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Yesterday seemed to be relatively devoid of true SCs, and only contained a few annoying people (most everyone else was forgettable).
Abandonment!
I seem to get a lot of people abandoning the self-checkouts mid-transaction for no good reason. I'll look at my screen and notice that one is prompting to continue a transaction, but there is no customer and no abandoned merchandise on the checkout in question. If I look around and compare the already-scanned items, I'll usually find the customer in question either at another self-check, or in a nearby register lane waiting to be rung up by a cashier.
Once, when I asked a customer who'd gone to a regular lane, they replied that the self-check was "broken." It was patiently waiting for another item to be scanned.
Yesterday's run-off in question happened while I was standing at one lane fixing bags. A lady of foreign descent (heavy accent, very limited English, non-Caucasian appearance) came up to me holding a box of NutriGrain bars and leading her 20-something daughter, who was pushing a cart of merchandise. The lady held out the box to me, as though for me to scan it, and I politely directed her how to scan items on the self-checkout. She nodded, and proceeded to ring up her purchase while I returned to my podium to keep an eye on the monitoring screen.
After the two women left, I noticed one of the other self-checks prompting for continuing the transaction, but there was no customer there. I went over to investigate, and found two boxes of NutriGrain bars had been rung up (but were nowhere in sight).
All I can figure is that the lady double-rung her box, couldn't find the "Cancel Items" button on the screen (lots of people can't seem to find it, despite the button's size), and decided to have me, the cashier, ring her out. And somehow managed the other checkout just fine when I told her to ring herself out. Oh well. Why can't they just call for help?
This kind of ties in with the people who manage to cancel their entire transaction when they were just looking to void one item off (the "Cancel Selected Item" button is 3x as large as the "Cancel All Items" button, as a note).
This is the US!
This woman came up to me while I was running the self-checkouts and asked me if I knew if we had a certain game in stock, as she couldn't find an associate over in the toy department to help her. I told her I could call and ask quickly, since I had a phone, and made the appropriate page for a toy associate to dial the self-checkouts' extension. Then we waited.
Now, I should mention that considering our area of CT, we have a fair number of Hispanic employees at our store. All of them speak rather good English, certainly more than enough for them to communicate with all the English-speaking customers we get. It also helps, because we get a lot of Spanish-speaking and Spanish-only-speaking customers in our store too. I'd hazard to guess that 1/3 of our employees are Hispanic. Many times, especially in the breakroom, they'll speak Spanish with each other, though they always approach customers with English first.
This woman happened to notice FEM (Front-End Manager) and O (head CSM) talking to Kathy, one of the cashiers. All three are Hispanic. All three were speaking Spanish. The woman pointed to FEM.
SC: I've seen her walking around here a lot talking into that thing (a walkie-talkie) in Spanish.
Me: Well, she's Hispanic, Ma'am.
SC: Well this is the US! She should speak English!
Me: (um...okay....) She does speak Enlighs, Ma'am. A lot of our employees are Hispanic, though, and they'll often talk to each other in Spanish. It sometimes helps to get the idea across clearer for them. (this makes sense to me, as I can get ideas across to people in my native tongue a lot quicker and easier than I can if I were to speak, say, German.)
SC: Well, my ancestors came here on the banana boat and they learned to speak English!
Me: Ma'am, they do speak English, to the customers.
SC: *muttered* Whatever. *Loudly, ostensibly to FEM, O, and Kathy* Good bye! Thanks for nothing!
FEM, O, and Kathy didn't notice the lady. I was left standing there, attempting to herd my brain cells back into order since this was the first time I've had a (supposedly) Hispanic person complain to me about people not speaking English in America. Then I remembered the lady didn't even wait for her answer. I guess she got fed up.
About half a minute later, the toy associate calls my extension.
Me: Well, the customer with the question left just a bit ago, but do we carry NameOfGame?
TA: Nope.
Me: Good to know. If she comes back, I'll tell her.
So I guess the lady didn't miss out on much with her abrupt departure.
What does it matter what language the associates speak to each other, so long as they can communicate effectively with the customers?
On a side note to this story, I had a grown man come in who had a 10-year-old (or so) with him. The man caught my attention, then looked at the 10-year-old, who proceeded to ask me questions and translate for her father. At least this gentleman made an effort to enable communication with the store, even if it was through his daughter.
My great-grandma got to translate for her parents a whole bunch when they came over from Austria way back when, because her parents couldn't learn English very well.
