65Shelby, that all sounds like what was a 'normal' day at O'Reilly Auto Parts......... .............I kid you not. After 3 years I could take no more, knowing that I was going nowhere at 500 mph. The higher up you went the worse it got. The chain is just so messed up with ridiculous ideas that absolutely do not work in the real world at all. I watched so many people walk out when you get a customer that has learned to milk the system and then chokes you while you spend an hour looking for unobtanium parts that do not exist. Required to take care of every customer with every single request he makes even though they may be totally unrational requests. Two guys there usually, both of you get a customer like that each and the store came to a halt, try to shortchange customer to take care of others and you got instant writeup for not taking care of him. A lose/lose situation, I was an idiot to stay as long as I did.
Computer systems locked up routinely, you could not check pricing or part availability at other stores or warehouse. The help they gave you as 'trained' was unable to be able to discern whether customer requests were logical and we could make money on them vs. absolute waste of time and money, no matter anyway they wanted you to pursue money losing requests same as if big profit on them. I spent commonly 3 hours a day chasing rare parts that could not be had simply because customer insisted they had bought them there in the past. Or customer who then says too high after you spend all afternoon on it. Lists of up to 50 parts that always turned out to be waste of time, the number of people who will not lift a finger to research what is in their best interest simply dumped it on parts guy and then griped to manager when they didn't get part in their hands. Whether the part even existed did not even come up in the later questioning, all they could see was 'you didn't help the customer'. The company wastes literally millions a year at all stores doing that, why their prices are so totally out of sight now. Take Focus coil bought just last week, part store price $50, Amazon $24, no tax, no shipping. Same exact part number and maker. Most other parts about the same difference. Stat housing gasket last week, my price $.90, part store $5. It now pays to wait.......... ...........
As a child I remember Sears and the well-oiled machine it was at Christmas. I wrote them off when they combined with K-Mart, the beginning of the end. Haven't been in one since intentionally, the occasional wander through has me grimacing at the store and prices.