I had to deal with stupid people today. I don't work full time in a bakery. I do work in a grocery store that has a bakery and I'll help out in there if they get too busy. Today was one of those days.
Today a cake order was picked up. I remember taking this order over the phone a week or two ago. I did not do this order, but I was there when it was picked up. The lady picking it up mentioned she was not the one that placed the order, but that she was picking it up for her friend. No biggie. We hand her the cakes and she kind frowns at them. She says, "I don't think this is right," I look over at the cakes, I look at the order form (purely to humor her because I remember what I wrote down!). The person ordering said she needed graduation cakes with with flowers and the school colors are maroon and black. The decorator used a black border on one cake with maroon rose buds (it was a scored sheet cake) and a maroon border with black and maroon roses (this was a decorated display cake).
I tell her it looks alright to me, the correct colors were used. She stands there and argues with me that we should not have used black roses because black roses don't look good. I told her it's very common for graduation cakes to have some black roses on them because we have several schools around us that have black as one of their colors. Sure it might not be used as a color for a birthday cake (unless it's an over the hill cake), but this is graduation. Typically people like to honor the school their child is graduating from by using their school colors.
She still insists that black roses just don't look good (I think I remember her saying something about black writing looking bad too) and that she doesn't want to take this cake to her friend because she thinks her friend won't like it. I'm thinking "Who the heck are you do decide that for your friend? She placed the order, she told me to just use the school colors! Her friend is probably thinking clearly by thinking it's just a grad cake. A few years from now my kid probably won't even remember if there was cake at their party, I just need some cheap dessert."
So she finally said, "well if I take this cake to her and she doesn't like it, will you be able to make another one by tomorrow morning." I said if she doesn't like what she ordered then she can place another order. But we followed the instruction just as she said and all she asked for was the school colors in a floral graduation design.
Guess what? No call came saying someone didn't like the black roses on their cake!
I just wanted to say so bad to that woman "Know your place, I understand you're looking out for your friend, but this is what she ordered. Your job was to pick up the cake, your responsibility ends there. If she doesn't like it, she can call and talk to me about it."
Grrr, sorry for the long vent. . . 
Any time you work with the public, you're going to run across irritating people. I probably would have suggested that she call her friend and ask her.
Any time you work with the public, you're going to run across irritating people. I probably would have suggested that she call her friend and ask her.
I agree. Or if she had a cell phone...she could have taken a picture of the cake and sent it to her.
Not to ruffle any feathers but I HATE the phrase "Know your place". Who is to decide where someone else's place is besides that person?
I think "know your place" just means don't worry about things that you don't need to worry about. She didn't have to worry about how the cake looked, all she had to do was pick it up.
I try to stay in that mindset as to avoid unnecessary stress.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%