Korean Job Discussion Forums

[osangrl]

ok....so i have a pretty easy week. Except for friday when i have to be at the school for meetings and such at 12 and finish at 9. So don't mess with me on a friday.

After work i went to Lotte Mart....i live in Osan and there isn't many other places to shop (however i will now be switching to Hannam Mart)......... And i must also remind people that im not one of those expats that complain about Korea much, but tonite blew my mind and i couldn't control my anger.

So the place is busy. BUSY. Got my hair color, my cat food, my juice, milk and cereal and was ready to go. Stepped into one of the LONG lines.... now it ceases to amaze me that they have like 12 cashes and 4 girls working........anyhow i wait for over 15 minutes in line. Then my turn is coming...1 girl in front of me..........then the lady puts her closed sign up. ... the guy behind me was infuriated as was I. I only have like 8 things,,,,, so i put my stuff on the counter anyways. The lady shakes her head and points to the 3 open lines of 14 people. And would not process my stuff.


In conclusion.... my face was red, i was ANGRY, i threw my basket at the wench and stormed out of the store.

I know ugly foreigner syndrome...but that is ridiculous....i worked at a supermarket throughout highschool and that would never be permitted.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I hope the juice hurt, and the eggs broke.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I can't top it, but maybe I can match it.

A few years ago I was in Carrefour in Taejon. I had paid for my stuff and my cart was pretty full. Headed out the door to the taxi stand where there were 5 or 6 Koreans with carts waiting for a cab.

Some manager type guy wouldn't let me out. Kept saying something about way-gook sarams. He took my bags out of the cart and put them on the floor.

It was clear that Koreans could take a cart outside, but a foreigner couldn't.

[osangrl]

it would top me.....if you threw the cart at him???!!!!

[osangrl]

im still mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[captain kirk]

I dunno, I think the clerks make three thousand won an hour. That's what they get in McDonalds. What does that buy you? Yeah, nothing. So those ladies are offended by the 'foreigner' cranking out the 'big bucks' with no experience but being born a 'native speaker'. They don't know we have degrees. I don't think they'd care

[ryleeys]

When you have to provide money for yourself, it's not always an option to quit. And at some point, the girl does have to say, "No more customers." If she lets just one more person in, then the next person will feel equally slighted... either way, she just has to put her foot down at some point.

[Alias]

At the local LG Mart here, they will have about a dozen employees in the stores promoting everything from Kimchi to breakfast cereal. BUT they will only have two cashiers working making for very long lineups. Never could figure this one out.

[osangrl]

[Kristsoy]

i agree with osan i was a cashier supervior for Sobeys in Nova Scotia, which means i trian people for exactly those sort of situations. It would never happen back home, it's pure common sense to not piss off the customer

[ryleeys]

Actually, I have seen this happen in North America... at least the USA part.

And I admit, I get fully annoyed when I walk into Target and only 3 of the 20 registers are open. No doubt, this girl could have shown she was closing in some way or another better than she did. But even in America, where they turn off the light above the cash register, people still try and sneak into line... "Oh, I've only got a few items, what can it hurt?" But realistically, this girl is a person just like us and wants to finish her job and go home. I definitely get annoyed when my last class finishes at 6pm and then some kid (always using the excuse of cleaning their classroom at school) shows up late and I have to stay an extra half hour.

Look at it from her point of view. She's had a long shift and her boss says she can go home now. No doubt she wants to slap the closed up there and say no more. Like I said, if she let you in, then the guy behind you wants in... then the guy behind him... then the woman behind him, etc.

I don't see this as being a fault of the cashier's, I see it being the fault of management for either not opening more registers or for not having an appropriate way to warn customers that a line is closing.

[J.B. Clamence]

[captain kirk]

Have you ever been reading the Korea Times and then come across an article which describes Korea as a 'developing country' as compared to Western countries such as Canada, the U.S. It's 'easy' to forget that because Korea 'looks developed', perhaps to a degree a lot more than it IS developed. Because of the stress on appearances, looking good. Shopfronts with stonework to look like 'edifices', like banks. Average office working company joes in suits. Cars all buffed up and shiny white.
If you look at the car as a symbol of a 'developed nation' (to a degree) then look at the driving skills. Or the liberties taken that reveal there isn't the awareness of regulations, rules, that become 'the way to do things, simply' in the West that we know. Like when you're walking along on the sidewalk and you get an ominious feeling, a feeling of foreboding and you look behind and there's a car crawling along insistently nudging your calf with its bumper wanting you to 'get out of the way' on the sidewalk so he can drive . If you look at the shopping line-up situation as another example of unregulated interaction for the lack of having developed better, yet, well then what are you going to do, haul out a megaphone and draw everyone a picture?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[ThisCharmingMan]

Nice one grl from osan.
Are people going to be like you when I get back home?

[osangrl]

i don't care if her shift was over or not. She should have, or someone should have said...no customers after......this.... point.

A line up of people waiting for almost 20 minutes, and then finally getting to her and she puts her sign up and says go away.

oh ya, sure i was soooooooo in the wrong.

not.