I’m a cashier at a local home improvement store and we always ask that question. And in most cases the customer likes it. In many cases if they respond no, we can usually find it for them and they are most grateful.
So when do you want them to ask? I can just imagine the pittings they’d get if they sent someone to go up to shoppers as they’re shopping to ask, never mind the timing issue.
Its the second decade of the 21st fucking century already. If they RUN out of stuff, they should know without asking me. If I can’t find it, well, thats their fucking problem as much as mine.
But, yes…asking me WHILE I am shopping makes a buttload more sense than AFTER I’m already being rung up. But, then again when I am wandering the isles looking for shit and I see an employee I have enough fucking brains to actually ASK where the shit is if I can’t find it.
And, like I said, some sort of mechanism where it actually LOOKS like they will get on that BBQ Brussel Sprout shortage would go a long way. A question that appears to be asked because management told em to ask because it somehow makes customers happy without actually doing anything is just aggravating.
Ranks right up there with “have a nice day” while giving me the “fuck off and die” look.
Yeah, small independent stores where they might actually DO fucking something are the exception.
And, don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame any of this shit on the actual employees. And I doubt you could find a post of mine (or at least a theme of my posts) where I am bitching about the employees “bothering me”.
It’s funny how people can get irritated over anything no matter how small or insignificant.
You know, guys like you really irritate me.
Half the stories on this thread are about shop simply not carrying something.
The other half are about people who could’ve asked someone before they got to the cashier, but obviously didn’t. Ask them why they didn’t.
And MY post are which of those two 50 percent probabilities?
Why?
The store I shop requires employees walking down the aisles to say hello to customers. I know this pisses people off also, but it means that if I can’t find something I can ask, and get directed to where it is, if they actually have it.
I guess when Google develops the mind reading app we won’t need this question any more.
(BTW, hookers and blow are on aisles 6 and 9).
Exactly! 
there’s non-douchey ways to get this message across, too. just saying.
i don’t care about the “did you find everything” question, but my experience getting groceries yesterday was fucking ridiculous. nearly word for word this is what the cashier said: “how are you today? did you find everything you were looking for? do you have any coupons today? would you like to make a donation to the march of dimes? do you have any reusable shopping bags today? is plastic ok?” jesus christ, am i at a fucking job interview? shut the fuck up.
i’m very sympathetic towards retail workers, i have over a decade of experience working retail under my belt(at the same chain i shop at, actually) but that was way over the top and i know they don’t require all that.
True story - this past winter one of our local Goodwil managers started having the cashiers ask that, instead of the “Thankyouforsupportingourmission” statement.
It’s Goodwill, people. The stock what people donate through the back door. The shoppers rarely go there looking for something specific, and even if they did, what is the clerk to do?
“No, I didn’t find any Tommy Bahama shirts with a cocktail or bathing beauty theme in XL, or gold jewelry or original Renoir paintings.” Do you think they are going to look for one?
I’m sure we were not the only ones to point out that we shop thrift stores to see what they have, and we don’t really expect to find any specific thing. They stopped the pointless question soon after they started.
What works for one business is just ridiculous in a different venue.
It’s the paradox that gets me.
I’m in the express lane - 14 items or less - now, if I’ve got 14 items but I tell the cashier that I couldn’t find the Kiwi-Coconut Flavored Beef Jerky I was looking for, and she goes out and retrieves it for me, I’m now at 15 items and in conflict with The Law!
Do really I want to take that sort of risk?
Corollary: If there is something specific that I’m looking for and cannot find, chances are, I will have asked an employee for help LONG before I get to the checkout.
Also: I have answered in the negative many times and gotten a blank stare. Why are you asking if you’re not really interested in the answer?
Hmm to solve this problem of pissing people off why not say, “Did you find everything today or if you’d rather not tell me and this question upsets you, I apologize with the sincerity of one million tears.”
That would make my day.
I’d shop there, drewtwo99.
I don’t want to go to your facebook page. I just told you. Why can’t you make a note of it and pass it along?
Waitaminute, when I worked in a supermarket, that’s exactly what I said, to every customer, and my manager bitched me out about it! Said I was being too “familiar” with the customers.
Well, more precisely, I would actually say “'Sup?” But that other thing you said is what I meant every time!
I’d take that risk if Kiwi-Coconut Flavored Beef Jerky turns out to be a thing.
Actually, at my store, (heck, my chain), the cashiers are trained to immediately grab a stock clerk to find out whether the item is not carried, just out of stock, or even hiding in an unexpected location. I see several hundreds of dollars of additional sales, (with happier customers), through that practice every year.
Now, a cashier who will refuse to finish the sale of a customer who is obviously in a hurry is an idiot, but well over half the time we have the item the customer was seeking and we have saved any number of ethnic feasts, birthday parties, and special events by at least offering to find the product. (In a worst case scenario, we can sadly admit that it is not an item we carry so that they know that they were not stupid for failing to find it and can direct their energies to a different store to find that item in the future.)
What i usually told customers with 13 items, (our limit is 12 or fewer), was that I was out of bullets at the moment, so I would fit them in.