Customer Service: Rants, Raves, Back Pats, and Appreciation

[Seerow]

Hmm, I was not aware of that. I have to say I feel kinda bad now for the times I've gone off on people over the last few years. I always thought it was a deliberate thing, especially after I say "Not interested, don't call back". Why the hell would their employers make them keep calling people back like that? It's insanity. Even worse for the systems where it's totally automated, you would think the higher ups would see that that particular system doesn't work, it just gets their employees yelled at.

Because while it does just get the employees yelled at 95% of the time, 5% of the time they may reach someone more amenable on the callback attempt, or hit someone who accidentally hung up without intending to, or whatever other reason. And if the 5% chance of scoring a sale makes more than it costs to pay the guy at the phone to make 20 phone calls, the higher ups are going to tell them to make that call every time.

It sucks, and it is a soul crushing experience on both sides, but it all ultimately boils down to a numbers game.

[2D8HP]

...you would think the higher ups would see that that particular system doesn't work, it just gets their employees yelled at.

The theroy is that "the power of positive thinking" is supposed to make it so that "motivated" employees magically convince others to want to be hassled to buy stuff they didn't want, and if the employees don't have magic powers, then they have "attitude problems".

Usually immediate"higher-ups" are also under'the-gun for results as well, with each level in the hierarchy being chewed out by the level above and dumping on the level below, the owners typically being faceless shareholders, unless it's a small business, which in my experience means the owner is either a relatively normal person desperately trying to make payroll, or a psychopathic Ayn Rand reading "How dare you duck when I throw things at you!" boss (about 3/5th of them I've found).

See the play/movie Glengarry Glen Ross for a fictional accounting of some details.

For a non-fictional example, see the pressures upon low-level Wells Fargo employees to create new accounts, which resulted in massive fraud.

[inexorabletruth]

@comicshorse
Tell me about it. You know people who show up 5 minutes before closing know exactly what they're doing.
*slides a shot of something small but strong your way, so you can slug it down fast and get it over with*

@ve4grm
That's no coincidence, either. No matter what job I've worked, tensions are always high during the holidays and customers snap a lot quicker. I used to get the most abuse between Black Friday and New Years. Here's hoping this takes the edge off.
*fills your mug with a bitter spirit*

And to all of you in call services and telemarketing: yeesh. The worst job I ever had was in telemarketing. I hated it so much and drank about a fifth of southern comfort each night just to forget the pain of the day. This isn't good advice, but it did help. Still, my liver was grateful when I finally found a different job to get me out of that hell. So for you guys, we'll ration that out.
*pours each of you a shot of soco*

[Recherché]

This is a public service announcement for all students. In the event that you need to take an exam with your local testing center please try and remember what exam it is that you need to take. If you do not remember or forget to write it down a poor testing center employee will be forced to play 20 questions with you for the next 15 minutes trying to figure out this information. Not only will this delay the line and everyone else who's testing today but there is a chance I will still get it wrong and I will hand you the wrong test. This situation will result in me getting yelled at and you paying a $40 for an exam you don't actually need to take. So for Eris's sake please just know what test you need to take beforehand.

[WarKitty]

Honestly my job's not so bad as all that, for call center. Our turnover is lower for the industry. It's going to be high in most though because there's not a lot of opportunity for advancement. Lots of people here are working while they're in school, or until their kids get older, or until they have the work history to move on, or something. Nothing wrong with the job, just most people figure they can do better eventually. Move on to a 9-5 with a better paycheck if they can.

One big thing here is that we're an inbound sales department. People call us because they want to buy something from us. There's no cold calling. Complaints happen and things do go wrong sometimes, and sometimes you do get people who are really upset. I get a higher proportion because I'm a specialist and part of my job is to take reports when something goes wrong and let the customer know. I'm also paid more than a general agent to do that (among other things). Were also not

We also work with corporate types a lot. It's actually real fun between thanksgiving and new years, our lines are so dead. Most of our customers are using us for business travel, and they don't want to travel during the holiday season.

[Wraith]

Although I am not a citizen of the USA, I live and work in the UK and our culture and attitude towards customer service has long since caught up to that of our stateside cousins. As such, after 15 years in "front-line" retail I have a menagerie of stories about horrible people treating other people horribly in a variety of roles.

