I Was Rude at a Merchandise Stand

[WestAussieGirl]

Last night my brother and I went to watch a major tennis event.  It was a hot summer night so the (indoor) tennis centre had set the air-conditioning somewhere between arctic and sub-arctic.  I was dressed for a hot summer night.  After shivering for the first couple of hours, I decided to go to the merchandise stand and buy something warm to wear.  My brother came with me as he wanted to buy a small souvenier.  I stood back from the stand until I decided what style and size I wanted and then went and stood next to the person being served.  There wasn't a price on the item my brother wanted so we waited to ask....and waited....and waited...and waited.  The person being served tried on at least 15 items of clothing.  She tried virtually every style, in at least two different sizes, rejecting each one.  Each time the sales person had to go the back and get the next item, then refold the previous item.  After waiting almost 30 minutes (during which the match had restarted - so I was missing the action), with only 1 person in front of me in line, I got fed-up.  While the customer was trying on another item of clothing, I interrupted with an "Excuse me, could you please give me the price for x?" then said "Great, I'll have one of those, and that black long-sleeved shirt in x size".  I was paying cash so all up it took about 30 seconds for us to get what we wanted and be gone.  The customer before me got very annoyed (and the sales assistant got a bit flustered as she was trying to keep her best customer service manners and please both of us at once).  I do admit that I was rude, but come on...merchandise stands aren't like fashion boutiques.  Choose your style, choose your size, move on!  I have never before seen anyone try anything on, let alone everything they had to offer.

So who gets thrown into the fire, me (for queue jumping), the sales assistant (who could definitely taken some control and said, I'll just serve this customer while you try on you 100th piece of clothing), or the customer (for not being mindful that merchandise stands need to move lots of people through quickly - I didn't mention that by the time I left there was a sizeable queue and that was during match time).

My brother votes for the customer, but I think it was probably me.  Your thoughts?

[Rose2Bear]

I would rank it like this:
 #1 offender: The Customer, big time, you're right - every merchandise stand I've ever seen is shout your size and style, and have done with it.

#2: The merchant - he should have realized it was OK to move on to you while the other customer was taking her time.   He should have waited till her head was half in the sweatshirt or whatever then quickly moved on to you.

#3: You, but hardly, while line jumping is normally rude, I think the amount of time this took makes this an OK exception by all means.

[FoxPaws]

The customer gets the one-way ticket down. I am a firm believer that one adjusts their maintenance level to the establishment they're in - expensive designer boutique: take all afternoon trying things on, souvenier stand selling t-shirts: in, choose, pay, leave.

The sales assistant gets a short visit for re-training. (Maybe a lack of training was the problem to start with.) She should have been able to handle two people at once. The rejected clothes should have been tossed in a special bin and re-folded later. She also should have set the tone so that HighMaintenance's expectations were reasonable. "Yes, you can try things on. I'll be happy to assist you in between other customers."

You get a slap on the wrist for cutting in line, and another only if your tone was rude, although I probably would have spoken up after only 10 minutes.

[Slartibartfast]

How I understand it, line-jumping is looked on differently in different parts of the country and of the world.  In New York City (I'm told), it's not rude to ask the person ahead of you if you could take your two groceries through the line first since they have a full cart - in the Midwest it would definitely be rude, even if you were really running late and they had three carts' worth.  I know I have definitely been to different food-kiosk-type establishments that had different rules - a smoothie bar on my college campus had a "whoever can catch the attendant's attention first" mentality, so you were free to stand around and read their menu and decide, and when you were ready, just step up to the counter and make eye contact.  One I went to more recently had a very cluttered counter, so you couldn't read the menu until you were right up at the register - so there was a bit of a line because everyone had to get to the counter before they could even start to decide on their order.  (To be fair, a lot must have been repeat customers because they ordered right away - but I felt really awkward holding up the line while trying to decide on my drink.)

I think I would have stood there a while, waiting for the employee to acknowledge me, but you did the right thing.  The other customer was definitely rude.  The employee was more spineless than rude - he should have been able to deal with two customers at once, at least to find out whether you needed something time-consuming or not.  (Not everyone is good at multi-tasking, I know, but I bet he really really wished he could just ignore rude customer for a while!)

[IndianInlaw]

You were assertive.

The other customer was rude to the point of ridiculousness.

[WestAussieGirl]

You get a slap on the wrist for cutting in line, and another only if your tone was rude, although I probably would have spoken up after only 10 minutes.

I'm pretty sure my tone wasn't rude.  I tried to keep it pleasant but purposeful.  I was trying to make it clear that I knew exactly what I wanted and would order it quickly and be gone. 

