To that one guest

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TToG: I was working on a wonky POG ... shelving laying around ... label strips missing ... label strip holders cracking as soon I picked them up. Seriously frustrated. Elderly woman quietly asked for my assistance to locate an item. Gave her directions to the item two aisles away. She stood there a moment then asked me to walk her to it. I agreed as I needed a step-away from the POG but in all honesty was a bit "ugh". As we began she stated meekly she might forget by the time we arrive. Okay. Walked her directly to the item. "Thank you. Now can you tell me where to find [item I just directed her to]." I then realized she had a bit of geriatric dementia and felt a bit of sadness for her. I spent the next 20 minutes helping her out with her shopping list in hand then walked her on to the check out.

A few hours later an ETL comes and says she wants to recognize me with a freebie *bucks. Cool. Sure. Turns out the elderly woman's daughter phoned the store to thank us for the personalized help. Said every other store in the area becomes frustrated as soon as they see her mother walk in and some have actually asked her to leave. ETL says the daughter was in tears on the phone while giving thanks for us.

Kinda made me all warm and fuzzy and made me think of my own elderly parents.

TToTM: Up yours for telling me I should have just told the old woman what aisle the product was located in and went back to my POG; that I wasted 20-minutes. It's not that I've drank the Guest Service Kool-Aid ... you just do what's *right*. I truly hope in your old age you do not have to deal with dementia and end up dealing with a younger *you* when you need a little help shopping. Karma is a b**ch, ya know.
 
WestLoggy said:
TToG: I was working on a wonky POG ... shelving laying around ... label strips missing ... label strip holders cracking as soon I picked them up. Seriously frustrated. Elderly woman quietly asked for my assistance to locate an item. Gave her directions to the item two aisles away. She stood there a moment then asked me to walk her to it. I agreed as I needed a step-away from the POG but in all honesty was a bit "ugh". As we began she stated meekly she might forget by the time we arrive. Okay. Walked her directly to the item. "Thank you. Now can you tell me where to find [item I just directed her to]." I then realized she had a bit of geriatric dementia and felt a bit of sadness for her. I spent the next 20 minutes helping her out with her shopping list in hand then walked her on to the check out.

A few hours later an ETL comes and says she wants to recognize me with a freebie *bucks. Cool. Sure. Turns out the elderly woman's daughter phoned the store to thank us for the personalized help. Said every other store in the area becomes frustrated as soon as they see her mother walk in and some have actually asked her to leave. ETL says the daughter was in tears on the phone while giving thanks for us.

Kinda made me all warm and fuzzy and made me think of my own elderly parents.

TToTM: Up yours for telling me I should have just told the old woman what aisle the product was located in and went back to my POG; that I wasted 20-minutes. It's not that I've drank the Guest Service Kool-Aid ... you just do what's *right*. I truly hope in your old age you do not have to deal with dementia and end up dealing with a younger *you* when you need a little help shopping. Karma is a b**ch, ya know.
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While what you did was nice and sweet, I don't get why the daughter who supposedly cares about her mother is allowing a mother with cognitive problems roam freely. How did she get there? Drive? I feel sorry for anyone on the road with her. Bus? A person with cognitive problems on a bus, that's a disaster in the making. What happens if she gets off at the wrong stop? Walking? Another disaster in the making. Senior center shuttle? Doubtful, otherwise there'd be a caregiver there.
 
Jenna120 said:
While what you did was nice and sweet, I don't get why the daughter who supposedly cares about her mother is allowing a mother with cognitive problems roam freely. How did she get there? Drive? I feel sorry for anyone on the road with her. Bus? A person with cognitive problems on a bus, that's a disaster in the making. What happens if she gets off at the wrong stop? Walking? Another disaster in the making. Senior center shuttle? Doubtful, otherwise there'd be a caregiver there.
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I understand what you mean. However, it is common. Many elderly with onset geriatric dementia (my 85 y/o father for example) are very self sufficient but still very aware they occasionally need assistance. In my area (urban area) we have a number of condo towers with aged residents who pop in on a routine basis, some with caregivers and others simply with their walker-device ... shopping lists in hand. Some days these regulars are just fine. Other days you can tell they are having a few struggles. Dementia-related memory issues can come and go and to me it seemed the woman was aware of her condition. Perhaps she lives in one the local assisted living communities ... perhaps not. Don't know. Perhaps her daughter did not know she had gone out or maybe this was simply one of her mum's "off days" don't know.

It's a very sensitive topic to bring up to an elderly parent and can be heart-wrenching. Being overly protective can be as harmful as not being protective enough. Every case is different. As I don't know the situation I withhold judgement of the daughter.
 
WestLoggy said:
I understand what you mean. However, it is common. Many elderly with onset geriatric dementia (my 85 y/o father for example) are very self sufficient but still very aware they occasionally need assistance.
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This.
Many fight to keep their independence in an ever-shrinking environment.
My elderly great-aunt lives with us & the boys have learned to be on standby rather than do something unasked.
It's very frustrating to have someone come up & do something without your consent in the name of 'helping'.
There's even a term for it - learned dependency - in which a person can regress & lose self-care skills when others take over.
It's a fine line between maintaining independence & keeping someone safe.
 
TTOG: Not our fault you left your keys in your cart that you left dumped right in front of the entrance door. So glad I wasted 20 minutes tracking down the poor unsuspecting guest that had "your" cart. 🙄
 
TTOG: I don't care whether you spent $21 or $221 in OTC meds. You're only getting one $5 gift card. And no you can not split this up into a dozen different orders. The coupon clearly says one per guest.
 
