This woman comes up to me today while I’m running (meaning returning the clothes from the middle of the store to their appropriate section of the store) and asks me if we have any more of the white skirt on our mannequin. I said that if we did, they’d be over in that section, and pointed to the back left of the store.

She looks in the section and returns 5 minutes later. She says “there’s only a large over there. The one on the mannequin is a small, can we switch them so my daughter can have the small?” I tell her (very nicely, of course) that per company instructions, we aren’t allowed to remove any article of clothing from the mannequins until they’ve decided to reset all the mannequins in the store. It’s a corporate policy. I also tell her that we could have it held for her for when they DO switch the mannequins, and if she wants, I can get a manager to do that for her. She declines, saying that her daughter needs it TONIGHT for a sorority initiation. I apologize and say that I can’t take it off.

She then gets an evil grin on her face and asks, “well, what if I took it off?” I tell her that our cashiers won’t ring it up if it’s taken off of a mannequin, and that they would get in trouble if they did. Her response: “Well how would THEY know?” I tell her that the display clothes do not have sensors (ink tags) on them and that the cashiers are trained to NEVER ring any article of clothing up without a sensor on it.

She turns to me, says “Oh, well you’re useless then, aren’t you?” and walks away.

And on the same note, about horrible customers, why do they all insist on walking up to a bare spot at the cash wrap counter, one with no registers or anything, and asking “Are you open?” It’s so tempting to respond, “Yes, in fact I am. Did you know that all cashiers undergo a special operation to have cash registers imbedded in their bodies and scanners implanted in their fingers? It’s a requirement, you know!” :bang