My first job, aged 16, was in a small-scale equivalent to Wallmart - we sold everything from food and clothes to furniture and mid-sized electrical items like portable TV's and DVD players.
Memorable story from that job: The guy in his 30's who took a scooter (like a skateboard but with handle-bars - they were huge in the early 2000's) off of display and got it up to full speed on an aisle; had I been 6" to the left when he went by me, he would have definitely bowled me over and possibly broken some of my bones. When I confronted him and told him to stop riding the children's toy around the shop he - in the act of putting it back onto the shelf - told me that he had brought it in with him and to go away. He then followed me down an aisle with a shopping trolley, waited until my back was turned, and deliberately rammed me face-first into the display... because he "didn't see me there".

Eventually I moved to a supermarket, at the time the biggest chain in the country, counting stock and removing perishable goods at the end of the night while studying at university. The biggest task was a process call "Potential Reductions" - every night we'd go around and find all the stock that was going out of date on the next night and take a small amount of money off, just to try and shift it before having to lose money by reducing it to nearly nothing and ultimately throwing it away.
I have lost count of the number of insults, threats, demands, tears and outright lies told to me over the equivalent of about 10 cents. I know that times can be hard, but if you have ever wrestled a loaf of break out of a shop-worker's hands in order to stop two other people from trying to do the same, you should probably re-evaluate your life.
And if you're getting banned from a supermarket on Christmas Eve for elbowing another customer in the head because you were trampling over them in order to get hold of a pack of cheap sausages... God help you.

From there I went to the store's Fishmonger, my first full-time job after graduating. I will never forget the guy who came up to me, pink in the face with anger and demanding both a full refund and to speak to my manager, because the frozen squid that I had sold him the previous week had ice in it.
Not ice in the bag, that I had dropped in to make it weigh more and thus cost more; the frozen squid that he specifically requested be frozen had ice in them which then melted so he had a net-loss in weigh when they were cooked.

I moved away from food after that and got a job as.... Well, it was called "Technical Support", but with the benefit of hindsight we were actually a sales team who were expected to troubleshoot faulty products, and offer user advice and information, without the benefit of being paid commission.
Ye Gods, where do I begin?
The guy who demanded a refund and replacement on a faulty TV, and refused to accept that we weren't going to give him either... Because he had bought the TV from a rival supermarket. Not even that the receipt said "<Rival Company>" on the header, but that the actual brand of the TV was their own, and not sold by any other company on the planet.
Being threatened with physical harm because a warranty had expired, or had never been in place to begin with.
DVDs and set-top boxes hurled across two-dozen feet and into a wall above a colleague's head.
The guy who bought a $40 refurbished laptop, brought it back 11 months later as faulty, and demanded that we either upgrade him to a brand new $500 laptop or give him a full refund for everything he had with him - including for the carry case and mouse which he had bought from ebay, and the replacement laptop casing he had bought and had installed (he wanted us to refund him for that labour cost too, by the way) because the old one was scratched.
When that was refused and told that we would only refund him for the cost of the laptop which he had originally paid to us (a process which took 40 minutes of arguing back and forth) he insisted on being allowed to return the laptop "as it was sold" and gouged at the new case with his keys and a screwdriver, apparently so that we would not be able to take "his" new laptop case and sell it ourselves.
Needless to say, we did not, never had, and never would, sell laptop components - let alone unpackaged, off-brand, used ones - and had never suggested otherwise. He was just that determined to "win" I guess.

....To be honest, I will stop there now for fear of being here all day. I've worked in retail since Tech Support and now work in a Call Centre because it's as far removed from a supermarket as can possibly be, but the tales I could tell of that job could run into the thousands of words....

"The customer is always right". I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that that statement is the motto for Selfridges Department Store in London, England. It's not law, and it's absolutely not policy of every other store in the world; it's their stupid gimmick that has gotten monstrously over-exposed.

[Khedrac]

Although I am not a citizen of the USA, I live and work in the UK and our culture and attitude towards customer service has long since caught up to that of our stateside cousins. As such, after 15 years in "front-line" retail I have a menagerie of stories about horrible people treating other people horribly in a variety of roles.

