Pricks: Nosy Ninnies and Back to my Past:

Working retail I frequently encounter situation where a particular customer may have an issue that needs to be resolved if they wish to proceed with acquiring an item, either at all, or at the price they so desire.  Ninety percent of the time acquiring it is relatively easy if we actually have it, and ten percent of the time they want a display we can't sell due to its condition being a safety hazard that makes us liable if they use it, and thus legally we can't sell it.  Usually that is because some idiot approved it for refund when it absolutely should have been refused, as in the case of a mixer with a frayed cord, or an item with a battery that was damaged by too much heat or force and is leaking battery acid.  Other times we have people who want a price match or discount on an item for one reason or another and we have to evaluate each of those situations individually.  If it is within a reasonable price difference or otherwise fitting within our guidelines, sure, we'll match the price, especially if it was our fault for the issue.  As well, if something is missing or damaged but not a safety issue, we'll usually reduce the price accordingly, and with our newest discount program we even go further than we used to even for minor damage to the packaging or only a few non-essential pieces being missing.  Sometimes a price match is too disparaging a loss in profit and we have to deny it (and these cases are usually fraudulent, or a misunderstanding in the case of trying to match non-equivalent items), or limit it to one per person.  I remember a few years ago when someone priced a feature of artificial fire logs at the price of each individual log and neglected to open the shipment packages.  We had to give two separate people one box each for the price of a singular log, but wouldn't give them a second one at that price.  All those things are understandable and quite normal in a retail business that does price matching or otherwise is ethical enough to not deny pricing that is their mistake without needing it to be dragged into a small claims court, trudged through internet forums and dragged through the mud of social media and eager news outlets whose target audience already hates said business.  It happens in every retail store, even small businesses, to some extent at one time or another if they stay in business long enough.

When one customer tells another about an issue in order to help them save money as well, the business may not like it, but ethically, morally and legally, they should still honor the price match as per their mistake or policy, even if they are in the process of fixing it at the time it occurs.  It's not something many in the retail business like as for the sake of profit we may wish the second customer was willing to buy the item at the higher price in the first place, but, at the same time, perhaps that customer hadn't considered buying it before being told about the possible discount.  More often than not we in the retail business have a high enough markup on items that while we lose some percentage from those two we had to discount, we still gained more than we paid for the items (as the price baseline is calculated after considering cost, taxes, shipping and handling, etc), and the customer feeling that they have pulled a fast one on us may spend more than they originally intended, or instead buy an additional item worth the value of the discount...  An item which may have an even higher markup and profit for us than the one we discounted percentage-wise.  Price matching may be complicated with the differences between policies and management discretion, but overall it is good for our business and most others that have some manner of price matching, even if it is limited simply to their own mistakes or excluding online pricing and businesses not found in the same city or metropolitan area.  Ethically, intervention to help another customer save more money is actually appreciated by most businesses in the long run, though it may cause some regret at the time it occurs.  Conversely, a customer (rare as they are) who points out another guest of our story attempting to shoplift, or conveniently 'forgetting' to mention the gum in their coat pocket or pop hidden under the coat in the top of their cart, or attempting to get a price match for an item that another customer next to them points out isn't equivalent.  Granted, the customer being intervened on in those cases usually don't appreciate it, but the businesses certainly do when a customer feels enough loyalty to try to prevent someone stealing from us directly or through fraud.

Unfortunately, with customer intervention to help their fellow customers, or to try to help them pull a fast one on a business, some guests either butt in on a situation with information that is false because they misunderstood what happened in their own similar situation before or non-applicable in the situation due to the differences in situations.  Likewise, sometimes they outright lie, or try to rile up an employee to try to get them to make a promise they can't keep, 'catch them unable to keep their story straight', or otherwise try to fluster them.  Myself, I'm consistent and keeping precisely to what our policy dictates and where it is vague, going with the recommendation of past managers, including one of our former market managers' recommendations to every associate of every store within her market, as no member of management had stated otherwise since then, and as those gray areas call for an associates 'best judgement'.  Said managers then tended to either approve the price match because we were too busy to deal with taking the time to explain why and then need to get a disruptive customer escorted out of the store, or they upheld the associate's decision (rare as that is depending on the manager on duty and situation) and requested that the customer and secondary disruptive customers either purchase it at the decided price, decide not to purchase it and continue the rest of their business respectfully, or leave the store if they refused to act respectfully to the business and its other guests.

