I was ready to scream tonight

[Despina83]

For a while tonight, there was just one person after another with an attitude. One of my pet peeves are people (usually whole families) who totally refuse to aknowledge me. Okay, a family comes up and the teenage son is in front unloading. I say, "Hi, how are you?" He continues unloading the groceries, toothpick in mouth, refusing to even look at me. Okay then. Then the parents come up. After giving them their receipt I say to the father, "Have a great day!" What does he do? Nothing. He doesn't smile. He doesn't nod. He doesn't say "thanks, you too", he doesn't even look at me. What the hell is this, anyway? Am I unworthy to talk to your family, or what? How frickin' hard is it, really, to say a simple "hi" and "thanks, you too"??? Apparently it's pretty damn hard. One of these days I'm going to keep saying, "Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you?" until they respond. Sheesh.

Then there was a young woman who was buying some stuff including like four small bags of chips. Okay, I'm ringing everything up and she grabs the last bags of chips on the belt and says, "No, he doesn't want these. Did you ring them up??" 'Yes, but I took them off." "Did you ring them up??" Uhhh, yes, but I took the goddamn things OFF, okay?? Then she leans over and starts peering into the bags. "Do you have another one in there that you rung up earlier?" Yes, I do, so I remove the bag, assuming that she didn't want the chips, since she made it so clear that she didn't want all the others. I start to take it away and she barks, "No, don't take that one out!!!" in a tone that says I'm fucking retarded and I should be reading her goddamn mind. How about politely saying, "Oh, but I DO want that one." ARRRGH.

And some people are still refusing to unload their own damn baskets, whether there's one item inside or it's stuffed full. So I lean over and do it, making my back hurt even more. You know what? I don't really give enough of a crap about you to make my back hurt even more than it already does at present, so what I'm going to do is take that basket, turn it upside down, and dump said fucking contents on the belt. I'm seriously ready to do this.

Then there was the guy who was getting slightly testy when I gave him the wrong change after I was gathering the change and he goes, "Oh, I have the 55 cents!" then he hands me the change, followed by, "Oh, wait I have another dollar!", etc. Look, I can't work with numbers in my head. I just can't. I get confused easily. So if you insist on handing me a bunch of money while I'm getting your change together, I'm going to fuck things up, and you're just going to have to deal with it. If you'd like to make assumptions about my intelligence or lackthereof, you can go suck off.

Oh, and the women who unloads about a dozen items and says, "Oh, she (three year old girl) put all that stuff in there, but I don't want it. She was shopping." Oh, how cute! Well, how about teaching your child NOT to throw piles of items in the cart behind your back? Just ONE of those items led to me spending five minutes walking all the way across the store and hunting for the correct spot. Thanks again, ma'am.

Oh, and special mention to the lady who waved her arms wildly and shouted "Hey!!" across the store to get my attention rather than come up to me and speak in a normal tone of voice. *whew* Alright, rant finished.

[marasbaras]

Oh, and special mention to the lady who waved her arms wildly and shouted "Hey!!" across the store to get my attention rather than come up to me and speak in a normal tone of voice. *whew* Alright, rant finished.

Train yourself to look away when people do this. That way you can claim you didn't see/hear them.

[Imprl59]

For a while tonight, there was just one person after another with an attitude. Then there was the guy who was getting slightly testy when I gave him the wrong change after I was gathering the change and he goes, "Oh, I have the 55 cents!" then he hands me the change, followed by, "Oh, wait I have another dollar!", etc. Look, I can't work with numbers in my head. I just can't. I get confused easily.

I always had the same problem when I ran a register. I don't have a mind for math. If I had just hit the cash key it wasn't a problem but if the register was showing the change to give it always threw me for a loop when people would come up with their odd change combinations. I just told them it was against policy to alter the payment after I had opened to drawer due to people trying to scam us.

Steve B.

[blas]

I hate how people seem to think retail workers are below human and don't deserve a "Thank you" or "You have a nice day, too!"...

I always thank people and sometimes I go back into retail mode and wish the employee a good day before they get a chance. Sometimes we do it at the same time. I know I've blown cashiers and clerks alike with just being a decent person towards them. It's as if no one else has the decency to treat them good. It's a shame. I remember that feeling of being ignored and treated like a dog. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

[Sableonblonde]

God, I HATED when people would try to hand me extra money when I had already finished ringing them up. I suck at math, too. Some asshole made this really rude comment about how terrible the "public school system" was when it took me a minute to figure out his change after I'd already rung him up and he handed me more change at the last second. I never even went to public school, I was homeschooled. Asshole. That is why I can't work with the public anymore, I CANNOT take people's shit. Can't, can't, can't do it.

[blas]

Education has nothing to do with it, hun.

While basic math skills are a must in surviving the big world out there, instances like this WILL throw the average person off, and it's certainly understandable if you needed a few minutes to figure out the difference.

Customers used to do it to me all the time and I'd purposely pretend I couldn't calculate the difference, just to make them look like asses. I mean, I would wait for their payment, and it was like there was this FLAG that went up, the second the drawer popped out and I was counting change, they'd go "OH, I have the 65 cents!"

