I guess the rules changed in the past 25 years, either that or tipping depends on the individual store. I was one of those helping customers with their groceries back then and received plenty of tips, primarily during the holidays. One of the regulars gave me a pair of $10 bills for loading her Christmas dinner; she had so many groceries that it took two of us to load her car, I kept one $10 and gave the other to my helper.
No, I don’t get any kind of credit for using my own bags. There is no reason not to use all the bags I bring in, other than poor bagger training AFAICT.
In fact, in another month or two I believe a city-wide ordinance goes into effect where if you don’t bring your own bags, you will be charged a nickel for each plastic bag.
In Oregon, on January 1st, most plastic bags were banned and there is a 5 cent tax on paper bags.
The store that I shop at uses mentally challenged people as baggers - which is great. But they do exactly this. I’d much rather bag myself, since I can put the meat in my lined bag together and treat breakily stuff separately. I’d love to fill my car to make bagging easier, but the store arranges products to sell them, not for my bagging convenience. Plus, if there are three people behind me, I want to get my stuff on the belt and not slowly sort it.
I wrote a paper once involving bin-packing algorithms, so I figure I’m at least as qualified to bag groceries as the average employee.
Honestly, I don’t know why tipping is not allowed.
But I don’t want to risk my job status with my employer by taking your tip. I’ve had some senior citizens get really hurt and/or angry with my refusals, but I can not risk jeopardizing my good standing with my employer. They are very against the notion.
This gets even worse around Christmas when we have customers who want to tip us by giving us lottery tickets. No employee of my company is allowed to collect a prize on a lottery ticket sold by our company. If you were to hand me a $100 winner I would not be legally allowed to collect it. Even worse, I handle lottery inventory at my store. Accepting a ticket purchased at our store from you could have nasty legal ramifications for me if I attempted to collect on it. And yes, the lottery commission very much CAN track where and when a ticket was purchased - I know, because I’ve helped with the verification of a couple high-dollar winners purchased at our store. (I am allowed to play the lottery by buying tickets from a vendor unconnected to my employer)
I realize that your intention to tip us is to thank us, but giving a tip can, in fact hurt us. So what should you do instead of offering a tip? Tell management how great an employee we are. Seriously. Because when it comes time to promote or fire, when it comes time to schedule hours or who might be offered overtime or a schedule request, that sort of feedback is very much taken into account. Customer feedback is a big part of how we’re evaluated as employees and as we all know people are far more likely to complain than praise. If you press a few dollars into my hand, sure, you’re telling me I’m great. Tell my employer how wonderful I am, though, and everyone at the company knows I’m great. That helps me keep my job.
I’d much rather you tell my manager or the store director how wonderful, helpful, and great I am than press a couple dollars into my hand. It would benefit me more than running afoul of the store’s anti-tipping policy.
That’s for me.
There’s another reason to NOT tip the guy helping you: government regulations. You see, about half the people who get the carts from the parking lot or help carry out your groceries are “special needs”. The company has to very carefully monitor their hours and income so as not to exceed maximum permitted because doing so means losing their benefits. If customers start tipping these guys it could bump their income up over the maximum permitted… in which case they lose their government benefits, their housing, their medical care, the social worker who helps them manage their money and bills and protects them from exploitation and scams… These are not people who are capable of fending for themselves without help, even if they are capable of doing physical work. Thanks to “welfare reform” there is no slack or mercy in those rules, if their income exceeds the limit they lose a lot.
So, thanks for the sentiment, that you want to tip us. However, in today’s world that’s not always a good way to thank the folks helping you. Some stores do still allow tipping, but if a store doesn’t don’t try to push it on the employee, tell the store management what an asset they have in that person.
What you consider efficient and what the store operator considers efficient are two different things.
If the savings from under-staffing a location exceeds the losses from unhappy people refusing to patronize the location then it’s a win for the owners even if it is a loss for you personally.
Note that none of you demanded your money back - from the owner’s perspective that was a win. Even if you, me, and the two guys waiting on their food with the number tents think it sucks.
My store allows tipping. $2 seems to be the standard tip for helping people get the bags to the car, and several people have given me tips for “good cashiering.”
OTOH. people who think someone in the store can change store policy just for them are stupid. If I tell you we don’t take checks, don’t tell me to call the manager who maybe can do it. The manager looked at you, said 'No checks," and walked away, obviously annoyed.
Ah, yes, store policy…
At least once a day I have someone come up to me claiming something is on sale that rings up not on sale. Sometimes, I can fix this at the register. More often, I can not.
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Please do not ask me to go off into the store with you. There are very few circumstances under which I can leave an active register full of cash.
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If I tell you I have tried everything I am authorized to try and your next option is Customer Service don’t give me shit about it. They can do things I can’t. I am not blowing your off, or looking to make your day miserable.
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If it’s 5 am I can call a manager, but I’m also going to warn you it could be a wait because at that hour we have few people in a huge store. If I don’t warn you about the wait you’ll be pissed off about that.
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No, I can not make change for your $1/$10/$20/$50/$100. If you purchase something I can give you change (although if it’s a small purchase and a very large bill I will be looking at it closely, f*** you if you don’t like it, I look at EVERY large bill per store policy. I find a couple of fakes every year) but I can not just give you change. No, you can not purchase something and then hand me a bill and ask for change. This is store policy, not me being a bitch. The answer is “no”. Yes, they WILL know about it because we are on camera at all times at the registers.
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No, you can not purchase a roll of quarters. Again, this is store policy.
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You are welcome to go to customer service and make the same request, but they can’t do that for you either per store policy.
