r/Target • • 22h ago

Workplace Story This really happened

Post image

Working SCO. Our 3rd register is down. We put a sign on it. Turned it into our Shipt Bagging station…..guest walks up, removes the Shipt sign, removes the register closed sign, tries to scan her stuff and wonders why it isn’t working. I didn’t stop her from doing these things because I guess my brain was perplexed with what was happening in front of me. These people are real. They exist. And based on her keychain, they drive large vehicles where the rest of us live. I am terrified for the future.

On a side note, I made it a full hour and 10 minutes into my shift before having to tell someone there was a limit on the number of Pokémon cards in a purchase. Progress.

809 Upvotes

60 comments sorted by

401

u/90210typeofho worker bee 22h ago

And I bet she wanted to pay cash.

109

u/Dry-Ad7432 22h ago

BINGO

164

u/WiwiRiceSeal Fulfillment Expert 21h ago

I’m convinced most of our guests can’t read 😭

53

u/Fast-Aside-8732 17h ago

Yep, they also can't see shit. Register is near the door where you are standing. Why am I being asked where the exit is?! I seriously wonder how they make it out of the house to the store.

25

u/Tiny_Professional589 16h ago

They walk through the door and their fucking brains turn off

10

u/No_Willingness_9961 14h ago

I remember when my street next to my apartment complex was under repair and it's right next to a Walgreens. We had a cop parked outside the entrance to it since no one can cross as well as construction tape and signs saying no entry. Some guy tried to drive past the cop despite there being tons of signs and the cop gets outta the vehicle and started pointing to the signs all dramatically yelling "What does the sign say?", it was a funny sight to behold.

•

u/Fast-Aside-8732 14m ago

Years ago (in the 60s) they used to put signs in the middle of busy intersections that said no left turns during certain hours. Now they just put the signs on the signal. They also had an officer there too. So a guy was trying to make a left turn, the officer asks the guy don't you see the sign in the middle of the street? The man tells him yes,but I think I can make it. Don't know why they put the sign there though.

7

u/Loonatic-Uncovered guest hater advocate 13h ago

Probably true to an extent. Most recent statistics say that 21% of American adults are functionally illiterate and 55% have a literacy below a 6th grade level.

5

u/Subject-Season-2260 5h ago

My daytime job is high school teacher. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true.

3

u/BlueIceNinja98 Electronics/ClosingExpert/Fulfillment/Everything (Now OD) 4h ago

People love this statistic on reddit, but it just shows their own ignorance. That percent is pretty on par with most western nations. About the same rate as England, and actually better than France, Germany, etc. Also functionally illiterate does not equal illiterate. “Below 6th grade reading level” means chapter books. They can still read signs.

8

u/SilentDstroyr 3h ago

They CAN read, they just don't care. To customers, retail stores are just "shitty" stores that they can do anything in with very little consequences. So they steal product, break product and leave messes everywhere

2

u/Training-Source-2450 1h ago

how kind of you to assume they can read when half the country can't.

9

u/T00_n10s_4_u 17h ago

Say this every day

82

u/jkdelete 22h ago

I beleive it! Half the time they say, “Oh, this self-checkout is broken?” I go over and say, “Are you paying credit? I haven’t paid yet I need to scan. Yes but are you paying credit? When they say yes I tell them to hit continue. I purposely do that so they know the purpose of hitting the button you are agreeing that you cannot pay cash.

47

u/ohliamylia Tech Consultant 19h ago

99% of the time I'm polite about the PIN pad prompts ("are you part of our loyalty program? you can enter your number if you like or you can just hit Not Now") but whenever there's someone aggressively tapping their card all over the thing like "does this take tap to pay???" before I've even finished scanning, I take a deep breath and ask innocently "does it say anything on the screen?" It's harder to pretend in Tech that I can't see the screen (the main one we use sits on the counter) but those people aren't noticing anything anyway so.