In addition to price matches, there are other issues that crop up from time to time where a secondary customer feels they have an ethical or moral reason to intervene in a situation they were not involved in, however, such as was the case today, they are completely mistaken in their understanding of law, policy, and personal judgement being applied to either.  Anytime any transaction is done, it is up to the business to not discriminate against a customer based on race, gender, age, ethnicity, spoken language, disability, or other way an individual may be classified and prejudiced upon.  Likewise, it is not required by law that a business make more than a 'reasonable effort' to prevent credit card, debit card, ebt, check or even cash purchase fraud or underage purchase.  It is, however, in the business's best interest as most fraud or underage purchase cases cost the business more in the long run than having a clear policy that they can act consistently with, whether it is publicly available, or even if it is not written in any location but merely passed down from one manager to their employees (though that is usually not good for the business if a suit is taken against them for supposed prejudice as they have no way to prove what their policy dictates).

In the case of our business, associates are supposed to check each fifty dollar bill and hundred dollar bill to the light to ensure it is not a counterfeit bill, as that lets the associate see not only if it is the right type of paper to even have a watermark, but also if it is a washed bill with the front and back of another bill printed on it (as marker tests fail when they are real bills but not the value presented).  Likewise, we are told to ensure checks look right, and at a certain point to the best of our judgement, we are supposed to ask for an ID card for any purchase not made with cash or a shop card, and compare it to the card or check being used for the purchase.  Any.  In the case of a gift card from Visa, Mastercard, American Express or a smaller credit company, many of them may not have a name on them, and therefore once we see that the purchase can continue without further interruption.  The same applies to ebt cards without a name intended for an entire household rather than a singular individual (rare as they are to be approved and given to the individual).  Business checks without a name on them are denied (and almost no business gives out checks or business charge cards without a name on them specifically to prevent theft, fraud by another, or fraud by an employee claiming it was stolen, etc).  Any card with one or more names on it needs to have at least one of the names be the name of the individual using it or have that individual with them and able to present their identification.  Any.  Credit, debit, even ebt.

Today I had a woman and her mother purchasing groceries with her sister's ebt card, which only prompts on our system as being a 'credit' card due to how our systems have classified all card purchases since an update earlier this year.  Silly, but regardless, I asked to see her card and identification and she was surprised, but pulled out the card and explained it was her sister's card, who was not present.  Had the card not had a name on it, and she not told me, she would have been fine to just run the card through with the way our policy stands, and to my judgement I would have had no issue either.  In fact, the woman despite being surprised was more than willing to go leave and get her sister as they only lived 'five minutes away' (a gross underestimation, but she clearly didn't mind).  Despite what started to happen immediately after being told her sister would be needed already beginning to happen, she left to go get her while her mother remained behind.  The two women behind her mother obviously were in a hurry to get their own groceries dealt with, so I was putting the first customer's purchase on suspension (which needs a manager approval in person via key-turn) to benefit the first customer and them as well.  However, despite telling all four this (and the younger woman in the first pair already starting to leave to get her sister and not sticking around for the rest of the nonsense), the second pair insisted that not only had they never heard of such a policy, but that I was being prejudiced.  Because they too had an ebt card (which didn't have a name on it and which they didn't even use in their own transaction) and knew that you have to be on welfare to get food stamps, etc.  I wanted to facepalm so hard, to laugh at the ridiculous of their implication.

