"I want you to poop out new cashiers! Now!"

[JesseCuster40]

Every time the phone rings and it says "Main 1" it means there's a jackass on the line.

This is because after the fitting room closes, and there's no one to answer the phone, every time someone calls after 11pm, every phone in the store rings.

I was working late one night. My patience was at an end because it was around Christmas. I was tired, cranky, needed sleep and a break from endless running around, endless questions, and endless angry customers who wanted a Wii or a Nintendo DS.

So the phone rings. I'm ringing people up during this whole conversation.

Me: Hello, this is Electronics, how can I help you?

SC: Are you a manager?

Me: No ma'am. What seems to be the problem?

(We are told to ask what they want, rather than simply call for a manager right away. Sometimes.....but not often.....it can be resolved by a regular associate. Maybe she thought I said I was a manager. But I digress.)

SC: You need to get some more cashiers! These lines are RIDICULOUS!

Me: Well I'm very sorry ma'am, but I'm sure all the available cashiers are working.

SC: Well it's ridiculous that they don't have more cashiers working tonight! All I want to do is buy a few items!

(Oh, the things we wish we could say. 1) You're not special. You'll have to wait. 2) It's night. Nowhere else is open. You're lucky you can buy your essential items now rather than waiting til the morning. 3) So what if you have a few items? See number 1).

Me: Ma'am, I assure you that we aren't hiding cashiers from you.

SC: I want to speak to a manager! Now!

Me: All right, let me put you on hold.

SC: Is this the Conroe store?

Me: Uh. No. This is [Elsewhere].

SC: [hangs up.]

No apology. No remorse. Nothin'. I love retail!

[Boochan]

Yep, its all a retail conspiracy.. no matter what time it is, they always have another few cashiers "somewhere out the back" that are just hiding from you just because they want you to wait in line.

The other location thing always bothers me.. I don't get it over the phone but I do get it in store when we have a customer ranting that [other location] gives me discounts or [other location] told me something different. We don't all have the same staff and management.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Way back when I started at the store we were generally very good about having plenty of checklanes open so that people wouldn't be waiting long in line.

Then some corporate bean counter decided that cashiers are a waste of money, so generally we have only 1-3 lanes open at a time, and if the lines back up we have to call people off the sales floor to run registers.

A lot of times when I come down from break I'll hear people complaining about the checkout lines. I almost feel sorry for them. It's strange how corporate loves to tout our "fast, convenient shopping experience" which frequently ends in a long wait at the checkouts.

[Difdi]

Some people, who have never worked in a retail business, have this belief that *any* person who works in the store can be a cashier. When these people are in a hurry, they see the existence of *any* store employee, *anywhere* except a cash register, as a personal affront. Doesn't make them right, especially if they pitch a fit. But nobody ever taught them differently. Nothing like a short stint working retail to get your head screwed on straight...unfortunately, working there much longer tends to screw with your head in general...

[marasbaras]

Pick one:

- cheap prices
- short lines

Frankly, I pick the latter.

[Retail Associate]

Then some corporate bean counter decided that cashiers are a waste of money, so generally we have only 1-3 lanes open at a time, and if the lines back up we have to call people off the sales floor to run registers.

Our corporate bean counters did the same thing at my store. I'm called up to run a register nearly every night I work because corporate is too cheap to have enough cashiers scheduled. It has been a mad-house the last two days. Yet most of the lanes were being manned by managers and peons like me who aren't cashiers.

Boths days we had lines so long that they were backed up into fashions. I went up after being told to open a register and began signing in when a mad dash of SCs came streaming to my lane. The first SC in line said, "Thank-you for opening up."

My reply, "I had no choice."

It's maddening because the store is making money hand-over-fist yet are still too cheap to provide cashiers to get the SCs out as quickly as possible. When we're called up we then get behind in our work in our own depts. Another thing that's frustrating is, cashiers make a lot more money than we floor associates do, yet we only earn 25¢ more per hour while running a lane.

Cheap bastards.

