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Wine (Whine?) Bottle Witch
EDIT: Sorry this is really long! Didn't realise before I started typing!
This is going back a few years, alot of years actually when I worked in a supermarket.
Anyway, been there for a few months, one of the faster cashiers, reasonably friendly, although known to be a bit of a grump first thing in the morning. But then most of the customers first thing in the morning were a bit of a grump.
Now the thing to remember here, is I'm in the UK, and our stores have a few differences from the USA and other places I've seen mentioned on here. We don't have to say hello to every customer, but most of us do to be nice, plus a few times you'll actually get a fun customer which is nice to talk to. We also don't have baggers. Personally I think if you are going to buy all the stuff then you should be prepared to bag the hell out of it, the cashiers are not paid enough to sort out your shopping. Better yet, get one of them fast track scanners, the ones that let you scan and pack your own shopping as you go round. I LOVE them things, its how I always do my own shopping.
Anyway, I digress. I'm on the checkout and there's a fairly old couple start to come through my till, it was empty and they start to load onto the belt, I move the bar at the end so they can have the most space possible. When I say fairly old, I mean they were say 50 maybe?
I ask the guy that is putting things on the belt if he wanted me to start scanning or wait till he's unloaded. He's quite cheery and says "No it's fine, please wait." So I go back to checking through some paperwork I've got on my till.
He's not finished and his wife (I assume) comes through and demands that I start to scan. So I do, and after a few moments realise that they have god knows how many bottles of wine (big bottles, like 1.5l bottles). They are all put on the belt so that when it stops they all roll towards me. Great. I try to stop them rolling over my counter and not quite quick enough and they run me over crushing my fingers and generally making tonnes of noise.
The woman huffs and the man looks confused. I struggle to get them all and scan them. I jokingly ask the man if he can put his bottles at right angles to the belt so that they don't roll everywhere next time and show him my red fingers and broken nails. The man smiles and said sorry.
The woman then gets huffy that I've slowed down due to the fact I can't bend my fingers quite so much and demands that I start packing for her. All of the shopping is on the end of the counter. I say that I'm sorry, would she like someone to help her, and she says yes you can help me. I smile and say I'm sorry but I'm trying hard not to move my fingers too much as your wine bottles just crushed me and I'll get someone to help, and bring over some wine carriers.
Shes fuming at this point and telling me that its stupid and the cashier should be packing for her and why should she do it. By this time the man has come round and is starting to pack quite calmly. I page for a member of staff and they come down to pack. After she is gone she demands my name and tells me that I was rude and she is going to complain about me.
By this time I'm almost in tears from my hand being crushed and I'm far beyond caring right now. I just point out that my name is on the top of the receipt and here is her change, and have a nice day. The man says thank you to the bagger and I'm like WTF... she seems like a Witch, and he seemed really nice. They go and I think I've seen the last of them.
I carry on for a little while with my hand sore and other customers commenting on it. I page the manager after about 10 mins and she comes over and I explain what happened and she's nice as pie and says she will let me off the till as its not busy and I'll help her up on the CS desk for a while and I can find a bandage and something for my hand.
So I do and do this for the rest of my shift. Hand is still pretty sore so I go to my next shift the following day with a bandage on my hand. Nothing happens until near the end of my shift, I have to go talk to the GM and he's all in my face about what happened yesterday with Wine Bottle Witch.
I'm shocked that she had the gall to complain about me, and it turned out it was not her so much, but the guy she was with was complaining that I should not be telling him how to put his things on the belt. I showed him my hand, which was bruised and sore telling him that THIS is why I asked them to be considerate and put them the other way, the guy was nice at the time and did it no problem. GM didn't give a damn and wrote me up. Great I'm thinking. I am so frustrated that I tell him I'll give him a reason to write me up next time and carry on with my shift.
Fast forward to next weekends shift and who should come through? Wine Bottle Witch and Warlock. They make a point of queuing up in my line when there are a few other tills free. I've still got the bandage on my hand from last week, basically to protect my hand from stray things, and to make a point to the GM.
As the guy starts to put the bottles on the belt I jokingly say to him "Heehee, did you forget what I asked last week? Would you please put the bottles the other way as I would like to retain some mobility in my hand." With a sickenly sweet smile. He goes mental telling me it's my job to put the things through the till and not lecture him on how to put his items on the checkout.
I look up at the clock, see its about 10 mins to my lunch and smile at him, look him right in the eye and say: "I am aware of that, Sir, but everyone has the right to work without getting hurt on the job and putting your bottles of wine that way caused not only every single one of my nails to break off, but caused my fingers to get bent at the wrong angle and I have a rather nasty sprain." And I showed him my bandaged hand. He splutters that he complained about me and thought that being written up would have taught me a lesson.
Wonderful, so my GM is so spineless that rather than taking the side of a cashier that got hurt on the job, he would rather write me up.
