If you don't have 5 minutes to wait for the person ahead of you

[Food Lady]

then you don't have time to fill out a survey. Last night I was the only cashier on until close, but we had 4 self-checkouts open. I had a customer with coupons and several rebate checks. It was going to take a little bit, but not more than 10 minutes. I could feel the impatience coming off the couple next in line but I took care of the person I was actually helping. I was really friendly and nice but that didn't distract me. I was fast as one could be; I'm always fast.
The woman behind finally huffed and made a big deal of picking up her stuff and going to the SCO. It made my customer feel awkward and that annoyed me. I can't stand impatience. Anyway, I finished with her and did go to help the couple on the SCO and I was very nice about it.

I came in today to have to hear about the survey and how I didn't acknowledge her but at least I got credit for helping her on the SCO. I got into it with the supervisor because
a) Yes, you bet I didn't engage her while she was standing there fuming. I'm not stupid. I have no tolerance for people who are impatient. Maybe I'm wrong in that, but self-preservation is persistent.
b) I felt I was being singled out. There was a complaint in there that the other employees didn't help her. Yeah, one of those was a supervisor. How was that my fault?
c) It was just a lot of checks, but again, 10 minutes tops and it was 9:40 on a Saturday night. All I can say about that is that if anyone was in that much of a hurry at that point in the day, they should've planned their day better.
d) It's not may fault the company is trying to force people to use the SCOs instead of scheduling more staff. They've always tried to spend as little payroll as possible and this is what happens.

I can see one point on the customer's side: I should've called out the supervisor and asked him to ring them up. But I still feel really annoyed that she took the time to write all this out but couldn't wait a few minutes for someone with coupons.

At one point in the heated conversation with the supervisor, I actually opened my locker and grabbed my purse and said, "..in about TWO SECONDS, [name]... I didn't walk out because we were interrupted and that gave me pause. I need the extra money.

[Shyla]

Acknowledge her? I'm with you. What are you supposed to say? Nothing other than "Of course I'll stop helping this guy and help you" would have satisfied her. Cashiers don't usually talk to the next person in line.

But I do get frustrated with how early they switch to only SCO. It's money saving but not. I used to do a t of my grocery shopping at the one store around 9:30pm. Now that there's no cashier, I haven't spent much money there this year. It's just little ol me and my few groceries but maybe there are more of me not spending money. Wegmans always has cashiers, day or night. A local chain I go to closes at 10pm but always has cashiers.

[greek_jester]

But I do get frustrated with how early they switch to only SCO. It's money saving but not.

A UK national chain of DIY stores with an orange logo had a store near us that used to open quite late. Out of office hours they would only have an SCO open to save on wages costs. I bought my kitchen from them, but as I was going halves with my sister (who co-owns our house) we were most in cash (her savings and part of mine) and the balance on my credit card. Guess what? SCOs can't handle transactions with more than one payment method! Unfortunately we only found out about this when we'd already scanned everything in. The manager ended up having to open up one of the normal register lanes and transferring the transaction in order to take our money.

Apparently this happened quite a lot, to the point that after a year they started having a normal register open for the full opening hours of the store as well as the SCOs. Who knew that a lot of customers would pay for major purchases part cash (savings) and part credit card (to split out the cost over a period of time)? /sarcasm

[wordgirl]

I actually have the opposite complaint. At my local BeastThatAteTheUniverseMart they close the SCOs at night leaving one cashier open at the ciggy register, and a line that stretches to infinity and beyond.

But take that out on the cashier who is clearly moving as fast as possible? Seriously, why would they think the cashier had any control at all here?

[wolfie]

If there's one register open, it limits their hourly sales to the rate at which the one cashier. If one customer holds things up (needs price check, etc.), EVERYONE is delayed. How much does the store lose in sales due to people walking out because of the wait? Also, how much merchandise is written off because a customer gets to the register, demands someone bring up a replacement for their (now melted) ice cream (adding to delays), or merely tells the cashier "It's melted because of how long I had to wait in line, I don't want it anymore"?

Bean counters need to realize that there's a limit to how much money can be saved by cutting staff. After a point, staff cuts REDUCE profit.

[dalesys]

... After a point, staff cuts REDUCE profit.

We extrapolated the projections and they prove we'll maximize haulage if we feed the asses nothing.