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You certainly can speak to the Store Director about it, but that person will still tell you “no” because it is store policy we don’t make change. The SD’s usual response is “there is a bank across the street, go ask them”.
Why is that the store policy? Too many quick-change artists flummoxed cashiers sufficiently often that the store just said “no more change, ever”.
A LOT of store policies are like that, to protect the store. Yes, it inconveniences the honest people. I’m sorry about that. But fraud, theft, and deception are very costly to the store as something had to be done to stop it.
We once had someone call the store to ask if we could keep the tsore open for an hour because he had promised his brother to buy some party items but he had to work late and couldn’t make it by closing time. I said “No,” and he asked to speak to the manager, who said “No.”
And we’ve had so many run-ins with people who think we can stay open on Friday afternoons despite the fact that one of the strictest store policies is to close two hours before sundown.
The kiosk thing reminds me of kiosk stupidity at my local McD. I went in there the other day for lunch, and decided to try the kiosk (because I like new bright shiny things)
Oh look, the McRib is on the menu, they must have brought it back!
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Nope, they had to go hunting for the person who made the order - I guess the electronic* table tent doesn’t work if the order isn’t filled? I had to get a refund and a new order.
- Bad software or data entry that doesn’t know what the store is currently selling and
- Possibly bad software not giving the table tent number if the order isn’t filled, or possibly they just don’t know the system well enough yet to get that info.
*it’s big enough and heavy enough there has to be something more than plastic in it.
Good idea, and yes that helps.
Not at any store around here. at your store, sure.
I have seen someone whose card was rejected and they would then go into a serious state of denial. They would insist the clerk try again and again and again.
What can a bystander say or do to these people?
If they are married, it is highly likely their spouse has made a purchase or done something to cause their card to be rejected. But they just refuse to accept that explanation. They are certain the clerk is at fault and they refuse to accept any other explanation. It just gets to the boiling point very quickly. What can you do with people in that state?
The last thing you do is assume you know why the card is being declined, regardless of their marital status. There are many reasons a card can get declined and your assumptions (whatever they are) are probably incorrect. If you are the clerk, you try the transaction again. Often, that will correct the problem. Other times, it is due to something that is beyond the clerk’s ability to rectify. It helps to understand that if the card is the customer’s only way to pay, the only solution is for the clerk to fix it. If the clerk cannot fix it and there is no other way to pay, the transaction has to be cancelled. The worst thing to do is to escalate the situation. This is no different than someone who left his wallet at home. Embarrassing, but not a major crisis.
We actually do have procedures to deal with situations like that - which usually involves a manager, or the customer service desk. Certainly, if after a couple of repetitions I can’t get the card to work I have to bump it up to the next pay level.
I’ve had customers whose card was rejected tell me “There must be something wrong with your machine.” Right, it was working fine until you showed up. And again, the customer whose card was rejected from the beginning, with no attempt made by the system to put it through, indicting it was either fraudulent and/or stolen. So she tells me “I can write you a check.”
Could be that the bank made an error, like mistakenly flagging the card as stolen. Then didn’t actually clear that flag when their fraud department said they did, necessitating another call to their fraud department.
This sequence of events happened to my SO when she was by herself with my card. I remained on the phone with the fraud department during the last call to ensure the card worked.
It is, in fact, possible for there to be something wrong with the machine I am using. That is why one option is to take the card to the Customer Service desk, as they have a different machine there.
It is possible our network connections went down. That does happen. But if that is the case you will not be the only customer affected. If it is only you then it’s not our network connection or internet.
It is possible a bank’s connection has gone down. Or the WIC or SNAP system went down. All of those have happened.
There are a lot of reasons a card/account might have money but won’t work in the machine. If a customer is patient we can work through the options and usually come to some sort of solution. If a person gets angry or hostile then not so much.
I also get irritated at customers who start yelling “C’MON! C’MON!” or “WHAT THE F*** IS WRONG HERE!” when the customer having the problem is already flustered, nervous, embarassed, etc. That is something NOT to do. It is the opposite of helpful.
A few years back, when my supermarket switched to readers that could read a chip, but could also take old unchipped cards, their machines started rejecting some, but not all, valid unchipped cards for no good reason, including mine, even though I had successfully purchased gas an hour before. They did eventually acknowledge the problem.
Don’t just assume that the machines can’t make mistakes. If I tell you that I just used it then give me the benefit of the doubt. I know you can’t take the payment and I’ll have to find another way to pay, but don’t assume that I’m full of shit.
Yes, I had a card whose magnetic strip would work on some machines but not others and even when it did work, it required several swipings. Yes, I ordered a new one.
I also had a card when there was a fraud transaction i didnt know about and so that card was temp frozen.
So, even people with excellent credit with plenty of credit left can have issues, and it can be the machine.
Once in CostCo the machine did not recognize my debit card, to the point of not realizing it had been inserted. The card was due to be replaced in a couple months and once in a while had to be removed and reinserted to take so it was probably nearing the end of its service life but in those cases the reader would go, “doot,” and Remove card and insert again would show on the screen but this one just sat there.
I tried inserting three times, the cashier twice, then we tried swiping. It came up, Use chip feature. I walked off leaving $150 in orphans, including a lot of frozen goods. Not only was I irked, I didn’t have that much cash on me. A couple days later I was back with the cash. I told the super in charge of the cashiers what had happened and the fact it worked just fine at Wal-Mart a half hour later. She denied it could be the reader so I said, “Fine. I’ve a hundred on me now so I’ll buy that amount, much less than the other day, and continue to bring cash in the future. It’ll make me spend less here anyway.”