For those who didn't know already, I have an older half-brother, a god brother, an older sister, and a younger brother.  My older sister and younger brother were both born at home, helped by a midwife.  I was born in a hospital because the midwife was helping someone else at the time.  My father had taken my sister to see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as it was still in theaters and it was far enough past Christmas that they could afford once again to see movies, though not enough to take both my mother and sister at the same time.  They came back to my mother doing her breathing exercises instead of calling the midwife or being in the hospital because...  Well, people who really know my family know why, but suffice to say, I ended up being born without complication to wonderfully loving parents with an older sister who may have been spoiled even at that young an age, but hadn't yet turned rotten.  Avoiding that tangent for another day, my extended family on either side of the family tree has never been wealthy with the exception of one aunt on my father's side and her family, but both sides have been more than content in their lives and the reward of hard work beyond monetary value.  My immediate family right now may have strains and issues, but my father's hard work has more than made up for the times when I wasn't able to have as much father-son bonding activities as some more wealthy families might have had.  Likewise, the activities we did share have reverberated and carried on through even today, as well as some of those shared with my godparents: My love of music in general, my love of reading, writing, comics, video games, books, movies, television, science fiction, fantasy, mystery (though that has diminished somewhat considering being able to see how rather mediocre most are in how little suspense there is and how easy most are to solve, or conversely, how some written in third person still are lacking in details that make the outcome even solvable), horror, action, adventure, swimming, taking photos, enjoying art, philosophy, psychology, debate (though my own desire for debate is rarely on the most popular subjects of religion, politics or criminal cases), science, viewing and being in nature, walking, climbing, and so on and so forth...  Additionally, everything I loved and knew as a child came from a life of limitation.

When my sister was born up until shortly before I turned five, my parents, sister and newly born younger brother all lived in Minneapolis.  Specifically, North Minneapolis, in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  If that itself isn't information enough, we were poor.  My father worked hard, at wages half what I'm making now usually (and even considering inflation wages were still laughably low to people starting their first jobs in this decade), and even that was because he pushed for a higher wage due to the quality of his work.  Needless to say, his employers liked his approach enough to give him the wages and continued to like it as they kept paying it and giving raises.  However, even though he worked hard, we didn't have a lot of money.  One of my favorite cartoons was and has always been the original 1984 The Transformers series put out by Sunbrow and Marvel, a series which ended in 1987.  Now, considering that the internet was in its infancy, many have wondered how a show that ended the year I was born was so important to me when it was already off the air before I was old enough to understand it.  The reason is two-fold:  Firstly, it aired as reruns for a while, and secondly, a local VHS shop went out of business.  This meant that my father was able to purchase a vhs player inexpensively, and with it multiple tapes of The Transformers' first season.  I still have those tapes.  I later ruined that vhs player by using it as a garage for my hot wheels cars.  A different tangent for a different day, but let's just say I had a childhood that amused me to no end then and still does now.  However, living as a poor white family in North Minneapolis also had its drawbacks.  Once my father made a complaint to the police about the noise a neighbor was making because he had already asked them politely to quiet down some as my mother could use more sleep with my brother keeping her up all the time with his kicking in her womb.  Getting police response even then about noise complaints usually was rare to go anywhere significant toward making any difference, however, the next day a brick went through our window.  Between that and the double jeopardy case that let three murderers living across the street get out of jail despite burying a girl my sister's age in their backyard...  Well, my parents were quick to take my godparents up on the opportunity to move with my father still working for the same employer and needing to travel even further, needing to even sleep there many times before between shifts and needing to many more times after we moved, but he still kept working hard.

Up until he became disabled due to work injuries my father always worked hard and enjoyed working.  He had a different employer at the time than the one previously mentioned, one who refused workman's comp and disability claim on the injury, but the State of Minnesota after two appeals finally approved for future benefits and past lost wages.  He didn't take them to court for emotional toil, stress and all the other applicable reasons he should have been able to for two reasons: first, we couldn't afford a lawyer as he couldn't work and thus couldn't pay for them unless the lawyer won the case, and secondly, because he only wanted what he was owed for his wages.  As much as he likes having money to spend on things for himself, usually he's spent it on my mother, myself and my siblings and others if he has had it, and the only times I recall him acting with any sort of desire to get more than he felt owed was during the period between appeals when he was in a very depressed emotional state with many different circumstances compounding.  Even despite that feeling, the only time I'm aware of where he acted on it was a time prior when he was drunk, shaking a claw machine and tipping it to get a few stuffed animals for my sister.  He admitted to what he did the very next day, offering to pay for each one, and instead painted the entire exterior of the West Side Lanes Bowling Alley where he worked at the time at no cost, and went beyond what he was asked in repayment, continuing to work there for quite a while before starting work for the company where he would become injured after several years of work.

