Was the girl on the register sucky?

[gerund]

I went to local supermarket yesterday. This is one of the big two here in Australia and it's the one that does not start with a "W".

So I'm in the line that says "12 items or less" and there is about 4 customers in front of me. The line stopped moving so I stopped looking at the rest of the store and paid attention to the cashier. She was missing from her register and was at the returns counter dealing with one of several customers there while 5 of us waited in line.

I considered just dropping my stuff and walking out. I have done that previously when I was ignored by a girl in another Mart that starts with a "K". This time I really wanted what I had and it was miles to another supermarket. I took one step to the right and walked into a self-serve area and scanned my items myself. I managed to work the self scanner even though I have never done it before.

Was the cashier sucky for leaving us to look after the returns counter? There was already some girls working there.

[Latekin]

It really depends on whether or not she had to be there. Sometimes I've had to make a mad dash from my register to returns to show a new hire (that the managers INSISTED could do the job), how to do a basic return for cash. It sucked for the people waiting, and I did sympathies with them, but between me having a line of four or five that I can breeze through in under ten minutes, or a newbie losing their head over a returns desk problem, I'll help the newbie every time.

If anyone's sucky here, it's probably the store management, since they seem to not have rostered enough people on the manage the lines.

[wolfie]

After checking out, I would have gone to the Customer Service desk, asked for a manager, and told him/her that the cashier on lane X abandoned her post when there was a line.

[Sapphire Silk]

She might have had a good reason, but if she did she should have told the customers waiting, "I'll be right back I'm so sorry about this."

Probably the girl at the customer service desk was having a problem and the girl on the express lane was the only one who had a code, authority, a key, or something to fix it.

[Evannah]

She might have had a good reason, but if she did she should have told the customers waiting, "I'll be right back I'm so sorry about this."

Probably the girl at the customer service desk was having a problem and the girl on the express lane was the only one who had a code, authority, a key, or something to fix it.

This is what I was thinking too. So, her actions weren't sucky exactly, but she should have told her customers, apologised, promised she'd be as quick as she could, and helped her coworker in need. Some customers would probably still get all huffy, because we all know what customers can be like ( ) but at least she wouldn't have pissed off the whole queue.

[gerund]

What you all said - the reason I didn't drop my stuff and walk out in a fit was that I needed it and I was not sure what pulled her away from her register. If I had seen or heard something I might be aware of her reason.

You have answered my question, and I was not sucky either.

[brucetiki]

If it's like these supermarkets near me, whoever is on the checkout that's closest to the returns counter/service desk has to serve both the checkout and the service desk counter.

Happened heaps of times to me on both ends.

I also know that upper management of this chain of stores want as few people working on a checkout as humanly possible - to the extent they constantly rip out manned checkouts to add more SCO's, and outside of Thursday night's and weekends, will often only have 1-2 manned checkout open. They've gone 1 step further in one of their discount department stores where outside of Thursday nights and weekends they will only operate SCO's.

Based on that, I don't think the girl was sucky. It's management's fault expecting her to operate 2 areas at once.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Sucky situation, not sucky employee.

This happens pretty regularly at the swamp. The front-end supervisor usually is at the service desk along with another service desk person so she can leave the desk to deal with cashier issues, but often she has to be on a register to cover breaks or callouts. If the service desk or another cashier has some issue arise, she has no choice but to leave her register. She usually isn't gone long though.