Confessions of a grocery store cashier.

( tips to making you better customer and human being)

Let me start off by saying i really do work as a grocery store cashier. I encounter people from every walk of life. every ethnicity, color, religion, sexual preference, personality type and so on. in general, i love people. in specifics, people suck. i am completely ashamed of the society of manner-less, humorless, grumpy people we have become. my hope is that this book will enlighten at least one person who walks around everyday with that gray cloud above his/her head. and admit it, we all know at least one and i bet most can name a few.

yes the economy is bad, yes people are out of jobs in record numbers, yes crime is on the rise, yes our futures do not look at all bright right now. but the question isn’t how angry and upset are you, the question is how are you going to handle it? do you walk through the rest of your life acting like walter matthau in grumpy old men, the cup is always half empty?

you, and only you have control over the persona you show to the world. yes you might be having a bad day, but did you ever think about that cashier you were just rude to for no reason? you ever think maybe she might be dealing with the death of a loved one, or her spouse just losing his job, or a house in foreclosure? she stills smiles at you and thanks you and tells you to have a nice day and what does she get in return? maybe a grunt at  the least or told to go screw herself at the worst. believe me, I’ve dealt with them all.

so please take a light hearted read, maybe youll realize you have some work to do too…….

Control your children

I’m not sure when it became the new “in” thing to be friends with your kids, or to “reason with a 2 year old” but that is now the norm. if your one of these parents, leave your kids at home when you run errands. the rest of the world should not   have your bad parenting shoved in their faces. yes, you heard me! it is bad parenting to not make your children behave in public. it is bad parenting to let them run wild in public. it is bad parenting to let your child say anything they want. and guess what, this includes parents with special needs children. i feel absolutely terrible for ANY child that does not get the benefit of good parenting.

let me give you an example….

a woman walks into my line with her little boy about 5. i can tell their is something “special” about the boy. i smiled at her,ask how she is doing, asked if she had any coupons or bottle returns, she says no. not just says no, she grunts as if I’m annoying her as her son is throwing items at me, and on the floor. he is trying to pull on the cords of the register, which by the way is an electrocution waiting to happen, the bagger is trying to bag the groceries and the child is picking up cans and tossing them and still the mother has said nothing, done nothing. i have still not said anything, just picked up the thrown items and put them back on the belt. she walks up to the register ,stands right in my face and says ” Do you have a problem with my son? hes autistic!!” i said “ma’am, I’m not sure what you mean, i haven’t done or said anything toward you or your son? she says “well it seems like you have a problem to me!!” i continue to ring up her groceries and after i ring up the things he has thrown about , she says ” take those off i don’t want those they are all crushed now”!! so i do. as she is leaving i say : have a great afternoon” she says in reply “go fu*^ yourself”!

now lets break this down shall we?…… i have no idea what it is like to raise an autistic child. I’m sure its extremely difficult. but lets face it, what does every parent of a special needs child say? i want my child treated like any other child!! but yet because he is autistic he gets a free pass to terrorize a grocery store, the clerk, the bagger and the other customers around him? i think not. put him in the cart for starters!! better yet, how about being a PARENT and teach your child discipline. there are plenty of “special” children in this world who do not act this way nor are they allowed to.

people like this woman live their life everyday as a victim. oh why me? Get Over It!!! life is hard for everyone. everyone deals with their own share of burdens and lifes tragedies. the day this woman did this to me, i had just found out that my sister in law had died unexpectantly at age 49. i didnt take it out on this woman. to look at me youd never known anything was wrong. the people we encounter each day, the cashier, the gas attendant, the convenience store clerk, the mailman, not one of them caused your problems. get over yourself.

where did manners go?

