Idea the Front End Manager Had

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, the front end manager mentioned to me that we should have a contest to see who could check the fastest which I think is a great idea since lately the lines seem to take forever. I'm hoping the idea will get approved.

[AFpheonix]

Perhaps add in a second prize to most accurate as well

[Becks]

Lots of stores do that. ShopRite had their chainwide contest a few months ago. It gives good cashiers/baggers a chance to prove to the world how good they are.

[MadMike]

I don't know how great an idea that really is.

I remember ages ago, someone at my job had a poster on their wall, with the Road Runner (my favorite cartoon when I was little), and Wile E. Coyote chasing after him. Wile E. was on a pair of rocket-powered skates (undoubtedly purchased from Acme), and about to miss the Road Runner, and slam right into a giant cactus.

At the bottom, it said, "Speed is not enough -- also be accurate."

Take that for what it's worth.

[Giggle Goose]

They had a premise like that in the Dane Cook movie "Employee of the Month..." wildly exaggerated, of course,but it would be fun if they had something like that in my days at Target

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

That's only a good idea if the cashiers maintain some kind of accuracy and don't whip items down the counter in such a way as to break them.

[Dave1982]

No. A speed contest will not work. There are any number of things that can affect your speed that are totally beyond your control. For example, when I worked at my local supermarket, only the shift supervisors could provide item voids, price overrides, etc. So while you are waiting for them (and sometimes they got very backed up, especialyl when the SCs came in), your items per minute rating is falling, falling, still falling.

Then there's the custoemr who unloads their cart one item at a time because they want to dictate item by item how they want their stuff handled and bagged (GOD I hated that!!!!!!!!) Again, there goes your speed rating.

Accuracy is what really should count. At this same store, at the end of the day they'd post the overrages/shortages for each person (every cashier had their own private till) up by the time clock, inlducing notes for those who f***ed up. Up at the top were all the tills that were even, next to which would be written "Good job!" or "Excellent!" or something like that. THe Items Per Minute (also posted) was NEVER commented upon.

[cheese]

I think thats a really bad idea. Speed isn't always everything. So maybe you'll get the customers out quicker - but if you rush, aren't polite to them and chat to them, and throw their items about, they're not going to come back. I'm sure people understand that at this time of year they might have to queue a little bit longer. I'm sure they'd rather have to queue a little than have rude service.

[Lace Neil Singer]

IPM is the bane of my life. Sometimes customers request that you scan slowly, or you're scanning and packing and naturally are slow. I help mine along by signing off my till during quiet periods.

[CanadaGirl]

I used to work at a grocery store called Extra Foods (owned by Loblaws, along with the more well known SuperStore) and our scan times were always recorded by the computer. It would pretty much time you starting from the first item you scanned to the next item you scanned. There really wasn't any sort of official contest, pretty much just a cashier to cashier "how was your time last week" kind of thing. We even had a poster up in the break room for everyone (no names of course, it just showed our cashier/till number) and the average amount of seconds or something like that. I think I was averaging pretty good, until the carpal tunnel kicked it.