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Oh, god, YES! On one trip I encountered the same woman doing this TWICE in the same store!
I don’t know how they look at me because I never look back to see their reaction, because I DON’T CARE.
I didn’t know this. I remember that when the baskets were first introduced years ago, that was the way people were instructed to do it.
But in any case I always use a cart, even for 2 or 3 items because I’d just rather not carry a basket. For that small number of items, after checkout I return the cart to the cart area and carry the bag to my car.
After emptying the baskets, people leave them on the floor at the end of the conveyor. That interferes a bit with the efficient method I use to empty the cart. But I have no problem putting up with that to save a checker’s arm.
I can’t think of many from the customer’s point of view since I’m a pretty patient person and can understand how crappy it is to be a cashier. As long as they’re doing all their stuff right, I don’t get upset if they have to get a price check on something or change their receipt paper right before they serve me. What bothers me is when they don’t bother to even say hello or goodbye or don’t ask if I have my Kroger card with me, the little things that I know are protocol. I can understand if they don’t feel like chatting and heck I don’t even really care to talk much to the cashier, but at least do the bare minimum.
The thing that annoys me is, as others have mentioned, when people with huge orders go through the express lane without permission. Especially if I’m right before them with my small order. It’s extremely rude and inconsiderate of others. I also get annoyed when more than one station at the U-Scan area is down- rarely ever is there a good reason for that- and when they are messy. It’s like no other store taught their cashiers how to clean up that area and make it nice for the customers.
As for the grocery stores themselves…Eh. Still, I can’t think of much to get worked up about, except if one of the foods I want is out of stock. Even then I’m like “Oh, it happens.” I’ve seen people get so worked up and it’s just silly.
From a cashier point of view, I abhor working the express lane. We get the hand-me-down cash registers/counters and when they installed the express lane instead of giving us a normal belt, we got a turnstile bagging area. Did I mention that this thing turns slower than molasses in January? Takes a lot of muscle, there’s nowhere to put the items after ringing them up, and it’s just a hassle overall.
There are always a handful of people every time that I work that thing that try to get into my lane with a cartful of groceries. It’s a hassle telling them they can’t come into my lane, I just wish people would read the signs. It would solve half the problem in the stores.
We get timed for our transactions so it’s doubly annoying when a person decides in the middle of the order that they’re going to run across the store for that missing kool-aid packet.
As I’ve mentioned in another thread, the U-Scans can be annoying when a person doesn’t know how to work them, especially when they take their frustrations out on me or the machine.
I really dislike getting cursed out for refusing to sell alcohol to drunk people, getting yelled at because something a customer thought counted for WIC didn’t show up on the transaction, getting complained to because food is too expensive and so on. I’m a lowly cashier, what do they expect me to do?
The summertime is particularly yucky. Let’s just say that the clientele around here isn’t very hygienic. We have regulars called “Spice-smell guy” and “Stinky Cat Pee,” where we actually have to Fabreeze the store after they leave. I’ve taken money from such dirty hands so many times that I’ve become accustomed to that. I’ll never get used to taking the money that women pull out of their bras though, damp with boob sweat.
I’ve had people try to cheat me out of money three times. One who did a flip of the wrist to hide the $100 I just gave him back to say I only gave him a $10, one person who tried to tell me that I need to honor the discounted cake, despite the fact that they had put discounted STEAK stickers on the non-discounted cake, and one where two people tried to confuse me and scam me out of $100 which was actually pretty complex.
I won’t even get into the company itself unless anyone really wants to know what’s wrong with Kroger. That within itself is a whole other story. It’s all drama that, combined with the cranky customers, is too much drama for the minimum wage they pay me. 
Only a couple more years until graduation, I remind myself.
Going into a store to specifically buy the item on sale & find out that they’re “out,”----a couple hours after they open. Really? Doesn’t that mean they didn’t really have enough of the item in the first place? (I always get a rain check, but still…)
On this note, having four pallets of frozen food in the aisle and one person stocking them is not a good thing. One person is not going to get all that stocked before it thaws or melts and lets all the lasagna run down to the side of the pan. And frozen fish that has thawed and been refrozen is pretty yuck.
I don’t buy frozen food at one store anymore; I go to the store where the guy stocks a couple of shopping carts at a time. Certainly that doesn’t fit into anybody’s time-and-motion studies, but it’s one hell of a lot better for the quality of the food.
Nah, it generally means it was a bait and switch (unless it was stated to be marked down for clearance).
Heck, on at least four occasions at my local Meijer (not here in China), I’ve been directed to the express line despite my large number of groceries. I always worry that someone with one or two items that comes up afterward is going to scream at me.
I know how you feel, I’ve actually had that done to me, twice. 
