Sunday, April 13, 2014

Cookie, the Old Jewish Lady and The Wrapping Paper



So Cookie is at work work last week and was assigned to the front of the house to work with people because staffing was thin.  Because I can do many things, I get assigned to do many things, and working with the great unwashed was where I was told to station.

The majority of the people who patronize the "Showbar and Beef House" where I work are nice people.  But like like any job, every now and then you end up with a couple of clowns, or someone's bubbie who is a bit of a pill.

Because Cookie can wrap presents like nobodies business, one of the floor managers asked if I could head over to the wrapping department because "Carole" was having an issue with a customer and it being BOTH Easter and Passover Season, everyone was buying gifts.

I called next and got a miserable old Jewish woman.  How do I know she was miserable?

Cookie: Good afternoon, how may I assist you today?

MOJW: Don't give that 'I'm happy to see you' chazzeri.  I need to you to wrap these.  What kind of paper do you have?

Cookie: We have the samples on the wall.

MOJW: Those are ugly.  I want the paper you give the special people.

Cookie: What we have is displayed on the wall.  Or we have these papers and bags for sale in the "Stationary and Lap Dance" area.

MOJW: I don't pay for wrapping paper.  Do you know who I am?"

Cookie: No...

MOJW: You don't seem interested in helping me, so just wrap them in that crappy green paper.

So I wrap her gifts and ask "Would you like bows, as well?"

MOJW: There's that happy crap, again.

Cookie: Excuse me?

MOJW: Nevermind.  Give me three more feet of that wrapping paper, I have other presents for the grandchildren and I don't need you to wrap them.

So I tore off a length and gave it to her.

Carole, my co-worker, walked over and said "Why did you give her that paper?  We only wrap what we sell."

True, we are only supposed to wrap what we sell, but the old broad was more trouble than she was worth.   So I told Carole that she was nasty, drawing attention like flies to honey, and now she has left the business to spread her special type of sunshine to other parts of the world.

As I worked through the rest of the shift, I had to wonder what had shit all over this miserable old broad in her life to be nasty to other people.  Then I reminded myself that she was old and Jewish, and who knows what she had lived through in her lifetime, or had to put up with.  Maybe she was stressed about the upcoming Passover holiday.  Or maybe she was just a mean old bitch.  Either way, in our store she was causing a scene - out the door she was out of mind.

When I was clocking the General Manager came up to me and said "I understand that you gave away some free wrapping paper today..."

So again, I described what happened, and the woman and question.  Yes, says I, we lost all of two cents on generic wrapping paper, but it got that old bat out of the area on with her uplifting message of joy.  "She had all clearance priced stuff, she wanted the free wrapping paper and was simply miserable."

"Well," says the manager who is always ready with a back-handed comment, "She's still a valued client."

"And what better to show she was valued than to give her .10 of bulk paper and make it seem like it cost us a thousand times as much?  And besides, she bought up that stuff that has been on the clearance cart for the past month.  That makes her worth her weight in gold, right?"

And this gets me thinking - what is it about about consumers that makes them feel that that simply because people work in retail that they are ready, willing and able to take abuse from people who are too cheap to pay for something as minimal as wrapping paper?

17 comments:

  1. Should've wrapped her, and shipped her off to her own "wailing wall". Jx

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  2. Forget the old bat, prepare against Carole's knife.

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  3. I have no idea why some people feel they have the right to treat retail hotel and wait staff terribly. What surprises me is that its not a function of age, but of meanness of spirit, or the lack thereof.

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  4. Wow, just wow. I'm sorry you had to be exposed to someone as awful as that. I had a customer like that at Roma Pizzeria when I was 15. It was a man who wanted sausage on his pizza, "but no grease" and was giving me the same delightful time as your customer. My boss, unlike yours, did not consider this man "a valued customer" and came out from the behind the counter, grabbed the man and threw him bodily out of the door, telling him not to come back. He came back in, wiping his hands on his apron and said to me, "You don't have to let anyone talk to you like that." Oh, for the old days of the mom and pop stores and restaurants...

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    1. Another thing is the Wonderful World of Yelp. Merchants are terrified of getting a bad rap these days.

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  5. the co-workers' responses are what troubles me.
    you made the great decision & they should've recognized that.

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    1. The Strip Club and Beef Barn is an interesting place. The General Manager is loaded with back biting compliments. And Carole is "efficient" but has a hard time being outside the box.

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  6. I used to come to the aid of retail staff, especially cashiers, who were being verbally abused. I would stand there thinking, "Isn't anyone going to DO anything about this?" Sometimes you realize that you have to be the one to step in because nobody else is going to do it.

    Now that people record every single moment of every single day on their phones, I've been backing off from my Good Samaritan routine, simply because I don't want to end up on YouTube. I'm feeling conflicted about this. Please advise.

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    1. I think that a second person is a good idea, but get the manager. It is their job to save employees from vile customers.

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    2. Why didn't I think of that?

      Thanks, Cookie.

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    3. and my advice would've been, wear extra make-up whenever
      you're out. that way, the youtube video will be good and colorful.

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    4. oh, and now i need to be approved?

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    5. You've always been the needy one in the family, Norma.

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  7. Brilliant. You should be awarded head of your own department. Like Mrs. Slowcum.

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    1. If that's the case, would mind going over to my front door and look through the keyhole and tell me if you see my pussy?

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  8. Cookie darling, consider this: You may have been the only person who was nice to that lady all day, all week, all month, all year etc...and all in spite of her meanness. Good for you for taking the higher road and not returning the sourness visited upon you. That is why you are a cookie. XOXO

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Julie. I'm being paid to take care of these people, and that means keeping my cool and not adding to the mishegoss.

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