70. I really hate shopping.
Usually, baby clothes are in high demand directly from consumers, but the demand for gifts is also huge.
In addition to parents, in-laws, parents-in-law, brothers and sisters, and friends and relatives often buy clothes as gifts.
In particular, in the past, stone rings were the national rule when celebrating birthdays, but since the price of gold has risen to over 200,000 won for a stone ring, it has become a burden, so it is difficult to give a ring unless you are close enough.
So, the alternative was baby clothes, and usually sets between 50,000 won and 100,000 won sell well, so baby clothes manufacturers also organize set products like that.
However, when you try to buy clothes for a baby you’ve never seen, sizing becomes a problem.
So usually, I would just ask the store for the gender and a few months of age, and they would recommend the right size.
A little generous.
However, some babies are just too big, so they might be too small.
What then?
What then?
Can I exchange it? Or a refund?
In this day and age, exchanges and refunds are so generous.
Besides, this is a department store.
There are quite a few customers who insist on exchanging or refunding their clothes even though they have been worn many times.
However, if you go to a department store or supermarket in the clothing section, they will do everything.
I don’t like to make a fuss in a department store or supermarket.
But not this one.
I mean, how in the world do you expect me to compensate you for the damage you did to your little one?
Doesn’t she know that the fabric is mixed with metal threads that shouldn’t be in baby clothes and scratches her skin?
I’ve been in sales at Daesung for over 6 years, and I’ve dealt with all kinds of managers, and I’ve dealt with a lot of really bad customers.
From the person who brought in a pair of poop-stained children’s panties and asked to exchange them, to the customer who accused the manager of poking him when his eyes were strabismus.
Still, you have to take a chance and do what they ask.
Unless it’s a luxury brand that’s begging you to let them in, it’s a super brand.
However, this piggy lady crossed the line.
She’s asking for ridiculous damages, and she’s asking me to kneel down even though I’m a customer.
I’ve known Byun Jung-hee for a long time and feel comfortable talking to her like an aunt, but she’s in her late 50s and a mother of two at home.
Isn’t that an insult to her character?
I’m not going to bow down to this kind of customer, even if I have to close my clothing business.
“Ma’am.”
“Why!”
“What the hell do you want?”
“I don’t know?”
“I’m asking because I don’t know?”
“Do you know how much my baby cried when she was wearing that little outfit? So I want compensation for the damage my baby suffered, plus compensation for the damage I suffered, plus an apology in your company’s name!”
You’re a crazy b*tch.
“I can’t do that.”
“Why can’t you!”
“Because such compensation is unheard of and unseen, and there’s nothing in the law that says so, so you’ll have to choose between an exchange and a dollar bill.”
“What!”
“And one more thing, apologize to our manager.”
“Are you crazy, you know who I am and you’re doing this to me! I want out of your store!”
“How the hell do I know who you are, I don’t want to know, and you should take it off.”
“What?”
“I don’t think you’re old enough to have hearing problems yet, so take them out if you can!”
“Dude, these things!”
“I thought you said don’t talk back to me.”
“Hey, asshole!”
“Hit me!”
“What, are you going to hit me?”
“Huh!”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
It was then.
“Can I help you, sir?”
A slightly skinny woman in her late 20s came running out of nowhere and interrupted.
A quick glance told me she was a partrider, a sales associate at the department store.
“Who are you!”
“I’m from the baby department at Roche, ma’am. Can I help you with something?”
“Oi, why did you show up so late!”
“What? Customer?”
“Because these—.”
The mad pig blabbered on and on, trying to explain to the partrider.
It was bullsh*t, to say the least.
“Okay, they’re ignoring me, they’re not paying me for the damage, what the hell am I going to do, I’m MVG, is that all they have these days?”
Well, it turns out that LOCE has more MVGs than dogs and cows.
MVG stands for Most Valuable Guest, and it’s a kind of VIP customer designation in LOCE.
There are several tiers within it, and I knew that the lower tiers were being overused quite a bit these days.
But this one seemed to work.
“Who are you? I thought you were from Daesung headquarters?”
The partrider asked me with a deeply annoyed expression.
This partrider seemed to be questioning me about the situation.
I could already hear the irritation and animosity in his voice.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I can’t believe I’m in charge of this.
“Who are you to talk to me like that?”
“Excuse me?”
“Isn’t it polite to identify yourself first and ask the other person?”
“No, what—. I’m Bae Soo-ji, assistant partrider for culture and infant care, okay, so who are you?”
What a pretty name, and why it’s so offensive.
It was a terrible waste of a name.
“My name is Steel Sik, and I’m from the headquarters.”
“So who’s headquarters?”
“Just a guy from headquarters?”
What?
I’m not the head of sales, and I’m not the chairman of the parent company of the parent company.
