Working in a Record Shop over Christmas

[Shiftless When Idle]

Anyone else in this absolute HELL ?
Sorry about the lack of input.....i think you guys know why I have managed to keep up with the threads in-between serving tho

Most oft heard quote...."Av you got tha won off telly...Y'Know that one wi music on it...Dancey stuff...Y'KNOW it's got that girl dancing an that!!!"

AGHHH!!!!!!!

At least i've still got time to find some great records on my day off...unfortunately i haven't had time to get many presents...and now i haven't got any days off before X-mas...Whoops

Oh well....Priorities eh?

Right...back to the grind....Happy Birthday to those i ain't had time to say...and Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year to one and all

[Sie Vulture]

Matt - have a good Xmas and New Year mate - see you in January!

[SARGE]

live the dream bro.

LIVE IT!!!!

[Lady J]

Most oft heard quote...."Av you got tha won off telly...Y'Know that one wi music on it...Dancey stuff...Y'KNOW it's got that girl dancing an that!!!"

AGHHH!!!!!!!

Working in Oddbins over the "festive" "season" was equally miserable.

"I want a really special bottle of wine"
"How much do you want to spend?"
"About £3.50"

"Have you got that one with the white label... I think it's French..."

Twenty times every day! No wonder we all kicked into the tasting samples in the back office.

[alanmck]

Working in Oddbins over the "festive" "season" was equally miserable.

thanks for all your christmas efforts, ma'am, but....

hmmm...

http://us.vclart.net/vcl/Artists/Iatro/iatro-wino.jpg

[Shiftless When Idle]

Working in Oddbins over the "festive" "season" was equally miserable.

"I want a really special bottle of wine"
"How much do you want to spend?"
"About £3.50"

"Have you got that one with the white label... I think it's French..."

Twenty times every day! No wonder we all kicked into the tasting samples in the back office.

HaHaHa

Two classics so far this morning...."do yer sell scratch cardzzzz"

and the enevitable "Have you got anything an 18 year old would like"
"err what kind of music are they into"
"i dunno...it's for a lad"

[Sie Vulture]

...."do yer sell scratch cardzzzz"

Genius.

As is this...



Word.

[vinylism]

"Have you got that one with the white label... I think it's French..."

they were obviously in the wrong shop, weren't they? did you point them in the direction of mr shiftless?

[Shiftless When Idle]

Another bonefide classic...someone's just asked while holding a copy of the new Stevie Wonder CD
"How much derya think they've got this in HMV (pronounced AAAAACHHH EM VEEEEE) For"

AGGHHH!!!

[Hooded Claw]

I used to work in Urban Outfitters in Kensington and once had the following baffling conversation

American Tourist: Excuse me, Oxford University. Is that in London?
Me (whilst serving a large que of people): No, it's in Oxford
Tourist: So are there any universities in London?
Me: Well, Yes there are quite a few
Tourist: Could you tell me where they are and what they're called



Shop work is a bitch because the general public are all idiots. Without exception.

[Lord Thames]

The general public are indeed idiots, but occasionally they show a bit of ingenuity.....

My sister was working in Woolworths, when a family came in to return a faulty piece of electrical equipment (I think it was a bass unit from a surround sound system.) So, the box was handed over, and my sister opened it to see what the problem was. And inside she found.....

A cardboard box, filled with weights, covered in tinfoil - with all the speaker controls drawn on by hand, in a fiendishly cunning attempt to deceive the staff!

Apparently, they weren't fooled.....

[stinkyweaselteets]

The general public are indeed pretty dumb. Working as technical support for a security company i have to speak to them on a daily basis.
I was hoping for a quiet week this week, as i am already in the holiday mood i figured others would too...how wrong i was.
I generally find that the people i speak to are either pretty stupid or very angry (and stupid), only the other day some guy phoned and i barely said two words to him before he called me a fucking dickhead and hung up I don't actually mind this most of the time as i can be quite condescending (i can't help it...the twat in me always rears its ugly head when i'm at work), but on this occassion i was the perfect gentleman.

Anyway only today and half a day tomorrow to go

Merry christmas one and all and my thoughts go out to all those that have to work

[peretti]

The general public are indeed idiots, but occasionally they show a bit of ingenuity.....

My sister was working in Woolworths, when a family came in to return a faulty piece of electrical equipment (I think it was a bass unit from a surround sound system.) So, the box was handed over, and my sister opened it to see what the problem was. And inside she found.....

A cardboard box, filled with weights, covered in tinfoil - with all the speaker controls drawn on by hand, in a fiendishly cunning attempt to deceive the staff!

Apparently, they weren't fooled.....

You sister is obviously the exception when it comes to intelligence among Woolworth's staff. I went in to buy my son a Spiderman costume but all they had was an outfit padded out with enourmous pretend muscles, which I think is a bit wierd personally, and looks very strange on a 4 year old. Sensing my hesitation, the shop assistant quickly addressed my concern by solemnly confiding: "They're not real muscles, you know...".

[Lord Thames]

Hahaha - brilliant! You should've demanded real ones.....

[nosoul]

ha ha never mind Matt

im officially knocked off for crimbo but id rather work than have to go xmas shoppin with my missus and daughter

[effi_deep]

i have to work in a public drug-helping center, giving all kind of medicine and methadon to hundreds of people...well it kind of brings me down and makes me happy at the same time...seeing all these hopeless junkies, doing nothing but running after all kind of drugs and troubles, but they still are in a good mood, make jokes and are happy in their own way.
still there are some pretty dumb ones, aggressiv before i can say a word, or so passed out that it becomes funny again...plenty of stories here...

[babycart]

My favourite from when I was working in a bookshop.

"I'm looking for that book about Rudolph Hess"
"Is it biography?"
"I don't know who it's by. It's his life story."

