Do You Really Think That Fucking Goes There?!

This is probably my biggest pet peeve. I'm using a grocery store as an example, but it's obnoxious anywhere.

Customer has gone all through the store, picking up stuff from different areas. They pick up a nice steak. They bring it up to the register, with their 8 zillion other items. Then in line, they decide they no longer want that steak. So they just shove it somewhere. Anywhere. The cashier is literally three feet away, but it's easier, apparently, to just shove that steak in the candy bars on the impulse display.

Thank you. That is just so unbelievably awesome of you. I won't find that steak for quite some time because I'm trapped in my register cage. So thank you for shoving it in the candy bars to spoil. And to contaminate the candy bars because, y'know, it's raw fucking meat. Please, do this and then scream at me about why prices are going up. You know why prices are going up? Because you just ruined $20+ of merchandise because you couldn't hand me something you'd changed your mind about! Even if you're not going to ruin a bunch of merchandise with your laziness, you're still going to fuck up our inventory count and make it so another customer can't get what they want. "Oooh, last box of chocolate chip granola bars. I'm going to take this for a walk around the store. Meh, I changed my mind. I don't want to walk back six feet down this aisle, and I'm going up to the cash register anyway, but I don't want to hand it to the cashier so it gets put back where it belongs. I'll hide it behind this coffee maker." Next customer wants some chocolate chip granola bars, but there aren't any on the shelf. So we do a stock check. We don't have any in the back, so that customer doesn't spend that $3.00 with us and goes to another store. Shortly after, we're making our shorts list, determining what we need to order for replenishment. "Oh, we're out of chocolate chip granola bars!" Order. We submit the shorts order, then while facing 10 hours later, we find granola bars stuffed behind the coffee maker. So now we've lost a sale, our inventory count is all FUBAR, we have extra stuff we actually don't need on its way, you've wasted my time by making me walk around in circles playing your secret scavenger hunt game and then put things back, we've had to stay late to participate in this scavenger hunt, and we're all grumpy. All because you're too fucking lazy to hand a small box to an employee. And guess what wasting our time and making us work later after the store closes leads to? More payroll going out (which I don't mind. I'll take extra money; that's cool). But where does the money for that extra payroll come from? Price modifications. And not in your favor.

I'm cool with customers not putting things back in their exact spots. It's hard enough for the people who spend forty hours a week in the store to know where things go. I don't expect customers to know exactly where every single thing is. But goddammit, if you change your mind, give your items to somebody who works there so we can take care of it!!!!!