Some assorted tales from the past few days...
Fish Freakout
Every once in awhile, we have whole salmon fillets. A woman (of an ethnicity known for being entitled pains in everyone's ass) comes up to the self-scan with one of said fillets, cut in two (one half has the price sticker for the whole piece). Starts with a drawn-out story about how she wants to buy it, and had in cut in half because she wants to store some (then why the $#@! didn't you just buy two of the smaller traypacks? It's the same price...), and...long story short, I deduce that I'll need to force it through the system because since it is in two pieces the sensor on the belt will complain and reject it. I confirm with her that this is what she wants, swipe my card and ring it through. Cue apoplectic fit. "No no no it should be cheaper!"
Turns out that she wanted only half of the fillet, and thought that the self-scan would be able to weigh the half that wasn't stickered and be able to magically deduce a total price. A cashier register with a scale can do that, but the self-scans cannot.
SC: "But if I'm buying tomatoes I can type in tomatoes and the computer knows how much it is!"
Me: "That is tomatoes. This is fish. This needs a specific printed barcode for each piece."
SC: *repeat above*
Me: "I don't know how much each piece weighs. This register CANNOT do that. Go to a person."
SC: *repeat above*
Me: "Ma'am, I know what you want me to do, but I cannot do it here. Go to a cashier."
SC: "But you are a cashier!"
Me: "This register cannot do what you want and I cannot make it do what you want. See the people in yellow shirts standing behind the counters with lines of people? Go to one of them."
I think this is the end of it, but while I'm helping someone else I feel a tug on my sleeve (oh NO you did not). It's SC.
SC: "Nobody wants to take my money!"
Me: *must...not...comment...* "Please take your hand off me NOW. You need to stand in line."
SC seeks out our temp manager and starts haranguing her. As best I can figure, she expects TM to give her what she wants...which is to price each half of the fillet. TM sends her back to the fish counter.
In a way, I also fault the fish guy for not trying harder to figure out what the hell she wanted.
I'm gonna SUE you guys because the paper delivers your fliers!
The city paper has something called "[Paper] Direct" that they deliver to all their customers. It's basically a small bundle of upcoming weekly sales fliers for the nearby stores. The only involvement that my store has is providing the fliers.
I'm signing the self-scam key out at the start of my shift, and a regular comes blustering up to the desk "I want a manager! I'm about to sue the store; you keep sending my fliers! I never gave you my address!"
Now, we do have targeted coupon mailings for the cardholders that choose to receive them, but it was clear that she was talking about the fliers that [Paper] delivers. The only way to get those is either the above method or coming into the store.
Untitled
One of the self-scans was down completely last night. No light, nothing on the screen, it was completely powered down. Yet a few people still tried to scan their stuff; one lady stood in front of it for a full 90 seconds (in which time a line began building) before the penny dropped. Manager P was also watching this and specifically instructed me NOT to try and help them
Fish Freakout
Every once in awhile, we have whole salmon fillets. A woman (of an ethnicity known for being entitled pains in everyone's ass) comes up to the self-scan with one of said fillets, cut in two (one half has the price sticker for the whole piece). Starts with a drawn-out story about how she wants to buy it, and had in cut in half because she wants to store some (then why the $#@! didn't you just buy two of the smaller traypacks? It's the same price...), and...long story short, I deduce that I'll need to force it through the system because since it is in two pieces the sensor on the belt will complain and reject it. I confirm with her that this is what she wants, swipe my card and ring it through. Cue apoplectic fit. "No no no it should be cheaper!"
Turns out that she wanted only half of the fillet, and thought that the self-scan would be able to weigh the half that wasn't stickered and be able to magically deduce a total price. A cashier register with a scale can do that, but the self-scans cannot.
SC: "But if I'm buying tomatoes I can type in tomatoes and the computer knows how much it is!"
Me: "That is tomatoes. This is fish. This needs a specific printed barcode for each piece."
SC: *repeat above*
Me: "I don't know how much each piece weighs. This register CANNOT do that. Go to a person."
SC: *repeat above*
Me: "Ma'am, I know what you want me to do, but I cannot do it here. Go to a cashier."
SC: "But you are a cashier!"
Me: "This register cannot do what you want and I cannot make it do what you want. See the people in yellow shirts standing behind the counters with lines of people? Go to one of them."
I think this is the end of it, but while I'm helping someone else I feel a tug on my sleeve (oh NO you did not). It's SC.
SC: "Nobody wants to take my money!"
Me: *must...not...comment...* "Please take your hand off me NOW. You need to stand in line."
SC seeks out our temp manager and starts haranguing her. As best I can figure, she expects TM to give her what she wants...which is to price each half of the fillet. TM sends her back to the fish counter.
In a way, I also fault the fish guy for not trying harder to figure out what the hell she wanted.
I'm gonna SUE you guys because the paper delivers your fliers!
The city paper has something called "[Paper] Direct" that they deliver to all their customers. It's basically a small bundle of upcoming weekly sales fliers for the nearby stores. The only involvement that my store has is providing the fliers.
I'm signing the self-scam key out at the start of my shift, and a regular comes blustering up to the desk "I want a manager! I'm about to sue the store; you keep sending my fliers! I never gave you my address!"
Now, we do have targeted coupon mailings for the cardholders that choose to receive them, but it was clear that she was talking about the fliers that [Paper] delivers. The only way to get those is either the above method or coming into the store.
Untitled
One of the self-scans was down completely last night. No light, nothing on the screen, it was completely powered down. Yet a few people still tried to scan their stuff; one lady stood in front of it for a full 90 seconds (in which time a line began building) before the penny dropped. Manager P was also watching this and specifically instructed me NOT to try and help them

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