My first job, aged 16, was in a small-scale equivalent to Wallmart - we sold everything from food and clothes to furniture and mid-sized electrical items like portable TV's and DVD players.
Memorable story from that job: The guy in his 30's who took a scooter (like a skateboard but with handle-bars - they were huge in the early 2000's) off of display and got it up to full speed on an aisle; had I been 6" to the left when he went by me, he would have definitely bowled me over and possibly broken some of my bones. When I confronted him and told him to stop riding the children's toy around the shop he - in the act of putting it back onto the shelf - told me that he had brought it in with him and to go away. He then followed me down an aisle with a shopping trolley, waited until my back was turned, and deliberately rammed me face-first into the display... because he "didn't see me there".
...

I would like to think that with modern attitudes of "we don't tolerate abuse of staff" that in today's supermarkets that would have resulted in the police being called and a charge of assualt being placed using the in-store cctv to back it up. At least I hope that is what would happen today (it should have happened whenever this took place).

It shocks me how much petty theft there is from UK supermarkets by otherwise "respectable" citizens (made much worse by self-checkout and scan-as-you-shop initiatives) so I suppose the abuse of staff by customers follows a pattern, albeit a horrible one.

The other day I was shopping in a supermarket when it was otherwise nearly dead so I took longer than normal chatting with the girl on the checkout (I actually mentioned this thread and the complaint about the sales clerk not saying 'thank-you' when I think it is the customer who should say 'thank-you'); what is sad is that it appeared to make her day Now I don't mind her day being boring (virtually no one in store, it is going to be boring) but a single customer being friendly and nice to her should not make anyone's day - something is badly wrong with our society and appears to be gettign worse.

I think we need to make a stand - we need to go out there and be nice to those serving us - spread some joy in the world.

[inexorabletruth]

....To be honest, I will stop there now for fear of being here all day. I've worked in retail since Tech Support and now work in a Call Centre because it's as far removed from a supermarket as can possibly be, but the tales I could tell of that job could run into the thousands of words....

Good grief! That is quite an unfortunate story. If it helps, physically abusive customers are rare... you just beat the odds. Apparently more than once. I can relate. I've been charged at, punched at, threatened with physical violence, and had things thrown at me before. One of my employees even had a gun pointed at him. But that is still spread over the span of 20 years in the industry. For you to experience that much in such a short time. Here's hoping cases like yours remain rare, or fade out of existence. Here, try this... it's rare, like you.
*pours you a chilled glass of cachaça*

[Wraith]

I would like to think that with modern attitudes of "we don't tolerate abuse of staff" that in today's supermarkets that would have resulted in the police being called and a charge of assualt being placed using the in-store cctv to back it up. At least I hope that is what would happen today (it should have happened whenever this took place).

Knowing what I know now, that was an assault and I should have had something done about it. At the time (16 years ago) I was 16 years old and working 12 hours a week at weekends, and didn't think it worth the hassle raise a complaint over something that was insulting, but not actually harmful. As I'm sure most 16 year olds feel in their first job when confronted by something they'd like to speak out about but are too worried for what little job security they have.

If I'm going to be downright honest, I was a scrawny white kid and he was a tall black guy accompanied by his wife and children, and I was too afraid that any complaint that I made would be turned against me by his "witnesses". That sort of thing was not uncommon where I grew up, as sorry as I am to say it, and the company that I worked for did not have the robust HR system and procedures that are required nowadays.

Instead, after it happened I went and asked the security guard to keep an eye on me in case it happened again, and he said that if I had told him when it happened he could have thrown the guy out. The irony was not lost on me even then.

