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What is Up With This?

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  • What is Up With This?

    At the 5 and 10, we have some large countertops. We don't mind if people put their stuff down and go looking for other things. Sometimes stuff gets left on the counter for a long time before they come back for it, which is normally fine. It's not all that fine when it's Christmas time (oops your stuff ended up put away by someone who didn't know you were coming back for it) or when 5 people want to put their stuff on the counter at the same time (I don't know what's going on, I have a cluttered counter, there are orders coming in that need that counterspace and I accidentally sold someone else your item(s)). BUT: What about the people who are "ready to pay" and they put down their items and then walk away from the counter and start looking at things while you're ringing them up?

    1. It's confusing to the crowd of people behind you.
    2. It's confusing to the cashier trying to ring you up.
    3. If you're at a small counter, you've effectively covered up the entire counter.
    4. If you're at a big counter and the cashier accidentally makes eye-contact with another customer, that customer will start putting their stuff down expecting to be rung up before you.
    5. WHY? WHY ARE YOU WALKING AWAY?!

    I had this happen at least three times the other day and it really does irritate other customers who are waiting in line. I try to tell them that we have a multitude of other registers but often I'm at the candy counter and the people in line want candy weighed out, which only I can do. Is there a way to get these wandering customers to either 1. Not set their stuff down until they're absolutely ready, or 2. Pay while they're there and wander after???

    I had some lady walk away from me after she handed me her credit card, leaving her husband standing there confused. I had to wait with him until she came back because I needed her to sign the register slip. They literally will just wander away. The husband was just as confused as I was.

  • #2
    Quoth Gaki View Post
    Is there a way to get these wandering customers to either 1. Not set their stuff down until they're absolutely ready, or 2. Pay while they're there and wander after???
    If you figure the answer to that out, please share it. I get this all the time at the C-Store, though from the sound of it not as much as you do. People don't leave their stuff for long periods of time, but they do the whole ready not ready thing you mentioned there. Annoying, to say the least.
    "And though she be but little, she is FIERCE!"--Shakespeare

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    • #3
      How about a nail gun? Just nail their toes to the floor and they can't go anywhere...

      Of course, then they can't leave when you want them to. So not a perfect solution...
      “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
      One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
      The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

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      • #4
        I'd go with "Hey! Asshole!" ... but I'm not currently employed in retail.
        "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
        "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
        "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
        "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
        "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
        "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
        Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
        "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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        • #5
          I've never found a good way to make people stay put. Granted, I'm mostly just measuring fabric, not handling money. It's like people feel like it's more casual, like they can just say "I want a yard of this, two of that, and a half of that" and keep shopping. No.

          I've tried various ways to ask them to stay, but at this point I've given up. I will say that I used to go try to find them if I had some issue with their order, like there wasn't enough fabric, or there was a damaged part. Now I just suspend the transaction and move on. When they come back I tell them the problem, and say that I will help them as soon as I finish with the person I started helping. I'm not wasting everyone's time, I'm wasting THEIR time, which wouldn't have happened if they hadn't left.
          Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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