“the back” is a distribution center a couple towns over, because modern retail is a tightly integrated and logistics heavy industry. How don’t you know this Carol? This has been the standard for like 40 years CAROL
Having worked at various retailers, I know there is basically nothing in the back. There’s rollover; when you have too much shit to fit on the shelf but this is super rare and you likely will never see the shelf where the items are ever get empty, becsuse it is going to be restocked as it starts to look empty, since there’s more in the back.
If the shelf is empty, it’s because they ain’t got no more. Period.
I’ve heard this so many times on the Internet that I never ask. However, I actually have had many employees still suggest it, and they come back with something with surprising frequency.
You can ask, but just trust the employee when they tell you all their stock is on the floor. I used to have people insist that I go check, even after telling them that there was nothing in the back room. I would go there, stand around for a few minutes and then come back out to reiterate that we didn’t have more of the product they are looking for.
Probably depends on where you worked at, but at GameStop we did have a lot in the back and upstairs too where we had a single office. Behind the register in the backroom, we had a small TV to connect consoles to and try them out when we bought from customers, a bunch of shelves with duplicate games we didn’t have any space for upstairs as well as a shelf for upcoming games that were not out yet/preorders for customers.
Upstairs was the office were probably like a billion copies of Red Dead 2, various CoDs, and Fifa lived, our stash of new consoles, and one giant room full of old promotional material that was never distributed.
The only other retailer I worked at was kind of a gift shop I’d call it? Like a shop where you can buy all kinds of seasonal crap, but primarily candles, decorations, party games. And there we’d also not have anything “in the back” to materialise product from.
When I worked in retail, I was on multiple occasions asked to check the backroom. One thing is if I suggest taking a look myself, but when a customer demands I check, then I consider that a required break.
LOL when people post photos of “the back” it’s always just a shelf with half a dozen items and the cardboard Lost & Found box.
When I worked retail ages ago, if something special came into stock that I wanted, I’d set it aside in the back… we’ll just say, it was the mid 00s and I got discounts on a card game, and the store I worked at didn’t get many per shipment (maybe two or three fat packs and 20 boosters.)
I’d put them all aside for me (and eventually, some other employees when they picked up the game) because they weren’t hard to find at other stores—I/we just got a discount so it was better we got them than customers who could go across the street for the same price!
Buuuuut very occasionally I did have customers ask if we had them in the back. Unless they were total dickheads (which only happened once or twice), I grabbed them a chunk of what I was gonna pick up to save them the trip ;3
This is a hella specific and uncommon thing, and nowadays with what’s popular (Pokémon), you can’t just go across the street and get them anymore because people are insane.
Please take me with you!
Way back when I got a complaint for saying “I’ll check the back, don’t wait for me”
scans item, checks size and color combos in stock in 3 seconds
To self: well it says one on hand and 3 in transit, so we will have some more in the next 2 weeks but that one on hand will never ever be found assumung it wasn’t stolen
To customer: maybe, let me go check the back!
pulls out phone for a few minutes
comes back out after glancing through the only stack of shirts just to be sure
Sorry, I checked everywhere and can’t seem to find it, but we might have some coming on a truck soon!
Lpt: even large clothing chains don’t just carry tons of extra sizes of random clothing item. If it’s a special event, like sports shirts or musicians on a tour, they MIGHT have been sent a ton and only have a few out. But that random [BRANDNAME] high tech moisture wicking Ai infused recycled coconut husk shapewear in Heather gray dark with a logo on the lapel and NOT on the chest almost certainly will not be sitting anywhere but the shelf/hanger you see on the sales floor.
I feel this lol. Reminds me of my time as a ladies shoe sales person.
You know, fuck it. If you let me pack a few of the large totes I have with gear I’ll straight up colonize the back rooms. Beats the world we live in now…
Familiar. But.
The big chains don’t even have a store that would be accessible to public-facing employees. So any honest empoyee will tell you “WYSIWYG”.
FWIW, if you are in one of the many countries blessed with H&M stores - that are so infamous for a lot of things, incl. making half the population feel like they’re fat and old. They store large and very large sizes off-site and have an online shop where you can order them directly to the store for no extra fee. So you go to H&M, check out what you want, order it, and pick it up the next time around.
Sorry for actually endorsing this Meta-Sweatshop.
Weird. Costco does the opposite and only have small sizes for a lot of things on their website.
![I’ll check the backroom [Teddy]](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/d566ece6-b764-4aab-aeb4-50efff8e5caa.webp){kind=link}