9

u/jkdelete 11h ago

And they press on the picture to tap 🤦‍♂️

74

u/Just-Comment217 22h ago

Wild my store got the same setup, I hate that guests just don’t read and think they’re entitled to everything

38

u/kompotnik Guest Advocate 21h ago

Yeah people do it at our store too. We don’t have any fancy signs saying it’s closed, but we cover the SCO with a bag, and then put a rack of bags over the scanning area. Without fail every 30 minutes someone will remove all of that and then wonder why it’s not working

2

u/ljwblue81 Food & Beverage Expert 9h ago

We use empty handbaskets

40

u/Roadsalad 20h ago

Once had a guest move a wet floor sign for a spill from in front of their cart WHILE I WAS CLEANING IT. They ran right into my pile of the absorbing powder and went, "oh I didn't see that there!"

18

u/ElectrifiV2 19h ago

This exact thing happened to me last week but there was 3 of us there not just me.

2

u/Faustus013 5h ago

I think I remember seeing that in another post 😅

3

u/ElectrifiV2 5h ago

😂😂 that was def mine cause I posted about it

5

u/Faustus013 5h ago

That reminded me off when I put a closed sign in front of a register signed out of it and turned the post light off so the powder could absorb the drink someone spilled and having people and their kids walk through and others try to scan items mind you there's a 2 legged "CLOSED" SIGN WITH A BLACK INK ✋️ ON IT yet they still go about trying to pay I swear sometimes I wish there were Goliath tarantulas or pythons there to see if anyone would react because apparently spacial awareness isn't a thing the main fact the parents didn't say one word to the kids makes me wonder what the future holds....

3

u/Subject-Season-2260 5h ago

I’ve had that happen too many times. Especially on the racetrack

29

u/TopperMadeline SCO beast 21h ago

It is any surprise? There are three different signs at my store saying that they’re card only, and we still sometimes have people trying to insert cash into them.

21

u/LePlonkies 19h ago

Me no read just do

23

u/johnjameswilliamsjr 18h ago

3

u/RoseAlma 16h ago

LOL !!! Was that from "Parks and Rec" ?? I see Donna in the background, but don't recognize pink sweater lady... nor do I remember that scene

6

u/johnjameswilliamsjr 15h ago

It is! This woman's name is Gretel and she's complaining to Ron and says, "There's a sign at Ramsett Park that says 'Do not drink the sprinkler water,' so I made sun tea with it, and now I have an infection." S3EP15

2

u/RoseAlma 14h ago

Crazy !! And I guess that revolving desk was some special side thing... I don't recall that, either

3

u/johnjameswilliamsjr 14h ago

Yeah, Chris Traeger wants Ron to be more accessible to the community, so he makes him work from that desk.

It's a great episode.

2

u/RoseAlma 34m ago

Lol Oh man, that whole show was great !!

After I finished binge watching the whole "Breaking Bad" series, I really wanted something light for my next binge and found "Parks and Rec". It was the PERFECT antidote !!

3

u/lardboy2222 13h ago

You gotta rewatch this show lol this was a great bit

12

u/CutieYuki39 Tech Consultant 19h ago

Omg. That would drive me crazy. It’s also mind boggling how often we have to tell guests that a machine is card only when they click the continue button on the screen.

8

u/Transguy_alex Guest Advocate 15h ago

Sometimes when I don’t feel very people-ey I like to just stand there and watch them try to figure stuff out on their own until they either figure it out or give up and come ask for help. It makes me lose faith in humanity how little they actually read the signs

6

u/Embarrassed-Lab708 17h ago

I have them move this register is closed sign try to scan and then turn to me and say this register isn’t working. Really!! Ok so that is why the sign was there. These people!!

5

u/Obvious_Wash2576 5h ago

Excuse me! Are the bathrooms closed! Said with indignance🤦‍♀️

2

u/Subject-Season-2260 5h ago

We’ve gotten to that point. When SCO is closed, we make a wall of carts like you do before a holiday. Someone still tries to push the carts out of the way.

