Is the staff mute?

It's really simple. A customer is giving the business (Dollar Tree)
money in exchange for goods.
No customers, no money, No Dollar Tree..no job.
There are plenty of places you can go, and Dollar Tree execs should
be aware of this fact.
It is a breakdown in customer training.
Sure every customer is not pleasant to deal with.
Tough! It's part of the job. Be nice, be courteous, ring the customer
up. If customer is a jerk or whatever, too bad. That's part of your
job.
Don't like it, don't work with the public.

ok here is the thing.... I work at a retail business and it Is our job
to talk to customers just a simple "Hi there" or How are you" type of
thing but Some ppl make it very hard to do this.... There are too many
ppl coming into retail stores lately in a bad mood and taking it out
on the employee or they are on their blasted Cell phones and they
ignore us completely.... After so many of those finally you start to
not talk to the customers anymore cause you are so annoyed all the
time.... I understand that some customers like being talked to and
some actually prefer it but you have to understand that the crabby and
rude customers make it very hard for us to want to talk to anyone
sometimes...... I give example... I asked a man that looked ill to
begin with today... "Hi Hun How Are you".... You know what I got
back.... "Look lady I dont want you to talk to me ring up my sh*t so I
can get out of this place.... you dont have to chat me up just do your
job and get out of my face".... Get the point??????????

I think the dollar stores are one of those mega chains stores with
underpaid employees and a great idea for sales. Its one that seems to
depend on who owns it in that area that determines the attitudes of
the employees.

ick.... why is it anytime a person's skin tone is used to discribe
them, someone always has to come shout racist.

If the OP did not get the cashiers name, or didn't remember her name
after a few weeks, adding a descriptive detail hardly qualifies her as
a racist. It's not different from saying "the cashier with red hair
and freckles", or "the girl with the dark eyes and light hair".

I regret ever posting this. I didn't come running home to write this
letter because I was so darn mad; I was simply annoyed at the
transaction. That's not the case at all. This happened a few weeks
before this letter was written. I wanted to get others comments to
the situation (originally being the cashier was silent through-out the
transaction). Little did I know I'd be called a"closet racist" and
that I should stop complaining and that I should be more understanding
to the cashier in question. Granted, I understand I should have
included a better description of the cashier; however, I simply do not
remember what she looked like. I think that people are very quick to
assume things that are simply not true, and that is pretty damn sad.
I respect all the replies to the letter, but I am... offended, for
lack of a better word, at some of the things that are ASSUMED about
me. I feel the need to defend myself for saying "black female," and
that is just... silly, I suppose.

LoL
You are the minor one, I think everyone will agree with, a little
politeness goes a long way,
you're nothing but a 2 bit racist, what difference does it make
whether it was a black female or a Chinese male or a white teenager?
If you were so offended by your afternoon at the Dollar Store, then
get the clerk's name not the color of their skin.

Get a life

You know what maybe, she could be deaf and mute you never know. They
also have the right to work without being discrimated against. If
this is her case then she could be offended by your complainted also
If this is he case this is not really your business, however I just
think she is rude. Then again you never know.

Too bad that things dont work like this in reality.

People have bad days. Just because they are stuck in a minimum wage
job, facing a bunch of grumpy people, doesn't mean they are going to
react the way a company wants them to. Come to think of it, it's
probably the company's fault they're grumpy to begin with. So many
companies are so absuive to their cheap labor, it's pathetic.

Im fortunate to have the ability to have worked with some real awesome
bosses. And, I have learned to try to emulate that to my employees.
You make a mistake, fix it. Kindness and generosity help make things
better for the workers, I believe.

Now, that said and done, yes, an employee should be friendly.
Sometimes they are not. I never expect an employee to iniate a polite
greeting. I find that when I iniatee with a Hello, and a sincere How
are you? I never get ignored. And, sometimes, people who are in a bad
mood, to to brighten up a little.

It's not always about us. We can go out of the way too.

Btw, I'll never forget the time I was in a bad mood, walked in the
Walmart, and the greeter saw my expression, and made a comment, to
cheer me up. It didn't, but, i never forgot it. And, it was a nice
gesture. Sometimes it's good to recognize a person's demeanor, and
attempt to cheer them up. Regardless what side of the counter we're
on.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I can't stand it when I go to a store and the cashier doesn't say a
word. I always say hi(it doesn't matter who's first) but tell me what
the total is and say thank you. That's all I need.

As to the other posters who mentioned people having bad days--I agree
with that, too. I know we're all human but it's sill your job.

I went through hell watching both of my parents die a slow death and
still had to deal with customers. Some of whom were #&*holes. I still
said hi, told them their total and said thank you even though I wanted
to sometimes tell them to stick it, in so many words.

Also, last year I was in extreme pain with a bad hip and on my feet 40
hrs a week and STILL did the above.