My father is no saint, as his own tales of his past would illuminate better than I, but on the whole he's shown nothing but good intentions for my immediate family, extended family, and even strangers who haven't earned his respect but likewise haven't earned his ire.  The example prior about a customer trying to match dissimilar items?  My father did that multiple times, several of which were with a former associate who knew better and was trying to pull a fast one on us.  Between my father and my godparents I learned most of what I know, and especially my work ethic.  Likewise, our desire to stand on our own two feet and repay those who have helped us, even if they say that we don't have to.  When he was appealing his disability case we were on food stamps and unemployment.  Despite his many medical conditions (which have only been added to since with his type II diabetes and other conditions), my father didn't just sit around and try to milk the unemployment and food stamps.  He wanted to work.  He didn't want a handout, he wanted a wage.

Because of the particulars of his conditions, primarily his reflex sympathetic dystrophy, there aren't very many jobs that my father can work where a prospective employer would hire him.  He can't consistently be able to lift fifty pounds without risk of pain.  He has difficulty with his memory sometimes, though less than he used to due to medication changes and his willpower and stubborn Irish genetics driving him to push through the pain more than most people can stand even with medication.  The pain itself had many times driven him to his knees, though less now not only because of medication regulation becoming more precise but because he has learned to tolerate much more than is reasonable for anyone, let alone someone approaching retirement age in a few more years.  He had and still has a fluctuating sleep schedule due to the pain waking him up at times and feeling drained at times from fighting it or not getting enough sleep earlier (and yet despite this he still walks ten miles a day on a treadmill).  He wasn't trained or experienced in more than manual labor and custodial work, and his degree was in art, which he didn't put to use professionally despite his talent netting him prize money in a few contests (including one judged by National Geographic and his snow sculptures for the business he worked at  ending up on three different new channels) when I was younger.  He couldn't work in the jobs he used to which required heavy lifting or speed, and most other jobs available required experience in the field, a degree, both, or had other limitations that he could not overcome despite his attempts.  He hated having to be on welfare at all, doubly-so with the second appeal for disability being the last one allowed per disability case in Minnesota and the possibility of losing even that hated source of income.  Thankfully, he won the second appeal with the thanks of his habit of keeping documents of any importance for a prolonged period of time and the much appreciated work of the lawyer who helped with the case.  That said, even getting disability payments now (which are far lower than his wages were unfortunately but thankfully the medical costs are almost non-existent instead), he still puts considerable effort into things he still can do, including bringing almost surgical cleanliness to any room.

We had to rely on my godparents, our extended family and welfare for a few years while I was in high school.  Even if I had wanted to get a class ring or letterman jacket for my performance on the debate team, swim team, or choir, we couldn't afford it.  I had to take out a student loan which I'm still repaying for the singular year I went (before deciding it was a waste of money considering the way the economy was going even then in any field let alone for an English Writing Major) because we couldn't set aside any money to help out and additionally I wasn't able to put much time into applying for scholarships because my surprise high school graduation gift was chicken pox from someone in my graduating class which, yes, does explain the pock-marks on some of my skin including my face for those who didn't know yet and were too 'polite' to ask.  Everything boiled down over time meant that while we may have had periods of extra income for purchasing more, most of my toys, clothes, non-school books, and heck, even my school supplies were either second-hand or plain and on sale enough to make it possible to afford.

Even now I have to pay my student loan, medical bills if I have more than one doctor visit a year (and even though I'm only doing two a year I should be doing four a year due to my diabetes), the cost of my insulin beyond what my insurance covers, pester Tracfone in order to get an issue resolved over a bloody $20 card (which thankfully did get resolved yesterday satisfactorily finally), have had years of getting used to walking instead of driving to work both for the exercise and cost of gas (and having started before even having a car, and still do not myself have a driver's license, only a permit), are more comfortable wearing longsleeves in winter than turning on the heat (not that I usually do anyways...  My window is open and I have shorts on as it is too warm in here for me currently), bear the heat and humidity of summer almost exclusively with hydration and few layers, and many other considerations that make many people laugh at my self-description of being frugal, saying I'm just cheap.  However you look at it, even with the promotion I had this year and other wage increases, do I splurge more because of it?  Okay, yes, a little bit of splurging is actually cathartic, but something I tend to feel guilty about later.  I mean, I spent $60 on a third-party transformers figure I've been waiting for over a year to purchase ( http://tfsource.com/mastermind-creations/r08-azalea/ ) and am very, very pleased to have it after such anticipation, but at the same time I cringe at calculating out how much interest I could have had on that over time.

