Retail Hell The Book

Elmo Avalanche

Most likely caused by piglets while their piggy parents looked on.

Pic from Christy Danger, posted on RHU's Facebook group page.

Kerry's Nightmare Part 19: Valentines Day Piggy Hell

No love in Retail Hell on Valentines Day. This is what I walked into. No one was there all fucking day and I had to close ALONE.

Go back hell and remnants of a Piggy stampede.

 

VD Shopping Therapy for a broken-hearted Custy: Try on the whole fucking store and leave a huge mess for me to clean up.

The piggies that are too lazy to mess up the fitting rooms.

Valentines Day Night was anything but sweet for me. We closed at 9, but because the place was such a disaster from all these heartless piggies, I didn't leave until 10:20. Fuck Valentines Day in Retail Hell. I drank heavily.

Valentine's Day Piggy Shopper Massacre

 

Valentines Day Piggy Shopper Massacre Casualties:

150 pieces of candy hearts eaten or smashed into the floor, 50 cards mutilated and destroyed, 20 heart-shaped boxes crushed with missing chocolate, and 33 teddy bears molested.

My Messy Valentine

Customer Reject Hell at its worst.

Kerry's Nightmare Part 17: Piggy Shopper Grossness

From Retail Hell Underground Blogger Kerry:

EEEEEEEEEEEW! Someone left a nasty bandaid in my fucking denim wall yesterday! The garbage can is LITERALLY 4 FUCKING FEET AWAY!! WTF??!!!!?!

Bookstore Hell: Out of Control Custys

From a Bookstore Slave:

So, I've been lurking for months and after last night, I figured I had to share this with everyone.

This little tale happened last night- yes, Saturday night.

I work in a bookstore, and basically do whatever needs to be done- shelving, sorting, pulling, register, cafe. You need it done? I can probably do it. It's a job- I've been there too long to really care anymore.

But this little gem last night???  Oh boy!!! 

Now, for the past couple months, we've had this group that comes in a couple times a week to gather in the cafe, hogs up a couple of tables for anywhere between 4-8 hours. Kid you not.

And usually, we don't mind. But lately, we've been getting complaints- they're too loud, they've taken up all the "good" tables, they scare away customers who just want a place to sit and read, and I've busted them more then once for bringing outside food in (can't do that. Violates our local health code- and I am more then happy to rat you out to my managers). And occasionally, they bring along their children. Which is fine- if you watch after them.

So I'm in the middle of my shift, going about my business of shutting down the cafe, when I notice that one of the mothers in the group pulls her daughter aside to "discipline" her. After several harsh words, the little girl's face scrunches up and she runs into the nearby bathroom, sobbing.

And that bathroom? Is literally right next to my cafe.

For the next ten minutes, I get to deal with customers AND employee's who are concerned for this little girl, b/c she's thrown herself down IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BATHROOM FLOOR, and crying like all get-out.

Never once did mommy dearest get up to check on her little girl, or even look up to scan the store to see where she was. Mommy just kept laughing and chatting with her friends at the nearby table while*I* got to field questions and concerns.

I HAVE NEVER HAD A STRONGER URGE TO GO OVER AND SMACK "MOMMY". EVER.

That's not even the best part.

So, little girl finally ventures out of the bathroom, all clear-eyed and like nothing ever happened. She re-joins mommy in the cafe, but is so bored she wanders off.

Over to my cafe.

After staring at the pastry case for a few moments, she sidles up to the counter, looks me straight in the eyes and asks, "Are there any favors I can do in exchange for money?"

"No, sorry." I tell her gently.

Inside, I was really thinking: WTF!!?!? Please, tell me you're KIDDING!?!!!!

Her face gets all sad, she turns away and wanders into the store. And I disappear into the back and the cafe and get on the headset with my cafe supervisor, informing her about what just happened. Needless to say, she was just as shocked and horrified as I was.

*                    *                    *                    *

My first winter at the store, I got a glimpse at how people really are to one another in public.

The store was in the middle of the first Christmas rush I'd ever worked- and we were SWAMPED. We had two ladies who came in, telling one of the cashiers that we had put a book on hold for them. Five seconds later, the cashier can't find the book.

The ladies literally? Go postal.

They get so hostile and rude in fact, that the poor cashier calls up a manager to explain the situation. The manager tries to find the book (which we never had in store to begin with), and pulling out any other book related, in the hopes that these ladies might find something as a suitable substitute.

And all these two ladies are doing are bitching about how they called, we swore we had the book and put it on hold, that we're going to destroy so-and-so's X-mas, etc, etc, etc.

Yes, b/c the world will end if they don't get THAT ONE BOOK!!!!

Then the store manager gets involved in the hunt for this book that we supposedly have. This goes on for about a half hour, these ladies never once shutting up.

Then, one of the booksellers suggests that perhaps they put it on hold at the store down the street? Lo and behold, it was so.

These two ladies didn't even apologize- they just swept out the door without so much as a backwards glance or word of apology to the poor cashier they abused, or the three hard-working employee's that tried to help them.

Wow. Jack-asses.

This also happened the very same winter: mother buys her child a hot cocoa and they wander off. Ten minutes I get a call over the headset: could I meet so-and-so in the kids department with towels?

I get there, to find out that the little brat dumped it all over an endcap, thus destroying several dollars worth of books and merchandise. And they? Just walked away.

No sorry, no nothing. In fact, they turned around and  marched back to cafe, demanding another drink for free b/c the little brat spilled it.

And I?

Got to damage out several hundred dollars worth of destroyed childrens books and merchandise.

Merry fucking Christmas, indeed.

  

Customer Rejects

Magazine racks over the grocery store checkout.

They really should just leave the bottom half empty for all the shit people decide not to buy at the last minute.

Customer Reject

Piggy Shopper leftover or mouse food?

From Pharmacy Psycho

Customer Rejects

It's Coat-back Mountain!

Toys R Us + December 23rd = Total Retail Hell

I went to the huge-ass 3 story Toys R Us store in Times Square and saw the worst Retail Hell ever. The Retail Slaves were completely overwhelmed and out numbered. It looked like a scene out of the movie 300! If I'd had memory on my camera, I would have filmed it all - toys being thrown on the floor, broken, people fighting over toys, hell spawn screaming and crying...absolute Christmas Chaos!

 

I don't know why they even attempted to return items, everything in the store was on the floor and custys were shopping from it.

Toy Hell.

 

Broken and crushed toys everywhere.

 

Toy-quake!

Trampled stuffed animals.

A set of custy hands about to add to the pile on the floor.

 

The pile of rejected misfit toys - once their prices were discovered.

 

Overwhelmed and abandoned register post.

Even Darth Vader would run away screaming at the sight of this.

See the couple peeking out in the pic below:

They were European tourists photographing the shocking mess also! We took pics of each other taking pics of the Retail Hell:

I hope to hear from them. Love to see what they shot!

Barbie world was completely under siege.

 

Retail Slaves trapped at their registers with hundreds in line.

This pic does not even begin to show how bad the Barbie department looked - empty shelves, broken dolls, dolls all over the floor...

Pile of rejected Barbies

Another abandoned register!

Freakishly funny though, with the random caution sign and giant Barbie standing near by.

I watched these people drag this huge box through the mess and massive crowd over to the price check scanner. It was a toy kitchen and obviously something that must have been expensive

...apparently, they thought so too...

They left it where they dropped it!

...just like everyone else in the store.