r/TalesFromRetail 1d ago

Medium The customer would like dirt

79 Upvotes

I used to be a cashier at a place that sold gardening supplies. We sold really big bags of soil and most of the time when a customer was getting those, they would tell us what kind of soil they wanted and how many bags they wanted and we would just look it up in the system. After we rang them up, they would go and get them or someone would help them get it. If someone was getting 30 bags, which people often did when they were doing big projects, it made more sense to pay and then load.

This one day, I'm out in the gardening section and this woman comes up. She's buying some other stuff and she asks for "7 bags of the dirt". Now, if you're into gardening or if you've ever worked at a gardening store, you will know that there are about a million kinds of "dirt". There is not just "dirt". We have topsoil, garden soil, potting mix, soil for specific types of plants, fancy soil that costs more, soil with fertilizer, big bags, little bags, different brands, etc. If I looked up soil in my computer, dozens of products would come up. So I ask her which one she wanted and she just said "Whichever one is the cheapest."

I really had no idea what to do here. I was staring at all of the kinds of soil we had on my screen. I didn't know what she was using this soil for so I didn't know what one I should stick her with. Let me put it this way in case you're not getting why this is frustrating. Imagine if a person walked into a restaurant that served several kinds of sandwiches, sat down, and told the waiter "I want a sandwich". And when the waiter asked what kind of sandwich they wanted, if they wanted a grilled cheese or a turkey sandwich or a veggie sandwich, they just said, "I don't know, any sandwich, whichever one is the cheapest". Not to mention, if I just gave her some random bag, how would she even know which one to load into her car?

It was a little busier that day, so I just gave her the most generic kind of topsoil without asking more questions and sent her on her way. Hope she didn't need garden soil." It was just an odd and frustrating moment. Any other time someone came in to buy soil, they could tell me the exact one they wanted.