So you walk into a store, buy something and leave. An hour later someone else you know goes to the same store and buys something from the same cashier. The cashier recognizes you two as friends, relatives or acquaintances and ends up telling them what you came in to buy.
So now, because of some irrational thought process, someone thinks of me as an alcoholic. I’m not even mad about that though. What really angered me is it could have been avoided if the cashier would have tried to be somewhat professional and not so nosy.
So how would you feel about this situation and how would you handle it?
I own a bookstore, and there are very few times where I’ll tell someone about another person’s purchases. In a few cases, it’s okay, mostly when someone is buying a book for a friend and they want to know if the friend already has it.
I don’t think you have grounds for any legal action of course. But you do have a right to be pissed and not to shop there anymore (or to go through a different checkout line). I’d just write a letter to the manager there explaining the situation and let him handle it. No laws were broken or anything like that, but it could be construed as unprofessional.
I would say the issue is more the irrationality of the person who is your “friend” though, and reconsider that relationship. Because you never seemed to have a problem with the blabbery cashier until this happened.
Yeah. I’ll chat with a customer about his book if he’s buying The Iliad, but if he’s buying How to Live with Cancer I’ll limit my conversation to “Thank you very much. Let me put a bookmark in there for you.”
I disagree slightly with some of the above posts. You don’t have a right of secrecy to actions you do, and people who know you have no obligation not to talk about things you did.
Yeah, maybe it’s slightly different when it’s a cashier. But the cashier was engaging in perfectly normal human behaviour - basic social behaviour - and I think people sometimes go a little far in expecting those people they interact with who happen to be at work at that moment to act in a non-human way.
The main issue I see here is that someone who hears someone has bought some alcohol is therefore an alcoholic. This problem probably wouldn’t have been raised if the cashier had said “tropsnj4jsj (sorry, untypable username) was wearing a nice hat the other day”. This is no different to that; only the bizarre reaction was.
Do we get to the point where a person - who happens to be a cashier - is unable even to mention someone they dealt with? Where is the line drawn? What if tropsjisbnbf is a single guy, and the cashier an attractive girl to whom he is attracted, and she tells another friend of his that he looked sexy the other day when she saw him in her shop? Do the rules suddenly change then because the outcome is good?
All my time in retail I’ve never really cared or payed much attention to what anybody was buying unless it was a restricted item and I needed verfy age. Hell most of the time if the same customer returned an hour later I’d have a hard time remembering what they bought (or even that I waited on them).
Alas, cashiers are not bound by customer/cashier confidentiality. I don’t believe they take the hippocratic oath either. The cashier should really get a life.
This reminds me of that old joke about the guy who buys a bunch of condoms at a pharmacy, telling the pharmacist what a hot date he has with an easy girl while the purchase is being rung up, only to discover the pharmacist is the girl’s father when he arrives at his date’s house.
I agree the cashier shuld probably mind his or her own business. But I’ve never heard of a Cashier’s Code of Ethics. Let the buyer beware!
In my experience (several alcoholics among my family & friends), when it gets to the point where others start thinking of you as an alcoholic, and you deny it defensively … you probably are an alcoholic.
I don’t think its a big deal and I can’t imagine what item it would be that would make me care. If we eliminate the obvious items that anyone with common sense knows not to bandy about:
Condoms
Large alcohol purchases
Cigarettes even
Then there is nothing left I care that you share with my neighbor.
I know by nature I am perplexed by the desire for utmost privacy as I live in a world where no one could possible care about what I do in my private life and would be sorely disappointed at any thing they might find. I also have sympathy as I work in a profession that requires that I not identify my clients to other clients. This means that I have to constantly be aware as all of my clients work for the same institutions and live in the same neighborhood.
I am constantly wanting to say . . . “Oh, do you know xxxxxx, I saw him at Wegman’s the other day”. I cant’ imagine I would care in that position, but I am acutely aware that, for whatever reason, my clients might.
I agree with this. Making small talk is a pretty normal thing for a cashier to do. It’s a boring job, but the human interaction can make it a little more fun.
Small talk about the order in front of you with the customer in front of you isn’t terrible. Heck, it’s trained into Trader Joe’s cashiers, and I’ve actually got some good tips/recipes from them based on items I’m buying! It makes it a pleasant shopping experience.
(Of course, I’m on record here and believing that there are large candy dishes of cocaine in the back room of Trader Joe’s. They’re always so HAPPY there! And what annoys me in many stores pleases me there, so they’re doing something right…and differently. Can’t quite put my finger on it. I guess they train them to feign sincerity well.)
But where I as a (former) cashier would draw the line is talking about another customer or his purchases to my customer. You just never know who knows whom, what their relationship is, etc. What if the OP had been buying a gift for his friend? Or for his friend’s girlfriend? :eek:
Just better not to get involved. No, there’s no oath or anything, but it’s just a good idea if you want to avoid pissing off your customers. There’s little good that can come from it, only mischief.
It helps to think of it as Jansport spelled backwards.
To the OP: I would be mildly irritated at the cashier, but after 50 years of living I’ve resigned myself to the fact that people often blurt out any little thing they know, so I conduct myself accordingly.
Slightly OT here - Does anyone here get their prescriptions filled at Target Pharmacy? If you do, have NO expectations of privacy there! I worked there during Christmas once and saw this happen to poor customers over and over.
Here’s how it goes - you walk up to the counter which holds the actual cash registers.
Person behind the counter(PBC): “Can I help you?”
You: “Yes, I need to get a few refills please.”
PBC then walks away to go behind another counter quite a bit farther away where the computers are sitting.
PBC: “Your name?” they shout.
You: “Jane Smith” you shout back.
PBC: “What medication do you need refilled?”
You: Looking embarrassingly over your shoulder at all the people standing in line behind you - “I need my birth control pills refilled and I need my anti-depressant meds filled but I can’t remember the names.” you shout. “I also need you to check to see if I have any refills on my hemorrhoid cream.”
PBC: “I’m sorry, Ms Smith. I didn’t hear that last part.” they shout.
You: “Cream, hemorrhoid cream!” you shout even louder.
You then realize everyone in line has stopped talking and are now staring at you, some in silence, some snickering and whispering to each other about your, ummm, “problems”.
The lesson here is - ALWAYS call ahead so that your refills are ready and waiting for you or DON’T use Target Pharmacy!
A pharmacy is a place where you should have an expectation of privacy from the cashier but obviously Target doesn’t think so. Why on earth did they place the computers so far away from where you actually talk to the the pharmacist or cashier? Other pharmacies aren’t like this, thank goodness. It makes no sense to me.