That happened to me once. I was heading for the regular lanes with a full cart and as I passed the express lane the clerk called me over. When I hesitated she said it was okay since there was no one in the line. So of course halfway through ringing up my order someone carrying a few items in his hands got behind me and made a loud comment about people who can’t read (or can’t count). The clerk immediately told him that she had called me into the line because there hadn’t been anyone in it, and apologized to him for the wait. Amazingly, he accepted this and didn’t say anything further. It probably helped that I looked rather embarrassed when he showed up, and made a point of paying as quickly as possible.
The fucking coupon people.
They’re willing to stand there while they call the manager over from his distant office to rule on whether a 10 cent coupon is valid. Meanwhile, my frozen foods are thawing out because I was unlucky enough to get behind them in line at the checkout.
Just last night, I ran into all of my major peeves: carts parked haphazardly, blocking aisles? Check. People wandering down the middle of the aisle, at glacial speeds? Check. (And why are those folks always wearing flip flops, dragging their feet. If you’re too lazy to pick up your feet to walk, stay the fuck out of busy stores at 6pm on the Saturday before school starts!!!) Pallets of products blocking shelves? Check!
And then the cashier line. Two people in front of me. One separates his order into five separate transactions. (Paying cash for each. Because he can’t be bothered to pay at once, and return someone else’s item, receipt, and just subtract the receipt from the original money.) Next lady used a combination of gift card and bank card to pay, and had no clue how to use either. Meanwhile, the cashier is discussing her class and work schedule with her supervisor, slowing things down even further…
No, I didn’t move to another line. No sense jinxing two with my crappy line karma. And yes, I had my check fully written except the total, along with my ID number and phone number before I reached the register. Had my ID in hand too. Normally would have used debit, but my husband had the card.
Today I’m battling the other shoppers to do some minimal shopping for the week and I notice that there’s a lady trying to get past the woman standing right next to me. Moving the cart so that it doesn’t block the entire aisle, the woman next to me looks up and scowls at me. “There’s a lady trying to get past you over there” I respond, and smile. She continues to scowl and moves on. I pass her again and she continues to scowl. How hard is it to not block the aisles or look sheepish when corrected?
They already have an “express” lane; why not have a lane for people who need to write a check, or people with a whole stack of coupons . . .
. . . or people who are out of cash and need to use the ATM . . . or people who leave their food on the conveyor belt, while they run back into the store for a few additional items.
Ok, my complaints are primarily aimed at other shoppers, rather than the store.
I’d love it if people who blocked the aisle with their carts would be charged a surcharge for each offense. Or people who actually stand there eating the produce . . . then handle things with the fingers that were just in their mouths.
Banks have the right idea. ONE line, and when a teller is done with a customer, s/he signals the next person in line. For a grocery store, the checker should signal when the first transaction is being paid for, to enable the next person to start unloading the cart.
Also, in retail stores of any variety, there should be NO merchandise on display in the area between the checkouts and the exits. None at all. That area should be used for the shopping carts or for a customer service area.
Slow cashiers - I’m not talking about someone having a bad day or a brand-new person training. At my local store (until I moved recently and so far all normal cashiers in the new town!) there were two of them that had been there for years that moved like molasses. I’d try to avoid them but if it was a typical day, there would only be one or two choices for cashier lane. No sense of urgency, despite a line of five or six people. Ugh!
One of these slow cashiers would also work the self-express lane. So if something went wrong with my checkout, no sense of urgency. Just stroll over eventually and fix it. Oh, and give me a nasty remark about letting the kid in the next lane lean on the other side of the scale, causing the error. Hey, not my kid!
I do not want to give $1.00 for prostate cancer. Especially since you announce it over the intercom whenever someone gets suckered into it.
I don’t think I should be approached at the doorway by your charity group of the week. I have enough problems fending off the panhandlers in the parking lot that management does nothing about and I don’t think I should have to get a guilt trip every time I walk through the store doors. The only exception to this is Girl Scout cookies.
I don’t know about every Whole Foods in the country, but in NYC, that is how it is done. No hand signal, but a sign over the front of the line tells you what cashier to proceed to.
I have a theory about this. I believe it is the handicap drivers who are leaving the carts! Think about it. Who else would do this?
I’ve seen plenty of people in the spots near the handicapped spaces leave their carts there.
God yes! I hate change diggers! Just the other day some fucknugget counted out thirty cents in pennies (of course I was really busy at the time). He then left me as a tip a bible tract. :rolleyes:
You want to get rid of change? Do what I do: at the end of the day I throw whatever change is in my pockets into a tupperware dish on my dresser. I let it build up for a few months and then take it to the bank. Usually more than enough to have a nice dinner!