Just remembered a recent experience I had at work that made me angry, so I thought I'd share.
I work for an office supply chain as a front-end associate. Business is slow nowadays so any customer with a rather big transaction is doted on and pushed to get the warranty, yada yada.
One day, I was moseying around at the front when I got a call on the phone – older gentleman looking for pens. I couldn't immediately guess which ones he was trying to find so I had to go on our website to see.
At the same time, a line started to form at checkout and more cashiers were called over to help. My manager noticed a customer in line who seemed like they were spending quite a lot, and within five minutes he radioed me in a hushed tone telling me to hurry it up because he wanted to try adding another expensive product to their basket before another associate rung them up.
The man I was speaking to on the phone sounded like he was pushing 80 with how slowly he formulated his thoughts and spoke, but he was kind and polite so my patience was well in abundance, but my manager was not having it. Again, he told me to hurry it up and by the time I let the man on the phone know which brand of pens he was looking for, the customer had already paid and left.
He didn't lay into me for it (instead grumbling that he wasn't able to pry even more money out of them) but he almost made me feel guilty for nearly hanging up on that poor old man, and that's what makes me angry. They drill into us “Customer First,” but don't add the fine print: “Customer With More Money First.”
And sure, you can argue “Well he's just doing his job” or “The in-person customer should take priority” but the whole thing felt gross to me. I don't know. I just hate retail.