Why do they do this??

[pbmods]

At my photo counter, we're pretty much on the way to the front registers, so a lot of customers just stop at my register for checkout. No problem; that's why we have two techs in the lab at most times. I have a real problem with customers who routinely go up to the photo counter and *expect* to get checked out when there's no line up front, but that's a different story.

Anyway, so each tech usually checks out about 100 customers in a day, and since we're located in downtown Chicago, there's no space for a lot of carts (thank goodness!), but customers have plenty o' baskets.

And for some reason, once the customer has emptied her basket onto the counter, she is compelled to put the empty basket next to her on the floor.

WTF?!

I have to tell every customer, "I'll take care of your basket for you." Usually I have to say this about three times before the customer understands that I'm talking about the basket that she just tossed on the floor. (And they call *us* stupid....)

Incidentally, I prefer to take the basket and put it on the floor behind the counter so that I have something to put our overstock into. Plus I'd rather have baskets behind the counter where nobody will trip on them and file a frivolous lawsuit; you get the idea....

How can I fix this problem? Obviously, posting a sign won't do jack. I can't make a counter display that says, "Place basket here," because I need that space for my photo upsell displays.

I could just tell every customer to "leave your basket on the counter." I dunno how well that would go over, though I'll start testing it next week.

Any ideas?