A Little Advice

I was standing in line today at the grocery store and the person ahead of me had an issue with one of their items. I’m going to assume that an item was coming up for a price they didn’t agree with. Either way the missus was giving the poor cashier a time about it. Whenever I witness an event such as this I always take it a little personally because I was a grocery cashier for a few years and there is one thing I can tell you:

Don’t piss off the people who handle your food.

Believe it or not but cashiers have very little if nothing to do with the price that comes up on our screen after scanning an item. That’s the grocery/deli/produce/Gm/whatever-other-department’s problem. Sometimes even the scanning system itself won’t save a new price! I remember this one time a brand of crackers were on sale and for whatever the reason, even after resetting the price multiple times in the main computer system, the price would not come up as the sale price. So if something does not come up for the right price, don’t look at the cashier as if it’s their fault.

Anyways, the cashier who was handling the order explained that she had to call grocery and just check the price. This missus was having none of that, “I saw the price tag and I just told you how much it is.” Checking with grocery to confirm a price is not an attempt to insult you, it’s just a company policy set in place so a cashier can verify why a price had to receive an override and be changed in the system. A lot of the times the customer is actually right but it’s just a check because sometimes the tag you saw was for the 10oz can of beans and not the 20oz.

This happened to be the case for lady in front of me. The cashier explained that it was actually a different sized item that was on for the sale price. This put the lady in an awful huff and continued to mutter and complain the entire time her order was being processed. When it was all rang in the cashier politely told the lady to have a nice evening, turned to me and said a friendly hello.

I understand that everyone has bad days and on particular days it can be the smallest thing that may send you into a fit; but please, don’t take it out on your cashier. They scan your groceries but they do not enter prices into the system, put up sale signs, or stock the shelves with products (or at least in my store cashiers didn’t). Do not blame them for something they have no control over. Cashiers also can’t help it if departments do not answer intercom pages or calls to their phone.

Cashiers may not be able to take out any frustration by spitting in your burger like they could at a fast food joint, but become a customer that always has to cause a scene ever single visit trust me, you’re going to be assigned a nickname so that you can be identified once you come in the store and straws can be drawn over who has to deal with you.  

To all you cashiers out there, grocery or otherwise I salute you, for you guys all do job I would never think twice about going back to.

Rebecca 

 "Just keep smiling and maybe Horned-Rimmed-Glasses-Lady won't yell at you this time"