I too pay for stuff with my ATM card…VISA accepted everywhere you are…I digress.
Since I do that, YES, I prefer the reciept in my puny, wrinkly, little hands where I can put them with the other receipts so I know what I spent on a particular day or week. I am not good at balancing my checkbook, but I sure as hell want that reciept in my hands and in my wallet.
If I pay by cash, I could give a rat’s ass if I have the reciept or not, depending on the purchase but I still want the damn thing in my hot hands…besides this way I can check out the pricing and total before I leave the store and not have to fight a loosing battle if a clerk rings it up wrong, which does happen.
When I was growing up, my dad was VERY anal about receipts. Or, as he called them, “tickets”. Which was good in a way, he was very good at keeping an account of things, (something I wish I had inherited from him.)
He’d send us kids or my mom out to get something, (even if it were a few cents) and always demand the “ticket”. There was intense grilling and torment (nothing bad, my dad was basically a nice guy) if you came back with no ticket. I always dreaded going to some mom-and-pop or other small store, where they didn’t automatically give me my receipt. I’d have to make a big deal about getting it, even having the clerk rummaging through the trash if they had tossed it out before I could ask for it. I even remember getting a “ticket” (in this case, a sum written on some torn bit of brown paper bag) from the drink stand at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. I HAD to have my reciept, so the girl at the stand did her best with the brown paper bag! (My dad grumbled, but he accepted it.)
Someday, I hope my time is so valuable that I can really care about the fractions of a second I spend taking the receipt from one hand and putting it into the bag in the other hand. Actually, I’d rather just shove it into my pocket, where I won’t accidentally throw it away with the bag (especially nice if my credit card number is on it). Sorry the world doesn’t work the way you want, but learn to live with it. Sheesh.
I supervised a cashier who on her eighth day of training** (the average training period was two days) asked upon being told for the umpteenth time to “count up the change to the nearest quarter and then use more quarters to bring it to a dollar” asked “How many quarters in a dollar again?” She had just graduated high school three weeks prior AND we’d been doing this exact same process over and over and over and over for eight days. Fortunately that was her last day.
**As a supplement to my own personal hell in having to train this idiotic little noodje, she was not only as dumb as a brush but was also my rather volatile boss’s favorite god-daughter. She was to be handled like a delicate orchid. Shudder. Finally, his tightwad nature got the best of him though - and he personally took care of letting her go after he sat and watched her as she tried to handle “his money” for a while.
[hijack] Guin May I call you Guin? Do you ever put a pseudonym on your name tag? I have on NO occasion ever had my actual name on my nametag. I have one of those names that almost everyone just feels free as a bird to diminutize - and I HATE that! I’ve never run into any problems with management about it - but I’ve always kept with one consistent “goes by” name per job.
I worked graveyard shift at a nation-wide chain restaurant for years … as “Svenga”. For ages after that people’d come up to me, as if because I occasionally served them coffee and fries and was polite to them that meant they were my buddy, and say “Heeeeyy, Svenga, how ya been…blah blah blah”. In this manner, I am most always able to identify where apparent strangers know me from. Stella, Dagmar, Quinn or Svenga - I know it’s an old customer and even which job I gave them service at so I can continue to duly impress them - “Heeyyy - I used to wait on you at Perkin’s right?” People love to feel special and remembered.
Now that I’m on the phones - I don’t give my name when I answer the call - if it were required I’d use a pseudonym - and if I’m asked I will only give my CSR#.
The reason? Not at my current job but at another call center, I actually had some ballsy asshole call me at home once to complain about a back ordered item that hadn’t arrived yet! He had asked for the rep’s (who already updated him on the situation) supervisor’s name - she gave him my first and last name and explained I wasn’t there at the time. Since I happened to be listed in the phone book he just felt at liberty to call me - Un-fucking-believable. It was a very short conversation.
[/hijack]
BTW: On cashiering- I give the change back first and then the bills. I’ll ask if you want your receipt, unless you pay with plastic, and then you automatically get it handed to you unless you ask me to just throw it away.
Quit balancing the change on top of the bills when you hand over the change!
I have leaned back with arms folded saying, “I just wondered how long you could balance that.”
Also, I’ve learned:
Don’t give the cashier the bills before the coins.
They ring up the bills immediately and are then incapable of figuring out that $1.98 in change to me and two pennies to them equals two dollars to me. One cashier said, 'We aren’t allowed to do that." Me, “Understandable since you can’t add or subtract.”
And, and, Must they put everything in a bag? Buy something in a box and they will but the box in a bag!
My brother, an “enviornmental wacko”, will take an old bag with him to the market. He will put his purchase into the old bag while awaiting his change. They will invaribly put his old bag inside a new bag.
My Ralph Kramden idea for getting rich in the POS machine market: make a machine that rings up the wrong change. No one will know the difference.
My personal favourite is the little machines they have at Wendy’s that automatically ejaculate the correct amount of change into a little dish. Gee, that must be a self-esteem booster for the clerks.
