One thing retail does well is force you to meet tons of different people everyday. I can’t even count the number of people who come into return something and remember that I was their cashier. After thinking they’re crazy, I scan their receipt and sure enough, I was.
Anyway, my point is that I’m exposed to a large portion of the general public. One of the first things I learned is to never underestimate the stupidity of customers. Some are really dumb. Sorry, but it’s true.
The prime example of this comes to our store credit card. Like every other major retailer, we offer a store branded credit card to customers. Regardless of your feeling about credit cards, the fact is that some customers open an account. Some don’t. During the application process, we have to ask what the customer’s annual household income is. Here’s how the conversation goes:
Me: Alright, you can go ahead and enter your annual household income. *points to the screen where you would sign for a credit transaction*
Customer: Annual is um, like, what I earn in a month right? or What does annual mean?
Me: You’re kidding right? Get out of the store. Uh…no it’s what you make in a calendar year. A ballpark is fine.
Customer: Oh, right. *Still looks confused.*
Really? Really? These people are adults, most of whom I’m guessing have high school diplomas. Yet they don’t know the definition of a simple measure of time? Annual is not a complicated or scarcely used word. There are annual events every, wait for it, YEAR. How could someone not know this?
The people who say “Oh, right.” are nothing compared to those who laugh, as if ignorance is funny. Some act like I’m the odd one. WTF. No, I’m the one who knows what common everyday words mean.
This is probably a good time to under the CARD Act of 2009. “No bank may issue a credit card to any consumer who can’t spell the word orange,” something some of these people would probably have trouble with.
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I’m curious as to what these people put down once the concept is explained to them. If they end up jotting down six figures, there’s something seriously wrong with the world.
Every now and again I realise how insulated from the general public I’ve become. And I’m thankful for it.
Related thought – my wife was in class yesterday and was the only one that managed to come up with the term “foreclosure” when the prof asked “what happens when you don’t make your mortgage payments.”
Perhaps a little more forgivable in a general public context, but we’re talking about a bunch of lawyer wannabes who all scored over the 90th percentile on the LSAT and still had to have pretty solid undergrad grades to get in.
Sometimes they do! I can’t see the actual dollar amount since only asterisks come up on my screen, but yeah, sometimes there are 6 of ‘em!! Usually though, and this is sad, they put down 3 or 4 figures. I used to think they still didn’t understand and were just putting down monthly income. But I’m starting to suspect that…they really do only earn that much.
That’s even more surprising considering you hear the word foreclosure in every evening news broadcast these days!