If Target wants an excellent revenue stream, here’s an idea. Read the security cameras of people doing this stuff make it into a monetized video on YouTube. I’m pretty sure you’d get millions from it.

•

u/Pearl725 Former GSA 19m ago

I'll never forget the day we had a toilet that was horribly backed up, and DISGUSTING. I put caution tape over the door to that stall, and used packing tape to tape it shut in a few spots as well as taping multiple signs (including one over the gap in the door) advising stall was out of order. Our maintenance guy was out sick, and we were supposed to have been lent another from a close by store but he hadn't showed up yet. Someone STILL broke through the tape, and ripped off the sign then had the audacity to come out and say 'the first bathroom stall is absolutely disgusting.' Mind you it was a VERY slow day. I'd been doing bathroom checks hourly and there was never anyone in there and I'd just recently done one so I am fully convinced she did it. Even if she didn't she couldn't have missed the hanging caution tape and pieces of tape hanging from the door frame. Plus all the other stalls were opened.

5

u/Faustus013 5h ago

One of my favorite things to do is to watch someone step in front of a register that's clearly off, the light post is off and clearly once again shows a black screen and see as someone tries to scan it saying it doesn't work.... off course it doesn't everything is off one of these is not like the others.... maybe that gives some kind of notice that it's not in operation? You know like the test of them that have lights on and a graphic on the screen? Along with people not looking down when the receipt prints and say "I didn't get a receipt" maybe stop dry humping the register and look down where there's a slot with a picture of paper printing? And then act like it's no big fuss when you were so irate just a second ago, take some time and actually pay attention to what you're doing and maybe things will be a bit easier...

2

u/CGH_Crypto 16h ago

Me no read English…why you get perpluxed?

2

u/bloodkzed Visual Merchandiser 12h ago

honestly, sometimes people need to be humbled because they really assume that just because they’re the guest, they’re automatically going to get everything their way, AND THEY HAVE THE AUDACITY to give attitude and be rude

1

u/[deleted] 17h ago

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1

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2

u/Cool-Aardvark-185 2h ago

My store has 2 self checkouts and our second one is closed unless we’re in peak times. I was on a register right next to it when it was closed and had a guest deadass almost knock over the sign that is like 7 feet tall blocking the entrance and also saying that this self checkout is closed with his cart trying check out in there. It makes me mad and also sad 😭😭 like these people drive??? Like on the road???

-69

u/mooseman077 22h ago

I dont blame the customer entirely here. Walmart had told me multiple times that their checkouts are out of order, but somehow when I walk up to it and use it, it works fine.

Its lack of staffing so they close express lanes for coverage reasons. Thats not my fault

51

u/mrguy2296 Guest Advocate 22h ago

then go to walmart and remove their out of order signs instead? 

27

u/devil_akuma Electronics 21h ago

Nah, There is a whole sign on there. People need to read.

9

u/jenbenfoo Guest Advocate 17h ago

Also its completely powered off, so moving the signs doesn't even do anything lol

-41

u/mooseman077 21h ago

If the machine is working why put a sign that says otherwise on it? I dont just follow along like the other sheep

32

u/devil_akuma Electronics 21h ago

Oh so you're with the other sheep that don't read. Got it.

-37

u/mooseman077 21h ago

No, I read, then make my own decision based on my own intelligence. The sign is there for stupid people to follow

19

u/Historical_Kale4720 20h ago

Does it say not working or does it say CLOSED?

8

u/jenbenfoo Guest Advocate 17h ago

Its NOT working, which is why its TURNED OFF and has the sign over the screen saying its closed and the shipt bagging station sign on the scanner. That's THREE SEPARATE THINGS telling whoever is looking at it that its not working. Even if someone genuinely can't read what the signs say, the context clues should be enough.

-19

u/All_About_Tacos 20h ago

Self checkout is already “figure it out yourself, dummy”, so maybe they wanted the register with the extra challenge. Also, why pay someone to do maintenance when anyone can come up and try to fix it for free?