“Are you from the headquarters? Where’s Jisung Kim?”
“Ji-sung is busy with other things, so I’m here.”
“…”
Once I called him Jisung, it was clear that I was above him.
Nowadays, if you’re the head of a big, successful sales team, a partrider isn’t really a big deal.
Even Amara is treated differently depending on her size.
However, that didn’t seem to be the case for this girl.
It was like she was a representative of a large Roche department store.
“I don’t know, just apologize to the customer, give her what she wants, and be done with it!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, so why apologize? Shouldn’t we be the ones apologizing?”
“Are you really going to do this?”
“Did I say something wrong?”
“Are you saying this because you’ve grown up? You want to pull out of MD this winter?”
“hahahahaha!”
I laughed because it was so ridiculous.
Pulling out of the store?
What kind of a deputy partrider would take out the Jamsil store, one of the big three stores, not even the Mia store, which is the lowest-priced store of Roche Department Store?
The store is almost unified in the baby department and has some adult clothing brands as well?
Is he crazy?
“Why are you laughing?”
“I’m laughing because it’s funny, is there a problem?”
“That’s why you’re laughing, you were laughing at me!”
“hahahaha, let’s stop.”
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here.
This isn’t even my water supply.
“Manager, who’s the floor leader here?”
I figured the floor manager would know my name.
After all, it’s a hot topic in the industry.
“I’m Kwon Cheol-soo, why do you know me?”
“Oh, the guy from the Ilsan stop?”
“Yes.”
Good.
Kwon Cheol-soo is a great person to talk to.
We had a few drinks together.
“By the way, I have the day off today.”
“…”
Holy sh*t.
“Seriously, what’s wrong with this? Should I take this upstairs and make it official?”
He looks even more offended when I ask for his direct supervisor, the floor manager.
Yeah, I’m offended, too.
“Do it or don’t do it?”
“What, who are you talking to?”
“If you want to take it out, take it out! We’ll take all of our big brands out of the whole of Roche! Oh, and since we’re taking it out because you asked for it, you’re paying for the exit fee?”
Now I’m pissed off too.
I had forgotten about the trauma I had suffered at the hands of department store employees.
“What the hell, you! Who are you to talk to me like that!”
“Oh! Never mind, I’ll tell them to shut down and evacuate the whole place right away, I know, wouldn’t that make you feel better?”
“What the hell are you talking about—.”
He’s finally realizing that things are weird, but it’s too late.
Let’s get somewhere.
Right in front of Bae Soo-ri, I pulled out my smartphone and dialed a number.
– Yes, Mr. Chairman! It’s Park Jin-ho!
Ah, our Director Park Jin-ho, be strong and be brave.
“Director Park?”
– Yes, Mr. Chairman, as you wish!
“I’m from Lotte Jamsil, but Lotte wants us to close the store?”
– Yes? No? Who?
“Partrider wants us to take it out, so we’re taking it out.”
– No, Mr. Chairman!
“Mr. Park, this is an order! From now on, all stores in LOCE are closed! If any sales are recorded in the POS or ERP, I will hold you accountable. Oh, and I’ll give you an hour, of course, because I can’t kick out all the customers.”
– You said that’s the Roche Jamsil store, right?
“Did I make that clear?”
– I said, “Oh, okay.
When I got off the phone, I looked at Bae Soo-ji, who was in a severe daze.
“Okay? I’ll get you out of here very neatly.”
“Dae, who the hell are you?”
“That’s none of your business, why don’t you go talk to your very own MVG over there, Mr. Manager!”
“Yes, sir?”
“The store is closed from now on. Oh, don’t worry about that, we’ll make sure no harm comes to the managers. Please inform our other Daesung brands in Jamsil immediately. From now on, Daesung will not do business with Roche.”
“No, but—.”
“This is my directive. I want you to assure your managers that no harm will come to them, and I promise you on my name.”
“Understood.”
After I finished, I turned back to Mr. Bae Suji, who was looking at me with a frown.
“Are you working? I thought this place was closed?”
“…”
Bae Soo-ri couldn’t say anything and was just biting her nails nervously.
Now she wouldn’t be able to avoid disciplinary action.
She’s made a big mess.
If we actually shut down all the stores in LOCE and pull out, it would be the first time in the history of retailing that something like this would happen.
This is a time when shared growth is a hot topic, and the chairman of Roche is on trial for bribery during the previous government.
In this situation, try pulling out of a store because we’re being abusive.
What happens.
Besides, aside from adult wear, baby and children’s wear are almost unified.
If we’re out, there’s no alternative brand to put in the baby section.
It’s like a mega-accident.
From nob le mt l. co m
Just then, a man in his mid-fifties burst into the store, panting.
