Supermarket cashier chit chat

Bumblefeet

I don't like chatter when I'm packing my shopping away, however, there is one lovely old male TA at my local tesco, and I can natter to him for ages, He's such Doctor Who/Star Wars etc fan. I quite enjoy seeing him on the tills and will use his whenever I can.

Peanuckle

zoominatorone wrote: »

Write to their head office about it.

The staff there have no choice, they HAVE to engage in chit chat and it was only recently changed from something akin to a script to something a bit more natural. They get marked on it by a mystery shopper and told off if they don't do it.

Imagine having to make polite conversation with 100 different people every day in your workplace and be told off if you didn't do so....

I regularly do mystery shopping for 3 different supermarket chains and have never come across a question regarding whether the cashier had been chatty, the only ones even close are whether I was offered a bag and was assistance in packing offered?

Hermia

Peanuckle wrote: »

I regularly do mystery shopping for 3 different supermarket chains and have never come across a question regarding whether the cashier had been chatty, the only ones even close are whether I was offered a bag and was assistance in packing offered?

Where I used to work one of my colleagues got marked down by a mystery shopper for "smiling too much"! He wasn't some gushy bloke and he smiled a normal amount as far as the rest of us could see.

sharnad

bluebeary wrote: »

working in retail were actually told to chit chat and strike up conversations with the customers at the moment, out of about 100 i can manage one ?

and for that im being penalised when actually the customer just wants to be served as quickly and efficiently as possible, i actually told one customer the other day that i used to work in a factory and this was just like a conveyor belt of bodies that i had to get through to get the queue down quickly

Do you work on a register

pigpen

As a customer I can't abide being talked at while packing my shopping, but you shut up and put up.. even I can manage to be polite for the 10 minutes it takes to run through a trolley and a half of shopping. I am quite used to it now and usually shove the trolley with the smiliest child to the cashier and they talk to them instead of me .. I need to concentrate on my packing, it has to go in the right bags so I know which ones have to be put away, which need hiding and which can be left on the side until I have had a cuppa. After 2 hours traipsing round a supermarket I am usually fit to kill and do not want to be polite to the TS.. I want to bite people and scream at them!

It must be awful though working on a till.. we all have days when we just don't want to talk to anyone and to be forced to smile and be polite and make idle chitchat is just hellish, I'm sure.

As for chatting about an amputated leg.. maybe she was inadvertantly trying to raise awareness of diabetes complications/cancer or whatever the reason she had it removed.. all be it in a bumbled manner. I'd probably have asked a couple of personal questions about her leg and let her ramble while I zoned out and got on with packing.

There are a few I avoid because they make stupid errors because they are too busy waffling to do their job resulting in things put through more than once, full price charged for reduced items etc.

OH just squirms when anyone talks to him lol.. he is a bit shy and subdued.. God knows what he sees in me, I couldn't be more different lol.

Paddles

Funnily enough my most awkward experience with a cashier was in Asda too. I was buying some plisols for one of the kids and the cashier proceeded to start a one sided conversation all about her life and just didn't stop... I'm not very good at being rude but hubby had had enough after I had paid and packed and was still standing there being talked at and dragged me off... I'm pretty sure she was still talking as I went I can only assume she had been very deprived of people contact that day!

aileth

pigpen wrote: »

There are a few I avoid because they make stupid errors because they are too busy waffling to do their job resulting in things put through more than once, full price charged for reduced items etc.

Sometimes those errors are good though We bought some plants from B&Q and had multiples, told the cashier we had 6 of the same plant, he scanned one and then started to natter (To be honest we didn't realise either) and when we got to the car and checked receipt, he had only charged us for the one he scanned. I'm not honest enough to take the receipt back to be charged five more plants... Bonus

FOREVER21

Marks & Spencer have obviously put out the party line to their till staff. Having reduced the number of staff/ payment positions you end up in a queue for whatever you buy and when you reach the assistant she says by rote" thank you for waiting".
No, I realise that it is not your fault, and you probably don't really care if I wait or not, but a simple hello will do.:(

pigpen

aileth wrote: »

Sometimes those errors are good though We bought some plants from B&Q and had multiples, told the cashier we had 6 of the same plant, he scanned one and then started to natter (To be honest we didn't realise either) and when we got to the car and checked receipt, he had only charged us for the one he scanned. I'm not honest enough to take the receipt back to be charged five more plants... Bonus

indeed.. but the number of times we were overcharged, charged for extra items etc far out weighed the times we got 'freebies' .. I'm not honest enough either, so if it happens I don't mention it to OH until we get home because he would go back and pay! He is most virtuous

shellsuit

Talk to me, paw me, show me your underwear, but DON'T, for the love of God, try to help me with my packing.

I can't stand people helping me with my packing and when I see people with buckets collecting who don't even ASK if you want help with your packing, it gets right on my wick.