Cashiers CAN make a difference at the supermarket - good and bad!

July 18, 2008

Have you had an expereince at the supermarket checkout that has left you seething, hopping mad and ready to take your business elsewhere?

Lilly P. did and she wrote and told us about it - which got us wondering, how many other readers had suffered similar encounters?
Let us know in our Reader's Forum!

"Most of the time cashiers seem to enjoy their jobs and are smiling and just happy to have someone to talk to at the checkout line.

Then, there are those cashiers that hate their jobs, hate people, and I believe even hate themselves. I was always a believer of the customer coming first but that's not the case these days.

A recent experience had made us change location of the same chain of supermarkets from one that we traveled five minutes to - to traveling fifteen to twenty minutes from home.

Here's what happened: my husband and I managed to get in line after finding everything on our list. The cashier saw us getting in line and let an employee go to her checkout area and scratch off a lottery ticket at that exact time. She told us to go ahead and she will check us out and we couldn't because the lady was behind the counter but in the way of the conveyor belt that was shut off, so we really couldn't check out. (The lady that was scratching off the lottery ticket is also known for working and always sneezing and not covering her mouth. Germs fly everywhere but no one working with her will tell her to do so. )

After waiting until the lady finished scratching off her lottery ticket (the other two checkout lines were full) we were checking out. There was not even a thank you from the cashier - no apology or anything so we decided to contact the store later that day by email. A day later I was emailed a response that the behavior was caught on camera and being dealt with appropriately. This wasn't the first complaint we've had with this particular supermarket.

We've had a few other cashiers being rude and ignorant. They manage to try to find a reason that a coupon can't be used or to try not to accept it - and free product coupons always seem to be an issue even when sent from the manufacturer – it takes time planning to cut coupons – only to wonder if they will be turned down at the register."

Thanks Lilly! Now let's see waht everyone else has to say ...

Posted on Wednesday 7/23 by Pat
I drive all the way across town to a grocery store that uses high school kids to sack groceries, work the cash registers, & stock shelves. They are all taught to be polite, they are very helpful, will carry one sack to the car if you want. So not all teenagers are bad, as the saying goes. (They do hire older adults also.) I give all the credit to the people who run the store, they have taught these kids well. I do pass by other grocery stores to go to this one. I have never had to go to the manager yet, but will do so in an instant if I felt like an employee was wrong.

Posted on Tuesday 7/22 by A.
The self-check-out machinery at WalMart (which the entire company warrants a separate website for gripes!) consistently malfunctions - every single scanner, at each of the two locations routinely patronized by our family. I can bag EVERY item, yet the equipment will freak out by deciding I have "skipped bagging" multiple items - a situation which causes it to shut down, forcing a store employee to "unlock" the depraved gizmo. Every shopping trip, the equipment locks up several times when I check out.

(Harking back to paper bags again, another of Walmart's endless collection of "sins against the consumer" is their refusal to use paper bags.)

Posted on Tuesday 7/22 by A.
A few years ago, I parted company with a specific location of a major grocery chain. The store was slipping in orderliness, atmosphere, and general staff attitude. The "coffin nail", however, was one of the sackers, a woman who appeared to be in her sixties. My cart typically would be quite full, owing to the size of my family. This woman would mutter imprecations?!) while bagging my groceries with excruciating slowness. Several times, when I would wind up in her line, when my time came to be rung up, this woman would just walk away to some other part of the store, leaving the cashier without any sacker! Her astonishing laziness drove me away to a store location several miles further north.

My other "peeve" long has been sackers who grumble when I request "double bagging." I dislike waste, for sure; however, the thickness/strength of grocery paper sacks has decreased over the years to the point that a single sack can sustain no useful degree of weight without ripping when I transfer the sack from the cart into the car.

Posted on Tuesday 7/22 by Denise
I have had many problems with cashier workers not ringing up items correctly. I always check my receipt and keep items out to take back if needed to get a correct price. Most stores are very gracious to correct the problem. You must check your receipts because the scanners do not always ring up correct prices. Computers are not always programmed with correct prices, specials, etc. I do not do self checkout when they are getting paid to work there and do their job. I also have to watch for in-store attached coupons that have to be taken off and rung up. I had to call one store 3 times to get the checkout clerks trained to look for and remove these coupons. With prices like they are any discount/coupon is valuable.

Posted on Monday 7/21 by Patricia
I too have experienced checkers with attitudes, baggers who think they are sinking a basketball with my groceries and to add to the list: checkers with such long, long fingernails that they can't push the buttons on the register.

Posted on Monday 7/21 by Jean
I find the lack of compassion shown here for workers who are likely making mimimum wage or not much more in dead end jobs sad. Fortunately, the stores I shop in have pleasant workers who go out of their way to help and apologize when mistakes are pointed out. One store even has a policy that if something rings up wrong, you get that item for free. As shoppers, it's our job to watch the prices as items are rung up so any mistakes can be pointed out as they occur. This facilitates fast corrections. The only time I ever contacted a manager was when a clerk sold me something way too cheaply and when I questioned her she said it was an "employee discount." Supermarkets don't have those and I never saw her there again.

Posted on Monday 7/21 by Lilly
A few other comments I wanted to add after reading many of the posts is that our grocery stores don't have the self check out so we can't use it.

The other is that I make it a point to check the receipt after it is printed and handed to me. If necessary I can go directly to customer service to resolve the issue of coupons not being deducted, if a product did ring up the wrong price certain stores will give you the product free as that is in their policy. This also saves on a return trip to the store.

Posted on Monday 7/21 by Kim
Thank you, Susan! I, too, am a self-bagger. I've been using my own bags for about 3 years, and I can bag more quickly and efficiently, using only 1 bag for every 3 or 4 plastics. And I too have gotten the "look" and sometimes remarks from the cashier/bagger. My response: by bagging items myself, I know where everything is and can put it away more quickly. What is equally aggravating is the places that only have 2 lanes but have additional people bagging when they could be on the register. I have a grocery store only 2 miles from home, yet I go there less than 15% of the time. The folks are nice enough, but very young (most less than 18) and more interested in talking with each other than serving customers -- and will make you wait while they finish the what-I-did-this-weekend story. I will go to stores 5+ miles away just for courteous & efficient personnel in a clean, well-stocked environment. Store Managers (if any of you are over 21), please note all the comments here: if you value customers, please instruct your associates in basic courtesy. If they can't be courteous, send them back to stocking shelves!

Posted on Monday 7/21 by John
To avoid all of this just use the self check lanes. This way you know exactly what you are purchasing and paying for and what coupons are coming off. One of my local groceries promises that if something scans the wrong price you get it free and you better believe I make them hold to it every single time!

Posted on Monday 7/21 by T
I have had 3 incidents recently. One was the checkout person taking my coupons, scanning them, putting them in their collection bag of coupons and my leaving the store only to find when I got home that the coupons did not show up on the tape. The second was when my husband went to the store for 2 or 3 items and after checking out caught that they had charged him for $15.00 worth of flowers which he didn't buy. The third was another checker taking a coupon from my husband for $1.00 off without it registering on the tape and not returning it to him. The checkers are all friendly enough, but it is hard to catch their mistakes since everything is computerized and you don't see the coupon transactions until they print out your receipt at the end.

Three incidents in a matter of a couple of weeks makes one wonder if other people review their receipts.

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