The Cashiers tales of woe

[Rana]

I've been at work a lot lately as we're short staffed ... which means dealing with lots of SCs. Here are a few of my tales

● At my store we have an entry door, and an exit door. How many lazy saps do you think will walk out the entry only door? If you say a lot then you get an internet cookie! Now, this automatic door only opens one way so these people will either make their escape when someone tries to come in ... so that makes for a bottleneck as new shoppers wait for those ones to go out. The other 1% of these people will grab the door as it closes and force it open. It is this group of people that annoy me. The door isn't designed to open that way, and forcing it open like this will eventually break the motor (Again). I'll shout at them that they can't go out that way, but they will ignore both my shouts and the clear 'no exit' sign and go out that way anyway.

F me. Sometimes I wish we could bill these fools for the damages.

● We printed out some vouchers in our store papers. We usually do this a couple of weeks before they are valid. The amount of people that don't read the information on these vouchers is too damn high. That or they don't listen to us as we'll tell them "hey grab our paper there are vouchers for two weeks time in there". We'll get a good number of people trying to use them and having a good moan because they didn't realise they where valid on X day. I would just point on where on the voucher it is and ask if they are paying cash or card. Now this is all well and good, but the number of people trying to use them the day before they were valid was exponentially higher than normal. So I got a lot of people complaining to me about it. Sorry, I can't make them work sooner than their valid date. The system just won't take them and the manager won't force them in either! At least two people wanted me to put back their shopping because they couldn't get their 5 quid off. We're talking huge trolly loads because this was a spend X amount get 5 quid off voucher. I just wanted to murder the woman that wanted to do this 10 mins to closing time.

● Our cashier areas are small, and if you are on the second till in the booth you have an end packing area for customers. Due to the design customers can generally stand in any place in a 180 degree radius of this till... why on earth would you, as a customer stand BEHIND me where I can't see you, and either A) Wait there till your stuff comes up to be scanned, and since I can't see you I end up greeting the next person in line OR B) Complaining in a very loud voice that I havn't taken your money when I have been dealing with your very visible partner. If your paying, stand where I can see you ... I don't have eyes in the back of my head.

Of course whatever of these two things happen, It is still me being blamed for bad customer service. Honestly why they deign to stand somewhere other than where I can see them is beyond me.

● People have been wanting me to change large bills for change or vice versa. This is against policy due to tills being way down, so we can't do it ... and I tell them about the policy. They get upset at me, but I am not risking my job for their change. Go to the bank where they can easily verify that you're not pulling some kind of change scam.

● Also had a woman get upset at me because I wouldn't say she had X amount of product when she had Y amount ... all because she wanted the multibuy deal. Just get X amount lady and give the extra one to someone else. It's a bakery product and if I say you have more then what you have then our baking and inventory will be off ... and of course if other people see you getting away with it they will all want me to do it.

Complaining that it's a scam won't make me more inclined to do this for you either.

[notalwaysright]

Complaining that it's a scam won't make me more inclined to do this for you either.

...It is a scam. They are trying to scam the store. ??

I thought I was the only one who got irritated when people go out using the entrance door. The doors do open either way, but they are usually placed in a way that trying to force your way out of them is awkward. I mean, a person has to walk past the EXIT door, and fight through the people entering the store. Why would they do this? When I see people coming out as I'm coming in, I kinda tuck my head down and keep walking, without moving over for them.

None of the big grocery stores around here will break bills. They will give cash back, but not usually in rolled coin. I'll admit I was being lazy and wanted a roll of quarters for the laundry. Cashier said nope, they can't do that, and gave me a bill. It was no biggie, I was being extremely lazy. There is a bank in the grocery store.

Oh, and about people standing in stupid places... People do that at my store, too. The cutting counter is in the middle of the store, there are many places customers can stand. My favorites are the ones who stand waaaaay far away, outside of the employee's eye line and speak quietly. Then they get mad when the employee doesn't hear them. I seem to have really good hearing, so I catch these people as they start to go off in a huff. We have several who use hearing aids, and one with a cochlear implant. I will make sure to inform the SC of this fact, and they always get catbutt face. How dare I not just apologize, I guess...

