Dept. Store Etiquette: Don't Spit On The Merchandise!
So this isn’t exactly study related…actually it’s not study related at all. For that I apologize, sometimes it can be frustrating when you’re looking for study motivation and you come across completely irrelevant info. I AM SORRY…but I feel the need to put some of this info out there after the day I had at work.
I am a nursing student, and I work as the jewelry supervisor in a department store. Today a woman requested to see a ring in the case. I took it out and she asked what size the ring was, I told her it was a 7. She exclaimed, “oh perfect! Darlin that is exactly my size!” (Imagine that in a STRONG southern accent.) she proceeded to jam the ring onto her finger…and the damn thing got stuck on her (not size 7) finger! Now this has happened before, it’s usually no big deal. She sort of started to look panicky 😱 and I reassured her it was fine and that I’d get some lotion, we would be able to remove it no problem. Before I even turned around to go get the lotion, this woman started licking her finger and rubbing her saliva on her finger and the ring trying to get it off. It was like watching a panicked cat trying to get its head out of a chip bag. When that didn’t work she seriously spit on the ring and got it off her finger. I was in shock, this was more than my brain could handle. The whole time I was thinking “what in the ever loving fuck is happening?!.” (imagine that in a screaming yankee accent.) it’s like my brain slowed down, but everything happened so fast, the next thing I knew was that saliva soaked ring was in my bare fucking hand! How the hell did that happen?! I was trying so hard to not react, but the look on my face was probably similar to Jack Nicholson’s in The Shining! I’m a bit of a germaphobe, and I’m seriously particular about how things are done. My boss jokes around with me all the time and calls me OCD. (Side note: OCD is serious, and he only means it jokingly, I don’t actually have OCD. I think I’m so particular because of my time spent in the Air Force, and he knows that.) whenever something gross happens in the store he laughs and asks how I can be grossed out, but I’m going to be a nurse. I expect gross stuff to happen in hospitals, and it doesn’t phase me at all. (I saw some crazy stuff during clinicals!) I do not expect gross stuff in the store especially if it includes bodily fluids. I know that story was really long winded, but seriously it had to be told. I’ve learned that many people do things in public that are disgusting or rude and they don’t even see a problem with it. Let me wrap this post up with a few things you should avoid doing next time you’re in a department store:
1. Do not under any circumstances spit on the merchandise! If for some psychotic reason you do it, don’t fucking hand it to a person who works there. What in the actual fuck. 2. Do not scream at the jewelry associate/supervisor that they are racist because they won’t accept you’re expired coupon, and they’re white, or because they are a different race than you. Don’t cause a scene and try to manipulate the situation in a way that makes a mockery of real racial injustice. Seriously, sometimes it seems like the south is stuck in time. 3. Do not throw merchandise at the associates because they didn’t treat you like you’re the exception to the rules. 4. Do not threaten to yank an associate over the counter by the roots of their hair for the same reason mentioned in #3. 5. When you want to see a piece of jewelry in a case, do not point through the glass like the associate can see it from your view, and then treat them like they’re stupid because they don’t know what you mean when you say “no, the other one….the one right there!” Or (I want to see that…the silver one" and then get irritated when I ask if you mean the silver bracelet earrings, or necklace that are in the same display. 6. Do not be the asshole who taps on the glass case (hard!) when the associate has their face right up to it trying to take jewelry out that you want to see. 7. Control your young. That is all. 8. If you have explosive diarrhea all over the toilet seat and walls in the restroom, don’t just leave it without at least telling someone (or um maybe cleaning up your own shit) and certainly don’t leave a trail of it from the bathroom in the back of the store all the way to the front door. 9. Don’t treat the store associates like they’re dirt under your shoes, because you think they’re beneath you. ( we work hard, we all unload and move our own freight, we are on our feet the whole time, the AC ONLY SPORADICALLY WORKS…in Alabama, and some of us are constantly moving for our whole shift.) 10. Do not try on earrings you aren’t going to buy. Ew. And don’t get pissy when the jewelry associate asks you politely not to. If you decide you don’t care if it’s hygienic and you do it anyway, ask for some alcohol and clean your own ear funk off of the earring. Again, ew.
11. Last but not least, do not pile clothes up in the fitting room and then pee all over them intentionally. Reading the items on the list, probably gives the impression that I work in a shit hole. I don't,sometimes people are just too much, too crazy, and too inconsiderate.All of the things I listed have actually happened to me, or happened during my shift. I just want people to be decent human beings. I work in a very customer service oriented store. We genuinely make every effort to ensure a positive customer experience. I dig it because I like to add a positive spin on people’s day. Now please don’t get me wrong, I generally like my job, it serves its purpose, it’s a means to an end. I enjoy the people I work with, and a lot of times the customers are great! Sometimes though the way people act in there just makes me wonder what the fuck is happening in the world that people think that behavior is ok. If anyone was able to read this crazy long lost, thanks for hanging in there long enough to read my rant. I feel so much better after getting it off my chest.