However, being the granola pinko Kneedipper that I am, I use a cloth bag all the time when grocery shopping (it even says NDP on it and is festooned with political buttons…!), and I’ve NEVER had anyone try to put it in another bag! How perfectly ridiculous!
I do have to be kind of quick on the draw, though, and get at least some items into it so that the baggers know I want to use cloth.
That’s my pet peeve, too. I can reach with two fingers and snag the bills sitting on top of the coins, put them away, then tuck the coins (now alone in the palm of my hand) into the appropriate pocket. In the opposite order, pain in the ass! I have to use the other hand and I’m often holding something at the time!
Oh please. You aren’t supposed to “work out change in your head”, you’re supposed to COUNT IT BACK! (i.e., you don’t have to know the quantity you’re giving back)
If the customer gives you some peculiar increment in addition to the main denomination tendered, subtract it before counting back then say it back at the end:
“twenty five {count backwards 3 for the 3¢}, thirty, {nickel back}, forty, fifty {two dimes back}, seventy-five, fifteen {two quarters back}, twenty-five {ten dollar bill} oh three {add the 3¢ back on}, thank you and have a good day {turn head to next customer}…”
Do I know how much change I just gave back? Nope, but it’s always right.
I’ve thought about it, but I remember when our electronics guy had a name tag that read Chandler, when his name was Doug, and the managers used to get pissed about it. Plus, they’re really anal about people losing name tags, so I think if I made up a fake one they’d yell at me for wasting things.
I swear to goodness, the reason clashiers say “Have a Nice Day” is so that the customer will, by reflex, say thank you. This is to condition customers into thanking stores for allowing them to take our money.
At least my current crack dealer says thank you. And the one before him was great. She delivered! Said thank you every time and never ever fussed with a receipt. Unfortunately she fell victim to the war on drugs, multiple gunshot wounds. And do you think the pigs give a rat’s fuck about her and her boyfriend? Hell no! I visited the “detective” in charge, didn’t care about the missing pager nor wanted to research the pager number. But she did want my picture. The only good cop is a dead cop, but I digress.
Let’s see, as an incredibly irritable person, I have a list of the things that burn my ass in the grocery stores:
Calling me by name, like that is supposed to make up for the outrageous prices on everything in the store.
Getting my name (and marital status) wrong EVERY TIME!
After I have obliterated the name on my bank, airmiles, and credit card, making a special effort to figure out what the hidden name is - guess what, if I’ve gone to the effort to white out my name on all my cards, chances are I don’t want you using it. Duh.
Creating a system of “Club Cards” so that I get special prices because I carry your stupid card in my wallet. Just put the damn stuff on sale, already.
Creating a system where I can’t tell what I’m paying for stuff, because everything rings in at regular price, and then all the discounts come off afterwards. Why, yes, I am going to stand here and look at my receipt until I’m satisfied that all the stupid discounts went through properly. And if they didn’t, I’m going to stand here until you’re done price-checking things.
Prices tossed willy-nilly on the shelves, with little regard to where the stuff the price applies to might be. And then looking at me like I’m an asshole because I wasn’t able to correctly decode the mystery of the prices (and it’s not for lack of trying, trust me).
Putting stuff on sale, and not getting extra stock for the sale. Jeeze louise, people, do the math. If orange juice is half price, guess what? A whole lot of people are going to be buying it!
Putting all the bread except the raisin bread of a particular brand on sale, and not making any mention of this fact on any of the signage. You know what? Some people consider raisin bread “bread”, and figure a sale on bread applies to it. Guess I was way off on that, eh?
All I need from a cashier is prompt, polite service. All I want from a store is good prices and safe merchandise. The frills don’t impress me nearly as much as some decent prices would. Safeways of the world, are you listening? People are onto you!
(Okay, I may have a few issues with Safeway.)
I wonder if this is a regional thing? I’ve never encountered the question “do you need help with that?” Not in any grocery store, or in any other type of store. I’m not even sure what is being asked. Are they asking if the customer needs help taking his/her purchases out of the store? What kind of help would be provided if the customer said “yes”? A store employee would carry the purchases out of the store for the customer? But presumably, neither the cashier nor the bagger (if there is a separate bagger) can leave their post. Who provides this help?
It sounds like something that would be practical only if vertually all customers had cars parked right outside the store, to which an employee could take the purchases. Maybe it’s a service offered only by stores in regions where this is likely to be the case. Which means, not in urban areas.
Regarding making change. My first real job was as a cashier. I didn’t really get any training at all. (It was a small operation.) My boss explained about counting from the amount of the sale to the amount of money tendered, and that was it. Honestly, I do think this is something a 5th grader can learn.
I’d say there is would have to be something wrong with an 18 year old who not only does not know how many quarters make a dollar, but can’t retain this information once it has been supplied. If this young person was really a high school graduate, it must have been from a school where 12 years of automatic promotions culminated in an automatic diploma.
Regarding receipts, please note that I’ve been talking about cash register receipts. Not credit card receipts. It’s cash register receipts that I don’t want to be handed.
