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Can I just vent?

6K views 39 replies 32 participants last post by  World of Fright 
#1 ·
K so I am not a big complainer at all but I know you guys will understand. Recently, I decided to apply to work for Spirit Halloween as well as Halloween City in my town. There are two different store of each one that I applied for, and I never got a call back. I'm pretty sad about that but then I went into Halloween City four days ago on their opening day and let me tell you what.......WHEN I LEFT I WAS SO PISSED. My husband told me to let it go, so I did but then yesterday I went in another Halloween city to see if it was different and guess what, IT WASN'T. I was in each of these stores for more than 30 minutes. Not once did I get a, "Can I help you?" "Welcome to Halloween City." Nothing............here's what pisses me off most..........I eat, sleep, drink, and live Halloween all year long. There are many people like me who I am sure applied to work for these companies. I never got a call or anything to go for an interview but yet they hire these kids who have no customer service skills at all and don't care that they working in a Halloween store. Personally for me, the best day of the year is Halloween and I truly feel you should love Halloween and everything about it to work here. Can i just say I will never go in Halloween city ever ever again.
Venting done............Sorry guys but I was pissed.:mad:
 
#30 ·
I walk into those places and usually walk out with nothing. I think the only thing I've ever bought is one of those giant plastic cauldrons that we spend two weeks adding to in order to make not look like a made-in-china-pile-of-communist-child-labor-crap. Wouldn't have bought it if I could have come up with a way to build my own and get the shape perfect.

Like some others said, I don't expect Nordstroms type customer service when frequenting such places. I don't look for grand service at the dollar stores either, which is pretty much the same junk only at a smaller scale.

Sorry to be negative. Just have low opinions of such places.
 
#31 ·
Maybe if that Halloween Store was like the one I was in a few years ago, they did you a huge favor by Not hiring you , since you love Halloween?
If the "Merchandise" was like the stuff I was forced to see....any 5th grade kid with the slightest dexterity could have painted those latex items better than those pathetic pieces of manufactured worthless junk they had ridiculous price tags on!
A total and complete waste of anyone's time and money to make the trip, even if you were just walking into the store from a block away!
Quite the display of manufactured land-fill.
 
#33 ·
I know what you mean, Brandi. Several years ago when I lived in Vegas, I went into a Spirit store. Two young girls and a young guy were hanging out at the counter chatting.

The young man practically bounded over to me to ask me if he could help me; you could tell he really enjoyed working there. The girls actually looked at him in surprise, then at each other with their mouths open like "What the heck is he doing??" and went back to talking, like he was crazy.

Other people came in, and he went up to each one while the girls just stood there and talked. I'm glad that he was able to get the job, but why did those girls even bother?

I'm sorry that you didn't even get an interview. They don't know how many sales they missed out on, not having you!
 
#34 ·
In response to the actual merchandise in those stores, I agree with what I've read so far. I can count the number of items I've bought there on one hand.

Old man mask for my grave robber (a Don Post, I believe)

glowing heart for my Bucky (Becky)

Talk-thru-Boris

...

yep, can't think of anything else at all, unless you count kids' costumes two years in a row, because the ex hated Halloween and shopping, so he just wanted to be done with it all in one trip--and I always wanted to go see if they finally had anything good.
 
#35 ·
first off, i want to proudly say i'm one of those 20 somethings who actually knows what customer service is suppose to be like. my regular job is at Kay Jewelers, and i've had a few people comment on how cheerful and friendly i am, and acknowledged how good i was at gently selling them, instead of these in your face aggressive sales folk who just pressure pressure and focus only on the merchandise and what it'll take to get you to buy it.

but as a fellow halloween fan, i can completely understand how frusterating it is to see kids who could care less working these places! maybe it would be better if these stores included a little personality quiz, like finding out how much a person likes halloween. obviously the people who care more are going to sell more! i would love to work in a halloween store, but i don't think i could stand to work on halloween! otherwise, it would be so fun...especially the kids, they must be so adorable picking out and trying on their costumes!

thankfully, the folks at my spirit, which is in the same mall i work in and just a few yards from my store, are quite good! they greet me when i walk in, ask if they can help me with anything and if i say no, that's that. no stalking like i'm a shop lifter! last week i went in, and saw a girl wearing one of the silly headbands. as i was leaving, she was pulling on the gloves to complete the look. i love that she was getting in the spirit and dressing up!
 
#38 ·
For me as a shopper, frankly it's more about the cash register people being good than the associates. It's fine to see friendly staff, but I too like to be welcomed and then left alone if I say I'm just browsing. But all too often, it gets frustrating at checkout when you KNOW the person has almost no clue what they're doing. Hand them a coupon and you can almost see the smoke coming up from their heads. Long checkout ahead. Good register people are key, much more so than associates on the floor. And I'm quite sure experienced register people are very hard to come by. I would probably enjoy working at spirit because I see shortcomings in every store when it comes to setup, prop displays, and stocking- and I'd love to contribute to make a successful store. But I'd probably work a pro haunted house for sure, if I didn't do my own thing. Working a haunt would win out over working at spirit, for me. I have some truly amazing haunts to choose from to work for on Long Island. Sometimes I actually contemplate taking a year off from my display to work a haunt. Maybe, just maybe....
 
#39 ·
I worked at a spirit store last year. The pay was $7.25 an hour. I must of had a shocked look on my face because the manager went on to say that you can work as many hours as you like and I would be surprised how fast it adds up! Call backs are determined on the score you received on the online test.
 
#40 ·
Yeah it is very depressing when you go into one of these stores and the people there just don't seem to have the slightest interest in Halloween.

A couple of years ago, we had a huge Halloween party and needed some odds and ends, so my wife and I visited about 30 of these stores all up and down the west coast of Florida. It seemed like about half of them had employees that just didn't care. But there were some who were exceptional.

To make matters even worse, some of them weren't even playing Halloween music, but rather dance music and pop music instead. I think that bothered me more than anything.

Fortunately, the local Halloween City is pretty good with the people they hire and playing Halloween music and just overall helping customers get into the spirit of the season, so I'm happy about that. I'll probably go in there about once a week just to be there :)

Here's a shot of one of their displays.

 
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