Shopping Manners

I have been both a customer and an employee in retail and I have seen and heard lots of things from customers. Some of the behavior is known to be bad and rude, but that is not what I am here to discuss today. What I am here to discuss is what people think is acceptable behavior and how it effects the employees and other customers, the business owners and themselves too, especially in the current economy and where things are heading.

I have seen many people who pick up an item and then somewhere else in the store decide that they don't want it after all, so they just drop it anywhere and expect the employees to find it and put it back where it belongs. I have seen frozen goods left on shelves that are not for freezer items.  I have also seen a gallon of milk left in the cracker aisle. Those items will not be found in time to save them, and it will become waste and thrown away. That is a loss for the company and business owner. Some stores have a place where you can put items that you decide that you don't want and then the employees can return the items to their proper places, but this takes time away from other tasks that the employees have to do. I have heard people mention that making more work for the employees is "job security" for the employees. They are actually wrong, especially in the current economy, because employees have more than enough to do without cleaning up after lazy and/or messy customers. There are places all around you that are trying to hire, but not enough people are applying for the jobs. There is a dollar store nearby that is not even open all of the normal hours because they don't have enough employees to keep things running. They can't run the register and stock the shelves at the same time if they only have one or possibly two people working at a time. This same situation is happening in thousands of businesses across the country, much more now than it has ever happened before, at least that I can ever remember. Making more work for the employees hurts the bottom line for the store, which is really bad if the place is a small business or a ministry. If things keep going bad for any store, that business may have to shut down extra hours, or even go out of business because they can't afford to keep open. This will affect your ability to be able to shop there in the future.

Making more work for the employees also affects how much time they are able to spend getting new product out to the sales floor. Normally a store has a quota of what is supposed to be able to be produced when they are fully staffed. When they are short staffed, they have to cover the more important positions, like the register, with people who would normally be getting new items to the sales floor. Any extra time that they have to spend cleaning up after customers just means more time that they can't spend getting more items to the sales floor for you to buy. If you want more things to be able to buy, then they could really use your help. They are trying to find more employees, but the people just are not there. I don't know where everyone is, but I know that they are not applying for the jobs that need them the most.

Making more work for other people who already have more than enough to do is not good Christian behavior, in my opinion, and it isn't setting a good example for your kids and the people around you, who are watching you. I have been fixing stuff at stores, even ones that I don't work at, since my childhood. I remember straightening things on the shelves at the grocery store when I was a little kid shopping with my mom, and she never even understood why. On multiple occasions I have fixed the spice section at the dollar store when it was in desperate need of help and the shelves were plainly labeled so organizing things for them was not a problem. It only took me about 15 minutes, but that was time that the employees didn't have to spend doing it and they could then spend the time getting new items ordered and put out to replace what had been sold. This is just a couple examples of what I have done to help other retail employees and I could list more, but those are the ones that stand out to me the most. I don't always clean up after other customers, depending on my situation at the time, but I don't leave more work for the employees to have to do. I know what they are going thru, and I want them to be able to spend their time on the clock getting the shelves stocked so that I have things available for me to purchase when I need them.

I challenge everyone, especially in the current economy, to find ways to help the retail employees around you, because it will end up benefiting you and all of the other customers in the long run. A small way to help is to clean up after yourself and don't leave the store worse off than when you got there. A slightly bigger way is to clean up after other customers who may not realize or care about the consequences of their actions. This could take just a few seconds or minutes, but the employees will appreciate it, even if they never know. A huge way that you could help even more is to volunteer your time to help a ministry or small business. This post is not just for people who are in my part of the country, it is for everyone. If what I say can help customers around the country and the planet to see how their actions affect others and themselves and a small business gets saved from going under in the process, then I will consider this post to have accomplished its mission. Also, the more ministries and small businesses that can be saved from this information, the better. Please help yourself by helping the businesses that you will need to stay open in order to survive, both now and in the future. This is a way to save the future, both for us and for the next generation.