They're Doing It Again: The Cashier Annoyance Campaign

The BBQ Pit
1

It has been previously established that I work for an office supply store - let’s call it Maples. I’m usually an evening shift drone in the Copying & Printing Department, but during a recent drought of cashiers I have been relegated to live the horribly depressing life of a Checkout Girl from nine to five. This puts me into much more intimate contact wit the register system, allowing me to observe that We Have A Problem.

Every once in a while, for reasons known only to God and themselves, the suits up in Corporate decide that we need to do a “Customer Survey” - AKA “interrogating every poor bastard who attempts to give us money.”

The last time this happened, we had to find out where they lived and why they were buying their stuff. This time all we have to do is enter their ZIP code, but it’s still annoying. Especially since the prompt for the information is required to be filled before you can do anything else - including a price check. And it won’t let you just hit “enter” and skip past it - you have to put in a five-digit number. Even if you make something up, that’s still wasted time - and if you start to ring but forget to do that, you have to start over.

Of course it’s annoying to the customer, those unfortunate souls who never expected the Spanish Inquisition when their printer ran out of ink. But it’s also annoying to the cashier, who can’t even charge somebody six damn cents for a photocopy without finding out where they get their mail.

The poor girls who ask for the ZIP codes usually end up taking abuse from customers who, rightly, feel that the store has no real need or right to know unless they choose to sign up for a mailing list or something. It’s not the cashiers’ fault, though, dammit!

In silent protest, I’ve been consistently entering either the ZIP code of the store, or the ZIP code of Longview, Texas. I don’t believe I ever once asked the customer for his or her ZIP code, because I believe it is needlessly invasive. Sadly, I doubt my fucking around will be sufficient to skew the results so much that the suits will notice and decide it’s not worth repeating their little plan in the future.

Who’s the genius at the home office who thinks it’s such a great idea to annoy people before we allow them to give us money? :rolleyes:

2

I had a similar issue at a store I used to work at. I always put in 90210.

3

Not only has Radio Shack stopped their interrogations, they’ve actually placed a big sign at the registers proclaiming, “We don’t interrogate you anymore!”

Relieving, but suspicious all the same.

I like the 90210 idea. If only the majority of consumers would do that, instead of just a scant few register jockeys (a term I use with love).

4

Isn’t there a code for respondent refused to give zip code? If not, you should suggest using 99999. That way no one will be falsifying data, and the suits will get the message that the customers don’t want to be interrogated when they make a purchase.

5

They’ve never given us an official line about what to do when the customer refuses. Apparently, officially, we HAVE to get the customer’s ZIP code.

6

What good would getting just the zip code do? IOW, why would the corporate suits think that people from all over the world are going out of their way to shop for office supplies in Longview, Texas? Am I missing something?

7

Apparently, it’s to see how far people travel to go to each individual store. I suppose in theory they’re finding out whether or not people who live closer to one location are travelling further to go to a different location, and then they’ll try to find out why the further-away store is better.

What I’m doing is making it look like several dozen people came all the way from Texas to do their office supply shopping in upstate New York today.

8

Ha ha!
I wonder if we will be seeing a “Fuck Staples - I Got Fired Today” from you in the future.

9

i always say that one when asked by those fool stores. it is less funny now that i actually live in Cali, but still useful o screw with them so they’ll stop that crap.

10

Pretty much no chance, actually. I’ve been at my current location for seven months now, and in four more months I’m transferring to one down in Texas. Believe it or not, I actually am a competent worker and I’m perfectly capable of relaying my concerns to my supervisors in a way that won’t get me fired; I just see no point in saying anything about this issue, because my managers can’t do shit-all about it. We have to put up with it until April 14 (the end of the survey).

Now, there might very well be a “Fuck Staples - I Finally Escaped That Hellhole” post this fall if I manage to secure an editing job down in Texas. At that point I won’t have to be restrained in my vitriol anymore, and I’d feel perfectly at ease bitching about my coworkers (like the other copy center girl, who smells worse every day and likes to gossip! or the manager who hates men! or the girl who refuses to clean anything because the cleaning fluid might mess with her manicure and the gloves are ugly!).

Anyway, hidden at the end of the second-to-last paragraph was the only bright spot in the entire ZIP Code Debacle: it’s going away in a month.

11

The store I work at just started that zip code crap. I just put in whatever happens to spring to mind. If you think that’s bad, we used to be demanding email addresses so we could spam them with our “newsletter.” I try to avoid it, myself, but when a manager is around, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

12

In that case, what I was missing was that there was actually more than one Staples in Longview, Texas. Carry on.

13

Well, actually, sorry to confuse you - I’m in New York - the reason I was putting in Texas was to make it look like people had trekked a long way to get there. Apologies again for not having been clear.

14

::Looks at racinchikki’s Location field, light slowly dawns::

:slight_smile:

15

Border has just started doing the zip code thing, for this month. I don’t see it as a big deal. It could be useful information to someone; are people coming from Manchester (the next town over) to shop here or just going to B&N? If not, what can we do about it. Or, I dunno, do we need to stock more Vermont maps? There could be reasons. And I don’t see it as that intrusive.

However…

…this is breathtakingly stupid.

Insisting upon it is exactly where it becomes intrusive. And obnoxious. Most of the people I’ve asked give it, no problem. A few people would rather not, for whatever reason. So I don’t take it and go on with the sale.

Actually requireing your sales staff to either seriously annoy those folks who who whould really rather not, or…lie…BREATHTAKINGLY stupid.

16

I would look up a zip code for a very tiny town far away and use it. Kind of makes the corporation wonder why there are so many shoppers from insert name of small unheard of town here

(Now, if this would get you into trouble or whatnot, then don’t do it. That’s just my tongue-in-cheek suggestion. Oh, and the zip code for Funkstown is 21734. I just like the town name.)

17

It doesn’t bother me to be asked for it at a store…what does it really matter anyway?

18

Intercourse, Pennsylvania would be my suggestion, but I’d also suggest not taking my advice.

19

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise. And annoyance. Our two main weapons are surprise and annoyance. And bureaucracy. Our three major weapons are surprise, annoyance and bureaucracy.

20

Damn, 2trew, you beat me to the punch. That was my first thought on reading this thread.