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People that have really pissed me off lately.

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  • People that have really pissed me off lately.

    Preface; I am a cashier.

    To begin with the day at work was going well, a standard day - until the power cut out. Ok, no problem, it usually isn't out for long.
    On this day (a Thursday, one of our busiest days) the power outage was a fair bit longer than normal. The power cut out before 10am, and rumors were going around that the power wouldn't be back on until about 3pm.
    The majority of the towns banks had shut their doors, and any businesses that were in the affected half of town that didn't have their own power backups had closed as well.

    At work we have backup generators that run the lighting and the registers. The generators do not power the main server, the freezers, the deli or the conveyor belts on the registers.
    So what all this meant is that our eftpos was down, people couldn't get cash back, but they could pay for their groceries, if they pushed them up the conveyor belt to us.

    The power had been out for about 3/4 hour at this time. At this point we had closed the doors to any customers entering the store, and we were serving the customers that were still in the store (which was still quite a few people, and constant line-ups)

    I am on register, a register without a moving conveyor belt, and had been serving a constant stream of customers. Everything had been going well, and I had made it a point to wave and smile at any customer that I saw pull up in my line, and to them I said
    "Hi, just to give you warning - the power is out, our registers are running off the generator, but our conveyor belts aren't working, so if you'd like to push your groceries up the belt, that would be great"
    All said with a great big smile, trying to be friendly and apologetic at the same time.
    For the majority of customers this worked well, it let them know what they were in for, and most people were quite good about it.
    I am going at a good pace, serving my current customer, letting any new customers lining up know about the problem before they started unloading, so I thought that I shouldn't have any problems with people not understanding.

    Then I served an older female, a customer that I have seen in the store on numerous occasions before, so, although english was not her first language, I knew that she could understand it quite well.
    She had put her groceries up on the belt, so I scanned what I could reach, and then asked her to push her groceries up so that I could scan them.
    She moved some stuff up, I scanned that, and asked her again to move her groceries up. She looked at me, moved some heavy sodas and meat up a bit, just to the point where I was unable to reach them without standing on tipytoe and really stretching. (which I did not want to do, because it is against safety regulations, and also because I really didn't want to hurt myself again)
    I just placed my hands on my scanner, looked at her and said politely "I'm sorry, could you please move your groceries up, I can't reach them"
    She stood there, looked back at me, and spat out "What, are you pregnant?"
    My reply "No, I'm just fat"
    She finally moved her groceries up so I could scan them, then took her time packing her groceries before she paid, annoying the customers in line behind her as well.

    Yes - I am fat.
    No - I am not pregnant.
    Pregnant does not equal lazy and useless like your tone of voice clearly told me you meant to say.

    Yes, I was probably (most definitely rude), but what else should people expect when they start asking extremely personal questions.

    The power came back on about half hour after this - which was lucky.
    As it was, anything that was on display in the deli had to be thrown out, a bit of stuff in the fridges had to get chucked as well, but the big one - we did not loose all our freezer stock which we came close to doing - which would have been a huge nightmare.

    Random short others

    A few weeks later.

    Serving on register, crook as, trying not to chuck and stay standing upright. I have requested to be replaced, was there for a couple of hours like this while they were either finding staff, or seeing how long I could stick it out for.

    So, serving, moving really slowly compared to what I usually do, not happy and chirpy like I usually try to be, and basically doing the basics of what we are required to do. A fair few regular customers came through and commented that I didn't look well - what was I doing there.
    Along came a little old lady, and asked me if I was on my monthlies????
    I just replied to her that I was crook, and was waiting on a replacement.


    And lastly - wandering around with a tray of samples for people to try.
    Approached this old, fat ugly man and asked him with a smile, trying to be friendly and approachable (my mistake)
    "Hi, would you like to try a free sample?"

    He looks at me and asks "What of - you or the buns?"
    I am nearly sure that in my shock my face looked like this

    After the two seconds that it took me to recover, my very cold reply was "The buns"
    before I turned around and walked as far away from him as I could (which wasn't anywhere near far enough away as I was constrained by my duties at the time to stay in a specified area to perform my main duties, of which the offering of free samples was foisted onto me in addition to my normal work)

  • #2
    I loathe the whole reeeaaaaching for merchandise. I'm a big girl myself and I learned very quickly not to do reaching and pulling motions because I'd be in serious pain by the end of my shift. Amazing how such a simple motion can injure and cause pain when you're fatigued and do it over and over and over...

    It was rare, but on occasion one of the belts wouldn't be working. There were a few customers that just. would. not. get. it. For a few I actually walked all the way around and moved stuff for them to make a point. Which they didn't get.