I understand that cell phones are not going anywhere. what i don’t understand is how so many people think its OK to be on their phones anywhere and everywhere. we don’t want or need to know your conversation. and people please, when you get up to a register to checkout purchases, GET OFF THE PHONE!! how completely rude and arrogant to keep on with your conversation as a cashier is trying to ring up YOUR purchases. when we ask you if you have coupons or bottle returns, its not for our benefit, its for yours. you may have forgotten you had them and all were doing is reminding you. if your on the phone while I’m trying to do my job, the customer service has just been broken down. if you as the customer walked up to my line and i was on the phone ignoring you, what would you think? what would you do? ill tell you, you would want to speak to a manager about my rudeness, that’s what you’d want to do. you’d be irate.

people are so quick to say, that cashier was rude, or can you believe those two workers were talking to each other while I’m standing right there, but are very slow to look at and address your own behavior in public. let me give you an example.

a young man comes through my line. he has been talking on his cell the whole time he unloads his groceries. 3 times I’ve asked him if he has our stores card. i cant start the order without it because if it does not scan it cant be entered after the order begins. he does not answer me all three times, so i begin scanning his items. twice now I’ve tried to ask if he has any coupons etc, no answer because hes too busy using obscenities to his friend on the phone. i complete ringing his order and have to stand there and wait, also customers behind him waiting because he has not reached in his pocket for money a credit card, nothing. twice i tell him his total, he puts his finger up at me as to say just a minute! unbelievable!! finally he hangs up his phone and again i tell him his total. he says “you didn’t scan my card” i tell him “sir i asked for it 3 times and i couldn’t hold up the line any longer. luckily his card scans. i tell him the total again. he says ” i have bottle returns and coupons. now i have to take more time holding up the line and checking the coupons. finally i get his total and he says” oh i forgot my wallet in my car ill be right back” and walks away leaving everything at the register, unpaid, other customers waiting. when he finally does come back and finish the transaction, he goes over to a manager and complains that I’m rude!! wake up people!!!!

another very rude and obviously wide spread trend is not putting the money in a cashiers hand but laying it on the counter for him/her to pick up themselves. are you kidding me, just think what this same person would do if i laid their change on the counter instead oh handing it directly to them. a cashier, waitress, convenience store clerk, dry cleaning attendant, etc are NOT beneath you!! i don’t care who you are. we deserve the same respect as you think you deserve. i actually had a woman reach inside her bra to get her money. when she finally dug it out, it was soaked through completely in her sweat!!! how nasty are some people? i should not, and will not take money like that. people should be ashamed!!!

when a customer walks up to my line, the first thing i do is greet them and ask how they are doing. the truly respectful, mannered customers say fine and ask how i am. polite, civilized conversation. amazingly, this doesn’t happen as often as the rude replies. the normal replies range from no answer at all to “don’t worry about how i am, to go f#@& yourself. yes that’s right!! you wouldn’t believe the profanity we are inundated with daily. i have asked customers for their coupons and have had this in reply, “what do you think i cant afford to pay for my groceries?” or ” no i don’t have any @#&*#$* coupons.” is this how you would want to be spoken to? manners are timeless so why are so many people lacking them?

in my store, we have baggers to bag up the groceries at each check out. they are young, usually high school kids, but good at what they do. the checkout itself is made of metal. the other day, one of these kids was bagging an older gentle-mans groceries. the customer asked for paper bags. bagging groceries in paper bags is more time consuming because they are taller and items have to be place just so.

the bagger bagged all 5 items and was placing the last item, a can of vegetables into the bag, the item slipped out of his hand inside the bag and hit the table a little harder than normal. no damage, just the metal table makes it sound louder. the gentleman snapped at the bagger ” where did you learn to bag groceries? nursery school? if i was your manager id fire you on the spot?” The bagger apologized and told the customer if he wanted a new can he’d go get him one, he also tried to explain that the metal table made it sound worse. the gentleman, and i use this term loosely, just kept ranting that he should be fired as he grabbed his bag and stalked off. now, was this really necessary?