For you to experience that much in such a short time. Here's hoping cases like yours remain rare, or fade out of existence. Here, try this... it's rare, like you.
*pours you a chilled glass of cachaça*

Thanks for saying so, 'truth - You're a sweetheart.
I must confess, such encounters were realistically few and far between, and probably heat-of-the-moment things that would not even be remotely followed up on if the issue were pressed, but... well, I suppose that telling a guy that the break in his $600 plasma TV is obviously 'fist' shaped and that thrown Wii-remotes aren't covered by his warranty, put me in the firing line more often than the guy who swept the floors.
There's only so many ways to be tactful when saying "you're out £600 and it's your own fault" and you're bound to run out sooner or later. *shrug*

[JeenLeen]

I worked at a cheap theater (like the 2 bucks a ticket, movies there a few months to year after in the main theaters). We were told the attitude was the customer is generally wrong & if they don't like it, they can go somewhere else. They're paying 1.50 a ticket; they shouldn't expect good service.

Besides the lousy pay and hours, I somewhat like the service jobs I've had (mainly because we were allowed to snack when weren't busy, and I liked making people happy by serving them food. I was sad when the Mexican place I worked at closed down. Probably didn't help that some days I ate more food than I sold (technically allowed, and we had some real slow days), and some employees made dinner & took it home to their families (not allowed, but the boss was away and they had seniority, so I kept quiet.))

But I'm glad to be out of it now. The management style of that theater was stifling, though. For example:
"Soda. No ice, please."
"I'm sorry, ma'am. We're not allowed to do no ice. Would you like light ice?"
That was seriously part of the policy. I was told it was because, if we have no ice, the soda foams too much. And I tested that & it actually is true, but I think the main reason was to save money on soda syrup by using ice as a filler. Of course, it led to some people opting not to buy soda, which probably hurt revenue a lot more than wasting some syrup would have.

To the manager's credit, he did smile and was polite to customers, at least most of the time. But he'd put his foot down on anything he found an extra request (like no ice.) All in all, I enjoyed working there and was glad for what I learned and experienced.

I didn't much like working at the hardware section in a store. Not terrible, but it had plenty of annoying "let me check the back" to placate people when I was pretty sure we didn't have it in stock. And I was generally too ignorant of the merchandise to really help sell it, so I'd have to send customers to someone else. (My job was restocking & ordering stock, not sales/helping customers, but I'd be asked questions about stuff as I was stocking.)

[Fiery Diamond]

I worked at a cheap theater (like the 2 bucks a ticket, movies there a few months to year after in the main theaters). We were told the attitude was the customer is generally wrong & if they don't like it, they can go somewhere else. They're paying 1.50 a ticket; they shouldn't expect good service.

Besides the lousy pay and hours, I somewhat like the service jobs I've had (mainly because we were allowed to snack when weren't busy, and I liked making people happy by serving them food. I was sad when the Mexican place I worked at closed down. Probably didn't help that some days I ate more food than I sold (technically allowed, and we had some real slow days), and some employees made dinner & took it home to their families (not allowed, but the boss was away and they had seniority, so I kept quiet.))

But I'm glad to be out of it now. The management style of that theater was stifling, though. For example:
"Soda. No ice, please."
"I'm sorry, ma'am. We're not allowed to do no ice. Would you like light ice?"
That was seriously part of the policy. I was told it was because, if we have no ice, the soda foams too much. And I tested that & it actually is true, but I think the main reason was to save money on soda syrup by using ice as a filler. Of course, it led to some people opting not to buy soda, which probably hurt revenue a lot more than wasting some syrup would have.

To the manager's credit, he did smile and was polite to customers, at least most of the time. But he'd put his foot down on anything he found an extra request (like no ice.) All in all, I enjoyed working there and was glad for what I learned and experienced.

I didn't much like working at the hardware section in a store. Not terrible, but it had plenty of annoying "let me check the back" to placate people when I was pretty sure we didn't have it in stock. And I was generally too ignorant of the merchandise to really help sell it, so I'd have to send customers to someone else. (My job was restocking & ordering stock, not sales/helping customers, but I'd be asked questions about stuff as I was stocking.)

Speaking of stupid things like not allowing "no ice," I recently ran into something similarly idiotic at the fast food place I work at. In addition to sodas, you can also get water from the soda fountain (for free) or certain other bottled drinks (for a cost), including bottled water. If you get a small combo, replacing a soda with a bottled water is an even exchange, so no extra cost. If you get a large combo, the option on the register changes to "2 bottled waters" and charges an extra 30 cents. There is literally no possible way to put one bottled water through the system if they have a large combo, and management throws a hissy fit about their inventory being off if you put it through as anything other than bottled water and give out bottled water. So with a small combo, getting bottled water is free (well, not an extra charge), but with a large combo, it costs 30 cents extra. That's incredibly stupid.