Nope. I’m thanking you for your friendly smile, or your politeness, or your help, or the fact that you gave me the correct change, or because the person in front of me was an asshole and I want you to have a nice day too.
I, personally, have little use for the cashier counting back my change in the time-honored fashion, and am quite happy that I very rarely encounter it. When I worked in a movie theatre, this method of giving people their change was never taught, and it was only a few years ago that I realized that some feel it’s the appropriate technique. I had always thought it was a learning tool to teach the concept of “change” in elementary school.
I also have no preference between change or bills on top. Personally, I notice no difference in the stability of the stack or in the difficulty of subsequent stowage.
I prefer to have the receipt handed to me - particularly when the purchase was by credit or debit card. In the bag, it’s too easily lost or inadvertantly discarded, IME.
Way back in high school, I worked as a courtesy clerk* at a grocery store. Store policy was to assist all customers in getting their stuff to their cars - very small orders excepted. I distinctly remember once being caught in the middle between a customer who (none too politely) insisted that he needed no help with his cart and a manager who (none too politely) ordered me to give such help whether the guy wanted it or not. I was happy to leave that job.
Courtesy clerks were the folks who bagged the groceries and pushed customers’ carts to their vehicles. They then loaded the stuff in the trunk, and returned the cart to the store. I worked as one at a grocery store in Hurst, Texas in the summer of 1986. I haven’t seen this sort of service offered in quite a while…
Just a thought, but is part of the reason grocery stores make their employees take out the carts so that they know the carts aren’t being left in the lot? I have a lot less problems with shopping carts at grocery stores, than i do at places like Walmart where they don’t take out your purchases. It’s an idea…
And also, I’m very mad. My nametags for work came in today, so now I have to broadcast that my name is Pam, and I’m a manager. No more shipping customer complaints off to other people…dammit. And now when the drunks come through on Saturday night, instead of screaming “I love you sexy!!”, it’ll be “I love you Pam!!” Oy…what a self esteem booster.
Most stores I go to (but it could just be that they’re usually smaller stores, and not the big Safeway type) ask if I want the receipt, or when they hold it out I say, “No thanks!” and they’ll crumple it and drop it into the garbage they have beside them. If they really want me to take the receipt or just hand it to me with my change, and I’m just buying something small like a chocolate bar, I’ll just dump everything into a pocket (got to love the pockets on cargo pants), eat the chocolate bar, and get on with my life. If they charge me a buck extra for the chocolate bar (which would be pretty hard not to notice anyway), then I’ll still eat my chocolate bar and get on with my life. Mistakes happen, and it’s not worth bitching them out over a couple bucks. I have important things to do, like eat my chocolate bar!
But I’m sort of mellow like that…I figure there are more important things to spend my time worrying about, heh.
Pammipoo: The shopping cart things is probably true. I rarely see people go to the trouble of pushing their cart a few meters to where they’re supposed to go, and you can bet someone who finds one in their parking spot runs into the store to complain to the manager at how crappy their service is because they leave their carts out in the parking lot.
Yeah, this was definitely one of the benefits. The parking lot at our store was generally free of the Random Dent Generators that plague every grocery store I frequent nowadays. Occasional sweeps were performed to gather those taken out by customers who had eluded our benevolent service, but for the most part all carts out in the parking lot were under positive control.
I like to have my receipt handed to me. If it’s in the bag it ends up getting thrown out accidentally with the bag. My problem nowadays is that most cashiers try to give you the paper money and metal money at the same time, sometimes along with the receipt sandwiched in there. Granted it guarantees that they don’t forget anything, but now I have to stand there and sort it all out and hold up the line, before I can free up my hands to grab my stuff and go. Granted it’s only about 10 seconds, but I’d rather be handed the change first, so I can put it in my pocket, then the paper money, so I can fold it around the rest of my money and put it in my pocket, and then the receipt so I can put that in my back pocket. It’s just more efficient that way.
Brad D, you said, “I also have no preference between change or bills on top. Personally, I notice no difference in the stability of the stack or in the difficulty of subsequent stowage.” I think the point is that it’s ackward to be handed both at once, whichever way the clerk does it; what many of us want regarding bills and coins is to be handed first one, then the other.
I’m not sure I get what you’re saying about counting change. I’m only aware of two methods. Either the cash register tells the cashier what the change is, or (s)he counts from the amount of the sale to the amount tendered. If the new registers that show what the change is had not come along, all cashiers would still be counting, wouldn’t they?
C Goat and others, yes, I guess it’s easier to be sure you get and keep your receipt if it’s handed to you. But I don’t really want the cash register receipt. When I get home, I usually just toss it in my paper recycling carton without looking at it. As it’s something I don’t actually want, I don’t want the cashier to bother me with it. To me, it belongs in the bag. Putting in the bag for the customer was a small courtasy that, at one time, all cashiers performed automatically. I wish that had not changed.
Occasionally, I do want to look at a recipt. Getting it out of the bag is not difficult. I’ve never lost a recipt I wanted by reason of it being in the bag with my purchases.