.

[Rivulatus]

I don't know why it is, but customers seem to all come in at once. For most of the day I find that I'll have 1 cashier at the register doing nothing, and the 2nd cashier and 3/4 of the sales staff are dusting shelves because there is nothing else to do. Then all of a sudden all sales staff are serving, both cashiers have long lines, and I've got customers complaining that we need to employ more cashiers or sales staff because they can't get served. 10 minutes later and the staff are back to dusting shelves because there isn't a soul in the store. Yep I could employ 3 times the staff to make sure that everyone is served at these peak times, but I bet the customers wouldn't want to pay the higher prices I'd need to charge to pay the staff.

The other one that annoys me is customers who complain that they can't get served. Whenever I get a "no service" complaint at a time when we are not uber busy I like to check the surveillance tapes just to make sure - if my staff aren't doing their job I want to know about it. I find almost invariably that when you look at the tapes you will find that the customer has been approached multiple times. My staff aren't mind readers - if you tell them you are "just looking" half a dozen times, then you do decide you want service, how are they to know?

It also amazes me the number of times I've had 2 SCs complain within minutes of each other - one that they can't get service, the other complaining that they are getting approached too many times.

[Bright_Star]

We'd get people demanding more cashiers be placed in front even when it was painfully obvious that every single register had a cashier AND a bagger! What did they want? For Wal-Mart to conjure up more registers? "Poof! Here ya go!!"....lol.

[Boozy]

Yep, its all a retail conspiracy.. no matter what time it is, they always have another few cashiers "somewhere out the back" that are just hiding from you just because they want you to wait in line.

And we're all playing with the hundreds of Wiis that we said we didn't have but actually do, and laughing at the stupid customers standing in line.

Mwahahahaha!

[rerant]

During the Christmas rush people were up our asses all day every day about extra cashiers.
Allow me to let you in on a little tidbit of information about my work.
On an average busy day we get at LEAST 1,000 people through the door. Now add a Christmas rush and people who OMG NEED THAT ONE THING NOW! and that nearly doubles our visitor numbers.
We have 50 cashiers, and during this time usually 15-20 lanes are open at once, sometimes to the point where we run out of registers to put cashiers on (some lanes are broken and some are too far down the line that they're blocked off by displays) yet people STILL bitch that we need more people on lanes.

One man got to me so much about bitching about cashiers that I finally said, "Well if you know how to work a register and can actually find one that's available to use you're more than welcome to open up, because as it is everyone in the store who CAN use a register IS using a register and all available ones are open. What else do you want us to do? Send customers home? Besides, you're on your way out so you've won the war of the checkouts. Have a nice day."

How many times must I say that I should have been fired at least a dozen times for the things I say?

[Lace Neil Singer]

At the supermarket where I work, we have just 24 checkouts, plus three at the kiosk and two at Customer Services for emergencies. However, we don't always have enough staff trained at either CS or the kiosk to fill those tills; not to mention that at the mad rush lunch time period, from about 12 - 2, cashiers are going to lunch so sometimes tills have to be temporarily closed cuz there just isn't anyone to take over. People always whine about someone daring to close their till in the middle of the busy hour; hello people, we do need to perform such mundane functions as eating, drinking and using the toilet. We're not the mindless robots you assume we are.

[Becks]

"Well if you know how to work a register and can actually find one that's available to use you're more than welcome to open up, because as it is everyone in the store who CAN use a register IS using a register and all available ones are open. What else do you want us to do? Send customers home? Besides, you're on your way out so you've won the war of the checkouts. Have a nice day."

What did he say to that?

Not that it matters. I think you rock.

[rerant]

What did he say to that?

Not that it matters. I think you rock.

He gave me the typical SC "hmmpf", told me I shouldn't be working if I was having such a bad day, and walked away.
But not before I got one more line in, that I know he heard but he also ignored.
"And perhaps shopping when you're having a bad day isn't such a good idea either."

[Becks]

Rerant...

Yeah. You rock.