[WarKitty]

One other peril of call centers: we occasionally get customers who call up to, well, make inappropriate requests of female employees.

[Ornithologist]

As a Fellow Retail worker, I Salute you all.

Fun Stories, that make you hate life.

My current work is at a Well Known Toy Store that is currently going out of business. Yes I got the "privilege" of wearing the Giraffe suit. To be fair I went from part time seasonal to Store HR, and then to back of house part time to lose some stress, so I at least did some good for a bit. My goal was always employees first Customers last.

One story that will haunt me for probably a long long time:

I was the closing Manager on Duty on Christmas eve. The store had just closed, and all the registers were shut down. No one was able to do any more sales and "season" (2 months of Hell) was over. My underlings who got shafted with the same shift as me were waiting for me to finish the last manager thingy or so, so we could all leave. Then the outside phone rings, and one of them answers it. (He knew better, but I think it might have been shell shock).

Customer asks for me the manager. I pick up, and find out the following story.

The customer opened layaway they picked up from us 10 days earlier (it was the last day to do that before they were all canceled, so it could have been even longer), and find there are no toys for their 4 year old Daughter. There is only a box of toys for a 9 year old. They had waited until Christmas eve to open this box and verify what they had purchased. Very assuredly someone should have opened this box when we gave it to them, but they could have done that at any time. They demand to come by and exchange toys, which we cannot do because its already closed.

So this man screams at me for about 20 minutes about how I personally am going to ruin his daughters Christmas, and he's gonna get me fired, and for F$$ks sake I better be there when he gets there or else.

I will say, most customer threats have lost their bite when you get accused of ruining a little girls Christmas. Really, I just feel bad that that girl has to deal with such horrid parents.

[Peelee]

As a Fellow Retail worker, I Salute you all.

Fun Stories, that make you hate life.

My current work is at a Well Known Toy Store that is currently going out of business. Yes I got the "privilege" of wearing the Giraffe suit.

Why bother being coy about it? If it matters to the story and you say, for instance, "a retail store with a red bullseye logo and rhymes with 'Sarget,'" then just say the name already. If it didn't matter to the story, why bother going out of your way so that everyone knows exactly where it was, especially in the most roundabout way.

Sorry, I don't mean that towards you explicitly. I just get that way every time anyone does that, and it's been bottled up for a while.

[Keltest]

The grocery store that I work at is part of a chain that runs up and down the east coast. The store I work at is called "Giant", but we also go by "Martins" because, obnoxiously, there is another grocery store chain in the same area called "Giant Eagle". No, we are not related. If there is a town with a Giant Eagle in it, our chain will almost invariably be known as Martins there. People still come into our store insisting that we honor Giant Eagle store cards and coupons and what not, and threaten to get us fired when we explain that no, this is not that store chain, there isn't even one of them in town, and we cannot accept a Giant Eagle store card at this store.

Bonus points because we are a college town, and therefore get a number of parents of college students from out of town who insist that they are smarter than we are and know better than we do what company we work for.

[Leecros]

I work for a fairly large variety store chain. I actually haven't been working there too long. It's been a little over a month.

In many ways, I am very fortunate with where I work. Not only is the store small, but there are two other stores from the same chain within a mile and a Wal'mart right up the road. So it's not a busy store and most of the people who visit are older folk who tend not to be as jerkish(although some of them can be rude).

I'm fortunate in the sense that I haven't had any problems with the customers. However, I did dodge a bullet just last week.

There's a couple that comes in every week or so and buys 4 bottles of soda. Well, last week they called ahead and asked us to bring a fuzzy pillow that's been sitting in the store for some promotional thing up to the front because they wanted to buy it.

Well, over the trip to the store, the Husband decided that he didn't want the pillow. They brought their 4 bottles of soda up to the counter and they argued with each other hard over whether to get the pillow or the soda and it ended with the wife in tears.

