Tomato trouble

[jjc927]

I started today by going on Uscan for the person operating it so she can have her break. This man had a few things including a bag of tomatoes. He needed help putting them in so I walk over and do it for him. I assumed the tomatoes were beefsteak tomatoes since they were large and plump. So, I put the tomatoes in and walk back to the operator station, and he pays. A minute or two later however, he shows me his receipt and complains that the tomatoes should be $2.49 a pound and not $2.99 a pound like they had rang up.

First he insisted on me going with him to the produce aisle to show me the price (and who would be operating the Uscan?). I look in the store circular and show him that beefsteak tomatoes are indeed $2.99 a pound. He tells me that they were not beefsteak and again wants me to go with him to show me the price. I tell him he has to go to customer service to get it taken off and then rescan it with the correct code. He gets huffy about this and asks if I couldn't just do that here, I say no, and he finally goes to the service desk.

My question is though: Why didn't he say something before paying for them? That would've made it so much easier and faster for everyone. I know I made a mistake and should have clarified since none of the tomatoes had a PLU code on them, but that was just annoying.

[EvilEmpryss]

He didn't say anything because he didn't look until after he paid. His fault there. So was not making sure he had a PLU on the produce.

Could have been worse: He could have lobbed the offending produce at you for not giving him the discount.

[flyingember]

I'll give him this one actually.

produce is confusing and sometimes stores stock two kinds of items top to bottom and put the signs side to side. when it's that long misting case with the signs in a long row above it's even worse

[ShoeLady4048]

plus, most customers do read the sign. they just see a $$$$ and assume that's what they should ring up for

[Bella_Vixen]

Ah, produce. I always check to see if there is a code sticker before I ring it up, even when I'm 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% positive I know exactly what kind it is (apples, I'm looking in your direction).

[Jester]

A lot of checkers don't even know the produce all that well anyway. I lost count a long time ago of the number of times I have had cilantro rung up as parsley, serranos rung up as jalapenos, etc. Okay, sure, those items are very similar, but I have actually had to explain to some confused checkers what some of the produce was.....and we aren't exactly a Chinatown market here with all these weird foreign plantstuffs!

[BrenDAnn]

Could be worse. Could be the UScan operator at Wally World that I saw telling a child not to sit on the bagging area while his daddy was ringing stuff up because it was messing the thing up! Ugh! I looked at my nephew and said "And THAT is why I don't mess with the self checkouts!"

[Becks]

For the longest time, I was the only cashier who knew what half the produce was.

Fun!

[ralerin]

Am I the only one who thought of "Tonic Trouble" when I saw the thread title?

No?

That aside-I can understand why some people would be confused about the produce, especially at my local market which has a wider range of the "weirder" fruits for the Hispanic community in my city. I don't know half the fruits in there and I would bet the average Joe wouldn't either. That said, unless your store stocks heirloom tomatoes, the guy should've checked the price in them anyway.

[EvilEmpryss]

For the longest time, I was the only cashier who knew what half the produce was.

Fun!

I think I've met your twin sisters. I can tell who they are every time the person ringing out my produce peers closely at some bagged bit of something, wrinkles their nose, and then looks around at the other cashiers and shouts "Hey Susie, what are these?" The response from three registers over is always spot-on.

[chainedbarista]

the checkers usually ask me about the leafier stuff.

some places have a book for the produce codes, but they only help, sadly, if the 'customer' actually knows what they shoved into their cart. most don't...'hey, vern, this looks like a tomater, grab 20.'

[jjc927]

Of course most of the time when I don't know what something is and I ask the customer to identify it... they can't remember.

[EricKei]

"Hey Susie, what are these?" The response from three registers over is always spot-on.

We used to do that at a grocery where I once worked. The response, however, was always in the form of a PLU code, not the name of the actual fruit/veggie ^_^

[Skeen]

Mr. Skeen was the go-to guy for produce identification. He knew the PLU code for everything in the store.

I swear, he can't usually remember to zip his pants, but by god he knew the code for jicama!