Things That Piss You Off

I’m sure that the size of the store/business is a huge factor. Employees at small stores, local family-owned joints, need to provide excellent customer service because those places probably operate on such thin margins that they might go under and take everyone’s job with it if people don’t come back. The wife and I stopped in at this shop selling specialty oils and vinegars at the mall the other day; the proprietor was there, greeted us, told us how excited she was to have this shop (she and her husband just opened the store last year) and gave such good customer service that it was almost awkward - maybe just a little too attentive/desperate, haha. She can’t just tell customers to piss off if they don’t see what they want - she needs every person with the curiosity to stop in to the store, buy something, then tell their friends and/or come back the next time they want something like her product.

Home Depot ain’t going anywhere; employees there might feel like they can get away with just telling you to piss off if they don’t feel like helping you, because it’s not like a giant Home Depot in the south suburbs is going to close if they don’t sell enough ice-melter or garage-door openers this month.

My wife got me some mango vinegar from there! I might have to stop out for some good dipping/sipping evo.

I agree though. With what I had done, developing a connection with people was very important. At a lot of the bigger places that just doesn’t seem to be the case. Its not like I’ve ever seen the same person twice at any of them. In the intermission between posts I was just talking to a friend that runs a retail/wholesale fly fishing distribution company. Their company has been built on making and keeping those connections.

I guess I still think things like that are important, but that may be a relic of sorts.

Especially if it was the speciality oil store I last went to. It’s cheapest oil was $65 for 250mL. I want a lot of customer service for that haha

My friend helps them with marketing. If we’re talking about the same unnamed business they’re one of the good ones. The owner actually learned some Greek and flies to Europe to haggle over prices and buy oil (flies to Nappa to for the CA sourced stuff).

It’s expensive yuppy olive oil. But it’s actually bottled on the day it’s pressed as advertised (first press).

Ha, this is all too funny. I forget how close we all live to one another sometimes.

Yeah, it’s an expensive yuppy product, which is actually one of the reasons I am a little worried about that store’s survival; are they really going to get enough people to buy that product on a regular basis? They are located in a pretty yuppy suburb, so they’re in the right spot, but the rent for space in that mall has to be astronomical. How can they make enough cash to stay in business there?

Like Skyz said, that’s a place I’ll grab something from as a treat for us to dip some good crusty bread in, or maybe if we’re hosting a little party and want an easy appetizer/treat to share, but I can’t see myself buying something there every week, or more than once every month at most. Are there enough of us buying one bottle of fancy olive oil a month to keep them going?

Lol, the place we’re talking about isn’t quite that expensive. But it cost $51 to buy one bottle of oil, one bottle of seasoned vinegar, and one batch of their dipping spices (although those will last a long time).

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Back on topic - that’s exactly what I mean. I’ve been to that Home Depot at least a dozen times since I moved in (it was only six months ago), and I vaguely remember the guy who sold us our grill and maybe one other cashier.

At a smaller shop with more niche products, the people are the reason you come back. I might go back to the oil & vinegar shop (instead of just buying olive oil at the grocery store) specifically because I liked the person and want them to succeed. At Home Depot, you pretty much go there because it’s the only place I know off the top of my head that sells all the household crap you need.

When you spend 60+ minutes explaining something to someone then ask them to produce something.

They go away and send you something “completed” 10 minutes later…

I always think how little do you think of me to think I’d spend 60 minutes explaining a 10 minute task? LOL

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Silent letters, totally unnecessary.

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When you shovel your entire driveway and front walk, just to walk over a half inch of fresh snow on your way to put the shovel back in the garage

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Piggy-backing on this one:

When you shovel your entire driveway and the plow drives by soon after…covering the end of the driveway with a fresh mound of snow.

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I’ve been using this event as a way to control my anger. Or, more accurately, as a way to illustrate why I need anger management …

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People that speak loudly in public whether it’s on a phone or to someone. My wife has follow up Dr visits every four months and we end up spending much of the day in a waiting room. Usually people are pretty quiet and respectful of others but today was a special treat of obnoxious. The first waiting room this morning a woman woke me up with a fascinating BLAH BLAH BLAH story about a rental house. This afternoon some guy was including the entire room in his BLAH BLAH BLAH conversation about how he planned on outsmarting Microsoft by not allowing them to update/sabotage his computer. Good grief he’s down the hall in another room and his voice is still filling the waiting room. SHUT UP!!!

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I hate when you’re in Sam’s Club or Walmart and some family is spread out across the entire aisle blocking traffic. Especially when they’re in Sam’s, where the aisle’s are 20 feet wide, and they’re slowing moving down the aisle like they’re not even there with a purpose. I want to back up a little ways so I can build up a good head of steam and see how many I can take out when I plow through them with my shopping cart.

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When people walk in the middle of driveways. There are two apartment buildings where I live and the driveway is big enough for 2 cars, I have to pull up next to the mechanism that lets me open the garage yet people dawdle in the middle of the fucking road and act surprised when I beep my horn. It’s a fucking DRIVEWAY not a PATH

When someone tried to melt chocolate in a rice cooker (directly)
Long story

Go on…

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Seconded. Do tell.

Part of the issue is the Sam’s Club carts are at least an extra 50% wider, when the average Sam’s shopper should barely be trusted with a standard width cart.

Also it’s great waiting in line for someone to glance at a receipt meaninglessly to verify the crap you bought 20 feet back.

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Disneyworld Themed “Things that Piss You Off” Post:

-Bus rides that you wait half an hour for, that take another half an hour to get you somewhere that’s 2 miles from where you started.
-The amount of mobility scooters… seriously is it that high of a percentage of our population that can’t walk?
-Giant-mega-groups of Brazilian tour groups that block everything, with no regard for anyone else trying to get anywhere (not being racist, the parks just attract HUGE groups of seemingly spoiled high school kids form this country)
-Adults jamming up character lines. It’s like 50%… the shit’s not real guys, come on. We were walking in one park and passed some 20 something girl that saw a character line and started squealing and clapping as she ran towards it. My wife asked me what it was for, I answered, “a guy in a fucking costume”
-When on a jam packed walkway, someone thinks they need to stand on one edge to take a picture of someone on the other edge.
-How much beer costs when you finally make it to Epcot.
-The amount of groups that feel the need for everyone to walk next to each other, slowly, blocking everything.
-Confused old people wandering aimlessly, and again clogging overcrowded lined for little kids stuff. If you’re not traveling with a little kid, I just don’t get it, save some money and go see Europe or something.
-Trying to walk somewhere in the magic kingdom? Nope, you can’t, there’s a friggin parade. STAND ON THIS SIDE OF THE MASKING TAPE.
-On another trip my inlaws decided to come with, but that’s a whole other post.

Great trip though, love seeing my daughter enjoy it.

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People that get snarky just to be snarky. Have a gal that is very good about bringing her gym shoes in every day…unfortunately she walks across the clean gym floor with her muck boots on to get to her preferred shoe changing bench, asked her to please change in the designated area (tile floor, much easier clean up) and she said, “Ok.” She came in today and made it a point to tell me she didn’t walk across the gym floor with her muck boots on, “I didn’t track anything in today, you’re welcome.” Yeah, lady, thanks so much for having common courtesy.

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