I was just standing there awkwardly waiting for them to decide what they wanted because I didn't want to ring something up just for them to change their minds, because then I'd have to call the manager and go through that process.

So finally the Husband told her to take one of the bottles of soda back and while she was gone he quickly said "I don't want the pillow. Just ring up the soda."

I went through with it, he paid, and they left. I awkwardly looked at my assistant manager(who was stocking the cigarette case while all this was going down) and asked him what I should do in those situations and he encouraged me and said I did fine.

Half an hour or so passes and the husband calls and says that I rang up four bottles of soda and they only got three. Now I swear that I only rang out the three bottles that were there. I made it a point to because I knew how sensitive the situation was. We try to keep our customers happy and our assistant manager asks them to come back in and he'll take care of it.

They never show.

They never show until a week later when they come back for their weekly Soda and no receipt from the incident on a day where neither the Manager or Assistant Manager was working.

The only person there was our Key Holder and she neither had the authority nor the temper to handle the situation tentatively. Based on her account it wasn't a pleasant argument. They claimed that she thought they were lying and were thieves when she explained that she didn't have the authority to do what they wanted.

It sort of sounds to me like they were trying to pull the wool over our eyes, because they always get 4 bottles of soda and this time they got 3 so they wanted to see if they could get a free one, but I only have her recount of the story and she's the type of person who's always the victim.

Anyway, that was the day she quit. I mean, she stayed on for a couple of extra days so that she could tell the manager directly that she quits. Enough for me to speak with her about the situation and what happened, but then she just walked out. No 2 weeks notice or anything.

Now that might not be so bad if we hadn't already lost two employees the same week(one transfer and one already had given her two weeks notice) and were already short a Key Holder(tried to get Worker's Comp and never came back).

So a store which should have:

1 Manager
1 Assistant Manager
2 Key Holders
3 Sales Associates(at least)

Currently has
1 Manager
1 Assistant Manager
1 Sales Associate
1 Trainee Associate

Needless to say, my hours have doubled.

At least I might get considered for Key Holder status, but I'm not holding my breath due to my current lack of experience.

My current work is at a Well Known Toy Store that is currently going out of business.

I was kind of...profoundly sad when I had to pull down the "Well Known Toy Store that is currently going out of business." gift cards from the store.

It's probably for the best though. That name was difficult to fit on the card.

The grocery store that I work at is part of a chain that runs up and down the east coast. The store I work at is called "Giant", but we also go by "Martins" because, obnoxiously, there is another grocery store chain in the same area called "Giant Eagle".

Wait...Giant and Martin's are the same chain?!?

But...there's a Giant in my hometown

And a Martin's up the road!

My brain!!!

[Peelee]

The grocery store that I work at is part of a chain that runs up and down the east coast. The store I work at is called "Giant", but we also go by "Martins" because, obnoxiously, there is another grocery store chain in the same area called "Giant Eagle". No, we are not related. If there is a town with a Giant Eagle in it, our chain will almost invariably be known as Martins there. People still come into our store insisting that we honor Giant Eagle store cards and coupons and what not, and threaten to get us fired when we explain that no, this is not that store chain, there isn't even one of them in town, and we cannot accept a Giant Eagle store card at this store.

Bonus points because we are a college town, and therefore get a number of parents of college students from out of town who insist that they are smarter than we are and know better than we do what company we work for.

Wait...Giant and Martin's are the same chain?!?

But...there's a Giant in my hometown

And a Martin's up the road!

My brain!!!

OK, you fancy Northerners who are too good for Winn-Dixie and Publix. After some research, I'm assuming that the Giant is Giant-Landover, and Martin's is Giant-Carlisle. Also, after a quick glance at the wikis, if I was in Martin's and somebody was insisting that it was a Giant's, I'd act all surprised that I apparently suddenly joined a union.

Also, I miss Bruno's.

[Leecros]

OK, you fancy Northerners who are too good for Winn-Dixie and Publix. After some research, I'm assuming that the Giant is Giant-Landover, and Martin's is Giant-Carlisle. Also, after a quick glance at the wikis, if I was in Martin's and somebody was insisting that it was a Giant's, I'd act all surprised that I apparently suddenly joined a union.

Also, I miss Bruno's.

