#but that actually a Thing?? do people really view it as unprofessional if a cashier is tryna save themselves from boredom?

[acircusfullofdemons]

got yelled at work today bc I was reading a magazine & apparently it looks "unprofessional". coincidently i also had a boring & miserable shift

[probablyreal]

Today’s retail thing was two 70~ year olds, but like, not really two of them, only one was really a pain in my ass. Heads up, because this interaction description is LONG AS HELL but also all of it took like, 8 minutes total.

Anyway, I’m stuck doing cash at work now, much to my disappointment, because then I have to deal with people like this dude. He and his probably-wife roll up to my register with a moderately full cart. There are multiples of products, but none of those multiples are scannable. What they have multiples of are produce- bananas, tomatoes, etc. Stuff that are priced by weight, which has to be, you know, weighed, on a scale.

“Hello! Do you need bags?” I ask as I start scanning what his wife puts on the belt, because generally I don’t ask people about bags if they’re preoccupied. But he’s doing nothing, so he might want to bag things, so they can leave faster. Right?

“How much.” the old guy says, completely ignoring the question and the beeping noises as I scan things.

“Don’t know! I need to finish scanning things. And, weighing them. Need bags?”

He says something that sounds like “useless” under his breath. “Can’t you scan from there?” he asks at regular volume, annoyed. I do have a scan gun! It scans bar codes. Bananas, tomatoes, and other fresh, unpackaged produce do not have bar codes, as they are priced by weight, and need to be weighed, by me, so for the love of god put them on the belt.

“I can scan some of it? But produce needs to go on the belt,” I say, since said produce is sitting where a child would usually sit and is within grabbing distance of this man, and he is still doing nothing. “D’ya want bags?” because I am already getting Anxious about repeating myself and that makes me smush words together.

He grunts and rolls his eyes. He says “lazy” under his breath as he starts putting packaged things on the belt. 

He has not answered the question.

He and his wife finish putting the produce on the belt just as I have three things left to weigh and scan, so I figure they have their own bags and no answer is the same as an actual “no” answer, because apparently people just ignore you 40% of the time if they don’t want bags.

Then he says “I want four bags.”

“Four bags.” I repeat, definitively, while scanning packaged muffins.

Normally, I would get bags when someone asks, because, again, they can bag things when they’re done putting products on the belt, and nobody wants to spend a lot of time in a grocery store. But I’m also seconds from actually finishing with the entire bill and he gave me like zero heads up, so like... I’ll just finish what I’m doing.

“You should give me the bags RIGHT NOW,” the man says as I scan some bread. “I wanted to bag my groceries,” as I weigh bananas. “You should have asked,” as his wife sighs and I charge him for 4 bags and hand them over.

“84.97, rounds to 84.95. How're you paying?”

“How much after the bags?” he snaps, like there isn’t a big glowing screen two feet away from his face that says 4 bags cost 20 cents and are already on the bill.

“84.95 after the bags.” His wife goes to the end of the belt and starts bagging groceries. “How’re you paying?”

He says something about “unprofessional”. He starts bagging groceries.

He has not paid. 

He also has not answered me. Again.

It’s not the first time a customer has decided to bag groceries before paying because they’re pissed off. I blink as I conclude that’s what’s going on. I look at the customer after him. Said customer shrugs and looks sympathetic.

“Tell me when you’re ready to pay,” I say. The wife looks at me. She looks at her husband. She resumes bagging groceries, very far from me. 

She might not have heard.

The man grunts and continues bagging his groceries. 

I take that as acknowledgement.

"Register 5′s open!” I tell the customers after him, because register 5 is further from the store entrance, has practically no lineup, and this could be a while. “This’ll be like, 2 minutes?”

Three customers from the end of the line groan and move. The three customers immediately after this couple stay. Their things are already on the belt.

I ask the remaining customers if they want bags and how they’re paying and hand them said bags. I look at the man. I sort a stack of messy receipts and put them away. I look at the man. I lock and unlock my register so it doesn’t time out on me. I look at the man.

The pair finish bagging their groceries and move as if to leave.

“Um, are you ready to pay?” I ask.

“What.” The man looks at me like I’m scum.

“To pay. You haven’t paid yet?”

“Oh my god.” His wife sounds embarrassed. “I thought you paid.”

“I thought you paid,” he says, as if she could have paid from the furthest point from my register. “You should have told me,” as he pulls a wallet out of his pocket. It does not have bills. The back of the card he produces is green, which is terrible because the only difference between that specific Credit and Debit card is a tiny line that says “Debit” on the side facing him.

“Credit or Debit?” I ask, because I need to know what button to press and guessing pisses customers and the head cashier off.

He puts the card against the card reader. It does nothing.

“Credit or Debit?!” I ask, because I need to know what button to press and guessing pisses customers and the head cashier off.

He puts the card against the card reader again. It still does nothing.

“It’s not working. It’s broken.”

“May I?” I spin the card reader towards me, as if I actually told it to do something and there might be an issue with it. The man hands me his card and I fake looking at it and the machine.

The card says Debit. I push a button and spin the reader back with his card. “Try again?”

“Oh my god,” the next customer whispers, totally aware of why nothing is working.

The card reader beeps. 

“Worked! Thanks! Do you want your receipt?” I say, because the receipt will take like 5 seconds to print and the guy is already moving to leave.

“...my time,” the man is grumbling to his wife as she pushes the cart away.