I smile and say that I thought he would have learnt his lesson and if he didn't like being politly asked to do something to make everyones lives easier he should have just gone to another cashier, and pointed to a few down the way from me that were still not busy.
He's really angry now, and right now I don't care. He demands the manager and instead I page the GM. Can't be bothered with this. A female customer is standing there looking a bit shocked and she's put her bottles at right angles so they don't go rolling everywhere. I ask her if she would like to go to another cashier as this might take some time. She smiled and said it's fine she's not in any rush.
I shrug and the GM comes up. His eyes pop out of his head when he sees who it is. Whine Warlock goes off on one saying that I'm rude and I shouldn't be allowed to talk to customers like this. The GM asks me what happened. I tell him I will show him, and move a bottle of wine and watch the rest of them roll over the counter and down the other side (while keeping my hand right out of the way). He looks confused and I tell him that is why I asked the 'GENTLEMAN' last week to put his bottles the other way as they are all round and moving one makes the other 20 move, thus crushing my hand and why I have a support bandage on. There was a write up in the accident book and the manager last weekend will vouch for it.
The GM is not sure what to say, he's now realising that I was being sensible and not being a pain in the ass like the customer said I was. Whine Warlock is still spouting some sort of nonsense and then the GM interupts him and says something like, if you are buying more than 2 bottles of wine it makes sense to put them the other way, if not to save them all rolling over the cashiers hands but to stop them rolling onto your other shopping and maybe even breaking.
With that Wine Warlock says he is going to corporate and that he wants this done fast, so I ring him out and the customer behind him turns to him and asks him why he's being such a w
to the cashier, is it THAT much a problem to put the bottles the other way like she did, without even thinking, because she would like her bread to not be squished.
He splutters and says he's never coming back here and storms out.
I got an appology from the GM and the writeup taken off my record and told that if they come to my till again I can refuse them service.
The story seems like it ends there right? Well they came again next week. Did the same thing and I informed him that if he carried on putting his bottles on like that I would refuse to serve him. He whined and moved them, and after that, never came to my till again!
Hurrah!
Kudos to the woman that stuck up for me as well, she made me feel much better once they had gone
I know it might seem a whine (lol) myself, but is it really that hard to put the bottles on that way? I tell my man off when he does it, and the cashiers seem to give me a smile or a nod. He's learning though. He's signed us up for the fasttrack so we scan and bag our things before we get to the checkout and only have to pay. Makes everyone's lives so much easier!
I'm so glad I don't work in a supermarket anymore!
This is going back a few years, alot of years actually when I worked in a supermarket.
Anyway, been there for a few months, one of the faster cashiers, reasonably friendly, although known to be a bit of a grump first thing in the morning. But then most of the customers first thing in the morning were a bit of a grump.
Now the thing to remember here, is I'm in the UK, and our stores have a few differences from the USA and other places I've seen mentioned on here. We don't have to say hello to every customer, but most of us do to be nice, plus a few times you'll actually get a fun customer which is nice to talk to. We also don't have baggers. Personally I think if you are going to buy all the stuff then you should be prepared to bag the hell out of it, the cashiers are not paid enough to sort out your shopping. Better yet, get one of them fast track scanners, the ones that let you scan and pack your own shopping as you go round. I LOVE them things, its how I always do my own shopping.
Anyway, I digress. I'm on the checkout and there's a fairly old couple start to come through my till, it was empty and they start to load onto the belt, I move the bar at the end so they can have the most space possible. When I say fairly old, I mean they were say 50 maybe?
I ask the guy that is putting things on the belt if he wanted me to start scanning or wait till he's unloaded. He's quite cheery and says "No it's fine, please wait." So I go back to checking through some paperwork I've got on my till.
He's not finished and his wife (I assume) comes through and demands that I start to scan. So I do, and after a few moments realise that they have god knows how many bottles of wine (big bottles, like 1.5l bottles). They are all put on the belt so that when it stops they all roll towards me. Great. I try to stop them rolling over my counter and not quite quick enough and they run me over crushing my fingers and generally making tonnes of noise.
The woman huffs and the man looks confused. I struggle to get them all and scan them. I jokingly ask the man if he can put his bottles at right angles to the belt so that they don't roll everywhere next time and show him my red fingers and broken nails. The man smiles and said sorry.
The woman then gets huffy that I've slowed down due to the fact I can't bend my fingers quite so much and demands that I start packing for her. All of the shopping is on the end of the counter. I say that I'm sorry, would she like someone to help her, and she says yes you can help me. I smile and say I'm sorry but I'm trying hard not to move my fingers too much as your wine bottles just crushed me and I'll get someone to help, and bring over some wine carriers.
Shes fuming at this point and telling me that its stupid and the cashier should be packing for her and why should she do it. By this time the man has come round and is starting to pack quite calmly. I page for a member of staff and they come down to pack. After she is gone she demands my name and tells me that I was rude and she is going to complain about me.
