Was he sucky or am I over-sensitive?

[Anakah]

Everytime I go to safeway I get the same guy while checking out. He always bitches about the prices and tells me how ridiculous his own store's prices are! I have never said anything that would have lead him to believe I was bitching about the prices nor was I upset. In fact I end up telling him that its okay!

Now today, my hubbie-to-be accidentally picked up light sour cream (bleh!) and I noticed it during check out and he decided to switch it out. No harm done, he went back to the isle. Now, I was at Safeway due to the fact that I have caught the flu (thanks to all the jerks who coughed on me at work!) and I wasn't particularily feeling too well.

Well, we had bought a twelve pack of soap, those stoffer's enchilada family meal things and some water. Every time the checker came across things items he would exclaim:

SC: Man those are a LOT of *insert items above* !

Me:

He would yell them and made me feel uncomfortable. I don't like my personal items being brought to attention. I am very shy and was (and still am) sick and really not in the mood for BS.

I'm sure he thought it was real funny but I felt embarassed and he only did it while hubbie was away and when hubbie came back he was normal again.

Though when we got our total--over a hundred dollars the checker once again was exclaiming loudly about how we got so little for the high price we were paying. I wanted to tell him that is really stupid and makes me not want to go back to his store. You do NOT tell the customer that you think your place of employment over charges and act completely obnoxoius.

Am I overly sensitive? I think if it were only once that he did this I wouldn't be so mad but its EVERY time I go there and have him as my checker.

[LingualMonkey]

I don't think you're being overly sensitive here. Having a dickwad make you the center of attention in a negative way ("Look at how stupid you are for buying this overpriced shit!") is uncomfortable. If it happens next time, I'd complain.

[Ree]

That is sucky and unprofessional customer service.

No matter how disenchanted or pissed off one is with their place of employment, it is so completely wrong to express that fact to one's customers.
That clerk needs to shut up about his store's prices and quit criticizing his customers for shopping there and paying those prices.
Does the dickweed realize, if the customers stop coming there and paying those prices, he is out of a job?

(I am wondering if that's his way of connecting with his customers.
Most consumers are upset about high prices, so perhaps that's his way of breaking the ice and putting himself on the same playing field to head off the customer's complaints about prices. )

[RecoveringKinkoid]

You and he are probably both victims of a company that thinks it's awesome to make it's clerks try to "make a connection" with their customers.

Apparently, the business of just selling goods for money is outdated now, we have to try and make customers think they have a relationship with the store.

So couple the fact that you have unsocialized and/or disgruntled clerks trying to implement this with the fact that most fo the buying public hate this practice, and you have a lot of pissed off people on your hands.

It's bad enough down here where we chat up strangers and that's normal public interaction. I can't imagine how that flies up north where people DON'T do this.

[PepperElf]

nothing quite like having the cashier make you feel embarrassed for buying items.

i'd say...
tell him to "please keep your opinions to yourself" blunt but what's he going to do?
or talk to the manager

[ralerin]

Recovering-It's about the same here, though it applies more to the big box stores. However, at Aid of Rite, I am encouraged to make small talk with the customers and to be nice and polite. Since making small talk with complete strangers bothers me (I am also shy though WAY less than I used to be), I usually settle for the be polite thing and make chit chat with the regulars IF they are in the mood for it. To me, there's nothing worse than some dickwad who's trying to talk at me when it's clear that I don't want to or feel like talking so I try to avoid doing that to my customers. I'll agree with them about the high prices if they say something first but I won't go on for ages about it.

Regarding the "Whoa that's a lot of items!" thing-I normally either say that inside my head (though unfortunately my face usually says what I'm thinking ) or if I notice that the customer does have a lot of said item and seems nice, I'll usually say it aloud, but quietly. For example, a guy once bought our half our stock of cotton balls when we had a sale and when I said, "Wow, that's a lot of cotton balls, why so many?" he said that he owned an acupuncture clinic and we left it at that.

Jerkwad in the OP's story, though, doesn't seem to get the "leave it as it is" part, though.

[Rapscallion]

Apparently, the business of just selling goods for money is outdated now, we have to try and make customers think they have a relationship with the store.

It gets even worse when management get the word 'experience' stuck in the echoing confines of their narrow minds.

Rapscallion

[laundryhater]

That cashier is definately sucky! That would bother me too. I think I'd have loudly asked him, "If you think this store sucks so badly why do you work here?"

[tropicsgoddess]

The cashier's behavior was incredibly unprofessional to say the least.

[Peppergirl]

Sucky, definitely..

But, like another poster mentioned, I can't help but feel for the guy if it's one of those situations where a company is forcing cashiers to 'dialogue' with the customers.

I know alot of people in the CS industry that are perfectly polite and do their jobs well, but force them to make small talk with a customer - they f*** it all up. Some people just don't have the personalities to make small talk and it's unfortunate that there are companies out there that are making this attempt at 'banter' to be part of their jobs.

Granted, maybe the guy is just a tool - and that's likely the case, but I do feel for emps who are forced to make small talk and just aren't equipped to do so.