[XCashier]

How are the doors set up? Usually the Enter door leads into the store and the Exit door is closest to the registers.

Love the one who claims "it's a scam" when she's the one trying to scam the store! Project much, dear?

And the ones who always ask for change or try to break huge bills with small purchases...try the bank. Banks have been around for centuries, it's hardly a new or surprising concept. Yet the customers always seem to think our tills are Boxes Of Infinite Holding. I've never figured out that mindset.

I've also never understood those who want to stand in illogical places. Wouldn't it make far more sense to stand in front of the cashier so you can see and talk to each other? (glances up at website title) Oh yes, of course. Silly me.

[Rana]

Our doors are set up right next to another on the exterior facing wall. However internally they have a wall between them separating the area of the store proper and the area where people have paid.

They are swinging automatic doors. So the entry way door will open inward to allow people in. The exit door opens outward to allow them out. Now if triggered and open people will use the entry way as an exit ... but that is a problem as that means shoplifters will take that as a theft opportunity as the entry way isn't always watched. Plus the door trigger won't pick up children so it will close pretty quickly on them and thus could cause injury.

Then we get the 1% that are damned determined to get out that way. You can imagine what one strong bloke can do pulling a door manually back in on itself when it's already in the process of closing. :/

[wolfie]

I'll shout at them that they can't go out that way, but they will ignore both my shouts and the clear 'no exit' sign and go out that way anyway.

Is there a pedestrian version of those "severe tire damage" devices which are used to enforce one-way vehicle traffic?

[Chromatix]

The system I often see in use is an "airlock", ie. two sets of doors in depth as well as in width - unless traffic is high, you don't usually have both doors open at once. Additionally, there would be security tag scanners at both entry and exit, specifically to deal with shoplifters.

[Rana]

Is there a pedestrian version of those "severe tire damage" devices which are used to enforce one-way vehicle traffic?

We definitely need one of those

The system I often see in use is an "airlock", ie. two sets of doors in depth as well as in width - unless traffic is high, you don't usually have both doors open at once. Additionally, there would be security tag scanners at both entry and exit, specifically to deal with shoplifters.

We don't have that. Our newer stores have them, but ours has never had a refit to update to an inner door system

We have the tag scanners on both exit and entry, but not everything is tagged. Our higher value stuff is, but lesser stuff isn't ... so it's easier for someone to stuff several bags bacon up their shirts (or whatever) and slip out the front when someone isn't looking then to go past 4+ cashiers to get to the exit.

Of course, we stop the obvious shoplifters, but you can't always see what's going on if ya have a crowd of people blocking your line of sight.

We need a serious redesign really ... but we're not due for one and I doubt they will ever do it - not unless we get more land to make the store bigger. Which means buying the houses behind us ... and that's even if they do sell the houses to us.

so we do what we can.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Speaking of entering through the Exit door . . . had to do that earlier at a WM store (one I don't normally go to) due to the fact that that was where their scooters were located.

Discovered that when I went in through the Enter door, then had hobble through the lobby, around a giant tv display right in the lobby to get around to the main aisle and through a closed register to get to the Exit doors, where several scooters were parked and charging.

Got a scooter and took it out to the car, Mom got in and started around the car and toward the store and it stopped on her. So I had to drag myself back to the store for another one, so I went in through the Exit door to get to them.

Got another one, which appeared to move better than the first one, took that out to the car and found out the first one just was being quirky (some of them won't move if you shift in the seat) so I simply took it back in and used it myself (damn sciatica was acting up anyways and I've had stiffness in the small of my back since yesterday.)

But yes, there are exceptions to having to go in through the Exit door. Unless you go to a Blowes hardware, where their doors only open one way. So for me to go in, I have to go in the Enter door, grab a scooter, drive through the double doors into the store, across the front aisle and out the Exit door just to get the scooter to the car.

[Rana]

If that was the case I'd be more then willing to make an exception. I even make an exception if it's just someone rushing out to get a cart seeing as it's a shorter way. But if you didn't find what you want and you've already been through the whole store then you might as well leave via the exit rather then making your way all the way to the entrance.

I dunno seems rather odd to me.