[David Spade]
It’s called choosing your battles. Look into it.
[/David Spade]
[sub]I thought I was the only one who used the term ‘the help’ seriously.[/sub]
Whoah there doggy! No need to get all huffy! Sometimes people are just so taken aback at the result of being prodded by cashiers that they don’t even really get into motion until they leave the store. And a lot of times they don’t want to go through the trouble of waiting for a manager, filing a compaint, ect. Especially if they happen to be in a rush. I’ve never had a cashier ask me anything inappropriate, so I don’t know how I’d react. I’d probably just give them a look and leave though, unless I had an extra half hour to kill to make a big ass deal about what could be an innocent, albeit inappropriate, remark.
And your “One does not take crap from the help” comment was just lame. Contrary to what you may think, you are not king of the world, customer service people are not your slaves. Get over yourself. :rolleyes:
Oh, and how is coming up with a witty retort passive aggressive behavior? Or are you just jealous that you can’t come up with one and are reduced to ranting and raving to the manager? I agree that the bitch in the OP should’ve gotten in trouble, as well as some of the other cashiers in this thread, but sometimes a witty retort or a icy stare is quite enough to deal with the situation.
Yopu first. Customer service people are not slaves, but they are in customer service, that is, they are there to serve the customer, not to judge or harrass the customer.
And the term “the help” is reserved for stuffy, snobby assholes who repeatedly treat those in customer service like they are their personal servants.
Considering the term is predominantly used by those who have personal “servants” employed by them and thus refer to them as such. For example “please, don’t fratenize with the help.” Implying that they are somehow, above them.
For someone to use that term to refer to employees at drug stores is in fact, lame. Not to mention snobby as all hell and pretty pathetic to boot.
My Safeway chicks/blokes are just boring. I WISH they would come out with some sort of obnoxious enquiry so that I could use some of the come-backs I’ve read here. Mind you, they are probably so used to strange purchases around here that nothing much would arouse their curiosity.
[k grabs her purse to go shopping for a big jar of Vaseline and a dog-collar to see if she can get a funny look at least]
Oh, but clipper, YOU’RE story was just amazing. I really don’t know WHAT I’d do in your shoes, but I think an official complaint wouldn’t go astray. Or maybe write up a list of smart-arse retorts so you’re ready for 'em next time. Good luck, OK?
I’ve had cashiers ask me about various purchases, or make an observation…I’ve even had a girl at Target who stopped to read the birthday card I was buying and said, “Oh, that’s a good one!”
But I’ve never been offended by their remarks. Yet. I’m a smartass bartender who expects people to have a sense of humor, so I take anything I get in that direction with a large grain of salt. (Or an “I’ve had that coming,” however you’d like to look at it. :D)
Oh, and add me to the pile on gobear’s remark about “the help.” Jesus. Get over yourself.
I curse you with a twelve hour shift behind a cash register, dealing with irate customers and merchandise that has no bar codes, and people with coupons they don’t mention until you’ve already rung them up, and old ladies who can’t find their checkbook, and people who can’t read sale brochures, and little kids who pay with twenty thousand pennies…
And I’ve never worked as a cashier. This is just what I’ve seen from the customer side.
Sounds like you could use some “help” with a little perspective.
I really think the reason I get so many questions/harrassing comments from store employees is that they think that as I’m a female in my mid-twenties that it is fair game to have my actions criticized by any one and every one.
The worse experience that I’ve ever had (at the same store as the one where I was asked if I had my husband’s permission to spend so much) was a cashier asking me how old my baby was when I was checking out. I had no baby items in my buggy. I’m 5’6" and weigh 110 on a heavy day so I don’t think I look “post-pregnancy.” Then when they saw my med school sweatshirt they told me how great it was that I was married to a future doctor.
As for complaining about these situations, I’m usually the type to take things to the manager but sometimes these things happen when I’m post-call or have a major test to be studying for. Frankly, these days I’m too tired to put up much of a fight about anything.
I bought a pregnancy test once. NOT for me, (boys are gross;) )
but for a freind who was too much of a wimp to do it. It was this old crotchety lady who rung it up. She gave me this “look”(as in you dirty slut) and said “Its a disgrace, the way you young girls are so free with your bodies. You can’t get an abortion, you’re too young.” (I’m 15, I was 14 at the time)
I couldn’t believe it. I just stared at her, and then I gave her “the look”… See, I’ve perfected the “hostile, I want your blood” look. I gave it to her, and did she ever go pale… I then asked her " Was that the same case as with YOUR mother?" Then I gave her a nice little smile that showed my teeth(actually, more like bared my teeth) and walked away, swinging my hips.
I used to be a cashier, and I would NEVER ask questions. I admit, I’l joke around with the costomers, if they’re regulars or if I know them, like if their kids are going on a candy spree, i’l say “gonna have a fun night, are you?” but I never would be nosy…
I do find it hard to look the customers in the eye when they buy porn AND scented/flavoured/colored condoms… One guy bought that, and I said “have a nice night”, because we’re supposed to, and he just grinned at me and said “You bet I will!”
After reading this, I think there might be something seriously amiss with the staff at that store. Perhaps they are intellectually disabled to a greater or leser extent? I dunno, the ‘baby-query’/sweatshirt confusion just seem so far out of left-field as to have been uttered by someone who was ‘a stubby short of a six-pack’ (so to speak).
Do your neighbours and local supermarket cashiers need to take a passport with them when they visit the 21st century?
Damn clipper, where do you live? 
A: What ISN’T it for!?
A: I can’t afford a “Wet Banana” so I’m going to cover myself with this and slide down the sidewalk.
I’ll never forget this little nugget. I was on my way to see my relatives for a large July 4th get-together, and stopped off in a liquor store close to their house so I didn’t show up empty handed. I had a case of beer and two bottles of wine.
The cashier: “So are y’all heavy drinkers all the time, or just on the holidays?”
Customer service tip: Do not accuse your customers of being alcoholics if you work in a liquor store.
Piss off.
I worked my way through college and for several years after as a waiter, cashier, and cleaner. Mind you, I did it as a hiking bum, in various national parks but still, I wager I have as much or more familiarity with the service profession as anyone here. When you do service, you are not supposed to chit chat or be a pal to the customers, let alone a judge or critic. You are there to do a job, period.
So you can fuck right off.
Really? I’ll take that bet. I’m sure there are several people here with more experience.
Gobear,
What, exactly the fuck, is your problem? No one here is defending the cashier’s actions, we’re getting on you for your holier than thou “the help” comment.
You’re sure as hell doing a shitty job of defending it. :rolleyes:
Ahhhh…having symptoms of that darned Oneupmanshipitis again are we gobear?
gobear, it wasn’t so much what you said, but HOW you said it.
People who refer to employees as “the help” are usually the sucky customers. It just smacks of 1903 uppercrust who talk about “the help” as if they were another species.
A humorous spin on this thread, now that I bitched previously:
One evening, a lady I was dating gave me the green light, with the precaution that she was a belt and suspenders type regarding precaution.
Stopping enroute to my house, I entered the store for purchase of the essentials. Seeing the cashier, and assessing him to be perhaps 15 or 16, I obtained the necessary condoms, nonoxynol-9, and then decided to have fun with our hapless youngun.
Christmas was soon upon us, and I’d have holiday baking and such to accomplish.
At the checkout, I presented the contraceptives, a can of Reddi-Whip™, chocolate jimmies, candy canes, and a small roll of electrical tape.
The fellow’s hands shook as if afflicted, and I beamed at him, saying, “How about them O’s!”
(I know it was evil, but she and I laughed wondering what went through his mind)