And Furthermore . . . .

Also at work yesterday I had one of my regular customers come in and we started talking. She was telling me about going to 'the enemy' across the highway. We got to talking about cashiers and things and she told me about the attitude they have there. Being one who is concerned about customer service I had to hear more.

Turns out she was in there, with her own bags, and a fairly large order, the cashier rings stuff up, barely acknowledges her and just keeps piling groceries up at the end. My customer was trying to bag it, but is used to us doing it.

Sidebar: When we started charging for bags and accepting customer supplied bags it was, and still is, our policy to pack the customers groceries. Unless they don't want us to. Nothing changed because we were charging or because they supplied bags.

Back to the story:

My customer was falling behind and then the cashier turns to her and asks if its debit or credit. Arms folded across her chest, looking at her like how come she's not finished already. Then after the cashier processes the order, she is making it clear that the customer is now in her way. After all, there is another customer she can be rude to.  ZING !

The cashier did not even ask if she could help her at all. I do that when customers are bagging their own groceries. I also try hard to be polite to people that insist on doing it themselves and are holding me up. In that situation I try to move their groceries to the side so I can continue on. But I always offer to help.

I can not believe that they do not bag your groceries. And yet people still go there. I hear comments about how rude they are. I know from experience that they don't treat you very well when you bring returns. Granted that could have changed in the many years since I stopped shopping there. But none the less, its kept me from going back there.

Oh, I have occasionally stopped in when i am looking for a certain product or something. But 99% of the time I can not find what I want. They seem to have a lot of groceries and products etc, but they do not have a variety of sizes. I have often looked for a large size of peanut butter or the large decaffeinated tea. Never find it. They have a lot of their store brand stuff. A LOT of it. I have yet to be impressed with any of them.

And, I've had customers tell me that we are more expensive than them. Maybe that's true on what they buy, but on what I buy, sorry. Wrong.

There are two things that will tick me off, though. People that ask me to bag for them,  then proceed to rearrange everything when I'm done.

AND, people that are packed and ready to leave but hold up my job because they have to get their mittens on, or a scarf just so, or yap on the phone. Get out of my way. Have you no consideration? There is usually an empty register next to me, and if not there are always the cases of water along the front. You could actually put your stuff there and get ready to leave. That way you aren't holding anyone up.