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Strange ReTales: Rude, Unhappy People

Previously I’d been reminiscing about the various people who walked through the doors of the stereo shops I worked at, from Tire Kickers to the Whales.

Of course, there are many others. There’s also the Perpetually Upset.

Everyone who’s worked with the public knows that there are some people who just want to be unhappy, and no matter how hard you try to be conciliatory are having a bad day, and are determined to ruin yours too.

Just the other day I was having a conversation with one of my peers about store security, and loss prevention, and it reminded me of an incident from years ago.

People who haven’t worked in retail seldom grasp what a constant struggle loss prevention is. It’s in no way an exaggeration to say that in an electronics store, people with bad intentions are taking a run at you every single day

It got so bad at one point, that there was a period where we felt compelled to leave the three sound rooms in the back of the store locked, and only allow customers to browse them with a salesperson in attendance.

We didn’t particularly like it, but we felt it was necessary.

It was almost inevitable that one day I had an older guy GO OFF on me over that.

He thought it was outrageous that he needed a salesperson to unlock the door to let him kick the tires of our high end HiFi systems.

It was one of those things where no matter how courteous and professional we acted, it wasn’t enough. He was clearly ready to blow to begin with, and he wanted to get good and mad.

As aggravating as it is to deal with those situations, it’s always been balanced with the fact that most customer are generally reasonable and easy to work with.

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