Not taking items out of the basket

[Pagan]

It might be a cultural thing too... I regularly shop at two Japanese grocery stores (one in Novi, MI & one in the Chicago suburbs) and both stores prefer you to leave the items in the basket. Those are the only stores that I shop at where I just put the basket on the belt.

Hmmm. That's the way it's done here, too, but it's all stores. Not just certain ethnic ones.

[ThirdGenRetail]

Could be worse... I often get people who will put things on the counter one. At. A. Time. They won't put the next on the counter until I scanned the last, and JUST BARELY right after it. We need to try to scan everyone through as fast as we physically can, but when they put stuff up there like THAT... OMG...

[Mr Hero]

I seem to be in the minority here, but I didn't realize it was a pet peeve for cashiers. If I have a basket, I will use it as a means to keep my food seperate from others in line. Plus, it doesn't take up much room on the belt.

[tollbaby]

Wait... I thought that you were supposed to put the baskets at the front of the belts. I never know what to do with them in stores that don't have a space left for them. I tend to assume that anywhere where the displays between the cash lanes stick out further than the belts do I can put my baskets there (that's why there's always a stack and people go around to pick them up), even if there isn't a holder.

Don't worry Maggie, that is where they go at my grocery store. There are piles of them at each cash, and a bagger goes through once an hour to take them back to the front of the store (except that around 5pm when it gets busy, there are never any baskets - they're all in use!)

[Pagan]

I seem to be in the minority here, but I didn't realize it was a pet peeve for cashiers. If I have a basket, I will use it as a means to keep my food seperate from others in line. Plus, it doesn't take up much room on the belt.

I do the same thing. And I would say that 98% of other people around here do, too.

[mattm04]

When I was a cashier for (Southeast US Grocery store where Shopping there is a Pleasure)
if we didn't have anyone in line, we were required to stand out in the aisle and corral people into our lines. Helped even out the number of people in lines. These two snotty, fake-affluent type women roll up TWO full shopping carts to me and, without unloading them, say "Here ya go!". (Expecting ME to unload both of their full carts of groceries). OH HELL NO. I said, firmly but politely, "And you two ladies will be helping unload, right?." They both smirked and just stood there, looking at me expectantly. I said, "OK THEN" and walked back behind the counter and shot them a HUGE smile and said, "Ready to start loading now?"
Dont get me wrong, I would have HELPED them if they were nice, or if they were disabled I would have unloaded both carts onto the belt. But they weren't either. Just stuck up. With me, the "princess" act will get you nowhere.

That is where you unload 1 item, walk around the counter, scan it and bag it. Walk around to cart, unload 1 item, place on belt, walk behind counter scan it, bag it, repeat.

[Calie]

It might be a cultural thing too... I regularly shop at two Japanese grocery stores (one in Novi, MI & one in the Chicago suburbs) and both stores prefer you to leave the items in the basket. Those are the only stores that I shop at where I just put the basket on the belt.

I worked at a Japanese grocery store (not entirely relevant to my point, but a nice coincidence), and I strongly preferred people to leave items in the basket.

1. There wasn't space to put the basket on the ground (really, there wasn't)
2. The counter didn't have a belt!!! (small specialty store, most people bought less than 10items at a time). People would unstack their entire basket, with items 2 or 3 feet out of my reach. Bonus points for the ones who would just stare at me as I tried to reach for said items.

Generally I tried to head things off by saying "oh, in the basket's fine" or "you can hand your basket to me, thanks" and not get mad, but dear lord, common sense does seem to be a superpower these days, doesn't it.