The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

So I’m the kinda customer/shopper who tries not to make a scene or a big deal about anything. Like I’m the kinda person where if the server gets my order wrong, I’ll just eat it anyways to avoid the hassle for everyone. Now I’m sure a lot of y’all are like that, at least in that example, but I think working in retail has made me like hypersensitive or extremely vigilant about these things lol. Like here’s another example, my boy and I were at the Nike store a while ago and he took these pants off of the hanger to look at them, didn’t know how to put them back onto the hanger so he just threw it to the side. I was like BRO, at least try to put it back properly lol. So I took the pants and tried to make it as presentable as possible, now if still might’ve been wrong and the employee might still have had to fix it regardless of either situation, but it’s the effort and thought that counts. Like when I’m working and a customer picks up an item and just kinda dashes it wherever they please, ohhhhh that grinds my gears…but when they at least try to fold it or hang it back properly, even if it’s not correct and I still have to fix it I appreciate the effort. Working in retail and having to go through these things really reinforces in my brain that’s its not easy working customer service and we and y’all really have to deal with a lot. So I was getting bubble tea the other day and it was stuuuuupid busy., For context, there was some free delivery and pick up option for online ordering so it was packed out the bum. So there was a line to get into the store, lemme tell you it was 15 minutes before I got into the store, then I swear to you another 30 minutes to get to the front of the line and place my order then another 30 minutes before I actually got my order. So they have like a solid 6-8 people working, but they were all focused on the online orders because they had timed deadlines. But even the dude who was working the cash register for the actual customers was like overwhelmed with all the online orders coming in, like he had bare receipts in his hands so the physical line for ordering would legit move ever 5-10 minutes. So waiting for my drink like I said was another 30 minutes and as tempted as I was to go off cuz I was like yo how is this line not moving and how am I waiting like 30 minutes for 2 drinks. But I just kept my cool, kindly asked if my order was ready a couple times and eventually, I got it and dude was like hey sorry for the wait, thanks for your patience. I just thought about all those super busy days I had, all those really tiring and hard days that I had where I wasn’t feeling it and I empathized with them. It got me thinking like man, people are allowed to have their good and bad days, yeah they should still be professional but like who am I to judge or go off on someone when I don’t know what they’re going through, I don’t kno what happened to them yesterday or even the morning of. So whether it’s like a rude server, an impatient sales associate or maybe even a friend even who snaps at you…everyone’s allowed to have their good and bad days and you never know what someone is going through or has gone through. Then of course, the flip side is like well if you’re having a bad day or aren’t feeling well, you definitely shouldn’t and it’s not fair for you to project that or put that onto someone else by like yelling at a customer or being rude to someone. It’s a two sided coin for sure and it’s moreso something I’ve noticed in my own life and a reminder I try to keep in mind like when I’m a customer and things aren’t going my way, chill out, be patient, you.don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and as an employee, yeah I have my bad days or whatever, but I shouldn’t put that onto somebody else. Hope you’re doing well, staying safe, staying warm cuz it’s getting pretty cold out there…I’ll see y’all soon, peace.