The five things that irritate supermarket cashiers the most: You might be doing them too

We often go to supermarkets several times a week. And probably all of us have encountered an angry and unpleasant shop assistant. It’s just that the people behind the counter don’t have it easy, and I don’t blame them sometimes for not being completely nice when a person hands them a thousand and buys a few crowns worth of gum. A friend of mine works at a cash register in a store and often complains about how mentally demanding the job can be. Every day she faces the same problems that many of her colleagues do.

“If I forget to smile at someone at the end of my 12-hour shift, the boss immediately tells me off. But it’s not my fault that his cigarettes aren’t just before closing time and that his purchases cost more than he obviously expected,” says Klara, who works in a supermarket in a small town. She says there are some things that cashiers have to get upset about every day. And most of them are talked about globally, with salespeople all over the world having problems with them. All it would take is for customers to be a little more considerate.

Use a product divider

I’ve had it happen a few times that part of my purchase has been tagged to another. And I admit that I’ve been keeping an eye on it lately. But a lot of people don’t use product dividers and then the cashiers have unnecessary problems with it. In some cases, you manage to stop them before they markup the purchase to the wrong customer.

It’s just that often their trained hands are quicker. Then you have to apologise, they have to apologise to you, the situation is unpleasant for everyone. Plus, you have to make a purchase cancellation, which often requires a call to the store manager. This delays the whole process and creates a long queue in the shop.

Straighten the bottles of drinks so that they don’t roll

It may seem like a comical problem, but in reality this is something that gets on the nerves of many cashiers. A friend confided in me that she and her colleagues even count how many customers place the bottles on the belt correctly. Usually not many. Poorly placed bottles roll as the belt moves and hold up the line. So always place them lengthwise on the belt to prevent this from happening.

Sort the fruit

In some shops, fruit needs to be weighed. And many people don’t. “Telling me the price of your produce doesn’t do me any good. I still have to enter the food code into the scanner.” That’s one of the phrases cashiers in stores have to repeat almost daily. Customers often weigh the goods, know their value, but don’t stick a bar-coded ticket on them. Another problem is that they often do not sort fruit and vegetables. They simply put a bag with one apple, a piece of ginger and two carrots in front of the cashier and expect her to sort it out. However, sorting food and watching the queue at the checkout grow is not part of the job description of those sitting behind the belt.

Pay exactly or by card

The worst thing you can do in a shop is to buy a few crowns worth of products at 7am and only have big money on you. The cashiers simply don’t have anything to give you change from. They then have to change at other checkouts and unnecessarily delay the store’s operations. Therefore, always have your card or cash ideally ready but as accurate as possible.

Be nice to the staff

Yes, store staff can be unpleasant at times. But that being said, no one is likely to be in the best mood after a long shift. On the contrary. If you’re rude to the cashiers, you’re going to put a damper on their mood before the end of the day. It’s not the people behind the checkout line’s fault that there’s a line in front of you or that you’re not having a good day. Taking your anger out on them is not nice.

“We serve the customers. But that doesn’t entitle a person to be rude to the staff or the cashier. Shouting at us won’t solve anything,” writes, for example, a store employee on Facebook who unfortunately often has problems with unpleasant customers. Although the post is about a clothing store, the situation is the same everywhere and it is in convenience stores that people are often very rude to cashiers. So try to be respectful of their work and don’t take your anger out on them.