Poor Christopher
The other night I went to Walmart and it was absolutely crazy busy. Clearly, the holiday shopping season has started.
I was in the audio video department and wanted to pay for my DVDs. There was one poor young guy (named Christopher) working the whole area by himself. He had to work the cash register, help people with questions and open the locked cases when needed. This guy was frazzled.
No wonder. He had to deal with a couple who were looking for a 32 inch TV that was on sale. They had gone to another store that was out of stock...and the sales person there sent them to Christopher's store, saying there were 11 in stock there. Well, poor Christopher didn't have any in stock and the couple wasn't happy (for good reason, of course!). Meanwhile, the line up to pay was growing and growing.
Christopher wasn't sure what to do about the couple that wanted the TV, so he called his manager. She came and told Christopher to take their name and phone number and they would call back. Then she left! I was totally shocked. She saw how busy the poor guy was and she didn't even offer to help talk to these people or relieve him of the walls that were clearly coming in on him.
Add to that, he had an employee (who was off-duty, but was holding her name tag), standing on the sidelines possibly wanting to return something. WHAT? Could she not see that her fellow employee was completely busy and now was NOT the time to try to return something, ask questions or anything.
But that's not the most shocking part. There was also a uniformed employee in the line behind me. I'm not sure what she was in line for, but she was standing there amongst all the chaos. She was asked if she could open one of the cabinets and she simply replied, "I don't work in this section." Okay, I understand that, you don't have the keys...but you could have done something to ease the customers anxiety at having to wait. Then someone else asked her where the film was. That stupid girl had the nerve to say again, "I don't work in this section." How hard is it to take a quick look through the section and find the darned film?
Finally, my turn to pay came and I asked poor Christopher, "Is your night almost over?"
He looked at me with such desparate eyes and said, "No." His hands were shaking like crazy when he tried to operate the cash register. He rang in my DVD and it was over $3 more than the tag said...but I didn't have the heart to tell him. I was happy to pay extra for the DVD just to keep him from going over the edge.
I remember days like this when I had a J-O-B. Even though I felt bad for Christopher, I was grateful at how fortunate I am to work at home on my own terms.
But more than that, I was disappointed in the lack of teamwork in the store and how everyone was out for themselves, while Christopher was on the verge of having a stroke. I may run a sole proprietorship from home, but I never consider myself to be alone. I do what I can to help other fellow business people because when we work as a team, we all benefit. It's amazing what happens when you lend a hand to someone else...it always comes back to you manyfold.
I was in the audio video department and wanted to pay for my DVDs. There was one poor young guy (named Christopher) working the whole area by himself. He had to work the cash register, help people with questions and open the locked cases when needed. This guy was frazzled.
No wonder. He had to deal with a couple who were looking for a 32 inch TV that was on sale. They had gone to another store that was out of stock...and the sales person there sent them to Christopher's store, saying there were 11 in stock there. Well, poor Christopher didn't have any in stock and the couple wasn't happy (for good reason, of course!). Meanwhile, the line up to pay was growing and growing.
Christopher wasn't sure what to do about the couple that wanted the TV, so he called his manager. She came and told Christopher to take their name and phone number and they would call back. Then she left! I was totally shocked. She saw how busy the poor guy was and she didn't even offer to help talk to these people or relieve him of the walls that were clearly coming in on him.
Add to that, he had an employee (who was off-duty, but was holding her name tag), standing on the sidelines possibly wanting to return something. WHAT? Could she not see that her fellow employee was completely busy and now was NOT the time to try to return something, ask questions or anything.
But that's not the most shocking part. There was also a uniformed employee in the line behind me. I'm not sure what she was in line for, but she was standing there amongst all the chaos. She was asked if she could open one of the cabinets and she simply replied, "I don't work in this section." Okay, I understand that, you don't have the keys...but you could have done something to ease the customers anxiety at having to wait. Then someone else asked her where the film was. That stupid girl had the nerve to say again, "I don't work in this section." How hard is it to take a quick look through the section and find the darned film?
Finally, my turn to pay came and I asked poor Christopher, "Is your night almost over?"
He looked at me with such desparate eyes and said, "No." His hands were shaking like crazy when he tried to operate the cash register. He rang in my DVD and it was over $3 more than the tag said...but I didn't have the heart to tell him. I was happy to pay extra for the DVD just to keep him from going over the edge.
I remember days like this when I had a J-O-B. Even though I felt bad for Christopher, I was grateful at how fortunate I am to work at home on my own terms.
But more than that, I was disappointed in the lack of teamwork in the store and how everyone was out for themselves, while Christopher was on the verge of having a stroke. I may run a sole proprietorship from home, but I never consider myself to be alone. I do what I can to help other fellow business people because when we work as a team, we all benefit. It's amazing what happens when you lend a hand to someone else...it always comes back to you manyfold.
7 Comments:
Gosh my heart goes out to that poor guy! My husband and I both went to wal-mart this past Sunday and it was crazy as well.
You know, in cases like that don't you just want to say "hey, here is my card. contact me and I'll show you how to make money at home". LOL
Poor thing. I'm glad you were patient and understanding with him. When I was in the service based business many customers would take things out on me and the few that were understanding of the long wait or whatever the case really made my day easier.
Gosh I'm beyond thrilled I work at home now!
Ohhhhh, that poor guy! You have described that scene so well, I feel like I was there and it doesn't feel good :-( I think that is a very common situation in the retail industry these days. My daughter works in retail and the attitude comes from the franchise owners and down through the staff.
The solution? More public relations and team support training, I guess. Like Nell said, it sure makes me want to double my efforts to give people working in those situations an option to being stuck in a job like that :-)
Poor guy....he was doing his best to do his job well with no support from the people who were there to help him!
Wal-Mart, as a corporation, has no soul.
Oh that really sucks. That poor guy.
This is heartbreaking. Alice, you describe it so well, yes, I felt like I was there. Wow --- today is USA Thanksgiving, and I want to remember to be thankful every day, that I am now my own boss and work from home, and for people like you, Alice, who take time to make someone else's day better.
Hi Alice,
What you experienced with that poor guy is exactly why I don't shop at WalMart... they do not treat their employees well. There is a new movie out that talks about this very problem. It's definitely something to consider when deciding whether it's worth saving a few bucks on an item. WalMart definitely has great prices, but at what cost. (Sorry, don't mean to sound preachy there, but as a previous poster said, WalMart does seem to have "no soul.").
http://www.walmartmovie.com/
Best, Kelli :)
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