    When I cashiered, I used a wrist brace. Not so lovely thing about desk work and cashiering at night is the beginnings of carpal tunnel. My wrist hurt. A lot. So I wore a brace and tried to avoid certain movement. Heavy things were avoided because not only would it hurt my wrist, it was awkward and I could hurt my back. So I'd try to ask people to leave big stuff in the cart or I'd type it in and then politely ask them to put it back. Most folks were okay, but I sometimes heard:

    SC: What, you're too lazy to move it yourself?
    Me: *meekly* I'm sorry about that, I didn't want to hurt my wrist
    SC: Hrrmmmffff

    SC: Why can't YOU move it?
    SC: Why can't you reach it yourself?
    SC: What?! Why?!
    Me: I CAN'T reach it. Could you please move it forward.
    Me: I'm not that flexible
    Me: Oh, I can move it, it's just...*waves wrist brace around and puts on sad face*

    After the initial gripe, most folks would calm right down, though some assholes will always be assholes. I should mention I'd never ask some little grandma to haul a 24 pack of soda or someone who was struggling with it a lot. But a soccer mom with kids in tow? You lugged it up there, I'll ask you to pretty please lug it back.
    A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

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    • #3
      Ugh i HATED the assholes with the super heavy stuff. I felt like saying... you have to do this ONCE today. I could be called upon to do it twenty, thirty, forty times today. Which of us is going to end up injured? Cut me some damn slack!

      In my house, we have a rule. If you can't carry it, then don't buy it. It puts a stop to us buying massive stuff and then whinging until the other carries it for us.
      Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...

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      • #4
        Too bad that you couldn't just stop, step back and lean by the cash register when they wouldn't move their items forward. If you didn't have other waiting customers, you might be able to pull it off.

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        • #5
          Wow. So many horrible, rude people I'm so sorry you had to put up with that.
          Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum! - Don't you dare erase my hard disk!

          This is Tech Support, not Customer Service.
          What's the difference?
          We're allowed to tell you "no".

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          • #6
            Quoth emax4 View Post
            Too bad that you couldn't just stop, step back and lean by the cash register when they wouldn't move their items forward. If you didn't have other waiting customers, you might be able to pull it off.
            Or say " is that everything, then?" And give them a total, ignoring what you can't reach. And when they yell, just reply "oh, I assumed you didn't want that, since you didn't make it available for me to scan". All in such a sweet voice

            Madness takes it's toll....
            Please have exact change ready.

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            • #7
              What ASSHOLES! there's nothing like a good power outage to bring out the crappiest in people! Pregnant CERTAINLY does not equal lazy! ( I am quite pregnant right now so chances are I am a BIT biased) And for a woman to insinuate that pregnant women are lazy...uggh!

              I also used to be heavy..."fat" if you will...(I later dropped the pounds after being diagnosed with a sluggish thyroid). I was working almost 40 hours a week in restaurant hell, PLUS logging in 10+ hours a week at the thrift store...lazy I was not!

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              • #8
                Pregnant doesn't mean lazy. Pregnant meant that I wasn't about to reach down the farking belt to grab stuff and put pressure on the abdomen and wind up hurling chunks on top of whatever I was trying to retrieve.

                Fortunately, the power went out so very little when I worked at Mall of Wart. If it did, we had exactly 20 minutes of generator for the registers, because the power went to the proper places.. our freezer/refrigerated section. I don't remember if the EFT system was up or down, but it was likely down - mostly because it spent an awful lot of time down normally. If it was going to be down an hour or two, we were pulled off our huge paperweights and put to the task of warning customers away and/or zoning the heavy traffic areas/putting away stuff the customers just dumped on us.

                Oh, the customers would complain up a storm! If we warned them that we were pretty much closed for the moment, we'd hear, "But you're supposed to be open 24/7?! Where else am I supposed to get my groceries?!" Umm... how about our lovely sister-store across town? They just got a new super center too and their power is on. Yes, our manager called and checked. "Why are you closed?!" Did you fail to see that all the stores and restaurants in this area are without power? Of course you did... you're fixated on your 'gettin' the goods.'
                "I'm never shopping here again!" Great, see you tomorrow, then.

                Yes our store manager made sure there were cashiers along with the greeters to inform customers of the outage and pretty much closed status. He knew that the SCs never read. Heck, they barely listen!

                *offers her stash of toblerone* Still haven't figured out why people insist on shopping in a dark, powerless store or worse in one that's having a major disaster about to happen/have one happening...
                If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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