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Can you hang on for 5 seconds?

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  • Can you hang on for 5 seconds?

    OK so I'm settling into my new job as cashier at an upscale grocery store. I'm not exactly new to retail/customer service (job #9 in this department) but something I've really been noticing lately is how ridiculously impatient [some] people can be. You're in a hurry? Fine. You're late? Happens to everyone. But even during these instances when the clock is running, a painful but unavoidable fact of life presents itself: sometimes, you just have to slow down--maybe even stop--and wait. I guess people just get frustrated and aren't sure what to do with their frantic energy so they behave irrationally. Example:
    Yesterday at work a lady was buying some groceries. She paid with a card (credit or debit, doesn't matter.) Unfortunately, as we all know, cards do not work instantaneously; sometimes you have to wait maybe 3 to 10 seconds. Approximately three fifths of a second after swiping her card, she swipes it again...and again..and again. I was too distracted bagging her stuff to notice what can only be described as a card-related panic attack. Somewhere around the 6th swipe I asked her to hold on a moment because the machine was locked up, which had never happened before. An experienced co-worker came in and immediately understood that the customer had actually crashed the system through her incessant swiping, which required a re-boot that took 3 minutes during which time my co-worker accepted a check from the woman who ran out the door long before the system came back on line. Apparently this customer had done this before as my co-worker informed me, and at least it was a learning experience to be a little more assertive with people in telling them to just hold on for 5 seconds if they can manage it. I've noticed other people doing the same thing, though not quite to the same extent thank God.

    I sort of see this as akin to tailgating in traffic because you're late. I'm late as often as the next man, but I realized a long time ago that following dangerously close to the car in front of me accomplishes absolutely nothing time-wise. Given the lack of alternatives, it seems to make the most sense to try and relax and just follow at a discreet distance.

  • #2
    Gotta love it. I see that in my job; retail all the time. Customer will come up with either a return or purchase, and they are in a HURRY! as I'm either ringing up the purchase, or doing the return, they wander away, to look at MORE stuff! um, i thought you were in a hurry? I won't finish the sale as 9 times out of 10 they buy more, or they haven't bothered to give me their credit card! but of coruse they expect ME to rush so they can leave quickly!

    I also hate being in line at the grocery store, with just a few items, being rung up, and SOME impatient you know what behind me can't wait 3 seconds to pay for his precious newspaper. So they will wave it in the cashier's general direction, and plop down the money, shove past me and run out the door....um, idiot...if you WAIT, you'd be out quckly! but of course they are MUCH too important to do so.

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