At least in my situation, both stores are run by Giant-Carlisle. That's based on the logo and the name.

[Peelee]

At least in my situation, both stores are run by Giant-Carlisle. That's based on the logo and the name.

....that does not help the confusion, I'd wager.

[Seerow]

OK, you fancy Northerners who are too good for Winn-Dixie and Publix. After some research, I'm assuming that the Giant is Giant-Landover, and Martin's is Giant-Carlisle. Also, after a quick glance at the wikis, if I was in Martin's and somebody was insisting that it was a Giant's, I'd act all surprised that I apparently suddenly joined a union.

Also, I miss Bruno's.

As someone who spent his teenage years in Lakeland, I always get a mixture of confused and sad when people from other parts of the country have never heard of Publix.

[WarKitty]

Around here it's Wawa.

[Peelee]

As someone who spent his teenage years in Lakeland, I always get a mixture of confused and sad when people from other parts of the country have never heard of Publix.

It's the only place I can find chicken prosciutto tortellini anymore. And the deli is just delightful for lunch. I'd do all my grocery shopping there if I could afford it. Well, except for the bulk items I get at Costco. And the meats and cheeses and spices from Restaurant Depot.

I take it back. I'd do all my grocery shopping at Restaurant Depot if I had enough fridges and freezers.

[Khedrac]

And over in the UK (possibly until a couple of months ago) we have the same problem with "The Co-operative" (or, as everyone calls it, "The Co-op").

Now being a co-operative there are actually a lot of separate companies involved, but there are (or possibly were) two main networks, using identical branding, but not accepting each other's loyalty cards. I only found this out when stopping at one in a town which has two to be told that my loyalty card (got because I took out their credit card, not because I shop there) was for the other one in town (the one with the less convenient parking).

Of course, all this ignores the local Co-ops that are not afiliated with the national chains at all.

Recently I have seen a number of Co-op stores being rebranded (new name) so one of the chains may have just changed, but I won't know until I go into one again...

[2D8HP]

As someone who spent his teenage years in Lakeland, I always get a mixture of confused and sad when people from other parts of the country have never heard of Publix.

Around here it's Wawa.

Never heard of either.

Around here the big supermarkets/grocery stores are Safeway and Lucky (which used to be known as Alpha Beta, and briefly as Albertsons), but they're not many Lucky's around anymore.

What's been popping up a lot are Sprouts (a chain I never say until a year ago), Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.

Whole Foods is often referred to as "whole paycheck" and one time when we drove by my wife looked at their full parking lot and said: "Look at all those stupid ***** people".

[WarKitty]

Never heard of either.

Around here the big supermarkets/grocery stores are Safeway and Lucky (which used to be known as Alpha Beta, and briefly as Albertsons), but they're not many Lucky's around anymore.

What's been popping up a lot are Sprouts (a chain I never say until a year ago), Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.

Whole Foods is often referred to as "whole paycheck" and one time when we drove by my wife looked at their full parking lot and said: "Look at all those stupid ***** people".

Wawa's more like someone combined a gas station and a deli. It's pretty good for what it is - and they're open like all the time, which makes them a favorite of people who work long hours and just want someone to feed them.

[Keltest]

....that does not help the confusion, I'd wager.

Ding ding ding!
In PA both Giant and Martins are Giant-Carlisle. We do get some Marylanders who have cards from Giant-Landover, which is basically the same store under the same parent company, but their cards do not work for our machines either, for some reason. People are justifiably upset when we explain why their card isn't working, but its usually a one minute fix to get them most of the benefits.

[Peelee]

Never heard of either.

Around here the big supermarkets/grocery stores are Safeway and Lucky (which used to be known as Alpha Beta, and briefly as Albertsons), but they're not many Lucky's around anymore.

What's been popping up a lot are Sprouts (a chain I never say until a year ago), Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.

Whole Foods is often referred to as "whole paycheck" and one time when we drove by my wife looked at their full parking lot and said: "Look at all those stupid ***** people".

Well, I was deliberately pulling out regional chains, though I was admittedly surprised Publix wasn't national; they very easily could be. It's a slightly more upscale grocery store, with the biggest emphasis I've ever seen on customer service. The employees will bend over backwards to help, and it is very noticeable. The chain prides itself on that. They also are pricier than every other place, so I don't go as often as I'd like. If you ever see one, I highly recommend it.

