Insider Grocery Shopping Tips: Don't Get Mad at Your Cashier

There has been a lot of buzz on this blog over fancy looking cakes and gourmet looking meals. I'm not a very good cook, plus I lack a sweet tooth, so I am going to take my posts in another direction. I'm a cashier at Safeway, so I thought I'd share with you some advice that is related to the grocery store experience.

Don't Get Mad at Your Cashier.

There are numerous thing people complain about to the cashiers, and only one or two of those things are valid. I'll break it down for you right now.

Long line ups

When lines start to build up the first thing that happens is people from other departments will be called up to cash as well. If the lines are still too long then that means there are no more people with cash experience available. If there's only two tills open that means someone thought it would be a slow night and didn't put enough people on shift that day, or someone got sick and they couldn't find a replacement. Either way its the higher ups fault not the poor seventeen year old trying to make some money during high school. Believe it or not but the cashier is just as annoyed as you are, maybe more, because they have to deal with the high levels of stress that comes with working short handed. IT'S NOT THE CASHIER'S FAULT.

An item is out of stock

So chances are, at the beginning of your order the cashier is going to ask you if you found everything you wanted. More specifically they're asking you if there were any items you couldn't find. However, some people take this opportunity to complain about items being out of stock. Now that's fine if you're being nice about it, or want them to get someone to check in the back, but if you go on a rant about how we're always out of stock of a certain item, then you're wasting your breath.

CASHIERS DON'T ORDER THINGS!

They have no power. They aren't even allowed to dispense change, so why on earth do you think they can suddenly make bags of brown sugar appear in the baking isle next time you're in. Go to customer service if you have a real complaint. They will call up a manger, the guys who really can make a difference. It's NOT THE CASHIER'S FAULT.

The price is wrong

So this is a tricky one. Sometimes it happens. The item isn't entered into the system properly and you don't get your discount. A price check will happen and if you're right, we'll fix it. No big deal right? WRONG. It doesn't always work out that way. What's more likely to happen is the customer reads the wrong sign, or just plain misreads it, and then we do a price check and then tell them they're mistake. Instead of graciously admitting they messed up, a lot of people will still put the blame on the store, saying it's our fault the signs aren't more clear or our fault for putting two similar items beside each other. Either way it's NOT THE CASHIER'S FAULT so stop projecting your discontent onto them.

They don't ring through your coupons

So this is the only thing that is THE CASHIER'S FAULT. Sometimes they just don't see them and sometimes they just forget. They're human. The important thing to remember is to not freak out. The nicer you are about it, the nicer the person fixing the problem will be. And it's always really easy to fix.