It's especially confusing if the customer is stupid and is trying to hand you only one or two pennies and the change ends up equalling something totally different.

[powerboy]

I hated that when I was the register. I am no way good at math. I know the basics, but still, it takes a while for me to figure out some math problem. I was at the open air mall helping a GF at the time. This one asshole wanted me to figure out how much 3 products was. No I could not use paper or a calculator. I got it, but it took me a couple minutes. Then he had the nerve to say to my GF that she, should be with someone smarter. WTF you asshole.

[Liminality]

Then there was the guy who was getting slightly testy when I gave him the wrong change after I was gathering the change and he goes, "Oh, I have the 55 cents!" then he hands me the change, followed by, "Oh, wait I have another dollar!", etc. Look, I can't work with numbers in my head. I just can't. I get confused easily. So if you insist on handing me a bunch of money while I'm getting your change together, I'm going to fuck things up, and you're just going to have to deal with it. If you'd like to make assumptions about my intelligence or lackthereof, you can go suck off.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I abstain from retail jobs because of it, though.

[marasbaras]

I handed a girl extra money a couple of days ago. But, that's because she managed to get me the last couple Vina Morales VIP-seating tickets available and she saved my life for my wife's birthday.

(yes, I tipped a ticket agent I was so happy)

[Bright_Star]

I used to get people who'd get pissed cause I couldn't figure out a certain amount in my head at warp speed. Maybe at one time you had to figure out syuff like that in your head but I figure gimme a calculator & I'm set. I get easily confused & it makes it harder for some dip-shit barking at you like you aint got no brains.
So many time si wanted to snap at them & say.."You want your fucking change? Shut your mouth & let me do my damn job then!"

[symposes]

Hmm.. I think id just hand them the right amount, and hang on to what they hand me to "change the total"

If they ask aboutit , "That wasnt a tip? Oh then here." and hand it back.

hehe

[xaenon]

I hated that when I was the register. I am no way good at math. I know the basics, but still, it takes a while for me to figure out some math problem. I was at the open air mall helping a GF at the time. This one asshole wanted me to figure out how much 3 products was. No I could not use paper or a calculator. I got it, but it took me a couple minutes. Then he had the nerve to say to my GF that she, should be with someone smarter. WTF you asshole.

I'd have reminded him that HE couldn't figure it out AT ALL, and then commented
on how proud his mama must be to have raised such a ass-backward fucktard.

[ShinyGreenApple]

And some people are still refusing to unload their own damn baskets, whether there's one item inside or it's stuffed full. So I lean over and do it, making my back hurt even more. You know what? I don't really give enough of a crap about you to make my back hurt even more than it already does at present, so what I'm going to do is take that basket, turn it upside down, and dump said fucking contents on the belt. I'm seriously ready to do this.

Give everything a quick visual scan, maybe pick through it for a second to see if there are any breakable/smashable items, and them dump to your heart's content. Never once have I gotten a complaint about doing so, and it'll save time and your back.

[Seshat]

Maybe at one time you had to figure out syuff like that in your head but I figure gimme a calculator & I'm set

"at one time"? Gee, you're making me feel old.

Let me set the Wayback Machine . . .

. . . back to the generation schooled in the 1970s and early 1980s.

No calculators in primary school. Calculators were really expensive and few homes had them at that point. They got less expensive as we went through, and by the time I was in high school, they finally needed a calculator policy. None in math class, but they were okay in physics class. (I don't know about business studies, didn't do that stream.)

Grocery stores where I was sold little 'adding machines', red plastic things with white spring-powered buttons that ticked over every time you pressed the button. Plastic clockwork, essentially. You'd pick up a purchase, then press the buttons. If a tin of soup was 2.47, you'd press the dollars twice, the tens four times, the ones seven times. The display would show your running total. You couldn't subtract, though. If you lost count, it was a problem!

Mental arithmatic was a standard survival tool, and we were drilled in it in class. It took quite a bit of class time.

[LadyAndreca]

And some people are still refusing to unload their own damn baskets, whether there's one item inside or it's stuffed full. So I lean over and do it, making my back hurt even more. You know what? I don't really give enough of a crap about you to make my back hurt even more than it already does at present, so what I'm going to do is take that basket, turn it upside down, and dump said fucking contents on the belt. I'm seriously ready to do this.

Do it. I mean, do a quick glance and pull out things that could get bruised/squished/broken, but I do it alllllllll the time at work. (I'm usually handling returns and dumping things out of bags, but do it with baskets on register too.) If someone complains, there's any number of ways to explain things.

"I needed to get at the heavy things that go on the bottom of the bag."
"I didn't want to miss anything."
"I was trying to speed up the transaction."
"I was having trouble reaching items." (I'm too tall to get away with this one.)

In my experience, most people who won't unload their own baskets consider the belt to be 'dirty' and don't want their stuff 'getting contaminated'. It's fun to watch their faces when you dump things out.