Question for those who have to deal with lottery SC's

[freeatlast]

The tobacco shop I worked in also sold lottery. There was one SC in particular who would come in and demand to know the number of each ticket before deciding which to buy. Then he would stand at the counter and scratch them, putting any winnings into new tickets. More often, the first tickets would be losers so he would buy more tickets. He would normally drop $300 to $400, all the time bitching because he wasn't winning. He would actually acknowledge that he was a pain in the ass, but would keep up this cycle until he was out of money. Then the next day he would come in and want us to give him cigarettes for free because he was broke. This went on every weekend that I worked there. He never cared that there were customers lining up behind him and would act offended if I asked him to move out of the way to scratch tickets so that I could assist the other customers.

[JLRodgers]

I once had to wait 5 minutes behind a person who kept on winning at those scratch off tickets. The guy refused to move for anyone. Cashier said to move, customers told him to move in a not-so-nice way, but he wouldn't budge. And he had this ticket that took a while to do (it was some bingo type of one, you had to search and find the numbers to reveal - not just scratch them all off). The line had probably twenty people in it.

It was normal for people to do this type of thing, but that guy was annoying the cashier. The manager too -- people couldn't pay for gas (this was before pay at the pump), and vehicles were piled up outside. The manager, confused as to why he was seeing people leaving without getting gas (i.e. they were tired of waiting, and a gas station was across the street), he came out and saw the guy.

So he did the best thing ever! He let the guy scratch off the tickets - and opened up the other register. The line of twenty was taken care of quickly, by the time I was starting my car, there were only a few people left inside. As I pulled out I saw the man leaving in a huff -- I think the manager waited for everyone to leave and went off on him. I'd say he just kicked him out, but he could've done that as soon as the line was moved to a new register, and he waited for the store to be empty.

[Seshat]

makes me wonder if the ink they has some drug in them, because these lotto types act like addicts...

They are.

Behavioural psychologists, when studying how animals respond to stimuli, found out that a pigeon who always gets a seed when he presses a button will press it when he's hungry. But a pigeon who only gets a seed sometimes will just keep pressing the damn button.

Humans aren't pigeons, but a random reward is just as addictive for us as for pigeons. And what's gambling? Random reward for a specific behaviour.

My old psychology prof will be annoyed at me for forgetting the technical term. Anyone's who's interested in following up on it should be able to find this easily - it's basic behavioural psychology. Wikipedia doubtless has an article with that title. ("behavioural psychology", though probably with the American spelling.)

[CanadaGirl]

Um, sorry if I gave the wrong impression, but I wasn't upset with the cashier AT ALL. I was merely pointing out that she was very nonchalant about it, which led me to believe that this was totally commonplace with the lottery SC's.

Its been my experience that usually when a cashier has a SC, when they leave they'll roll their eyes or sigh loudly, but this one didnt, which made me feel even sorrier for her that this is obviously a par-for-the-course thing.

Oh okay

[Plaidman]

*puts on professor cap* Ahem. Speaking as an expert on lottery sales. Yes. Its very. Very common. Its also very. very annoying. Even more so when you try to ply on their decency to MOVE for other customers. Of course that is a crime, and well have said customer scream and rant at you, while they buy more scratch its, and REFUSE to move until they scratch them all. However that doesn't bother me. I'm a crack shot at my scanner, and can ring up most things on the PLU. Other customers hand money over lotturd, and get change back, ignoring the lotturd, much like it is ignoring other customers.

Sometimes they get mad. More often then not, they don't even seem to realize it. You should see other peoples looks of confusion when I'll be saying price or giving change to other customer, when the lotturd will flat out smash their scratch its in my face and demand I cash them, or trade them for more scratch its.


I could tell more stories, but the horror would be too much of the extent I've dealt with these, that your minds would explode.

[Andara Bledin]

If I had any power in that sort of situation I'd just lay it down like this:

You're obstructing my busines. If you do not cease obstructing my business within the next 60 seconds I will have you evicted from the store and if you do not leave the premises or if you come back, I will have you arrested for tresspassing. Your call.

^-.-^

[Peppergirl]

If I had any power in that sort of situation I'd just lay it down like this:

You're obstructing my busines. If you do not cease obstructing my business within the next 60 seconds I will have you evicted from the store and if you do not leave the premises or if you come back, I will have you arrested for tresspassing. Your call.

^-.-^

Word.

Managers kissing unreasonable customers asses seems to be par-for-the-course lately, but I don't understand why they wouldn't put their foot down on a lottery customer doing this. After all, the store makes very little money on lotto, correct? And these people are holding up a line of potentially PAYING and PROFITABLE customers.

That reasoning right there should make even the most spineless of managers react accordingly.

I'm sure I'm just dreaming, though.

[Plaidman]

We make 1/100th of a dollar for every dollar we sell. Manager knows this. Manager has no problem telling these customers off if they're holding up other customers. Til one called corporate. Corporate being corporate yelled at manager. After all, that one penny they made was far more important then the 3-4 bucks they could have made off the other customer. Hell, they didn't even get that penny since the lady used her debit, and we eat the fee.

[Dorath]

Must be different laws in Oregon. In the two states I've done convenience work, it was cash only, no exceptions.

[Plaidman]

Use to be like that too. Its been about ...two ish years since we started to accept it. Even then, from what I've seen, its ONLY my work that takes it.

[Dorath]

You may want to check into just how legal it is if only your work does it.

[Plaidman]

You may want to check into just how legal it is if only your work does it.

Eh, if 100+ stores take it, I'm pretty sure other places take it. I just don't happen to buy lottery that often, nor do I really pay attention when others do. So I'm pretty sure others take it.