[Little Jimmy Oddman]

I once worked in a shop with an assistant manager that refused to believe Christmas was ever on any other day but Saturday. She was also engaged to her cousin.

[nzshadow]

oh yes, the dark days... i served 10 years in record store retail hell.
I was working for New Zealands answer to HMV, basically a huge commercial store that shifted bucketloads of top 40 drivel, i once worked an 18 hour shift one xmas, luckily for me it was the year that Celine Dions album "falling into you" was released, that meant that since my boss was open to bribery to the majors, sony coughed up and we were forced to play the album on repeat ALL DAY EVERY DAY!!! nowadays the very thought of her provokes violent episodes. Guys, i could sing that damn album word for word and its 10 years later.
favorite customer conversation.
"hi, im looking for something for my son"
"ok, what kind of music does he like?"
"i dont know"
"what is he into?"
"i dont know"
"how old is he?"
"15"
"what does he do outside of school?"
"i dont know"
"you know what? maybe if you paid a little more attention to your own child, maybe you woiuldnt have to ask a complete staranger what he'd like for xmas"
"your and asshole, im gonna have you fired"
""good, then i wont have to deal with pricks like you
years later i was working in a sexshop in Kings Cross Sydney one Xmas, now that was a fucking blast!

[stinkyweaselteets]

Me: What seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well i have this Video recorder and when i press stop nothing happens, it just keeps going.


Took me ages to work out what the fool was doing the *first* time this happened.

[Hooded Claw]

I've never worked in a record store but I've always assumed it would be exactly like Empire Records. Was I wrong?

[Rich Hero]

I've never worked in a record store but I've always assumed it would be exactly like Empire Records. Was I wrong?

Working with Liv Tyler?!? Are you wearing your rose-tinted specs again, Jack?

[Shiftless When Idle]

I've never worked in a record store but I've always assumed it would be exactly like Empire Records. Was I wrong?

It's more a cross between ARE YOU BEING SERVED and SHAMELESS

I've had 4...COUNT EM!!! 4..."Have you got anything my wife would like"
"She likes..y'know romantic/girly music"
UGGHH!!!! Romance is well and truely DEAD!!!

My favourite today has got to be from a woman who spent at least 7 minutes looking round the shop....
"Is this Arrrrrgosss?"

[Hooded Claw]

Working with Liv Tyler?!? Are you wearing your rose-tinted specs again, Jack?

I meant being part of a gang of crazy young things where anything can happen, and probably will!

We've all got our problems but at the end of the day we all love each other and we're gonna have a party to save the shop!





one day, I will write something that is of some use to someone on this board. I promise.

[Rich Hero]

one day, I will write something that is of some use to someone on this board. I promise.

Shhh! I haven't yet...

[sermad]

I used to work in ASDA's as a kid in the scuzziest part of town every crimbo.

I worked mad hours because nobody wanted to do it so it was great pocket money - I remember sitting at the till bleary eyed on christmas eve after selling the 45,0000th turkey on a 15 hour shift.

This nice chap had some bottles of whisky - you know the wee one shot ones - he gave us a couple and I tipped them into my coffee.

NICE!.

apart from that ASDAs was full of stupid of the stupid. proper darwin award contenders here!

there was a memo going around to be careful of shoppers buying lots of bread! What they did was pile up the bread in the trolley - and leave a cavity in the middle! Thats where they would stash tv's and videos. Unbelieveable!!!!

[someblokecalledfuz]

Make the best of it Matt. The only way to deal with the public is to not let them get to you. Hope Santa brings you all you desire...

I clocked up seven years of working with tourists, a never ending supply of stupidity stories. Questions included...

Did Mary Queen of Scots have a swimming Pool?
Why did they build the castle so close to the railway station?

and my all time favourite...

Is that Norway?
( Yank tourist, whilst standing on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, looking over the firth of forth to fife...)

[babycart]

[QUOTE=someblokecalledfuz]
I clocked up seven years of working with tourists, a never ending supply of stupidity stories. QUOTE]

I deal with tourists here on Lanzarote. In the last few months I've had classics such as
"Do they celebrate Guy Fawkes night here?
and
"Is it Tuesday here as well?"

Mind you, most of them are lovely. I'd choose working with the public over toiling in a booth anyday. DJs get to do both, but most are clearly better suited to the latter.

[highland cow]

I work in a second hand record shop and am always a bit horrified when people come into buy presents. I'm not talking about vintage vinyl, just bog standard CD's which they could buy nice and shiny at HMV.

I did say to people a couple of times "you can probably buy this new for about the same price" and they've looked at me like I'd just cussed them out so I've given up trying to help.

Another bizarre Xmas ritual is middle aged men coming In on Xmas Eve gagging for CD box sets. Of course we don't have any decent one's left so they trudge off with box sets by SKY and URIAH HEEP that have been sitting there for months.



I actually really enjoy working in the shop over Xmas. I only work part time which means I find the daft questions amusing rather than irritating and It also helps that our regular customers buy us Slabs of Beer....

[Shiftless When Idle]

Must admit that most of the regulars are great...which offsets the div brigade...it's just Christmas,as Highland Cow and others have pointed out can bring out the worst excuses of humanity into the shop...i don't mind niave...i don't even mind bad musical taste (each to thier own)...what i do mind is bad manners and bloody stupidity beyond belief....what kind of society create such beings???!!!!

I wonder what today will bring? Actually i already know since a few of the New Year events have sold out already (R+B and House/B-line)...so i'll get the rudest nastiest pieces of work blaming me Bloody 14 year old pram pushers or little ratboys or the rudies who just shout "YO! Gimmie" and then tut really loudly when you politely explain that you're in the middle of serving someone....