Are they psychic?

[jerkface11]

I've noticed over the years that whenever we start to get busy all of the customers seem to want the same thing. For example you get one guy in the drive thru ordering 20 nuggets, instantly someone in the lobby will order 10, then another guy in the drive thru will order 4 6-pieces. Or you get a double quarter pounder no pickles add tomato and 3 seconds later someone else orders 3 just like it.I'm talking about regularly priced items not things that are on sale.

[Sheldonrs]

If an SC can't read a sign, how can they read minds?

[jerkface11]

I think it's more of a Hive Mind type thing. They send out a psychic wave when they want nuggets and the sensitive ones pick up on it and want them too.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

I say Hive too. People see something that looks good, so it's like, "I'll have what he's having/too lazy to decide anyway."

[MageAkyla]

I've always wondered this too. I currently work in a craft store and most days if I get a question say about knitting over the phone, i will get no less than 3 more throughout the day. Sometimes I get requests for the same item that I didn't even realize we carried until I find it after the first person gets bored and wanders away.

This is also true about getting in line to check out. We can stand there for what feels like hours and suddenly you have every single person who is in the store in line to check out.

[teller]

its like this this they hear the guy say nuggests and they go ohh that sounds nice i want some to and forget what there doing. its classic oooh shiny syndrom

[Becks]

We can stand there for what feels like hours and suddenly you have every single person who is in the store in line to check out.

This happens all the time.

Usually at break time.

[wagegoth]

Another vote for hive mind. We must find the queen and destroy her.

[Peppergirl]

This happens all the time.

Usually at break time.

It happens in call centers too. Mystifies me.

The second someone hits break or lunch, the phones light up.

[sms001]

Some of it might also be heightened awareness on your part - like when someone you know buys a type of car, you suddenly see that car everywhere. Nug orders come and go all day long, but the big order focuses your attention on that item and you see every one. Still, ebbs and flows DO come in clumps.

[calulu]

It happens in call centers with the crap people order too. Today I took three orders for the same plant arrangement for a funeral with the same color flowers tucked into it and picks for hunting/fishing inserted in the arrangement. You can go months and months before someone asks for an odd funeral arrangement and lo and behold I had three for identical things going to three different funerals. They were all in the same state, Michigan.

[jerkface11]

My personal theory is that there is some outside force that influences what people want. I don't know what it could be but something makes them all want the same thing at the same time. Maybe just some subtle subconcious cue maybe it's a mystical force. We could probably learn a lot by studying it. I think the people who work in pizza places would be the best way to check it out. After all most of the orders are over the phone so you know they aren't hearing what other people got.

[Mr Hero]

My theory is that SC's are psychic. But since they're SC's they believe that because they're psychic, they assume the person behind the counter is also psychic. This is why SC's get mad at you for not being able to mind read and get them exactly what they want.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And when I'm working carryouts and I'm fixing to go on break, that's when everybody troops up to the registers with their pull tags, and I get paged to do a bunch of carryouts and have to push back my break.

It sux.

[Buglady]

I have been trying to figure out why customers come in flocks. I'll have nobody in the store for an hour at a time, then boom! Six people at once (and yes, they do often all want the same thing - which is really odd since we carry a couple of HUNDRED different varieties of pet food, not to mention treats, vitamins, toys, leashes, etc).

On Friday I had a woman who was passive-aggressive sucky. She came in at the same time as five other people, all of whom went straight to what they wanted and lined up to pay. People continued to come in after that first rush as well - eventually there were about 12 people. So I was busy at the till getting everyone rung through, and she comes up and hovers to the side.

I asked if I could help her find something (usually people just want to know what aisle soemthing's in, and that's easy to do while ringing things in); she said no, but she had some questions about dog harnesses. I let her know I'd be right with her as soon as I rang the next person through. This is where she got sucky.

"Oh," she says. "I can see you are busy. You go ahead and ring all of those people through. I need a lot of help and it will take a long time."

All righty. I take her at her word and keep working. A few minutes later she comes back, I offer to help her again. I said that I might even be able to solve her problem there and then - she was holding onto a couple of harnesses so it would have been really easy for me to show her how they adjusted, etcetera. No no, she says, she'll wait, I should help the people in my line.

OK, fine. I am not psychic and although I have by this time started to get a tingle in my crazy-SC antennae (I've been doing this for a LONG time), I take her at her word again and ring 3 more people through. There was actually only one person left by this time.

Harness lady comes back, cat butt face in full scrunch, and announces "this is ridiculous, I don't have time to wait, I will come back another day when I can get some service!" and leaves. The last customer and I exchange "WTF" looks (he'd heard all of her previous "oh no no, I will wait" statements).

Of course, two minutes after that the store was completely empty and remained that way for 45 minutes