Curiosity leads me to ask why you sent that email to Safeway? Like someone else mentioned before, it’s chalk full of non sequitors. It seems like you started off your letter commending the manager of the store, but you didn’t actually say that. You lead onto your complaint about the cashier, which may or may not have been her fault. Perhaps she didn’t even realise she made a mistake.
If you’re hoping the manager of the store will take notice and speak to his cashiers about it… he probably won’t. You gave no indication of who helped you, and he probably won’t reprimand all his staff because of one person’s mistake.
If you’re hoping to get freebies… good luck, because your letter is a jumbled mess. It’s pretty unprofessional too, especially since you mentioned that you will post your experience on a message board. It just screams “You’re-a-the-type-of-customer-that-screams-I’M-TELLING-ALL-MY-FRIENDS-NOT-TO-SHOP-HERE-ANYMORE” except you are telling your online friends. If I were a manager, I would have a hard time figuring out what you wanted out of me.
Was it a new checker? Maybe she was having a bad day?
All I know is that the Safeway checkers in our store get better benefits than most in that kind of position, are very friendly, and have seldom made a mistake. If there is no bagger when she starts to ring up my order, I can maybe fill one bag by myself until a bagger comes. Not only that, when we had guide dog puppies the managers and most of the checkers were very supportive when we brought them in, even when they were very young and made mistakes. I dread going anywhere else, and go to the Albertsons only if they have something our Safeway doesn’t have, or a very, very good sale. Og save me from self-checkout lines - at least the Albertson’s ones.
Gosh. Consider my ignorance fought.
(And scooting off to Wikipedia, I find that our Safeways was just a subsidiary of yours. Business as usual. :dubious: )
Please tell me there was more context surrounding this situation. If you get so upset by someone wanting to know what time it is, maybe you should look at yourself first. Do you never at work want to know how long you have left?
shrug It’s a shitty job. It wouldn’t bother me if a cashier flat-out told me they couldn’t wait to leave. I don’t demand they to look happy to serve me. I don’t even care if they’re friendly. All I care about is that they ring up my stuff.
Didn’t you notice he hadn’t swiped your card? I don’t mean to be snarky, but if it’s that important to you, why don’t you watch to make sure?
What part of Germany are ya in SC? I’m in Oberammergau. Yeah, it takes a bit of getting used to, bagging your own stuff, but its not that bad. I bring my own bags and sometimes a basket to the market.
I was in line in the grocery store recently and the guy in front of me was hassling (albeit in a gentle way) the cashier—a kid of maybe sixteen—for not smiling and radiating cheer as he rang up the guy’s stuff.
I said “dude, I’ve had his job— and I never found much to smile about either.”
Okay, I didn’t actually say it, but I was thinking it loudly.
Some people seem to require a lot more out of service people than others. For me, efficiency is much more important than friendliness and small talk, when it comes to cashiers/waiters/etc. Outright rudeness is not acceptable, of course, and I’d like the person to acknowledge me at least once during the transaction. (Having someone ring you up, bag your items, and take your money without ever once looking at you—or while carrying on a conversation with someone else—can be strangely depersonalizing.) But mainly, I just want the person to do what I need done, quickly and accurately.
If the person can do that and wants to be friendly and talkative too, that’s fine. The problem is, not everybody is naturally bubbly. I can spot “fake friendly” from a mile away, and it’s a huge turnoff. I’d rather have a polite “hello” any day than a bunch of forced crap like “hey, Mr. Turnip! Great to see you back! D’ja find everything you need today? Okay! Hey, how about that weather today! It’s a SCORCHER!” (Etc. ad nauseam)
Full disclosure: I’ve worked in service jobs, and the only thing worse than listening to that pap is having to churn it out. I am not naturally bubbly, and coming up with inane chit-chat was like unanaesthetized auto-dentistry.
I’m in Hamburg. I don’t actually mind the whole bagging bit, it’s the disgusted sighs and foot tapping of the people in line behind me. Northern Germans are much, much crankier than southern ones. It took quite some adjusting and I don’t think I’ll ever be fully comfortable here. (My moniker used to be Happy Chick before I moved here. ) Not to stereotype, but northern Germans are very confrontational and very much in your business. My second day here I literally got **yelled ** at for standing on the bike path at a crossing light, even tho there was nary a bicyclist in sight. And don’t even get me started on my neighbors…
I was at a Wal-Mart about two weeks ago and saw the strangest thing.
The cashier was a young-ish guy who didn’t appear particularly happy to be there. To every customer, he said the exact same thing:
Him: “Hi, how are you today?”
Customer: “Fine, and you?”
Him: “I’m super, thanks for asking.” (I snickered when I heard him saying that last line.)
When he gave back the change, he said, “Have a nice day and we’ll see you tomorrow.” The lines were delivered in sort of a rote tone of “I’m suppose to say this, but I just don’t feel like putting that much effort into it.” He said the exact same things to every customer in his line (including me.)
When I got back into the car, Hubby and I speculated that this might be a new tactic Wal-Mart is trying (especially the “see you tomorrow” bit.) Now, I doubt Wal-Mart is encouraging their cashiers to quote Big Gay Al-- they probably told them to have a set response and the cashier came up with this reference as his.
Anybody else seen this? Could it be just that one store?
Yes, I often do. And if I am in a meeting with outside clients, I may even subtlely look at the clock. But if there isn’t one, no way am I asking the client for the time.
Me too. Unfortunately he paused what he was doing to ask me for the time, and had done the same thing with a previous customer.
Yeah, you know how the card swiper machine says “swipe any time to speed up the process”? So I did that and then stood there with my discount card at the ready. He ignored that part and hit the button he hits to put the charge through.
Now that this is in the Pit it no longer seems like this minor rant fits.
Now that a few days have passed, I’m able to view this situation with detachment. I don’t think I expect too much of a person if, when they make a mistake, they own up to it and either acknowledge the error politely or apologize. The cashier did neither. She silently handed me the additional dollar with nary a remark and took her 23 cents back.
People make mistakes, lots of them, every day. I do too. I try to avoid making similar mistakes and by golly, if my mistake would happen to hit someone in their wallet, I’d like to think I’d be a bit humble. I worked retail for many (10) years. I’ve been whomped on by many a customer, to the point that I wouldn’t take another retail job if it offered $30 an hour. Well, maybe in that case I would. But not for the 10-12 dollars an hour that’s typical. The abuse is not worth $10 an hour to me, thank the heavens.
All I want is someone who is polite, conducts the transaction in an efficient manner and sends me on my way. Was is inattention to the metal in her hand? Was it disregard for telling the truth? Was she “getting back” at the damn customers? Who knows? All I know for sure is she didn’t enter my change into the register, and was either too stupid to be able to count back change or forgot about the coins that were sitting in her hand. She flat out lied - by saying the total had reduced, when in fact it was her error that made the total actually higher by disregarding the change I had given her. All I needed at the time was an “oops, sorry” but even after my telling her it didn’t make sense and I had to look at the receipt further, she didn’t cop to the error. That’s shitty.
) Not to stereotype, but northern Germans are very confrontational and very much in your business. My second day here I literally got **yelled ** at for standing on the bike path at a crossing light, even tho there was nary a bicyclist in sight. And don’t even get me started on my neighbors…