Dear Customer

[MelindaJoy77]

In trying to think of what to post, I again can only come up with little things that happen all day long that I would really love to just change but since people are people, I can't. So I thought of these little snippets:

Dear Customer: Please, oh please when handing me your money, put your coins in my hand. If you place them on the counter, I just have to pick them up one by one with my *short* nails and that's a pain in the behind. Also, when you place them on top of your bills, I have to hold the coins, pull the bills out from underneath, and once again pick the coins up one by one. You can be sure that it wastes everyone's precious time, including yours.

Dear Customer: If you have a lot of groceries and need to stack them on the belt, that's fine. But please, pretty please, stack them neatly. I really enjoy it when your groceries *don't* fall all over me as they approach my end of the belt. And don't stack new ones back up on my end when I've already removed something from the top of the stack next to me. I'm trying to make more room for you at the other end.

Dear Customer: Please don't come to me and ask the price of 50 or so of your items. You're supposed to look at the little tags and more or less decide what you want *before* you get to the register. There are a lot of other customers behind you and they don't have time for your decisions.

Dear Customer: As a next note to the previous, if there is something you've decided you don't want, please hand it to me and tell me you don't want it. Don't stuff it on the shelves in the checkout line. I will just have to come and clean it up after you later on if I have time. If I happen to see you do this, I will call you out on it and say loudly "I can take that if you don't wan't it!" in hopes of preventing you from doing it next time.

Dear Customer: I am in charge of the bag turnstyle. Not you, not your husband, not your mom, and not your kids. ME. I turn it when the bags next to me are full, and then you can retrieve your bags and put them in your cart. I know what I'm doing, and when you try to turn the turnstyle before I'm done, I will yank it back from you.

Dear Customer: Please, for the love of everything, don't pay for a $13 purchase with a $100 bill. Wherever it is that you cash your paycheck or whatever, ask them for some twenties. A little variety. I really hate giving you all the cash in my drawer to make change for you.


Well I suppose that's all I can think of for now

[camjuniper]

Dear Customer: Please, for the love of everything, don't pay for a $13 purchase with a $100 bill.

Yes! This! How about $0.30 with a twenty? That one always kills me. Luckily I can just tell folks to pay their fines next time!

[BrenDAnn]

I had someone pay for something that I believe came to a little over $2.50 with a $100 last night. Yes, there was brief staring match between us, before I sighed and made his damn change. If I hadn't been saving up to get cash from the bank for the store anyway, I'd have been MUCH more annoyed.

[KatherineB]

Dear Customer: Please, oh please when handing me your money, put your coins in my hand. If you place them on the counter, I just have to pick them up one by one with my *short* nails and that's a pain in the behind. Also, when you place them on top of your bills, I have to hold the coins, pull the bills out from underneath, and once again pick the coins up one by one. You can be sure that it wastes everyone's precious time, including yours.

Dear Otherwise Wonderful Register Person: If you persist in giving me my change with the coins piled up on top of the notes in my hand, I am going to return the favour when it comes time to pay. I don't like having to juggle coins into my purse (and more often than not have them slide out of my palm onto the floor) while balancing them on our stupid plastic money any more than you do. If you wait five seconds while I slide them into my purse before taking my notes, problem solved all round!

[bainsidhe]

Dear Customer: I am in charge of the bag turnstyle. Not you, not your husband, not your mom, and not your kids. ME. I turn it when the bags next to me are full, and then you can retrieve your bags and put them in your cart. I know what I'm doing, and when you try to turn the turnstyle before I'm done, I will yank it back from you.

So true. When I first started cashiering, I'd come home with bruises all down my arm and at first I didn't understand why it was happening. Then I realized it was because customers would yank the turnstyle towards them to grab their groceries, while I was still filling a bag and my arm was in the way of the hooks. Suddenly my habit was to spin bags away from customers, which reduced their urge to get grabby and to prevent me getting injured. It's alarming how easy it is to get injured when scanning thousands of items in a single shift.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Yes! This! How about $0.30 with a twenty? That one always kills me. Luckily I can just tell folks to pay their fines next time!

I had someone pay for something that I believe came to a little over $2.50 with a $100 last night. Yes, there was brief staring match between us, before I sighed and made his damn change. If I hadn't been saving up to get cash from the bank for the store anyway, I'd have been MUCH more annoyed.