Sprouts I like a lot, especially since my doctor put me on what I call the "don't be poor, *******" diet. Short version, if it's inexpensive, I'm probably not allowed to eat it. Red meat is in the banned list, but wild game isnt, so I can totally have the kangaroo and bison meat they got at Sprouts.

Costco I love for so many reasons, not the least of which is how they treat their employees. But it's hard to talk about that without it turning political, so I'll just leave it at their food court. I almost changed locations at one of my jobs just so I could be in walking distance of the Costco, solely so I could eat there for lunch. Would have saved a ton of money, I tell ya.

I never thought any place would topple Costco as my favorite, but then I discovered the Birmingham Restaurant Depot self to the general public, and it's the greatest thing ever. Sliced meat is the biggest racket, I'm telling you. I can't believe the mafia never got into that. I got me a nice meat slicer, (well, my wife got me an upgraded one for Christmas the other year), and the in-laws got us a dedicated freezer as a housewarming gift. Thirty dollars for a five pound prosciutto hock. FIVE POUNDS! It's a deal, it's a steal, it's the sale of the flippin century. In fact, I think I'll keep it.

And that's not even talking about the roast beef and pastrami hocks I get on the clearance rack. Slice em up, bag em up, freeze the bags, and I have perpetually one-week-from-expiry roast beef for months, at a fraction of the price. I've gotten boneless skinless chicken thighs for buck a pound, spareribs for less than $1/lb, ribeye hocks at under $5/lb... You can cut your own steaks to any thickness you want, and at amazing prices. These are the halcyon days of my middle-age, I tells ya!

[Ornithologist]

Why bother being coy about it? If it matters to the story and you say, for instance, "a retail store with a red bullseye logo and rhymes with 'Sarget,'" then just say the name already. If it didn't matter to the story, why bother going out of your way so that everyone knows exactly where it was, especially in the most roundabout way.

Sorry, I don't mean that towards you explicitly. I just get that way every time anyone does that, and it's been bottled up for a while.

Worse, I tend to agree with you. But I know many retail places will fire you for any "perceived" negative press on social media. It was something I always told people I hired for the store, " If you post something bad and corporate finds out they can fire you without me getting any say in the matter." If you have to post pictures from work make sure either no one is in uniform, or you can't tell its our company.

We had one employee get fired for bad pictures, and that was an awful thing to have to hand down. So I recommend everyone do behavior I dislike, because its better than nothing.

[Peelee]

Worse, I tend to agree with you. But I know many retail places will fire you for any "perceived" negative press on social media. It was something I always told people I hired for the store, " If you post something bad and corporate finds out they can fire you without me getting any say in the matter." If you have to post pictures from work make sure either no one is in uniform, or you can't tell its our company.

We had one employee get fired for bad pictures, and that was an awful thing to have to hand down. So I recommend everyone do behavior I dislike, because its better than nothing.

I totally get that. More often than not, it can be defines to name the store. Which is why I find it odd that people will still try to specify which please it is; for instance, in my aforementioned "rhymes with sarget" bit, not explicitly naming the place offers virtually no protection. And even if it did, it's often not important to the story, and just makes more clutter. And honesty, this is just a years-too-late rant from when I stopped reading Notalwaysright due to constantly declining quality. The Target example is most word for word something I'd seen on there at one point.

[WarKitty]

I totally get that. More often than not, it can be defines to name the store. Which is why I find it odd that people will still try to specify which please it is; for instance, in my aforementioned "rhymes with sarget" bit, not explicitly naming the place offers virtually no protection. And even if it did, it's often not important to the story, and just makes more clutter. And honesty, this is just a years-too-late rant from when I stopped reading Notalwaysright due to constantly declining quality. The Target example is most word for word something I'd seen on there at one point.

It's meant to defeat automatic searches. So a lot of companies will have a bot out there that trawls the web for new mentions of their company. But they won't pick up if the actual name isn't used, so unless an actual human who cares happens to stumble on the site it won't be noticed.