just about anywhere you go now a days, has credit card machines that you slide your card through at the register, i do not know of anywhere where you still hand the card to the cashier, yet everyday i get at least two customers that don’t just hand me their cards, but throw them at me. would you want your change or receipt thrown at you? part of our checkout policies is to ask if your using debit or credit. we don’t ask this for our health. it is for your benefit. first we have to hit a button on the register depending on what tender you are using, then if its credit, we have to check i.d, which is also for your benefit to deter identity theft, if its debit, we have to ask if you would like any cash back, which is not available on credit cards, also for your benefit so maybe you have one less stop to make in your day. another reason is if you are using a food stamp card or EBT card, we have certain info we have to put in before you slide your card. it is all a well designed process to make the service faster and more efficient, not to delve into your personal business as some seem to take it.

and yet another problem that seems to be widespread is people putting anything and everything in their carts with no regard to prices or what their total is going to be close to. they come up to the register with 2 carts completely filled with groceries and say to the cashier, ” let me know when i hit $100.00″. now come on, you know that those two carts have way more than a hundred dollars of items in them. when the customer hits the hundred he/she says, “okay i don’t want the rest of this”. now someone, usually a bagger, has to go put all of these items away, because most are perishable, higher dollar items such as meat. now the registers are short a bagger and wait times are longer for other customers. it is not that hard to keep a loose running total in your head or better yet, bring a calculator.

if you are on food stamps or WIC, you should know which items are covered and which are not. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!. non food items, alcohol, already prepared foods such as deli rotisserie chicken, pet food etc are NOT covered and you should know that. if you buys these items, you should not wait til the transaction is being completed and say ” what did i buy that wasn’t covered?” or ” take that off i don’t have any cash”. and WIC customers, you have a list of what is approved and what is not, it is given to you in your initial paperwork. you know what kind of milk you can have or juice or cereal but yet you still come to the register with fruity pebbles and say “what do you mean its not covered?”. or better yet you place your groceries on the conveyor and the cashier starts ringing it up and halfway through the order you say,” oh wait that milk and eggs are wic.” you know, as a wic customer, you have to separate the items and let the cashier know in advance because it has to go through a different computer system. all you have accomplished is wasting a lot of peoples time and being rude to the customers behind you.

oh yes, another pet peeve of mine is people who put all different kinds of produce in one bag. you know that every item is a different price. do you really think I’m going to just ring it up as the lowest price item and let you be on your way? no! i have to take each different item out and weigh it and put in a different code for it and them re bag all the items. all you have accomplished is slowing down the transaction and being rude to the customers behind you. this also includes people who put packages of meat in plastic produce bags. yes i realize that meat often leaks and no one wants that on their other groceries. is it so hard to put each pack of meat in a separate bag? the cashier doesn’t want the juice (blood) on her hands either, but if you put three packages of meat in one bag, i have to take them out individually to scan them. did you really think I’m just going to scan the first item on top? not going to happen!!

customers who use coupons ( and i, myself am one of you), look at your coupons before you hand them to the cashier, if they are expired, THROW THEM OUT, don’t think ill just let them slip by. or if the coupon says ” 1.00 off 2 cans of prago spaghetti sauce” and you only have one, the coupon IS NO GOOD!!!”.

let me explain something here, whether you are trying to scam or its just an honest mistake, you are not scamming the store, your not sticking it to the man!! you are causing that cashier to be short in her drawer which means IT COMES OUT OF HER CHECK!!!! most cashiers make between 6 and 9 dollars an hour. and let me tell you from my perspective, I’m not paying for your purchase!!!! times are hard for everyone, i have a family to feed, a mortgage to pay, etc just like you!!

For the most part, i like my job! i like to meet people and am a friendly person by nature. i am of the firm belief that life is too short to be angry all the time, so i smile, a lot. i ask how your doing and listen when you tell me. if you tell me about the puppy you have at home and just bought food for, I’m genuinely interested in what you are saying. ill ask questions or have a laugh with you. ill try my best, no matter what kind of day you’ve had, to make sure you leave my line with a smile. even if your the customer that just told me my cheeriness is annoying to you.