The flower on his left breast told me he was a Roche employee, and his age told me he must be the store manager.
He came so fast.
You mean our director Park Jin-ho is so fast?
“What the heck is going on? DaeSung is pulling out? Are you Chairman Cheol-Sik?”
“Yes, I’m Mr. Cheol-sik.”
“Oh, Mr. Chairman, I’ve heard a lot about you! I’m Hong Soon-ki, Managing Director of the Jamsil store.”
Department stores are usually managed by a vice president, but for a luxury store like Jamsil, the managing director is in charge.
“Oh, yes. Nice to meet you.”
“But what’s this about, Daesung pulling out of the store, and today?”
“No, I’m pulling out because someone told me to pull out of the store.”
“Who the hell would dare tell me to pull out Daesung, what kind of a bastard is he!”
“It’s not him, it’s—. Hmph. A b*tch—.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say b*tch instead of bastard, so I pointed at the frozen Bae Suji.
“Joogi? You, you, Bae, do you have a grudge against me, huh?”
“Uh, uh—. No, manager—.”
“No, you’re not! You’re telling me to leave out the target! If you leave out the target, I’m telling you that you’re going to bring in the Dongdaemun market brand, too! Are you crazy?”
“Hey, store manager, listen to yourself first…”
“Yes, you speak.”
I simply explained what had happened so far.
“That’s right, did I do something wrong, or did our manager do something wrong?”
“Ha, I apologize. Please wait a moment.”
Ms. Hong Soon-ki walked over to Mrs. Pig.
“Ms. Piggy, are you a customer of MVG?”
“Yes? Yes—.”
“Unfortunately, from now on, you will not be our roche MVG customer.”
“What?”
“We value our customers the most, but we cannot serve customers like you who make unreasonable demands and disrespect the personalities of our partner salespeople. Please leave now, and if you have any legal complaints, our legal team will be happy to assist you.”
“Oh, no—. Hey!”
“Chief Sim!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Please escort this customer out of the department store.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh, and don’t forget to collect the MVG card!”
“Yes, sir.”
Neatly, Mrs. Pig was dragged out.
And,
“Drainage deputy!”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you out of your mind, who do you think this is? You’ve been eating distribution rice by the dozen, and when you hear the name Kang Cheol-sik, you can’t think of anything? Is it really that you can’t think of anything, or do you not know?”
“…”
“hehehe! You’re going to be crazy. JD, don’t you know Chairman Kang Cheol-sik who took over Dongyang and bought adult clothing Sungchang? If you don’t know that, don’t you know the Purification Foundation? Don’t you know that he’s spent hundreds of billions on the Ladder Center?”
“Ah!”
“Ah? Ha ha, okay, let’s say you didn’t know. Where did you learn the habit of bullying your suppliers? Who are you to tell them to pull out of your store? Is this the 20th century? In the 21st century, where win-win is the name of the game, where are you bullying?”
“Sin, I’m sorry.”
“Forget it, go home. I’m removing you from your position, and I’m going to call a personnel committee to discipline you, so you know!”
“Ms. Kim!”
“Hey, Chief Kim!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Take him to the office and send him home!”
“Yes, sir.”
The salaryman was different, too.
He stormed out of the room, walked over to me, and bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman. I apologize on behalf of Jamsil.”
“That’s enough.”
“And, Mr. Manager, this is the manager I’m watching the most, and I’m sorry, so please take it easy.”
“Ai, store manager. It’s okay.”
“Mr. Chairman, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to ask you to relent and close the store.”
That was it.
In fact, that’s what I was aiming for when I called Mr. Park and gave him the order.
“Okay.”
In front of the store manager, I called Mr. Park and told him that everything went well, and that I didn’t need to give him any instructions.
Well, he didn’t give the order to close the store.
“Look, I know Mr. Kwon very well, and I don’t want him to be penalized.”
“Of course not, Mr. Kwon has only been with us for about a month. We won’t hold him responsible.”
“Okay, I see that’s settled then.”
“hahahahaha, Mr. Chairman, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is someone I’ve always wanted to meet, and now I’m seeing you under such bad circumstances. Why don’t you go to my room and have a cup of tea?”
“No, I was originally shopping with my family over there and happened to witness—.”
I gestured to my mother and Somi, who were watching from the crowd.
“Oh dear, you’ve ruined their fun shopping day! Let me help you with the rest of your shopping.”
“Oh, no—.”
Is this guy crazy?
A fun shopping trip?
“hahahahaha! Don’t take no for an answer, I’ll be scolded by our boss if I send you away. Mother! Good morning!”
“Ah, yes.”
“Oooh, what a beautiful wife you have, Mrs. Kim! How do you do!”
“This is my sister, but—.”
“Ugh! Sin, I’m sorry.”
“…”
I really hate shopping.