By this time I'm almost in tears from my hand being crushed and I'm far beyond caring right now. I just point out that my name is on the top of the receipt and here is her change, and have a nice day. The man says thank you to the bagger and I'm like WTF... she seems like a Witch, and he seemed really nice. They go and I think I've seen the last of them.
I carry on for a little while with my hand sore and other customers commenting on it. I page the manager after about 10 mins and she comes over and I explain what happened and she's nice as pie and says she will let me off the till as its not busy and I'll help her up on the CS desk for a while and I can find a bandage and something for my hand.
So I do and do this for the rest of my shift. Hand is still pretty sore so I go to my next shift the following day with a bandage on my hand. Nothing happens until near the end of my shift, I have to go talk to the GM and he's all in my face about what happened yesterday with Wine Bottle Witch.
I'm shocked that she had the gall to complain about me, and it turned out it was not her so much, but the guy she was with was complaining that I should not be telling him how to put his things on the belt. I showed him my hand, which was bruised and sore telling him that THIS is why I asked them to be considerate and put them the other way, the guy was nice at the time and did it no problem. GM didn't give a damn and wrote me up. Great I'm thinking. I am so frustrated that I tell him I'll give him a reason to write me up next time and carry on with my shift.
Fast forward to next weekends shift and who should come through? Wine Bottle Witch and Warlock. They make a point of queuing up in my line when there are a few other tills free. I've still got the bandage on my hand from last week, basically to protect my hand from stray things, and to make a point to the GM.
As the guy starts to put the bottles on the belt I jokingly say to him "Heehee, did you forget what I asked last week? Would you please put the bottles the other way as I would like to retain some mobility in my hand." With a sickenly sweet smile. He goes mental telling me it's my job to put the things through the till and not lecture him on how to put his items on the checkout.
I look up at the clock, see its about 10 mins to my lunch and smile at him, look him right in the eye and say: "I am aware of that, Sir, but everyone has the right to work without getting hurt on the job and putting your bottles of wine that way caused not only every single one of my nails to break off, but caused my fingers to get bent at the wrong angle and I have a rather nasty sprain." And I showed him my bandaged hand. He splutters that he complained about me and thought that being written up would have taught me a lesson.
Wonderful, so my GM is so spineless that rather than taking the side of a cashier that got hurt on the job, he would rather write me up.
I smile and say that I thought he would have learnt his lesson and if he didn't like being politly asked to do something to make everyones lives easier he should have just gone to another cashier, and pointed to a few down the way from me that were still not busy.
He's really angry now, and right now I don't care. He demands the manager and instead I page the GM. Can't be bothered with this. A female customer is standing there looking a bit shocked and she's put her bottles at right angles so they don't go rolling everywhere. I ask her if she would like to go to another cashier as this might take some time. She smiled and said it's fine she's not in any rush.
I shrug and the GM comes up. His eyes pop out of his head when he sees who it is. Whine Warlock goes off on one saying that I'm rude and I shouldn't be allowed to talk to customers like this. The GM asks me what happened. I tell him I will show him, and move a bottle of wine and watch the rest of them roll over the counter and down the other side (while keeping my hand right out of the way). He looks confused and I tell him that is why I asked the 'GENTLEMAN' last week to put his bottles the other way as they are all round and moving one makes the other 20 move, thus crushing my hand and why I have a support bandage on. There was a write up in the accident book and the manager last weekend will vouch for it.
The GM is not sure what to say, he's now realising that I was being sensible and not being a pain in the ass like the customer said I was. Whine Warlock is still spouting some sort of nonsense and then the GM interupts him and says something like, if you are buying more than 2 bottles of wine it makes sense to put them the other way, if not to save them all rolling over the cashiers hands but to stop them rolling onto your other shopping and maybe even breaking.
With that Wine Warlock says he is going to corporate and that he wants this done fast, so I ring him out and the customer behind him turns to him and asks him why he's being such a w
to the cashier, is it THAT much a problem to put the bottles the other way like she did, without even thinking, because she would like her bread to not be squished.He splutters and says he's never coming back here and storms out.
I got an appology from the GM and the writeup taken off my record and told that if they come to my till again I can refuse them service.
The story seems like it ends there right? Well they came again next week. Did the same thing and I informed him that if he carried on putting his bottles on like that I would refuse to serve him. He whined and moved them, and after that, never came to my till again!
Hurrah!
Kudos to the woman that stuck up for me as well, she made me feel much better once they had gone
I know it might seem a whine (lol) myself, but is it really that hard to put the bottles on that way? I tell my man off when he does it, and the cashiers seem to give me a smile or a nod. He's learning though. He's signed us up for the fasttrack so we scan and bag our things before we get to the checkout and only have to pay. Makes everyone's lives so much easier!
I'm so glad I don't work in a supermarket anymore!
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