Had something similar to both. Worst part was, it was a Co-Irker. She was my first customer of the day (we had just opened), she buys a single gallon of milk and hands me a $100 bill.

J2K: "Do you have anything smaller?"
CI: "No."
J2K: "This is going to wipe out my till. You know they don't give us a lot of bills in the morning--"
CI: "Not my problem."
J2K: "..."

I got petty. The cash office was a few feet away. I went in there and asked for five $20 bills for the $100 bill. Sure, it made her wait a few minutes, but you know what? That was not my problem.

[KatherineB]

I got petty. The cash office was a few feet away. I went in there and asked for five $20 bills for the $100 bill. Sure, it made her wait a few minutes, but you know what? That was not my problem.

I would have been really mean and asked for twenty $5 bills, just to watch her try to cram them into her purse.

Not my problem.

[MelindaJoy77]

Dear Otherwise Wonderful Register Person: If you persist in giving me my change with the coins piled up on top of the notes in my hand, I am going to return the favour when it comes time to pay. I don't like having to juggle coins into my purse (and more often than not have them slide out of my palm onto the floor) while balancing them on our stupid plastic money any more than you do. If you wait five seconds while I slide them into my purse before taking my notes, problem solved all round!

Hehe good note! I've seen other cashiers do that at work and I think it's weird. I've always handed people their coins first and then the bills with the receipt(that may be an issue for some, I'm sure). I also have always done that when I pay for something; I hand the coins to the cashier first and then the bill(s).

[roguesqd]

I always laugh when someone hands me $100 right after I do a bank run for a $5 order, I get to laugh as I say it will all be in fives

[Ophbalance]

I don't understand the allure of carrying large bills. Or really, ANY bills. I tend to keep an emergency 20 hidden about my car, but use debit for 99% of my transactions. My FIL, on the other hand, tends to keep 100's on his person. If memory serves the local bank to them used to carry 100's in their drive up ATM. This was well over 6 years ago, so I cannot say if it's still true. But that's where he used to end up with them.

[AccountingDrone]

I don't understand the allure of carrying large bills. Or really, ANY bills. I tend to keep an emergency 20 hidden about my car, but use debit for 99% of my transactions. My FIL, on the other hand, tends to keep 100's on his person. If memory serves the local bank to them used to carry 100's in their drive up ATM. This was well over 6 years ago, so I cannot say if it's still true. But that's where he used to end up with them.

I prefer 20s, but my holdout stash holds a $100 bill, in case I need a hotel room. I try to maintain a holdout of $250 total.

[blas]

Honestly, even before there were Smartphones, even your basic slider or flip phone came with a calculator, hell even before that, I had a calculator I bought from Claires or some store that was small enough to fit in my purse. If you're on a strict dollar amount you need to abide by, you need to f'in pay attention.

[Lady_Foxfire]

I had someone pay for something that I believe came to a little over $2.50 with a $100 last night.

I once had a customer try to pay for an 89 cent bottle of water with a $100 bill. I told her no, because the customer I had literally just finished serving had taken all my big bills with her lottery winnings. Customer gave me the usual catbutt face, but store policy is that we can turn down big bills if we can't break them.

If I may make a few "dear customer" contributions of my own:

Dear Customer: when cashing in scratch-off lotto tickets, there is a serial number under the lamination that we need to confirm the ticket. Please scratch the lamination away from this number before handing me the ticket, because scratching it off with my fingernail feels gross, and slows the whole process down.

Dear Customer: Do not hand me money, tell me your pump number, and then walk away before I can say anything. It's freaking rude, and I need to ask you for your loyalty card, or you will throw a fit when you realize you didn't get your precious points.

Dear Customer: Put your goddam phone away when you're at the register. Seriously, this is like social interaction 101.

Dear Customer: Don't pick up a packet of string cheese, decide you don't want it after all, and then LEAVE IT ON THE HOT CART! Leaving it in a random aisle is bad enough, but the hot cart? WTF?

[Android Kaeli]

I really, REALLY wish both of my jobs could have us refuse anything over a $20 -- I know the Warehouse won't, since it's, well, the Warehouse. Random Craft Store? Well, I'm not on the register anymore so it really wouldn't affect me either way.

As for putting money on the counter: I return the favor in kind. Customer puts money on counter, I put the change on the counter. If they want me to pick up the bills/change, I'll have them pick it up as well.