Evil Gymboree Manager

I wonder what it would take to get someone fired. As someone who works for a large corporation, a manager of a small store is really someone pretty piddly in the grand scheme of things.

Anyone who has shopped at Town and Country Gymboree knows who I'm talking about. Pilar. (Imagine me saying this with a scrunchy face and a whiny voice.) She is so extremely rude that I go out of my way to avoid her. I discovered she doesn't work weekends, so I try to shop there then. I also went to Willowbrook once so I wouldn't have to see her. I shop online and pay shipping to avoid her. Ridiculous!

She is courteous and helpful to two types of people: other South Americans, and rich white Memorial-y ladies that leave with multiple shopping bags. To me (and almost every other one of my friends who shop there), she is rude, abrupt, and acts all annoyed. Today Jenn and I were there. Pilar and the other manager were at the registers with a customer, so we got in line. We had been waiting about 5 minutes when Pilar finished. Instead of checking me out, one of her "friends" just goes to the register. Jenn was like, "Are you going to say something?" I replied sadly, "I never say anything." Because as shameless as I am, as angry as I am, I am first and foremost an avoider of confrontation.

What ended up happening was that the other manager cut in and told Pilar that we had been waiting. So she gets all annoyed and rings me up, then gets even more annoyed when I use a merchandise credit I have, then all reluctantly asks if I need a gift box (which I did). After she was done, she started turning to her friend again (who I think was complaining in Spanish), looked at Jenn and asked all huffy, "Were you waiting, too?" Rings Jenn up, asks angrily if Jenn needed a gift receipt (yes), then angrily punches the register keys to get her one.

I really wanted to tell her off. OK, not really tell her off, but do it in my meek polite way. "Excuse me, I'm just wondering why you find it necessary to be so rude to me and my friend for checking us out when we had been waiting in line." I really wanted to say it in front of her "friends" to see how she would respond. I'm fairly certain she wouldn't have apologized. Jenn was saying that maybe Pilar wasn't aware she was doing it. Silly Jenn, newcomer to Town and Country Gymboree. Oh yeah, she knows.

So I actually wrote an email complaining about her to customer service about a month ago. I specified exact things she says and does that make me feel unwelcome, to the point of dreading shopping there. I said that several friends feel the same way. I didn't play the race card, but maybe I should've. Grace said that she saw Pilar at the Galleria Janie and Jack, so we got all hopeful thinking she'd been transferred. Alas, she is still there.

Anyway, I got a response from them. It wasn't a form letter, so I was feeling pretty hopeful. They were very apologetic, said they appreciated my letter since direct customer input was the best way to identify things that needed to be changed, etc. Apparently, it didn't really have an effect. Peter thinks it's ridiculous, the effort I take to avoid this lady, but she really is a rather yucky lady. The evil part of me wants to get her fired. I wonder what it would take. I wonder if I could get enough people to sign a petition or something. Should I play the race card? Is that just being evil? My class got a substitute teacher fired in 6th grade. Granted, he really was a big jerk and shouldn't have been subbing in elementary school, but the power trip it gave us was overwhelming.

Geez. I just want to get some cute clothes for my kids. Why does it have to involve such drama?