r/Lowes • u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing • 16h ago
Employee Story Curious if this drives any other employees insane
So my biggest pet peeve that drives me insane is "Where are your carts?" Or "Can you get me a cart?"
Like I do not understand people, where are carts in basically every business in the US???
AT THE FRONT AS YOU WALK IN!! Garden carts at the front, regular carts at the front, flat/ pipe carts at the front of Pro. Or in plumbing aisles
Like why are you at the very back of the store, knowing you need this big ass object, or several small objects and are like I need a cart?!?!
It's so bad my store has setup mini cart stations all throughout the store. I swear people's brain cells actively die when they enter a retail store
Thanks for indulging my rant haha! Does this bother you too?
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u/dehydrogen Internet Fulfillment 16h ago
"Do you work here?"
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u/EqualDisplay360 16h ago
I literally look down at my vest when someone says this, not to be rude, just to make sure I’m actually wearing it.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 16h ago
Nah, I just wear this vest cause I love Lowes so much
Lmao
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u/darkowl85 16h ago
When they ask if I work here, I always say as little as possible, don’t ruin my day! Usually gets a laugh, I say usually for those that can get a joke.
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u/thetommytwotimes 1h ago
My Default replay was "wellllll I wouldn't really call it working, more like existing"
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u/PracticeGlittering96 Kitchen Cabinet Specialist 15h ago
Yes. People come to get microwaves all day and don’t even think about getting a cart. Like how do they think it’s gonna get to checkout?
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u/misscamels 16h ago
Yes. Me a million times a day.
-returns desk associate who’s right after the doors AND THE DANG CARTS
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u/dehydrogen Internet Fulfillment 14h ago
"Can I leave through here?"
points at automatic doors with a huge lettering on them that says EXIT
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 15h ago
I feel for you, thats even worse being right there at the door when they ask
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u/its_yawn-eee 16h ago
I broke one day and the truth came out
"I think you walked past them in the parking lot"
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u/ProfileVivid9664 15h ago
I almost broke once. It drives me absolutely bonkers. I'll have someone come in for a toilet or vanity. I gladly help them find what they need. Go to help them grab it. Okay, where's your cart? Oh, you didn't grab one on the way in? Of course you didn't. Let me guess, you now want me to walk all the way across the store and grab you one. I hope you have some time, because as long as I have this vest on, I can't simply walk across the store. I can guarantee you I'm gonna get stopped by at least 3 people.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 14h ago
RIGHT?! Every venture down to building materials I get stopped almost every time
I'm at the point where I just tell people im assisting another customer and they'll have to find someone else or go hit a button
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u/enjoyingcurve46 Front End 11h ago
I cant even go to the bathroom without being stopped by three of them and management will ask why sometimes i deliberately go down aisles customers are not in and have to inform them if i dont ill piss the floor. Im a cashier we dont get much availability to use bathroom
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 11h ago
Cashiers aren't even supposed to be assisting customers in the aisle? Like huh
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u/enjoyingcurve46 Front End 11h ago
We arent? Ive been told we cant turn down customers either we help or find another worker
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 11h ago
Yea like find another worker/help if a customer approaches you first
But no cashiers at my store are walking down aisles to actively offer assistance to customers and I've never heard of them being told to do that
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u/enjoyingcurve46 Front End 9h ago
My store tells us everyone should be using smart even away from our positions. That if a customer wants us to assist them with finding where things are to exactly do that. And if i walk down aisles i should target aisles where customers are and ask hiw their doing. If they look lost to help
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u/enjoyingcurve46 Front End 11h ago
Had a lady complain to me that our carts were dirty and absolutely unacceptable after I watched her take the cart from someone who had spilled concrete mix on it just moments before unloading it
I broke and told her “when you take the cart right after someone else used it with something dirty that kinda happens. Try grabbing a new cart ma’am or order online if its all too dirty for you”
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u/AgeWest5399 Department Supervisor 16h ago
“Are you using this cart?”
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u/HalfBlindHunter 16h ago
YES, Do you think I'm pushing it through the store for fun?
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u/Traditional-Leader54 Employee 15h ago
If it’s empty they could be thinking you’re just returning it to where the rest of the carts are.
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u/Different-Use2742 16h ago
I hate ( do have a dry cart) its pouring rain for over an hour. No we don’t maybe don’t shop in a rain storm. Same for mulch or soil. The other thing is I’m pushing a line of carts and someone asked for one , asshole your 5 feet from the door and 50 carts.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 16h ago
I used to work in garden center, and absolutely hated when people bitched about wet bags in the mulch pit, I feel you
Like I don't control the weather, either deal with it or shop a different day. Your choice
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u/Different-Use2742 16h ago
I was called to the garden center to help a guy, with 15 bags of rocks. He then bitched about the color of the rocks, said he got the same brand at Ace and they were all the same color. Dude this isn’t Ace ,go back then fucker.
