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)
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)
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