Interesting experience with ammo checkout girl.

Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Messages
4,694
Reaction score
29,459
Location
Northern Utah
Had a fun chuckle yesterday when I went into our local Sportsmen's Warehouse.

Believe it or not, they had CCI .22 LR ammo (100 count) and CCI .22 magnum ammo (50 count)...both at better prices than Cabela's. There was a limit to three boxes each, so I picked up three boxes of each and went to the checkout.

There was this pretty young thing (probably around eighteen or nineteen) working the checkout (I was going to mention that she was blonde, but I don't want to anger any of our blonde female forum members).:)

Anyway, to make a long story even longer, the young lady looked at my purchase and said, "I'm sorry. Only three boxes of .22's per customer."

I explained that they were different. One was .22 long rifle and the other was .22 magnum.

"No," she said. "The .22's come in different sized boxes...long ones (as she pointed to the .22 long rifles) and short ones (pointing to the magnums). Pick which ones you want, but you can only have three."

Her supervisor came over and I tried to explain to her. I even compared the size of the bullets, showing that they were different. As I explained to the checkout girl, "You can't shoot these in the same gun. They're different."

"No," she continued. "They're both .22's."

"Yes," I said. "They're both .22's but one is .22 long rifle and the other is .22 magnum. Different bullets completely."

Well, her supervisor seemed to be siding with me, but she called the gun guy anyway. Her conversation on the phone went something like this. "He has three boxes that say 'twenty-two LR' and three boxes that say 'twenty-two WMR.' Are they the same? You mean he can buy three of each? Oh yeah..that's what I thought."

After she hung up, she told the young lady that I could indeed buy all six boxes because they were different. To which the young lady replied, "Yeah, I know."

I just had to chuckle at that experience. As many in this forum have said before, it's surprising that many outdoor stores hire people that have little knowledge about the products they are selling.
 
Register to hide this ad
Experience is how we all learn. The more experience we have the more we can enjoy guns. Glad she was willing to learn and you took the time to "teach", good for you both. We need more people enjoying guns instead of afraid of them. Store might have trained her better but can't cover everything. I tried to teach my daughter more (she now has a pistol permit thanks to a boyfriend) but I was not able to cover everything.
 
For what most retail operations pay, you're lucky to get someone who can direct you to the restroom--an important consideration for a man my age. :D

You're right. I have a rule to never ask a question of someone making minimum wage. I realize that is unfair but I swear, every time I break that rule I get burned.
 
I was inline at the grocery store the other day and the lady in front of me was paying in cash. One of the coins she handed the cashier was a very nice indian head cent. The cashier refused to take it so I rose to the occasion and gave the lady a shiney new penny for her old one.
Both her and the cashier were clueless.
Jim
 
in todays world...the customer is never right...

hint = when in doubt check it out....... with a knowledgeable person...
 
I had a somewhat similar situation a decade ago. I went into a hardware store in Leadville, Colo. and found a carton of Remington 22 short hollow points. Each box was priced at $1.35 and there were ten in the carton. When I went to pay for the carton, I was told the price was $1.35 plus tax. I explained till I was blue in the face that they were $1.35 each for a total of $13.50. I was told that the price was $1.35 and I could either buy them at that price or put them back.
 
I am not trying to one-up you here, Mule Packer, 'cause that's a pretty good tale you told. :D

Got one of my own, though: I was at our local Gander Mountain today, and the 20-something fellow out in the aisles of the gun section greeted me warmly as I was standing in front of the handgun accessories, and asked me if he could help me.

I asked him if they had any speed strips or speedloaders for revolvers. I hadn't noticed, but as he pointed out politely, the speedloaders were hanging on the rack just a few steps down from me. When I didn't see any speed strips there with them, I asked him if they had any.

He didn't really know what a speed strip was. First he tried to tell me it was something that you use to load a semi-automatic. Just being polite myself, I said, no, the kind I'm looking for is for loading a revolver, and that I wanted to see if they had 'em for .22s since speedloading the smaller sizes of rounds is a bit more difficult.

He had to 'fess up that he'd never heard of speed strips. I explained to him what they were and, since it was obvious they didn't have any, I thanked him and went on my way.

Oh, by the way, when I checked out with my purchase of a grip sleeve, the cashier was in the process of explaining to one of the other "associates" that no, she couldn't multi-task and shouldn't be asked to, "if they want me to get the people's money right."

I made sure that I only handed her my one item, and that she wasn't doing anything else while I was standing there. :)
 
Last edited:
I think my favorite experience along those lines was the grocery checker who had to send someone to see the price on the mysterious vegetable that I was buying. They were radishes...

I tried to tell her, but she just gave me a blank look.

She was of a different ethnicity and I suppose that cultural or financial issues had not given her exposure to some common veggies and fruits. It was really rather sad.
 
Last edited:
I have had 2 range patrons who were sold the wrong cartridges for their revolvers by salespersons at a MAJOR sporting goods chain - one was sold 38 Super +P to shoot in a Taurus Model 85 38 Spec "air weight" and the second was sold 44 MAG 240 gr JHP to shoot in a Taurus Judge.
The little air weight shot around 15 rounds of the 38 Super +P's without any APPARENT damage other than feeling a little "loose" and the Judge fired 5 rounds of the 44 MAG and seemed OK afterwards.
I recommended to both shooters that they bring the guns and remaining ammo back to XXXXXXX and demand a new gun, correct ammo and training for their sales associates. Neither did so.
 
I was at Meijer (basically Wal Mart) and the checkout girl said to me about the previous customer "can you believe he was buying two HUNDRED rounds of ammo??" She was clearly disturbed about it, as was I, which she seemed to appreciate.... at least until I said "it's MUCH more economical to buy them by the thousand-round case" I thought she was going to drop dead of shock :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top