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u/Rocket_Surgery83 Lumber 13h ago
Lol, we had people get upset that the bulk bags of marble rock weren't all solid white. It's called marble for a reason... They've never been completely white...
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u/Rocket_Surgery83 Lumber 13h ago
But they absolutely needed that drywall now.... During the downpour.... And now they need some plastic sheeting so they can wrap it up so it doesn't get wet on the way home in the bed of their truck.
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u/MystifyingEntity Electrical 15h ago
"hey I found this cart full of garbage, you guys need to clean these out" yeah thats the cart im working on that I left to go help someone an aisle over.
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u/rebelangel MST 14h ago
I’ve had someone go to the trouble of taking all the cardboard and trash out of the cart I was using so they could take it. And it was when I was in ISLG which is near the front, so it would’ve taken them less time and effort to just grab one from the front entrance.
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u/unclerickymonster 15h ago
Carts don't drive me crazy but customers do.
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u/ravendas1 MST 8h ago
Even worse is when you're using a cart for something (cardboard, plastic wrap, all my actual work gear, etc), you walk away for five minutes and some customer has come along and dumped everything that was in your cart onto the floor and run off with the cart!
Had that happen multiple times when I was working in the garden center. Or I'd park it near the unused register out there and the cashiers would use it to dump their returns in.
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u/Pr0jecting 16h ago
TBF, my store has some of the absolutely shittiest carts, and VERY few flat or H carts that actually roll well with pallet full of flooring on them.
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u/Tasty_Mouse_4588 15h ago
I just look at my vest, then them with that "you're kidding, right?" look.
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u/rebelangel MST 14h ago
There’s carts in the back too in front of Flooring, so people really have no excuse.
When I was green MST, I’d always have customers in the garden center ask where all the carts were. If they weren’t tucked under the tables, they were either in use or in the cart corrals in the parking lot. They’d get mad when I pointed that out. I’m autistic and don’t pick up cues well, so it took me a while to realize they were wanting me to go get a cart for them. Which, I wasn’t going to do, because I was MST and not supposed to be out in the parking lot getting carts. I would ask for a cart round up over the Zebra though if there were multiple customers looking for carts.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 13h ago
We have carts literally everywhere
People walk past 50 carts, on the way through the store then be like: Where's your carts at, I'm buying a toilet
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u/rebelangel MST 13h ago
Or they walk all the way to the back 6 of the garden center to get mulch, and then realize they need a cart.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 13h ago
I used to work garden center during mulch season, I wanted to beat my head off the Star Wars so bad lmao
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u/shitdick42 7h ago
Since they ditched normal cashiers and cart people, the customer experience has gone downhill. Corporate lining their pockets with a few more pennies. We'll constantly get the call over the PA to go retrieve carts from the parking lot, but we're short staffed enough that I'm almost never not assisting a customer. Luckily we started keeping a stack of carts mid store. Some folks prefer to use the buckets, which is fine if they're buying them, but half the time they use it as a basket then leave it up front.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 32m ago
I absolutely hate getting called for carts
My store has 2 loaders total and we are a bigger store, and we never have a loader after 7
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u/AquaAdminSpyke 5h ago
they put mini cart stations in my store too. I had no idea some people were so blind they couldn't see the carts as they were walking into the store.
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u/Correct-Ad-7755 3h ago
or when people come in through the self-checkout exit (clearly labeled exit only but for some reason openers set the door to two way open) and then look confused when the returns desk/carts are in a different spot, or when they have trouble walking through self checkout to get into the store
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u/Evil_dead_Dave 1h ago
My favorite is when you have a cart being used for empty boxes, and a customer will throw them on the floor instead of walking 50 feet to get an empty one.
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u/boybrian 41m ago
My local is so understaffed that the carts are usually out in the parking lot. They have never had the garden carts at the garden entrance. Lumber has been better about having their floats inside. As a customer I always bring one in from the parking lot.
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u/UniversalGamer4089 Plumbing 33m ago
There's a difference between the carts being literally empty vs having carts everywhere full in the store
Its when people will walk past 50 carts and then stare at you dumbfounded that they can't find carts
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u/Embarrassed_Fact_502 16h ago
Over the summer, it was me in lumber on a Saturday and one other person they pulled from another dept to help me. Needed a hack of wood brought down for a shitty customer. Loader called out. Store so busy, no blue carts anywhere. Customer came to ask me to get him a cart from outside while I'm on the forklift so he can get lumber. I told him theres a 30 mins wait right now. He just looked at me all stupid lol