My Cigarettes are More Important Than Your Lottery Numbers

[purplecat41877]

The other day, a customer was buying lottery tickets and had the numbers written down. I had some trouble with the numbers so I quickly went over them with the customer since she was expecting a cab soon. I let her know before she left that the cab will wait for her. We got the numbers straightened out and I started doing the tickets.

The next customer was not happy that the current customer was doing lottery when all he wanted was cigarettes. He even told her that he shouldn't have to wait 14 minutes for her to finish her lottery. I'm pretty sure it took less time than that since I'm pretty quick with the lottery machine. Luckily, another coworker took care of the cigarette customer.

[Dave1982]

"Whoops! I'm sorry sir, I got distracted when you interrupted me. Now I need to start over and completely re-enter the ticket numbers."

Unfortunately, that would possibly cost the woman more cab fare while the meter ran, so that wouldn't have been a realistic option. But it's fun to pretend.

[Mystic]

I have to admit that I get quite annoyed when I see someone doing lottery and there is only one till open because you always seem to get stuck behind the person who wants 30 scratchies (but they have to check the numbers on each ticket!) and 40 lottery tickets that they need to rattle off one number at a time. :P

[protege]

You're not the only one who hates lottery. I can't stand it either. It never fails--the local "Square L" only has two registers. It never fails--as soon as the place gets a few customers in line, one of them (usually an older person) holds everyone else up hemming and hawing over what ticket he's going to buy. Seriously buddy? The rest of us don't like you, and would like to get back to work. Pick a damn ticket already!

[poofy_puff]

Lottery tickets are the bane of convenience store employees. I have a laundry-list of complaints about lottery from working at the Store-24 second shift for three months, but the absolute worst thing was: ONE SECOND after the numbers got drawn, the phone would start ringing off the hook with people asking what the numbers are. FFS, they JUST drew the numbers! What were you doing THEN? These were always the same people, too. They were just too lazy to pick up the remote and put the TV on one of the channels that announces the numbers. This was in the early 1990's when most people didn't have cell phones, so it's not like they were out somewhere and didn't have a TV and the only way they could find out the numbers is to call the convenience store. Even if that be the case, the numbers aren't going to change once they're drawn and your losing ticket will still be a losing ticket tomorrow morning when you get the newspaper.

Eventually, one of the other employees brought in an answering machine and as soon as the lottery machine gave the numbers, we'd record them on the outgoing message and turn the answering machine on. We couldn't just unplug the phone because we had to answer it if the call was for something other than lottery.

[chainedbarista]

they annoy me also, but i only really get pissed with the scratchers, who love to take up as much space as possible, and keep the cashier on hold to sell them more/hand out their winnings.

[underemployeed]

I hate working in a convinence store since I can't find a real job that allows me to avoid the public, I just need to find some place where not everyone is in a hurry, espeically with their lottery...

I was told our machine uses satellites now to connect to the lottery office which makes sense because when the weather gets really bad our lottery goes down.... within a minute of the machine going down we seem to have a rush on lottery even from people that never want to play it. Love when people come and tell us that station X sucks and their lottery is down and I want to play the MEGA now because the drawing is in 5 minutes, to which I reply. "I'm sorry our machine is down". Then I get bitched at for not planning ahead with the weather, excuse me????? It is my fault that "this always happens" and you knew the weather was going to be bad later and you didn't pick your ticket up in the 3 days between draws.... I hope your potential numbers would have won... oh the things I wish I could say.

It is really nice that lottery people think they are the only people in the world usually, I did have on nice guy who offered to let me take others since all he had was lottery and I got busy, but he only had 5 bet slips that he actually filled out, unlike people who bring a blank slip and want me to select the numbers then run it.

[purplecat41877]

Where I work, we have a machine that sells scratch offs but it doesn't give back change. There's even a sign on the machine that says so.

[Amethyst Hunter]

Lottery types make me want to go stabbity. And it's ALWAYS one of these lucky that wins a nice fat jackpot instead of you the one rare time or two that you play. (Hence one of the reasons I only play like once every 6 months to a year, and then I only spend a dollar.)

[MadMike]

I buy one (sometimes two) tickets a week, and it always gets on my nerves when I get stuck behind someone who's spending their entire paycheck on tickets. They recently put a machine in the cafeteria where I work, and sometimes it even happens there.

[Mr Hero]

I've gotten tired of playing lottery. Every time I ask the clerk for the lucky ticket, I never git it. *ducks*

[dalesys]

I've gotten tired of playing lottery. Every time I ask the clerk for the lucky ticket, I never git it. *ducks*

Gravekeeper wants to introduce you to his "kitty"....

[aurelemsrealm]

As a c-store clerk, I hate dealing with lottery. The lottery customers I hate the most are the ones who hang out for extended periods of time playing what I call slot machine lottery. They just keep buying and scratching tickets until they find something better to do with themselves.

As for lottery customers who want specific numbers and options for the drawings, I refuse to manually enter anything more complicated than a basic quickpick without a completed playslip. If the machine fails to read the playslip, I will then enter the information as listed from the playslip. Experience has taught me that it's just better to have a completed playslip rather than trying to type in the necessary information as the customer rattles what they want to me. If a customer asks nicely, I will help fill out the playslip even though the directions should be clear enough for any reasonably literate adult. If the customer throws a fit about having to fill out a playslip, they're welcome to get their precious lottery elsewhere because that's the only way I'm doing it.