Sucky employee

[Lace Neil Singer]

I went food shopping today with my dad, and we encountered a seriously sucktastic employee. O.o My dad uses *supermarket* boxes to put shopping in, and he put them on the belt. The cashier then said in a snotty tone of voice, "Take the shopping out of the boxes." Not even a please! My dad was annoyed and replied, "I've never been asked to do this ever. Please call over a supervisor." The cashier did; the first thing she said to the supervisor was, "This customer is complaining about my attitude."

My dad said nothing of the kind, and I told the supervisor so. My dad then explained about the boxes, and the cashier came up with her first explanation, "It messes up the belt cuz it doesn't stop it going forward." This is crap; putting the boxes lengthwise does stop the belt. The cashier then said that it was a new store policy; nope, it is not. She insisted in unpacking each box before putting the shopping thru; creating twice as much work for both herself and my dad.

After the supervisor had gone, the cashier then tried to give her third explanation, claiming to have a bad arm. Also bull; she'd shown no sign of a bad arm at all, lifting a huge heavy case of milk with her so-called bad arm. All in all, she was really rude and snotty to both myself and my dad.

By the way, I don't think it an unreasonable request to ask a customer to unpack a box; but she should have asked the supervisor to unpack it if she herself could not, and she shouldn't have made up three stories as to why she couldn't do it herself. Plus, she never said please or thank you, and was incredibly snotty toned all the way thru. I felt my dad would be completely justified ringing thru a complaint about this cashier; there is just no excuse for that kind of rudeness.

[blas]

Cashiers like that can be rude and hostile to customers and never be written up or talked to, yet a cashier who doesn't cave to an entitlement whore gets written up or fired these days. It's sad.

[Evil Queen]

Suck. Good on your Dad for making her call over a supervisor!

[Becks]

Yaaaaaaaaaay Dad.

[ArcticChicken]

Drives me absolutely nuts when a customers puts their hand basket on the belt without emptying it, but I always say please when I ask them to do so.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Wasn't a basket, was a box; it's kind of hard to explain, cuz the supermarket doesn't do them any more, but they are nothing like baskets.

[BookstoreEscapee]

One supermarket I go to actually has signs on the end of the belts that say for your convenience to just put the whole basket on the belt. I always upack it anyway. For one, it's easier for the cashier, and two, I put my groceries on the belt in the order I want them packed. That way I can make sure all my heavy/fragile/cold stuff goes together, etc.

[sarahj]

I'm confused. You put a box of groceries on the belt. Either the cashier would have to unload the box onto the belt, then scan each item through and repack it into the box, or scan the items as they were unloaded and repack the box at the end. I understand if the cashier was rude about asking for the boxes to be unloaded, but if I (as a cashier) was presented with a box of random merchandise, it'd have to be unpacked one way or another, and having the customer unpack while I scan would be a lot quicker. Maybe I'm picturing the boxes wrong? Also I'd probably word it, "would you mind helping me unpack?" and if the customer didn't want to, that'd be cool, they'd just have to wait while I did it.

Also, my arms and back to get sore from unpacking baskets on the belt. I usually only work 5 hours at a time, but I do end up sore after most shifts. Having to unpack a week or two worth of shopping and then reloading it would be terrible.

But wait, I just thought of this, did you have a box of like 12 identical items, marked 12 x item, so they'd just have to scan one thing 12 times? Cos scanning one item 12 times shouldn't be a problem.

[MoxisPilot]

Personally, I don't see the suck in her asking your dad to unpack the boxes, other than not saying "please" - certainly not enough to warrant a supervisor. Once the situation escalated, yes, it then turned into a suck on the cashier's part.

I honestly think it was a bit out of line for your dad to immediately pull the "Supervisor" card, instead of first dealing directly with the cashier.

[Lace Neil Singer]

1. There was an empty box for her to pack stuff into.

2. Why are some of you automatically taking this woman's side? How many times do I have to say, she was RUDE? Her tone of voice was snotty and nasty, and she tried to tell my dad it was a new store policy when it bloody well wasn't as well as telling two other stories. Plus, she tried to accuse my dad of complaining about her attitude when he didn't. The suck is all on her side, it's obvious.

3. If she'd nicely said, "Could you unpack your box?" there wouldn't have been a problem. However, she said it rudely. If I ever spoke to a customer like that, I'd get a telling off. You know, this isn't take the staff's side in everything.com; after all, sucky customers work places, too.

[Linda]

I know the boxes you mean - I've never ever seen a customer be ASKED to empty one. In fact, the customers at that supermarket are asked not to empty the boxes but to keep the items in them on the belt for the cashier to do.

I guess it's something that isn't familiar elsewhere? But it's very common at one supermarket in particular.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I know the boxes you mean - I've never ever seen a customer be ASKED to empty one. In fact, the customers at that supermarket are asked not to empty the boxes but to keep the items in them on the belt for the cashier to do.

I guess it's something that isn't familiar elsewhere? But it's very common at one supermarket in particular.

That's exactly it. I don't name the place I work at, for security reasons, but you've pretty much nailed it. ^^ I'm glad someone understands; altho, it'll admittedly be difficult for anyone who doesn't frequent the supermarket.

[Linda]

I work within said Supermarket (not for them, in a concession) so it's something I see every day pretty much.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Sounds similar to Sam's Club's setup. They have belts, but they're not that long (especially considering the size/amount of stuff people tend to buy at one time), so they have an empty cart on the other side for the cashiers to load stuff into as they scan, so the customer doesn't have to worry about emptying the cart onto the belt all at once. Or sometimes they'll scan large items directly in the cart. So you take your stuff in the new cart and your original cart becomes the empty cart for the next customer's stuff.