Abandonment!
I seem to get a lot of people abandoning the self-checkouts mid-transaction for no good reason. I'll look at my screen and notice that one is prompting to continue a transaction, but there is no customer and no abandoned merchandise on the checkout in question. If I look around and compare the already-scanned items, I'll usually find the customer in question either at another self-check, or in a nearby register lane waiting to be rung up by a cashier.
Once, when I asked a customer who'd gone to a regular lane, they replied that the self-check was "broken." It was patiently waiting for another item to be scanned.
Yesterday's run-off in question happened while I was standing at one lane fixing bags. A lady of foreign descent (heavy accent, very limited English, non-Caucasian appearance) came up to me holding a box of NutriGrain bars and leading her 20-something daughter, who was pushing a cart of merchandise. The lady held out the box to me, as though for me to scan it, and I politely directed her how to scan items on the self-checkout. She nodded, and proceeded to ring up her purchase while I returned to my podium to keep an eye on the monitoring screen.
After the two women left, I noticed one of the other self-checks prompting for continuing the transaction, but there was no customer there. I went over to investigate, and found two boxes of NutriGrain bars had been rung up (but were nowhere in sight).
All I can figure is that the lady double-rung her box, couldn't find the "Cancel Items" button on the screen (lots of people can't seem to find it, despite the button's size), and decided to have me, the cashier, ring her out. And somehow managed the other checkout just fine when I told her to ring herself out. Oh well. Why can't they just call for help?
This kind of ties in with the people who manage to cancel their entire transaction when they were just looking to void one item off (the "Cancel Selected Item" button is 3x as large as the "Cancel All Items" button, as a note).
This is the US!
This woman came up to me while I was running the self-checkouts and asked me if I knew if we had a certain game in stock, as she couldn't find an associate over in the toy department to help her. I told her I could call and ask quickly, since I had a phone, and made the appropriate page for a toy associate to dial the self-checkouts' extension. Then we waited.
Now, I should mention that considering our area of CT, we have a fair number of Hispanic employees at our store. All of them speak rather good English, certainly more than enough for them to communicate with all the English-speaking customers we get. It also helps, because we get a lot of Spanish-speaking and Spanish-only-speaking customers in our store too. I'd hazard to guess that 1/3 of our employees are Hispanic. Many times, especially in the breakroom, they'll speak Spanish with each other, though they always approach customers with English first.
This woman happened to notice FEM (Front-End Manager) and O (head CSM) talking to Kathy, one of the cashiers. All three are Hispanic. All three were speaking Spanish. The woman pointed to FEM.
SC: I've seen her walking around here a lot talking into that thing (a walkie-talkie) in Spanish.
Me: Well, she's Hispanic, Ma'am.
SC: Well this is the US! She should speak English!
Me: (um...okay....) She does speak Enlighs, Ma'am. A lot of our employees are Hispanic, though, and they'll often talk to each other in Spanish. It sometimes helps to get the idea across clearer for them. (this makes sense to me, as I can get ideas across to people in my native tongue a lot quicker and easier than I can if I were to speak, say, German.)
SC: Well, my ancestors came here on the banana boat and they learned to speak English!
Me: Ma'am, they do speak English, to the customers.
SC: *muttered* Whatever. *Loudly, ostensibly to FEM, O, and Kathy* Good bye! Thanks for nothing!
FEM, O, and Kathy didn't notice the lady. I was left standing there, attempting to herd my brain cells back into order since this was the first time I've had a (supposedly) Hispanic person complain to me about people not speaking English in America. Then I remembered the lady didn't even wait for her answer. I guess she got fed up.
About half a minute later, the toy associate calls my extension.
Me: Well, the customer with the question left just a bit ago, but do we carry NameOfGame?
TA: Nope.
Me: Good to know. If she comes back, I'll tell her.
So I guess the lady didn't miss out on much with her abrupt departure.
What does it matter what language the associates speak to each other, so long as they can communicate effectively with the customers?
On a side note to this story, I had a grown man come in who had a 10-year-old (or so) with him. The man caught my attention, then looked at the 10-year-old, who proceeded to ask me questions and translate for her father. At least this gentleman made an effort to enable communication with the store, even if it was through his daughter.
My great-grandma got to translate for her parents a whole bunch when they came over from Austria way back when, because her parents couldn't learn English very well.
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