If I can do it anyone can. I know it's a cliche (right spelling?)but
it's true.

PS. I didn't mean to give myself a pat on the back and make it sound
like it's all about me! Even though it is. :)

Courtney, thank you for sharing this valid concern. As consumers, we
have come to expect that companies will court our dollar with
friendly, helpful employees. Unfortunately, we are often greeted with
employees who are paid so little or treated with so little respect,
they have no motivation to show it to anyone else. No one wants to
spend money in a place where they feel unwelcome.

I do hope the Dollar Tree will respond to your complaint in a
satisfactory manner. If not, I'd suggest finding a new dollar store
to patronize. They are plentiful in most areas, these days.

As Aleyria said, there is no rule about who speaks first. I always
say hello when I approach the register, but truthfully, I couldn't
care less if the cashier talks to me or not. I'd rather hear nothing
than some forced, obligatory small talk. On the other hand, most
cashiers return my greeting with a spontaneous reply, and we end up
having a friendly conversation.

I honestly feel that people who complain about this have nothing else
to complain about. The cashier's job is to complete my transaction
quickly and accurately, without having to worry about how I'm doing.
Don't forget, the cashier goes from one person to the next for hours
on end. I don't expect them to repeat the same greeting over and over
again, especially when there are customers who probably give them the
silent treatment more often than not.

The only thing I do like to know before completing my transaction is
the total amount of the bill. If that's the only thing the cashier
utters to me, I'm satisfied.

I also hate it when a check-out clerk is sullen and rude. It is
annoying, especially since I make it a point to say, "Hi, how are you
doing today? to any store employee I come into contact with. At that
point the employee has really no excuse for not at the very least
saying, "I've been better." Did you address the clerk before she gave
you the silent treatment? Did you greet her, ask her how her day was?
If you didn't do those things, I can understand why she was quiet.

Granted, she should at least have said, "That will be $14.50," or
something similar, but I think if a customer called me "sunshine," it
would be all I could do not to tell them to go to hell, let alone
"smile and do [my] best to satisfy [my] customer."

I guess I see why you are annoyed, but I don't see why this is
important enough to spend your time writing a letter about it.

dragonflygrrlpfb@hotmail.com

Customers don't speak up to employees, but then they complain about
store employees who don't approach them and make the first move.

SPEAK UP. Just start out by saying to the check out woman, "Hi there,
it's so busy in here today!" Or "Hi, how are you doing today?"
Ideally, business employees would make the first move, but they hire
flawed human beings just like our own employers do.

I don't think it's asking too much to just cut a poor, overworked,
underpaid (minimum wage?) store clerk some slack. Maybe she's working
a double shift or she has a sick kid at home, whatever.

When I worked at Hardee's in high school, I had a customer one day who
was a real a-hole. I complained later, and my manager pointed out
that our restaurant was on the corner of a very busy intersection,
both roads leading to two major medical centers, and that patients and
their worried families often stopped for food. She said to just
assume that someone who is sullent, or not chipper, or whatever, is
going through something worse than we can imagine, and we should treat
them like WE'D want to be treated if we were going to visit a dying
father, a sick child, or on our way for radiation treatments.

Maybe it doesn't have to be that melodramatic at the Dollar Store, but
from I can tell, those Dollar Store cashiers have their work cut out
for them. Be kind.

I have been to this store MANY times.. not the same store.. but a
dollar tree store and I find that pretty much any.. cheaper retailer..
the employees seem very unhappy and rude. The last time i went.. the
emp. pretty much threw my change at me.. but i didn't say anything.
from now.. i'll give them the same crappy attitude.. maybe its the
fact that they don't have much income that makes them crabby? :shrug:

Brightie pointed out soom good things.

But what if she really WAS mute? Wouldn't you feel like a heel then?
Why would you expect premium service from a dollar store?

African is a race. However, I was responding to someone who implied
that she might be African as opposed to black. "Black" in this context
would suggest "a division of mankind possessing traits that are
transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a
distinct human type" (MW). Many who are of the African race are also
members of the black race, but it is sufficient to assume someone is a
member of the black race if they "possess the trait" of very dark skin
without knowing their nationality. What they call themselves, of
course, may be something else entirely (sable, brown, mixed, sexual
caramel - oh wait, that's just my husband, sorry), but for the purpose
of the OPs letter the description is sufficient to convey her gist,
I'll let everyone else debate rather the detail is significant.

You all, that term African should NOT have caused a big issue. I think
someone is taking what I said and going to another level with it. TO
THE OP: I don't know you personally to call you anything other than by
your name. I simply wanted to state that there are other descriptive
ways to tell who a person is. It does sound a bit racist but that does
not mean that is what you meant. Just keep in mind there are other
details about a person besides race. That's it. The African as a race
debate really does not fit the issue of the letter.