Friday, April 04, 2008

Service With An Attitude?

I'm in the middle of recovering an ottoman for upholstery class. Yesterday, I had to stop at a fabric store to pick up some supplies. This isn't a big, shiny chain store like Jo-Ann Fabrics. No scrapbooking aisle here. It's a no-frills, warehouse-type place with bolts of decorator fabric piled high to the ceiling. They also sell stuff like replacement mechanisms for Grandpa's recliner or new bun feet for the family sofa.

When I was there, one of the employees was a woman in her 50s, and she was walking around with a scowl on her face. This broad was pissed and wanted the whole world to know it. In fact, she was none too pleased when I requested to have some piping cut.

And then I noticed her t-shirt. It was sporting the same phrase as the one pictured below:



I dont find the shirt offensive, per se. It would be funny when worn by an emo kid, a smarmy college student, or even a spunky old guy. But on a retail store employee--an employee whose job involves public interaction--it is inappropriate.
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I have shopped at this store before, and it appears to be a very casual work environment. There's no dress code that I know of. And that's is fine. I'm definitely a champion for discount fabric and low overhead. But why would a business owner allow an employee to give his customers a passive-aggressive "F#&% YOU" through her manner of dress?

2 comments:

MG said...

I agree 100%. If I were the owner and saw it, I'd have sent her home. Unless, she IS the owner.

Ms. Val said...

Mark, I don't think she's the owner. This place has been in business for many years, and you don't achieve that kind of longevity by being short with people.

But apparently, I'm not the only one in my thinking. Here's part of a store review I found:

The staff is ... well, actually ... I've been going here for years and I have this theory that for a while they hired most of their staff from prison release programs. There were all these huge scary-looking guys with interesting tattoos, and then a lot of skinny scared-looking guys, also with serious ink. And not the Miami Ink kind of ink. But I digress.

Don't let that random aside keep you away -- the staff seems to be mostly crabby women now...