Why do they do this??

[pbmods]

At my photo counter, we're pretty much on the way to the front registers, so a lot of customers just stop at my register for checkout. No problem; that's why we have two techs in the lab at most times. I have a real problem with customers who routinely go up to the photo counter and *expect* to get checked out when there's no line up front, but that's a different story.

Anyway, so each tech usually checks out about 100 customers in a day, and since we're located in downtown Chicago, there's no space for a lot of carts (thank goodness!), but customers have plenty o' baskets.

And for some reason, once the customer has emptied her basket onto the counter, she is compelled to put the empty basket next to her on the floor.

WTF?!

I have to tell every customer, "I'll take care of your basket for you." Usually I have to say this about three times before the customer understands that I'm talking about the basket that she just tossed on the floor. (And they call *us* stupid....)

Incidentally, I prefer to take the basket and put it on the floor behind the counter so that I have something to put our overstock into. Plus I'd rather have baskets behind the counter where nobody will trip on them and file a frivolous lawsuit; you get the idea....

How can I fix this problem? Obviously, posting a sign won't do jack. I can't make a counter display that says, "Place basket here," because I need that space for my photo upsell displays.

I could just tell every customer to "leave your basket on the counter." I dunno how well that would go over, though I'll start testing it next week.

Any ideas?

[Mad-Bassist]

On the floor? Damn, that never occured to me.

At supermarkets I always put my basket on the conveyor belt, and if the clerk sees me doing it, I figure I don't have to lay down a spratchet (sniglet for the "windshield wiper-like things to separate your purchase from the others.") Nautrally, the next person in line sets one down. Heh heh.

In the self-checkout or other situations, I've wondered about that. Often there is no place designated to put the baskets, so I just carry it with me and put it in the stack where I got it from. Then again I'm one of those strange people that will exit the car, grab a shopping cart that some fool left in the middle of the lot, and either use it for myself or put it with the others inside the store where other people can use it.

[Becks]

Then again I'm one of those strange people that will exit the car, grab a shopping cart that some fool left in the middle of the lot, and either use it for myself or put it with the others inside the store where other people can use it.

I've been known to do that, too.

At my store, they have room under the counter (hot foods) or under the front of the conveyer belt (front end) to place the baskets so they're out of the way.

[batmoody]

It never occurs to customers to put it back where they got it. I especially hate customers that leave their grocery cart in the checkstand. They grab a cart and only buy a few things. Like 2 bags worth. They take their bags and just leave the cart there. the way our checkstands are set up, I have to literally grab one of those "spratchet" things so I can reeeeeeach over and snag the cart to move it. Or if there is another customer in line behind the abandoned cart, they will usually push it up and I will make the comment loud enough for abandoner to hear, "Oh I guess they didn't neeeeed that anymore."
Really, these people are so self absorbed, they just think that cart or basket is going to magically find its way back.

[Discourtesy Clerk]

spratchet (sniglet for the "windshield wiper-like things to separate your purchase from the others.")

You mean a divider?


Yeah, people don't listen to simple instructions about where to put their baskets/carts. It's like when someone parks their cart up on a curb in a parking space, about 10 feet from the nearest cart corral. It's all about being unbelievably lazy. I mean, what else do they think that big hulking piece of cheap metal and plastic is bolted to the ground for?

You should just prompt them to give you the basket before you finish the transaction. That way, you don't have to rely on them to do anything for themselves except continue standing there.

[AFpheonix]

Most people put their baskets up on the counter and leave it to me to unpack, which is usually fine with me, then I can scan in the order I want to pack it in, and then I can grab the basket to keep out of the way, or use if I need it for something else.

What kills me are the people that use a cart, and after I'm done with them, they leave the damn thing there in front of the counter, blocking everything. The cart corral is inside the store, right next to the doors. They would not be going out of their way to take it back with them.

What kills me even more about that though is people just file right by them, including managers and other floor people. I often don't get a chance to do anything about it until my shift is about done, when I return my go-backs and straighten the waiting area (I am the only tech that does any of this when any of us work swing, too. Drives me NUTS when I work a morning shift and come back the next day for swing and there's still crap everywhere that should have been taken back. I realize that technically the managers are supposed to handle this crap, but they never do, so it sits around until I do something about it. Same thing with the totes for the daily orders: the sims guy or the manager is supposed to take the empties back to the stock room...never seems to happen until I get a second to go get a dolly and handle it myself)

[Mad-Bassist]

You mean a divider?

Okay, I admit it... I'm trolling for fans of Rich Hall and "Not Necessarily the News." Huh huh, I'm old.

Speaking of go-backs, one thing that gets me is walking through the store and finding a dairy or frozen item sitting on a shelf at room temperature. While I have a tendency to "rescue" distressed merchandise from time to time, I'm not going to risk my health in the process.

Ah, those non-freight nights at my old Super-Valu spent facing entire aisles and finding homes for all the misplaced things. It reminds me of the old George Carlin bit: In the supermarket, you put things back anywhere! "Put the ham in with the coconuts, put the Brillo with the bacon bits. ... guys with purple fingers come out at midnight, and in the morning, everything is back. It's the mystery of the supermarket."

