Okay. Admittedly this is possibly the weakest Pit ever. But it does annoy me.
Why do stores have their cashiers ask that every damn time now? And when did that start anyway? So what if I did not find the particular spice or not always in stock vegetable I had desired? I’m going to grouse about it to the cashier on the way out?
Sure I get placeholder value, semiotics, but could we stick with “How are you?” or “Thank you for shopping with us today.”?
“No dammit. You were out of sunchokes.” Is that what you want me to say?
If they actually pay attention when people say “Actually, I was looking for dragon fruit but you don’t have them; I’m going to have to find those somewhere else” they might bring that up to their manager as a thing that needs stocking.
In other words, maybe they do care? It’s not likely, but it could happen.
That is exactly what they want you to say. For some of the cashiers the question is pro forma, but the impetus for asking is that the owners want to know if there’s sufficient interest in something they don’t already stock. If you were looking for something and didn’t find it, don’t you think they’d want to know what it is so you spent your money with them instead of elsewhere?
I’ve been at some stores where they really don’t give a shit and it’s just something to say.
I’ve been at another where any sort of, “Well, actually, I was looking for ____, but you don’t seem to have it,” either gets me a stockboy bringing whatever I couldn’t find to the register for me or a store manager eager to ask me more about the product so he can order it.
Guess which I shop at more often?
If you’ve been to the Mariano’s Fresh Market on Western and enjoyed the naan or the extensive gluten free selection…you’re welcome and thank you. There was no naan at all when they opened, and only a few gluten free choices. What you see now was brought in by the store manager when* I *suggested them, and remain in stock because you’re buying them, too.
Actually, this is one of the few things I don’t mind about shopping. Many times I have responded. “You always run out of my brand of chocolate ice cream but not the other flavors; does this not make it clear that you must order more chocolate so I do not have to go without!”
One grocery store started stocking something after my ex told them we always drove to a nearby town to buy it.
And of course, if I couldn’t find something on the shelves and never found an employee to ask, they can tell me that peanut butter is in fact still sold here, we just moved it over by the bread. Let me send a bagger to grab you some.
I can kinda get behind this. It’s too damn late now as I am actually CHECKING out. You ain’t gonna run and go get me get thing X I couldn’t find and for that matter I don’t want you to either because I don’t want to inconvience the poor bastards behind me.
Yeah, you MIGHT be doing a poll to find out you guys always run out of BBQ Brussels sprouts, which I would appreciate it if you actually fixed it.
But, from my perspective, if I do say you are out of something and you don’t actually write it down then and there, it appears to be an empty question.
None of my area’s Krogers carries mung bean or alfalfa sprouts (I know there was a food poisoning issue in Gemany a while back and guess that may have something to do with it). I’ve mentioned this to the stocker as well as asked in the “contact us” box of their website. Neither route of communication returned an answer.
I think you just have to be a crank, channelling all your life’s frustrations into some trivial area of frustration like this, and wage a social media war to change these sort of minor inconveniences.
At my store if enough people say the same thing, it’ll makes it’s way up the chain and we’ll bring it in. Also, if we do have it, someone will run and grab it for you. We have a small store, things end up in odd places so sometimes people don’t see things because they’re not where you’d expect to find them.
I few years ago someone at a big box store said that to me (on the way out) so robotically that when I said ‘no’ she said “Have a nice day”. I’m guessing that a few seconds after I walked out the door she realized that I said no and not yes.
ETA a lot of this comes down to not being able to make everyone happy. Some people get mad when you say “Did you find everything today?” but some people get annoyed when they couldn’t find something and no one asked them if they needed help finding it. Some people get mad if you walk up to them in the aisle and ask if they need help finding something and some get mad if you leave them alone to shop in peace. Sometimes I’ll try to catch people buying something that I’m pretty sure they don’t want. 99% of the time they’re happy that I stopped them. For example, a young couple looking at the wine selection finally decides on one, but I happen to notice they grabbed a beer that comes in a wine shaped bottle so I let them know and they put it down and keep shopping. OTOH, middle aged lady that picked up the vanilla milk with her lunch. When someone grabs that I always let them know that it’s not white milk, it’s vanilla, it tastes like melted ice cream, it’s good, it’s just not ‘white milk’. What did I get from her, a really rude “I know, I can read”…well fuck you too…[bobby collins]on the inside[/bc].
I do my grocery shopping in several small runs made several times a week. As I live right around the corner from the local Meijer, this is convenient for me. I usually go late at night and have been going in to the same store for a few years now, so I have become very familiar to the nighttime employees.
As I make my way down various aisles, I’ll see the exact same faces in the exact same aisles, day after day (obviously certain aisles get assigned to certain stockers,etc.). Every-single-time I pass these guys (they are always guys), no matter how many times I’ve seen them and how many times I’ve answered in the affirmative, they will ask me, “Finding everything ok?” Verbatim. Every time. Without fail. For years. The same guys. And I’ve never once said anything but “yep”.
I mean, I’ve been going to that damn store so long and so often, I could find what I need with my damn eyes closed. I understand that I could possibly need something new that I hadn’t needed before which I don’t know the location of but geez it gets annoying. I almost want to proactively say “I’m good” as soon as I start down an aisle.
Actual grocery store employee checking in. “Did you find everything you needed today?” and “Have a good day/come again” are the two lines one is required to say while checking out a customer.
In our chain at least, the correct response if the customer didn’t find what they were looking for is either to page the appropriate department to pick it up for them, or direct them to our Facebook page so they can request that we start carrying it if it’s something that we don’t stock.
I have no personal knowledge as to why that’s a standard question, but as someone who’s previously been in management I assume that some marketing survey 40 years ago determined that it was a question customers wanted to be asked, and that every single grocery store chain since then has continued asking it out of inertia.
“Sorry sir, I asked if you found everything you need. Wants are two stores down.”
I told the cashier yesterday that I still needed some ice, not knowing if they kept it in big coolers out front like some gas stations, or inside - so yeah, sometimes I have an answer besides “yeah, thanks.”
I made a trek to Whole Foods a few months ago to find something specific, and couldn’t find it. I didn’t want to bother anyone, so I just checked out. But the checker asked if I found everything ok and I decided to tell him what I couldn’t find.
Within minutes I was checked out and standing at customer service where someone met me with the product I couldn’t find. They finished checking me out right there, inconveniencing no one who was behind me in the original line.
In any retail setting, there is absolutely nothing that you can do that will not piss off someone. Something as simple as “Do you need help finding something” can result in anything from a thank you to a fuck you. On the flipside, NOT asking asking a customer if they need help can also result in either a thank you or a fuck you.
