL or GSTL of the store. The store takes these matters very seriously as they are pressured by the DTLs and RTLs (district & regional team leads) to provide excellent customer service. I love Target and I’m very upset that this cashier is hurting the reputation of our great company.
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