Work

[Kristev]

Corporate priorities are all screwed up.

[snugglegirl05]

Front end evaluation

I was evaluated yesterday at work by the Assistant Customer Service Manager.

I passed almost everything. The 2 things I did not pass were...

I do not tell the customer that they received an "invitation" to fill out the on-line survey on their receipt, and I do not tell the customer how much they saved by using their loyalty card. That information is printed at the bottom of the receipt.

Mind you there is also the following happening at work...

• Front-end employee walked off the job during her shift.
• Front-end employee did not return to the front-end after his break was over. *One of the Front-end supervisors gave a break to one of the cashiers, and she paged him over the store intercom twice to come back to the front end after his break had ended. He did not return to the front end.*
• Customers complaining that there are not enough cashiers or baggers/courtesy clerks
• Customer leaving a cart full of groceries which includes perishable items at the front end, not telling anyone, and walking out the store due to long lines and not enough front end employees. *I found that cart after I returned from my break. I took that cart to the Assistant Customer Service Manager.*
• Not enough employees at the front end to take back perishable items since Upper Management only allows the bare minimum of staff
• A cashier calling out, and the MOD not authorizing the Assistant Front End Manager to call someone to replace her. *The cashier who called out was the closing cashier.*

[Pixelated]

Well, the self-checkouts are certainly not costing any jobs here.

My current-soon-to-be-former place of employment has two self-checkouts ... that are nonfunctional more often than not. There is also a full register just past them and there is always one cashier both monitoring the self-checkouts and able to use the full checkout. The crap self-checkout machines make it amazingly easy to get people NOT to use them ... not to mention the fact that, when I am stationed there, I hate just standing there staring at the self-checkout monitors. So I almost always call over and say "I can ring you up here if you prefer" and 99% of the customers do indeed "prefer" to come to a live cashier.

I generally only use them if (a) I'm in a real hurry, and (b) I only have a few items.

[workerbee222]

IPF, couldn't tell you. It's a store I don't shop at a lot, maybe pop in on the way to work to pick something up for lunch. Since I'm rarely ahead of schedule, that doesn't happen often. I happened to notice they're gone at that location. And at another store, I was at the next SCO when a customer brought her SCO process to a halt by trying to cheat the store.

I have been to another store at which the SCO area was firing on all cylinders: all in use and a kick-ass employee covering six of them efficiently and pleasantly. Had barely dragged the wine across the scanner and she was there to enter the code to allow my aging, booze-starved self to continue the SCO process. That's rare, though.

In spite of being "of a certain age" I like the SCO. I dump all the refrigerated/freezer stuff together, even if the bags end up different weights. Telling someone else how to bag my things seems like micro-managing.

[snugglegirl05]

Yesterday an older male customer came to my line and asked me if my employer is wanting to make customers use u scan/self checkout. He noticed the number of u scan/self checkout lanes versus the number of manned registers.

I told him yes.

So then he asked me "is it worth it to complain about this because I do not want to be told I have to use u scan. I would rather go to a manned register?"

I told him to complain to the regional level, not the store level since the store level is told what to do by the regional level.

I also told him to not include the store location since the regional level would just send the complaint back to the store level.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Mmmhmm. Some of the stores still have their self-scans. Some have removed them, owing to customers who were cheating the store at the check-out.

Have those stores replaced the self-scans with more cashiers and more open checkout lanes?

Most likely not. Which is why I don't buy the line that self-scans eliminate jobs.

[dalesys]

"..."Sir, the customers are revolting!"...

"The CEO is a FINK!"

[Mental_Mouse]

"Sir, the customers absolutely hate the self-checkouts."

"That is not acceptable. MAKE them use the self-checkouts"

"Sir, the customers are revolting!"

"Yeah, they stink on toast!"

[Buzzard]

In theory, eventually everyone would use the damned things. Only thing is, in scientific terms, a theory is something that has already been tested, and a general consensus reached, that this does indeed seem to work. Some of these SCO setups are less than intuitive, and prone to ... strange behavior, which leads people to avoid them like the plague.

Of course, buying a really great SCO system would cost money, and they're putting in the SCOs to save money, so why should they spend more money on it, right?

[little_miss_springfield]

Good luck on your job search!


Uggh, self check stats I hate how much those stats are emphasized at my library. Staff has to push the SCO so hard. It's fine to ask people if they'd like us to show them how to use it, but having to ask every customer that comes to the service desk to check out their stuff is ridiculous. I really wish somebody in management could explain why getting X percentage of customers to use it is so danged important. They say it frees staff up to do other things besides work the desk. Ummm. . . no, it really doesn't. It might if we didn't have a constant stream of new customers who don't know how to use it. Any time saved by old customers using the self checkout is offset by the time spent training new customers on it.

[Seanette]

More like it's going to piss a bunch of people off. I guess those geniuses at corporate are too stupid to understand that if someone wanted to use the U-scan, they'd be using it already.

Personally, I prefer them if I'm only getting a few items. But some people don't like using them, and having someone pester them isn't going to get them to do it.

Might well get those customers to down their prospective purchases and walk out, but that would still reduce the percentage insisting on human attention, so by corporate "logic" (which makes my cat having a tantrum look reasonable) this would still count toward their goal.

[workerbee222]

Mmmhmm. Some of the stores still have their self-scans. Some have removed them, owing to customers who were cheating the store at the check-out.

Job searches stink. Hope you find something soon.

[Sandman]

One major issue is for those customers who are on WIC. The self-service checkout isn't equipped for that. In my state they are very vocal that the WIC customers be able to use the same registers as anyone else.

[Kristev]

Agreed. I will use self-checkouts if I have just one or two things. But I strongly prefer a cashier.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The u scan attendants have to convince customers waiting in line at the manned registers to use u scan, especially customers who have small orders. This is supposed to make our u scan usage jump to 70%,

"nO tHaNKs i DOn'T wOrK hERe."

Get ready to hear that a lot. Or some coarser version of it.