This video sums up clerks in Japan
I am very in frequent with my blog, but now that it's colder outside I guess I will be in doors more so perhaps I will be writing more. Last year was a fantastic year for me, best year in Japan hands down. I am looking to make this year even better, as I exercise both my mind and body. But one thing I want to talk about is my experience in Japanese stores...
In America if you asked a store clerk where something is they would either tell you where it is or page someone who does know where the item is. In Japan things work a little differently. You ask a store clerk if the store cares a particular item and one of two things will happen:
1. They will walk you to the area where the item is and show you where it is.
2. They will immediately say NO.
Situation 1 happens maybe 20% of the time, and the other 80% of the time I find myself in situation 2. And guess what in situation 2 about 90% of the time they DO have the item! Now if your going to lie to a customer at least make an effort to deceive them, buy immediately saying "No" sometimes before I even finish asking the question, I immediately think this man/woman isn't even trying. Just say you aren't sure and apologize.
The worst situation was when I went to γγΎγ which I was told was a foreign food mecca but is actually just a glorified liquor shop. I wanted to buy taco shells to make for me and a girl that was coming over for dinner (ohhh yeaa!). I asked a lady at the front register do you have taco shells, in Japanese of course and to clarify I actually pulled up various pictures of taco shells on my iPhone to show her, so that there was no confusion. She didn't even really bother to look at the picture or anything. She just glanced and said "we don't sell this sorry". Skeptically I said thanks and set about to search for the item myself. I searched exhaustively because I really wanted to make some tacos. After looking for a few minutes I gave up and just bought some salsa and some Corona, next best thing I guess. I was checking out and the lady at the register bent down to get a bag to put my items into. And when she bent down lo and behold sitting on a shelf directly behind here were. . .*GASP* taco shells. I mean WTF, does she just not want me to buy taco shells? Is she trying to keep them hidden so she can buy them all when she gets off work?
Another similar situation happened with my friend he went out to a bar with his co-workers and he wanted to introduce his co-workers to his favorite beer. He asked the bartender for 3 of the beer in question. And he replied sorry we don't have anymore tonight. Later on like probably 30 minutes later same bartender comes over and says "would you like to try this new beer? It's on special tonight." Guess which beer it was.
Another situation is if you have to buy anything that requires a specific size. Like for example I need some pedal parts for my bike cranks. I went to buy the part which requires english threading of a center diameter, it only takes ONE size there aren't other sizing options it's very specific. The guy at the bike shop I went to informed me he didn't have any parts in that size but offered to sell me some parts they not only weren't english but were wayy too small. And if that wasn't bad enough when I pointed these obvious things out to him he said "you could wrap rubber bands around the spindle ends and just jam it in there." Not only is that dangerous that is irresponsible things for a bike store clerk to be saying. I mean what happens if I did that and while riding my bike my pedal comes clean off the crank? I have a racing style bike so I am going as fast if not faster than cars on the streets here! Is there just no sense of liability in this country?
And heaven forbid you want to make changes to an order... Just try to order a hamburger with no cheese at some places. The worker just freezes in place and panics, with a deer in headlights look like OMG WTF do I DOOO NO CHEESE!!! One guy even went so far as to recommend another type of burger, I don't want an alternative I just want the burger I had with no cheese it's not that hard honestly, at the point when you make the burger where cheese is required just don't pick it up.
