Memes

I dunno, it's kinda rolling the dice. You can get really lucky sometimes. Even if the person doesn't necessarily care about the stuff, they pick up what other people say, and would know what gets bought the most. That's better than nothing at times.

And then you can get really lucky and find someone that knows their shit.

So it never hurts to ask, though you may get an actual eye roll lol

Retail is full of talent that couldn't find a job in their field of work though.

I mean sometimes they do know, they're individuals after all with varying levels of knowledge and experience. If they say they don't know I thank them and move on, but plenty of times they've been able to answer my questions. Seems a bit patronizing to assume that just because they work at a store like that it means they don't know anything and can't answer questions. I actually literally asked an employee a question about a plumbing fixture in a big box store recently and, shocker, they were knowledgeable and had the answer to my question.

There's always a retired plumber or two working in the plumbing section. Maybe not other sections, but definitely plumbing. Good luck out there, DIYers!

I work at a hardware store. Amusingly, the most detailed questions I’ve gotten have been asked by people calling on the phone. I love it when people have a specific item number and I can just look it up on the computer right away. We have detailed descriptions and specifications of most things in our inventory, and I’m more than happy to spend time helping people who know what they’re talking about.

When people call and give a vague description of an item that may or may not even exist, then I get exasperated. If I’m too busy to play twenty questions, I’ll just say that we don’t carry it. I have no problem helping that same person when they’re in the store, but when they call, they’re inevitably doing other things and aren’t listening to me anyway. If they won’t take their own problem seriously, I’m not going to, either.

This is why I ask the Fediverse for home improvement tips first. Y'all will never steer me wrong. Plus my electrical breaker box doubles as a nice little space heater now, it's so warm!

I would usually just read whatever it said on the box and the customer would seem pleased with my knowledge.

That's pretty standard here. No one expects the answer of a plumber, but they usually help somewhat

"I know more than you" https://youtu.be/IEhHEOIYgMY?si=oeVR3o3scSn8Y01o

Even worse, doing it on check out.

Of course. The delusion that some billionaire knows fucking anything better than anyone else.