I put 6% of my income into my 401k, which is the standard, and I've got a decent amount in there, but would put even more if I could afford to, instead keeping more out for two reasons: Firstly, in case of a circumstance where I could no longer work much like my father encountered or otherwise similar in that regard, and secondarily, because I'm saving up to be able to have collateral down payment on a home mortgage in a couple years.  My friends all rent either apartments or part of a house.  A few of my relatives have homes of their own, though most that do either live in Las Vegas or far from the metropolitan area.  At the end of ten years after purchase I should be able to have a house paid off in full as well as still having money to splurge from time to time, even if I kept the exact same wage I am receiving now through that entire time.  I aim higher than department manager later, but am cautious about overreaching and needing to step down or find alternate employment as I have seen many others do at my place of employment.  Slow and steady and all that, I've turned down dozens upon dozens of promotions over the years and currently despite being understaffed and having even that staff pulled away frequently, I'm still doing a fairly good job, being recognized for it, and helping other department managers and higher members of management constantly.  Despite all the good things that have happened with the promotion, and the bad with becoming diabetic, I have persevered because even though I'm not giving myself tunnel vision over a potential future that might not happen, I'm still able to look back at what I had, where I came from, and see that I'm making progress year after year in the direction I want, and learning exactly what that is in a sea of changing desires and possibilities.

Understanding where I've come from somewhat...  The alternating acidic blood boiling and near biting-tongue numbness from holding back what I wanted to say to the pair of women who were butting in on a situation they didn't understand was near xenomorphic.  I may find it shameful to see others where I have been who I've seen enough to know that they aren't trying to make their lives better, but I don't judge people who have been where I have been or at lower depths than that at first glance.  I don't even at thirtieth glance.  Thirty-first maybe...  I jest, but at a certain point it isn't prejudice but experience with a particular individual, not the supposed group to which they belong.  That pair has been in our store multiple times attempting to do similar when I have been cashiering before I was a department manager and I recognized them even if I don't know their names.  They didn't recognize me, even though I'd checked their own identification before over similar issues and had it twice dealt without issue despite their complaints and twice with complaints ending up in managers approving it simply to get them out of the store.  Additional times dealing with them were below the threshold of asking for identification, but each time I see them I resist the urge to flip off my light because even they deserve to be treated with respect and not as statistics.  At my current position I can only do my best to follow policy and balance that with customer service allowances whether they require a second manager or not, and be polite, courteous, consistent and firm without the use of an ounce of twitch, gritted teeth, or other possible sign of displeasure at their very presence.  The two, who were prejudiced against me for working for wal-mart and said as much in their long tirade and attempt to get the mother in the first pair of customers to cause a problem for me (which she didn't even put a serious effort into doing and was told that I was acting according to policy discretely away from the nosy second pair), accused me of being prejudiced against the first pair.

In all honesty, had I actually been an assistant manager and the business been much smaller than the one I work for, I could have sued them for slander and had witnesses to testify to that.  Witnesses who marveled that I didn't let them rile me, didn't slip up and contradict myself by accident, kept a calm tone, didn't leave the register, and still thanked them for shopping with us and said we appreciated their business as their own transaction was being finished.  Just to further show nonsense of their idiocy, they asked if I wanted to see their identification for the cash they were paying for, even after I had explained exactly what required an identification check and their transaction having their enough items nor a card as part of their payment.  ...  So, to those who read this before Thanksgiving or at all, have a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Ramadan, and Happy Holidays to all those celebrating other religions or lack thereof!  I'll be working Thanksgiving, Black Friday and on through Monday, but despite pricks like those two women, I'm enjoying my work and my life.  Especially looking back on it and knowing that I have never once been in a place or time where I have either acted like them or felt the need or desire to do so, and have never been in a relationship with someone like them.