This was exactly how I was taught to return change in my teen McJob. And they explained why it should be done this way.
I have no idea why this isn’t taught nor why cashiers don’t realize themselves that coins-then-bills is much smarter.
The practice does make for some awesome aisle signs, though. I haven’t set foot in a Jewel in years, but they used to have a sign labeled “Kosher Hispanic Tuna.” Now* that *would be a niche item!
I do coins-then-bills, it’s better and I like to count the bills twice, but I’m not counting pennies. “That’s 27 cents (in the hand) and thirty-one dollars: Twenty, thirty, and one.” I also count the bills right under the video camera, which has saved me a couple of times when customers try to claim I short-changed them.
The other reason we tell people “If we have it, it’s in aisle 4” is because the cashiers know the general layout of the store, but damned if we know what is in the aisle at any given moment. The item might be sold out, or it might have just been obtained and put out. That’s the aisle workers domain, not ours.
I remember a supermarket (I think it was Edwards, emphasizing discounted groceries, with a bright yellow color scheme and really big carts) that had two long conveyor belts after the register. That was while one customer was still bagging, the groceries of the second customer could be rung up.
I wish I had a dollar for every time one employee said they don’t have a certain item but another employee took me right to it.
One time I asked an employee to help me find Brownulated Sugar, a specific brand of granulated brown sugar. He said, “There’s no such thing.” I replied, “I have an empty container of it at home in my garbage can. Would you like me to go home, bring it back, and show it to you?” He just walked away.
Can’t you check in the back for me?
Same here!
I know this is always joked about as being a stupid thing customers say, but many times an item I am looking for is not on the shelf, I ask an employee if they have any, and they walk into the back and come out with the item.
My number 1 item by far would be to eliminate/automate the check out process.
Either RFID tag everything and run the entire cart through a scan or use a combination of technologies like Amazon is doing with image recognition etc.
I want to walk with my cart out of the store with very limited (or zero) time spent checking out.
Shopper’s Choice was a family owned grocery store here in the north hills. (Used to be Viola’s). They weren’t a chain, so if you didn’t live around here, you most likely wouldn’t have.
They went out of business years ago.
Exactly. Yet you can feel the mental energy of some cashiers as they pile up your dozens of items, praying you’ll walk around and take it upon yourself to bag your own groceries.
And yes … going into the bagger’s stance takes you away from the POS device … so you have to hop back and forth to enter your PIN and complete your transaction.
I am wondering if the cashiers are trained that “scanning everything FAST” is their first, second and third priority, while bagging is essentially ignored and staff are left to their own devices. Maybe one out of four cashiers do still bag as they go, Interestingly, it doesn’t correlate at all with age of cashier, but it does correlate with a general sense of ‘hustle’ or fervency. Some young hires really rock at the cashier stand, practically scan-&-bagging about as fast as their peers simply scan-&-pile.
Get rid of those crappy cardboard product displays that block the aisles, or worse, sit on a corner where you’re bound to knock them over. I don’t even pick them up any more.
No, cashiers are not TRAINED to scan fast, they are JUDGED on their scanning. At my company if you do not maintain a certain minimum speed you will be fired. Your rating as a cashier is ALL by the numbers. You are not granted any slack for aiding an elderly or handicapped customer, answering questions, or bagging difficult items. If your speed rating falls below a certain threshold for any reason you are gone.
Now, the truth is, if you’re doing things correctly, there is time to scan and bag, with the occasional extra few second for this or that, but some crappy people “solve” this by caring only about the one thing they are rated on: speed of scanning. And to hell with everything else.
I always think, but never can say “Yes, we’re here to sell things. That’s why we hide them.”
Seriously, DO NOT ask cashiers to help you find something. That is the aisle worker’s domain. It’s their job to keep the items on the shelves and get it for you. If I had a nickel for every time a customer said “Can you go get that for me” I’d have a big pile of nickels. If I actually did it, I’d be out of a job.
As for bagging, I hold the bag open in my left (bad) hand, scan with my right and then put the item in the bag, all in one fell swoop. People say “You are so fast” and I watch their jaws drop when I say “You don’t know my secret. I do this with one good hand.”
Our first, second, and last priority is to keep the lines moving. It’s amazing how people think we should answer all their questions, check the price of every item, bag exactly to their specifications, wait for them to find the right card and/or count out correct change, and then complain about long lines and waiting times.
Seconding that one. Really annoying, particularly when what I want is behind the cardboard product display. The aisles should wide enough and open enough for two carts to pass side by side, without having to wait behind one of those things.
Target stores used to make a point of having an open racetrack you could use to get around the store, but my local one now has wheeled shelves of merchandise in the middle of them. And now they have these enormous display baskets cluttering up the aisle.
Having excess stock in the stockroom isn’t “hiding it”. It’s just normal inventory practice. When I worked for JCPenney years ago I was the guy who would be called to get the item from “the back” if there weren’t any on the shelf. Of course it’s reasonable to think there may be more stock in the stockroom (which is what people mean when they say “the back”). You can put a lot more stock in the stockroom than you can reasonably display on the sales floor.
We used to tak checks, but there was a scam where the check would ring up as approved, and the customer would immediately run to the bank and take all the money out. After being hit with huge worthless checks twice, we put a stop to that.
As for handhelds…yes, we do take payments on them. I was thinking of the people who are too busy gabbing or texting to do what they are there to do, and ignore the cashier. Extremely rude.
Twice I had had customers who when their credit cards were rejected, went to the side, started texting “to solve the problem,” and I suspended the order to take the mext customer. Then they tried to leave with their full, unpaid cart. Both times I went to the cart, put my hands on it to stop it it, and said very loudly “You will not leave the store with that cart. Those items have NOT been paid for.”
Rush of aisle workers to block the exits.
I was in the local Stop & Shop yesterday, and encountered a new thing: they had a mobile robot rolling up and down the aisle near the back wall! Like a wheeled dolly with a tall (like maybe 6’ tall) broad but thin vertical body and a couple scanner-thingies on it.
I thought it might be for some security purpose (no visible gun mounts though 
) but a printed sign on it claimed it surveyed the aisles for messes and spills and would then summon someone to clean up.
And the whole time I was in the store, mixed in with the muzak and regular type announcements you’d hear “XXXX is at aisle 10” followed by “XXXX is at aisle 9” and then 8 and so on. (The XXXX is because I never could make out what exactly they were calling it.)
Anybody else encountered this? It seemed vaguely creepy to me, though I don’t know why. I also wonder how well it will manage when the store is busy and people are already finding it hard to maneuver past each other and the random display tables.
I’d fire Brian the checker and frogmarch him off the property.
Okay, proof that my sighting wasn’t due just to them having legalized marijuana in Massachusetts