I may have sighed and shifted my weight around a couple of times (using a PA approach to indicate that I thought the woman before me was taking WAY too long) before deciding to interrupt so I probably deserve the slap for that.

[IndianInlaw]

You were doing her (and the world) a favor.

Maybe next time she'll cut to the chase.

[Suze]

Why would you NEED to try on clothing at one of those stands? 

I mean past the am I a S-M-L-XL  question and the do I want a sweatshirt or t-shirt. What is there to try on?

Was she hunting the shirt that had the imprint in JUST the right spot to show off her 'assets' or what?

I think that the woman "shopping the stand" needs a nice gentle tap with a clue-by-four and told to move on with it!

[Lisbeth]

In this order:

1) The customer was very rude to keep you waiting.  If you go into a small shop with only one or two staffers, and other people are waiting for service, dominating the staff is IMO highly rude, especially for more than, say, 5 minutes or so.

2) The sales assistant should have paused to help you and your brother.  Allowing a customer to keep others waiting that long is IMO unprofessional and rude.

I don't think you were rude for speaking up.

[RJeeves]

I don't know if the customer was rude or not, I think you were ruder then the clerk who was doing her job by assisting a customer. There were no signs there limiting the time one might one reserve assistance for one's self, was there?

You, however, once the customer reached for yet another item of clothing to try on, could have asked THE CUSTOMER if she (or he) would mind if you just paid for a few things thus not putting the poor clerk in an awkward position.

And I've lived in NYC for over 10 years, and while it is always nice when someone offers to let you go ahead of them in line if they have a lot and you, a little, I don't think there's anything particularly special about the place that makes it any less rude to assume your time is more valuable than that of others by asking if you might.

[WestAussieGirl]

I don't know if the customer was rude or not, I think you were ruder then the clerk who was doing her job by assisting a customer. There were no signs there limiting the time one might one reserve assistance for one's self, was there?

Nope, nothing like that.  My only reason for thinking it strange is that I've never seen anyone go through that kind of thing at a merchandise stand.  Generally the sales assistants seem to be serving as many people as possible, and customers move through quickly because everyone wants to be served during intermission so as not to miss the concert/ sporting event.

You, however, once the customer reached for yet another item of clothing to try on, could have asked THE CUSTOMER if she (or he) would mind if you just paid for a few things thus not putting the poor clerk in an awkward position.

Your right.

[kckgirl]

I don't know if the customer was rude or not, I think you were ruder then the clerk who was doing her job by assisting a customer.

I have to disagree with this statement. The lone clerk was letting one person monopolize the entire stand during and beyond an intermission. The clerk didn't need to wait while the first customer tried things on. That would have been the ideal time to check on the other customers.

[RandomAngel]

You, however, once the customer reached for yet another item of clothing to try on, could have asked THE CUSTOMER if she (or he) would mind if you just paid for a few things thus not putting the poor clerk in an awkward position.

I have to disagree with this--the clerk's job is to help people and manage the line.  The customer has already shown that she has no objection to having the world wait while she thinks about which way it should spin.  Why on Earth would you ask the unreasonable woman if the clerk may be allowed to do her job? 

I worked in a bookstore for a while, and I had a woman come in asking for books on a specific subtopic.  Since they were scattered through a couple of sections and our printer was broken, I began handwriting out a list for her with the section, author, beginning of the title, and the ISBN so that she could both initially spot the book, then verify that that was the one she wanted.

By the time I had written about ten, a bit of a line had formed, and the next woman in particular was shifting anxiously.  So I asked my customer if she would mind checking out the ones I had listed for her, and then coming back for the rest.  "I understand that people are waiting, but I was here first," she snapped.

She clearly did not understand that most of those people were waiting just to ask where the restroom was, or if we had the new Harry Potter.  And although I still hate the position she put me in, it wasn't her job to understand that. 

The customer in your case was being a bit odd, sure, but it was the clerk's responsibility to keep everything running smoothly, and I think you were absolutely right to address your question to her.

[Gemini]

Interesting... where I'm from (or perhaps just the way I was raised) it's rude for the person who is taking a million years to choose an item (or has a million items in their basket, etc.) not to acknowledge the huge wait they're creating for others and suggest that they be helped in the meantime. A little consideration goes a long way.

It's just second nature for me to tell someone with two items to go ahead of me in line at the grocery checkout (though I do wonder why they don't use the express lane ). And if I'm gawking over a bunch of gewgaws and need more time to make up my mind, I'll suggest to the sales clerk that they help someone else who is waiting, if they don't know to do that already.

Sounds to me like the employee at the tennis concession stand needs more training. Sounds like the person who needed to try everything on while a huge queue formed should have their social blinkers removed. Sounds like you made a perfectly reasonable request after waiting almost 30 minutes.