George Carlin gets my vote as the greatest sucky customer ever--he can say those things all he wants because he is... The Carlin. I remember the purple fingers from my childhood--caused by the steel stampers they used on groceries in the seventies before the pricing gun was invented. Heh heh.

[Kogarashi]

I get people abandoning the shopping cart in the middle of a checkout lane too. Sometimes I'll call them on it ("And is that your cart there, Ma'am?" with the I'll-take-care-of-it tone), and then I usually get a dirty glare as they say, "Oh, yeah," and grab it out of the way. If I don't say anything, it gets left there as other customers walk around it or push it out of the way into the adjoining lane until I get a spare moment to move it. ::grumble::

I have yet to have a customer actually leave their items in the basket when they actually set the basket on the belt. Invariably, they will set the basket down, then begin unloading it onto the belt in front of the basket (as the belt is moving, forcing them to keep scooting the basket back). Then they look around for a place to leave the basket, though I've had some leave the empty basket behind the merchandise on the belt still.

[LostMyMind]

That's strange, granted I unload the basket if the cashier don't grab the basket first (it actually happen a few time to me). But all the stores I've shopped at down here, the cashier wants the basket on the belt. I guess I'll have to keep a eye out when I visit ye yanks

[Mad-Bassist]

I have yet to have a customer actually leave their items in the basket when they actually set the basket on the belt. Invariably, they will set the basket down, then begin unloading it onto the belt in front of the basket (as the belt is moving, forcing them to keep scooting the basket back). Then they look around for a place to leave the basket, though I've had some leave the empty basket behind the merchandise on the belt still.

LOL! I did that back when they introduced those little baskets, only I unloaded it working right-to-left so the conveyor would stop on the first item. I saw it as courtesy to the clerk instead of making them unload it. Now I just set the basket on the belt as it seems to be common etiquette.

[Kogarashi]

LOL! I did that back when they introduced those little baskets, only I unloaded it working right-to-left so the conveyor would stop on the first item. I saw it as courtesy to the clerk instead of making them unload it. Now I just set the basket on the belt as it seems to be common etiquette.

I figure, if you're going to leave the basket on the belt anyway, why not just leave your merchandise in the basket to save you some time? Unless, of course, you want things bagged a specific way, but every customer I've had unload the basket and then leave the basket there has unloaded their stuff into a big heap that I have to sort anyway.

[Kitten in the box]

At my photo counter, we're pretty much on the way to the front registers, so a lot of customers just stop at my register for checkout. No problem; that's why we have two techs in the lab at most times. I have a real problem with customers who routinely go up to the photo counter and *expect* to get checked out when there's no line up front, but that's a different story.

Anyway, so each tech usually checks out about 100 customers in a day, and since we're located in downtown Chicago, there's no space for a lot of carts (thank goodness!), but customers have plenty o' baskets.

And for some reason, once the customer has emptied her basket onto the counter, she is compelled to put the empty basket next to her on the floor.

WTF?!

I have to tell every customer, "I'll take care of your basket for you." Usually I have to say this about three times before the customer understands that I'm talking about the basket that she just tossed on the floor. (And they call *us* stupid....)

Incidentally, I prefer to take the basket and put it on the floor behind the counter so that I have something to put our overstock into. Plus I'd rather have baskets behind the counter where nobody will trip on them and file a frivolous lawsuit; you get the idea....

How can I fix this problem? Obviously, posting a sign won't do jack. I can't make a counter display that says, "Place basket here," because I need that space for my photo upsell displays.

I could just tell every customer to "leave your basket on the counter." I dunno how well that would go over, though I'll start testing it next week.

Any ideas?

You could TRY telling them...but do so VERY SLOWLY and CLEARLY because the average customer lacks ears in which to hear...(some actually lack a brain....weird huh?) You could try the sign if all else fails but I doubt it would work because even if the sign is written 'hooked on phonics' style I doubt they will take the time to learn to read it that way. But I do warn that telling customers over and over again can get annoying after a while.

You could also try getting it from them right after they unload all their stuff onto your counter...this may "train" the customer to leave it on the counter when done or just automatically hand it to you themselves when they are done unloading...

[repsac]

I remember getting charged for one of those divider things at one point. At least, I think I got charged. It ended up in my bags and went home with me.

[Kogarashi]

I remember getting charged for one of those divider things at one point. At least, I think I got charged. It ended up in my bags and went home with me.

I seem to recall back in my Supercenter days that a customer (elderly lady, I think) was watching me as I rang up their merchandise and bagged it. When I reached for the divider at the end of her purchase (to slide it onto the rack so someone else could reach it), she said, "Oh, that's not mine."

I resisted the urge to say, "Well, duh. It says Wal-Mart on it in nice, big letters, and doesn't have a barcode." Of course, this lady also didn't think to use the divider before her purchase, so I think she honestly thought it was a buyable item and not just a useful piece of plastic.