AG Customers

American Girl customers are interesting but they can be defined into basically two categories: demanding and understanding. Customers can be very demanding. I guess that’s understandable with the price they are paying for some of the doll things, but some people get a little out of hand and managers have to be called in.

One thing AG does not do is sell things directly off the dolls, meaning we cannot take things off of the displays and sell them. It cannot and will not be done, but most customers will not take that as a final answer. I had one man come in around Thanksgiving and he wanted the gymnastics set. We were sold out of it and I explained that to him. This man tried to guilt me into it by saying that he had just gotten back from deployment overseas and this was the one thing his daughter wanted. When I explained again that I couldn't sell it off the display he got quite angry and asked for a manager but left before the manager came out. I had a mom do that too, where she saw this furry shrug and really wanted one but we were sold out of the holiday set (what it came in). She became very angry and pointed out that there were at least three upstairs on display and they weren't actually being "used" and her daughter could physically play with it, unlike the dolls. She demanded to see a manager and argued with them about it too, but we can't sell things from the displays, so she didn't get one.

I understand that people want what they came for but if we don’t have it, we can’t magically sell what we don’t have. I have had people send me back into the stock room multiple times just to check “one more time” for whatever they want. I know it is disappointing to go somewhere and they don't have what you want, but no matter how many times I check, your desired item will not magically show up the fifth time I check. Believe me, I want to give you what you want, but sometimes we just don’t have it. Especially when it’s one of the Truly Me dolls that we don’t have, I know that can be the most disappointing.

At the register, people can get a little ridiculous about their transactions. I had one man who had three girls with him do five transactions for everything. It was so unnecessary because he paid for every transaction (none of the girls used their own money/giftcards) so they didn't even have the excuse that each girl was using their own money for their transactions. Some kids pay for their own stuff which is great but when parents insist on paying for each kid individually, it’s annoying and pointless.

Some customers are actually really nice when you tell them that you don’t have what they want. They usually are the people who have had experience in customer service or some kind of store. I had one woman tell me that she thought everyone should have to work in a store during the holidays to see what it’s like. Sometimes, especially closer to Christmas, people would wish the cashiers “good luck” for the right before Christmas and post-Christmas rush.

AG workers are supposed to ask all the customers if they need help or ask if we can do anything for them. Sometimes I hear people asking someone they came with about AG things and when I ask if they have a question, they say they're fine. That drives me a little crazy because even though I just heard them ask a question, they say that they don't need any help or have a question. I just don't quite understand why they do that; I can help them but they say they don't need help even though I know they need help. 

Many of the customers act very pretentious and assume that the AG workers should do anything and everything they ask/demand. Some customers have the workers follow them around and carry what they want to buy, like the workers are paid to be servants. We have reusable shopping bags for customers to carry unpaid merchandise for a reason. One man got so angry at the store in general that his wife had to take him out of the store after he blew up at me. They didn't come back in until after my shift was over so I'm not sure what exactly happened to that family. 

You never know what kind of customer you will get but you have to be prepared for any type of person. The best thing to do is greet everyone the same with a smile and a happy "Hi!" or "Can I help you find anything?" People can be rude, but you have to remember that they will only be talking to you for about five minutes,at most.