TTOG: Hmm, so you are all set to wheel your cart into the fitting room when I walk from the clearance racks to meet you. And then you hold up the two items you want to try on, while a casual glance reveals a lot more items in the cart than just the two you are holding up. And when I say great, the cart can't go back, you wave your hand at your son in the cart who is so quiet and immobile and well behaved he could pass for a doll, sputter a couple of things and then toss your two items into my reshop cart and march off with an angry "I guess I won't get them then." Every other parent has managed to get whole words out about needing to keep the kid in the cart and worked with me when I responded with "Well, if I can hold onto the additional merchandise we can do it." Not a single one sputtered and walked off like that. No, you didn't act suspicious in the slightest. Sarcasm intended.

TTOotherG: You have restored my faith in humanity. You walked back with two identical pajama sets, one an L and one an XXL. I could see a L and an XL or an XL and an XXL, but that far apart in size I was fully expecting you were switching the bottoms. It seems half the people who buy sleepwear sets do so, with an XXL top being the favorite. I was shocked when you walked out and handed me both sets and mentioned that you really needed an XL but couldn't find one and neither of those would work. So shocked I didn't even think to offer to do an inventory search or place an order on Target.com.

TTthirdG: I thought my mind lived in the gutter. Yours must be buried in the sludge under the gutter. You're looking for conservative church clothes for your kid whose just into women's sizes, and we meet in A New Day. While trying to give suggestions I mentioned that Mossimo black has some dresses that fit your wants but they are actually designed for a mature woman. I meant that they are cut to compliment a woman my age and your age, not a young teen. I did not mean they were booty clothes. You didn't have to look a little outraged and say "She's young and they're for church!"
 
Have no idea why, but guests were super bitchy yesterday.

TTOG: Me: So how's your day going?
Guest: Good. Until I got here.
M: *thinking they regretted their decision to come in on a Sunday* Ah, yes, Sundays are alwa---
G: No! It's always hellhole busy in here whenever I come.
*Proceeds to then be a bitch about how things have to be bagged*

1. Sorry I even opened my mouth.
2. Go to SCO if you're going to be a picky ninny.
3. Why do you bother coming in if you hate the store?
 
StargazerOmega said:
Have no idea why, but guests were super bitchy yesterday.

TTOG: Me: So how's your day going?
Guest: Good. Until I got here.
M: *thinking they regretted their decision to come in on a Sunday* Ah, yes, Sundays are alwa---
G: No! It's always hellhole busy in here whenever I come.
*Proceeds to then be a bitch about how things have to be bagged*

1. Sorry I even opened my mouth.
2. Go to SCO if you're going to be a picky ninny.
3. Why do you bother coming in if you hate the store?
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I got bitched at yesterday by a mother with some rambunctious youngins over the fact that it took her over a "hour" to find a eyebrow pencil sharpener. The cheap ones were gone but we did find one. I guess I was just the closest punching bag...
 
TTOG: no, “MY boss” didn’t tell you you could have 25% off EVERYTHING you had in your cart.....”MY boss” was standing 5’ away from Me! I don’t know who told you that, but You can walk your ass up front if you want to try that!
 
PharmaQueen said:
TTOG: no, “MY boss” didn’t tell you you could have 25% off EVERYTHING you had in your cart.....”MY boss” was standing 5’ away from Me! I don’t know who told you that, but You can walk your ass up front if you want to try that!
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"Who did you speak to"
They'll mumble about not getting their name
"Oh unfortuently I'll need their override code to take off the discount, so if you find them I'm happy to do it, but I need their number. Sorry!"
 
TTOG: It's truly a sad day when you put coupons before your child. I don't know the entire situation, but from what I saw, every time your daughter even mumbled something, you let out an exasperated sigh and shushed her, saying you "needed to focus" to make sure you got your deals, but it was driving you mad. I'm sorry, but that's just not worth it.
 
TTOG: I'm sorry that you waited over a week to bring back your receipt with your coupons, but it was too late for us to fix a mistake. Your coupons were only worth $4, so why were you upset when we gave you a $5 GiftCard?
 
TTOG: All of our pastries & sandwiches that we offer are in the display case. All of them.
If it's NOT in the case, we don't carry it so STOP asking me if we carry XX sandwich or YY pastry or ZZ food item.
And NO, we never carried ZZ item no matter how many times you say 'Well, you USED to....'
I've worked at my store for 16 yrs & 9 of them at SB so I know we NEVER carried them.
 
So I kinda lost it after a clopening shift the other day and flipped out on a guest and her kid for making a mess. Damn did the guest get pissed. She had her back to her kid (3 years old?) while shopping and the kid proceeded to take a bunch of clothing off a rack and after it was piled on the floor, the kid put it back on a different part of the rack. I said (louder than I meant to) "wow, thanks." The woman went crazy telling me "she's just a child, she didn't mean to, understand?" I just said yeah and walked away. So ttog: pay more attention to your kid. If a child takes an item off the rack and puts it back in the wrong spot, whatever. But to pile clothes on the floor and then put them back in a different spot while the parent doesnt even notice pisses me off. Maybe I was out of line but I just don't care anymore.
 
@Doglover89 I am glad you spoke up a lot of team members would have picked it up like nothing happened enabling the behavior.

Next time I would just be a little more direct than saying "Oh thanks."

"Hey little buddy. Please don't throw those on the ground. Then your mom and I have to pick them up."

Doing this allows you to show concern without being outright rude and it's a passive aggressive way of getting the parent to help you clean up.
 
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HRZone said:
@Doglover89 I am glad you spoke up a lot of team members would have picked it up like nothing happened enabling the behavior.

Next time I would just be a little more direct than saying "Oh thanks."
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Yeah you're right. I was exhausted from clopening and its not an excuse but I'm just tired of people making a mess. Yeah, its my job to pick up a stray item here and there or to fold a table, but kids or adults throwing piles of newer merchandise onto the floor for no reason pisses me off.
 
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