“Do you want your receipt?” I say, louder, because he’s actually moving very fast. He might be embarrassed? He does not respond. The machine prints a receipt. I grab it and bolt around the register, catch up to them, and go, “Did you want your receipt?!”

“Oh my god,” his wife says again. “Yes, please.”

She doesn’t move to take it.

“You should have given it to me,” the man says, as if the payment could be processed and the receipt could materialize immediately after he tapped his card against the reader.

“Sorry!” I say, like it’s actually my fault.

“You should have asked me,” he says, like I didn’t ask him twice before the receipt actually printed.

Then he grabs the receipt.

“Thanks bye!” I say, already dashing back to the register.

He says something about “rude” and “it’s ‘thank-you’” but I am already chanting 3 bags credit 4 bags credit cash in my head because I need to, y’know, actually charge people for bags even though they already have them, and also make up for lost time.

“Oh my god,” the next customer says as I charge for bags while YEETing their stuff across the scanner because that interaction has given me the debuff of Super Anxiety, which could be viewed as a buff because it makes me move faster. I tell the reader he wants to pay with credit. The machine beeps as he pays the bill. “Thank-you.”

“Thanks!” I say automatically at the speed and pitch of an animated chipmunk. “25.73, rounds to 25.75!” like he hasn’t already seen the price, paid, and moved on to bagging his things. I punch in bags for the next customer and start scanning and place the first customer’s receipt on the shelf near the reader. He takes it immediately. “Receipt thanks bye!” I whisper, to myself, because I am aware that I don’t need to say anything but I can’t seem to stop myself from autopilot and all three customers are well aware of that.

It has been maybe 25 seconds, tops.

“You’re doing fine,” the next customer says, looking like she wants to laugh and cry.

The third customer is actually laughing.

It was a Day.

[falling-ina-forest]

So basically,

"Your cashiers should care more about what people think and should obviously know that natural things like that are completely gross and unatural."

"Cashiers shouldn't be allowed to get mad at people who deliberately try to mess up their jobs, they should just ignore the fact that someone is making their job harder."

"You shouldn't trust your employees and therefore should deny them basic needs that would help them to preform their job better."

"I don't like the appearance of one of your employees. She is expressing herself and it's completely unprofessional to be yourself."

"I'm going to jump to conclusions and say that she became pregnant while not married and not try to see anything from her point of view, and also I think you should make her hide this because she could somehow influence my son by just being in his sight and not even talking to him."

"You are telling the whole world that it's great to smoke just by putting cigarettes on sale."

"You should let children go into the alcohol row because you should 100% trust every person to be responsible."

"One of the cashiers has normal bodily functions and I think that is disgusting."

"You shouldn't let disabled people bring in something that helps them get around because my being comfortable is more important than them."

"We are more important than anything your employees have to do and therefore you shouldn't let them leave when it's busy."

"I made a mistake and the employee said it was ok but I decided that they didn't really mean it and now I'm complaining for no reason."

"I only care about Americans being employed and I think you should as well."

"You should needlessly speed money on making a seperate bathroom even though it literally does not matter."

"I'm not handicapped but I'm tired therefore I should be allowed to park in a space that is ment for people that have actual disabilities."

"I'm offended because you are paying attention to the law that says my son is too young to be hired. That's discrimination."

"You shouldn't let customers make cashier's job's easier."

The most ridiculous complaints that customers have made to me

“One of your cashiers has a huge zit on her cheek. It was gross looking and I lost my appetite. She should have popped it before she came in this morning.”

“The cashier over there was counting money. As a joke, my ten-year-old started shouting random numbers. The cashier made an angry face and now my son is upset. He has no right to get angry at a little kid who doesn’t know any better.”

“Cashiers shouldn’t be drinking water bottles while on the clock. What if they put vodka in there?”

“One of your employees has way too many tattoos and does her makeup way too dark. I don’t like her funky colored hair either. It’s trashy and unprofessional. I won’t be shopping here anymore.”

“If the pregnant girl wanted to have relations out of wedlock, that’s up to her, but she should be wearing a fake wedding band while she’s working. I don’t want my children to think that premarital sex is okay.”

“Some of your cigarettes are marked as ”$1 off". You shouldn’t sell them. They condone smoking.“

“I was told I couldn’t bring my 15-year-old son into the liquor section. It wasn’t like I was buying booze for him!”

“The cashier farted silently while she was ringing me up. It smelled horrible.”

“You shouldn’t allow people to bring their service dogs in the store. I don’t like dogs. They make me uncomfortable.”

“You really shouldn’t let your employees go home in the middle of a rush.”

“I let my son eat a banana while I was shopping. I told the cashier. She said that bananas go by weight and she can’t ring them up without the actual product. She told me it was fine and just to remember for the next time, but I know she didn’t mean it so I felt obligated to run all the way back to the produce department and grab another one so that she could charge me.”

“There are way too many foreigners working here. You should be more concerned about making sure Americans are employed.”

“You should build a separate bathroom for employees.”

“I pulled into a handicap spot. One of your cart pushers told me I had to move. I may not be handicapped but I have had a very long day and I don’t have the energy to walk across the entire parking lot.”

“Not hiring my son because of his age is discrimination. I got him his working papers on his 14th birthday last week. That should be enough.”

“Cashiers shouldn’t let customers bag their own purchases under any circumstances.”