Just Wow

[AccountingDrone]

Unless it's bananas. Even the customers have memorized that number.

-LOL, I had a banana in hand, getting ready for breakfast and I asked Rob if he knew the number for bananas, and he did

[DGoddessChardonnay]

-LOL, I had a banana in hand, getting ready for breakfast and I asked Rob if he knew the number for bananas, and he did

I don't think anyone who has ever worked in a grocery store will ever forget the PLU for bananas.

Even when I'm old and gray I bet I'll still remember 4011.

[Dentarthurdent]

I once was in line at the drug store, and the woman in front of me broke open the package of medicine and started feeding one to her young child. "But, mommy! You haven't paid for it yet!"

"This is an emergency," the mother said. "They will understand." And she paid for the package.

My mom did this with me in Meijer, I was starting into some pretty severe allergy symptoms (eyes and throat swelling shut) and she ripped open a package of Benadryl and made me take them in the middle of the store on the way to the checkout.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Interesting little factoid about the PLU system, if the # begins with a 9 it's organic. 4011 is banana, 94011 is organic banana, for example.

Also, A leading digit of 8 denotes it is a GMO product, however, nobody seems to be interested in identifying their food as GMO until mandated, so to the best of my knowledge a leading 8 hasn't been used yet.

[Lovecats]

As soon as I saw the first comment here about bananas I was like '4011'. It's been a lot of years (approximately 17) since I cashiered in a grocery store, but that number has yet to change....

Me, too. And since I just can't leave it at just that let me repeat, "Me, too.".

[Jay 2K Winger]

When I worked at 'Big G' grocery, we had the PLU system. But when I started working at the wholesale club, they didn't use the PLU system on their produce. Instead they had their own SKU codes in our computers.

I took to keeping a little notebook in my uniform vest pocket and adding the SKUs for common produce items (as well as cases of bottled water and soda) to make it easier for me, since (to this day) the store still does not have a little flip-chart for the cashiers. Whenever I'd train a new cashier I'd tell them to go to Wally World next door and buy themselves a notebook like mine-- they were about 50c-- and keep it in their vest pocket.

Quite a few of them started doing as I did.

[wolfie]

Interesting little factoid about the PLU system, if the # begins with a 9 it's organic. 4011 is banana, 94011 is organic banana, for example.

Also, A leading digit of 8 denotes it is a GMO product, however, nobody seems to be interested in identifying their food as GMO until mandated, so to the best of my knowledge a leading 8 hasn't been used yet.

So Beverly Hills is associated with organic produce (90210). I didn't realize that pre-Pentium Intel processors were GMO (8088, 80286, 80386, 80486). Are potatoes intended for MASHing (as opposed to baking, or new potatoes that are boiled/roasted and served in chunks) code 4077?

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Rofl Wolfie, figures you'd pick out a few numbers that don't work with the PLU numbering convention. 2nd digit can't be a zero.

4077 however, that's sweet corn.

[Dreamstalker]

I thought 4078 was sweet corn...at least that's the one we use (maybe the system is wrong when it comes to the names).

Interesting little factoid about the PLU system, if the # begins with a 9 it's organic. 4011 is banana, 94011 is organic banana, for example.

This is one of the problems with our SCOs. They don't have a lot of the organic PLUs...or if they do, the word "organic" doesn't stand out on the screen (the whole icon should be a different color). An SC is always going to pick the cheaper option anyway. $4/lb organic tomatoes or $2.49 conventional tomatoes? Hell with it, I only want to pay 39c so I'll pretend they're bananas and try to convince the attendant that NASA is now involved in astroculture and they're a new type of round banana from the moon.

We used to have a flip-chart at the registers under the old system, but now the lookup is integrated into the register (which if you ask me takes 3x as long--I have one of the few remaining binders at the paystation and guard it well). Most of the cashiers just ask me

[vikingchyk]

But other than that, unless the clerk is a complete newbie and never saw fruit or veggies before (which has happened, but not often) they can identify them without customer assistance.

It never hurts to keep an eye on it, though. I had one clerk ring Napa cabbage up as romaine lettuce. What's the difference? At the time, about $2.00 a pound!
{the Napa was cheaper; I think the prices have inverted since a couple of years ago, and now the romaine is cheaper - or maybe that's just cos lettuce is still in season here.}

[Dreamstalker]

My dad once had a clerk ring up collards (what he actually got) as Swiss chard (what he thought he got). Not sure if the fault was on the clerk or us for not knowing exactly what we were buying though.

We have a bit of an epidemic on SCO with customers 'miskeying' some produce:
--English cucumbers (the shrinkwrapped $2 ones) get keyed as regular cukes (50 cents). If we enabled those barcodes in the system that wouldn't happen.
--Everything (not even produce!) keyed in as bananas
--Radicchio keyed in as red cabbage, or Napa/savoy as green

But on the flip side (which probably makes up for the cost difference if not the inventory mistakes), a customer will key in something more expensive and not notice.