annoying things......

[thelewisgang]

I work on the checkouts in a local supermarket & I can't be alone in some of the things that really annoy me whilst doing my job.  One of my real pet hates is customers who decide to put their bank notes or loyalty card inside their mouth and then hand it to you-yuk.  Another is children being allowed to sit in the trolley, I mean, where the shopping goes.  A few weeks ago I was serving a customer who had a child in with the shopping & the child had obviously soiled its nappy (need I say more!) The thing is, that trolley was going to be wheeled out & left for some other customer to use. Not nice.  Anything else to add by others?

[khana]

Customers who spend ages in a long queue for the checkout moaning the whole time and then when it comes to pay, spend ages getting out there money/hunting for their card or cheque book. Its not a surprise that you are going to need to pay so why not get it all ready while you are queueing instead of spending the time moaning !

Rant over :-)

[thelewisgang]

certainly agree there with your reply.  I don't know how many times it has happened to me but when you ask a customer if they have a loyalty card and they go searching through mounds of cards & bits of paper in their handbag only to say 'sorry, can't find it' and then I complete their transaction and they then announce that they have found their card.  When I explain they will have to go to the customer service desk to get the points added as I'm unable to do it at the checkout, they go mad!!   surely, as you say, when they know they are going shopping, for goodness sake get everything ready. 

[Coobeastie]

Surely if they didn't finish packing they'd get their stuff caught up with the next customers shopping (yay free stuff)...also maybe the cashier should be aware of this as they are passing the shopping along and maybe slow down a bit instead of blindly shunting stuff down the conveyor.

Have to agree with the trolley thing though....yuck.

[Loosehead]

Cheques, aaaaaaggggghhhhhhh, why oh why oh why don't the supermarkets just have the guts to say "No cheques", make my blood boil, death's too good for em! Rant over!

[Loosehead]

This is a "suggestion" I put to ASDA, it illustrates pet hates well: Hi,

I started to fill in your leaflet but I realised that most people couldn't care less about what state the car park is in etc. So I though I'd let you know what bugs me and probably a lot of other people who use your store at lunch time.

I use the Bournemouth store near the station every week day at lunch time, I have a limited time to get my lunch so I am keen to get through the till as fast as I can. Unfortunately there are things that slow me down all the time. Anyway I suggest the following, I will call it a "No pains in the arse" (NPITA) till, you no doubt will think of a more publicly friendly name for the same thing anyway here are the specifications:

I'm talking about one of the Baskets only tills, not the kiosk, that has it's own problems, anyway�.

1. No clothing, they take ages messing about with hangers and things.
2. Cash only, no cards no cheques.
3. 10 Items or less. 5 tins of beans is 5 not 1!
4. baskets only, not baskets in a trolley.
5. Staff it with Patrick, small oriental guy, whatever you're paying him it isn't enough he's faster than 2 of your other cashiers.
6. Put up a big notice explaining the rules and that there will be zero tolerance.
7. Any unexpected PITA, eg missing bar code, send them to another till or to go and get an item with a bar code zero the till give them their other stuff back and do the next customer..
8. You only have to have the NPITA till say between 12 and 2:30.

Above all though enforce the rules strictly if someone hasn't got cash, zero the balance and send them to another till, they'll learn if they've got 11 ditto they'll learn. It may be tricky at first but our aim is throughput, they'll learn and I'll be recommending your chairman for a peerage!
 

[maggie01]

parents who think because they have taken things off the shelf the children can eat them before they have paid. Many times when I worked in a shop, the mums would give you an empty lolly wrapper  saying that their child had eaten while they were shopping. The goods do not belong to you untill you have paid for them, and I often wonder what this teaches children.

[MsBehave]

On the flip side to all this, the cashiers are annoying sometimes too. Just a few examples: They throw stuff down that belt faster than you can pack (this is where the, 'well im gonna finish packing before i bloody hand my money over to you' thought comes into place) or they do the complete opposite and take forever scanning and passing it on. The little tills where the cashiers pack for you-they just dump stuff in bags. Why put things like apples on top of grapes or tins in with your bread?!! Some shops seem to hire folk who look like they're in a little dream world. Having said all that, my local Morrisons staff are always friendly and chatty which is nice.

[thelewisgang]

Oh boy, I've started something with this topic but its good to see all the comments.  I do so agree about the children being given food/drinks to eat whilst the Mum or Dad does the shopping - the parents should realise as you said that the item does not belong to them until they have passed through the checkout.  I had an occasion only last week when a mother came with her two with a bag of white seedless grapes but it was obvious that the kids had been eating them the whole way round the store and basically all that was left in the bag were a few grapes and the rest of it stalks!  that is blatant stealing - no other word for it.  Mindyou, we can't just blame the parents.  I have also witnessed a man being pushed in his wheelchair and the lady with him gave him some cherries (�8 + a kilo)! to munch on as he went round!  As for the remarks about basket only tills at Asda.  I don't work for this company but I know what you are talking about.  So many times people come with piles of shopping and the most frustrating thing is when there are two people & they proudly announce 'I know its only ten items or less but there's two of us'.  If we say they will have to go to another till they then stand there and take some out each so really it takes longer to do two transactions, if you get what I mean.  As far as having cash only basket tills.  I don't think this would make much difference at all.  With this chip & pin for cards its just as quick as accepting cash when you take into account the amount of people that faff around with their change etc.  Cheques I would certainly say do away with.  Why, when nearly everyone has a debit card to go with their cheque, they still want to pay by cheque - they take much longer to process.  Think we should all get together and make supermarkets a better place to shop (and to work)! 

[mfewell]

tlg, this is serious stuff though ! I have actually stopped using ASDA for anything but the smallest purchases that I can carry away in my hand. This is because the majority of checkout operators do not open the plastic bags for you, so you struggle and struggle while s/he sits there, hand outstretched, "that'll be �12.32 please", while you struggle even to get the bag open, let alone pack the bloody shopping, and the "I'm going to pack this stuff before I pay you" kicks in with a vengeance (sorry IAP). I mentioned it 3 times to ASDA, but no change, so now I use JS.

[Buttonstoo]

mfewell, I know those carrier bags can be tricky blighters to open and it does help when the checkout staff open up A FEW.  However it does not help when they pull off and open LOADS and LOADS and LOADS!!  I have lost count of the number of times I have left items behind because they have wizzed down the checkout and been buried in the pile of open carrier bags at the bottom!!  Grrrrrr..............

[topkapi]

The number of females who have used the facilities at the supermarket, not washed their hands and then go straight out and start feeling and touching the fruit and veg.  Makes me want to gag.  Dare say the men do it as well but I make sure that all fruit and veg is washed before I use it.

[Coobeastie]

Don't really have a problem with the eating before buying situation as at least the ones you've mentioned are honest enough to pay for the goods.....what gets my goat is the ones who leave empty wrappers around the store or those people who seem to delight loading up their trolley then dropping off bits as they go around...example double cream in the cleaning section and so on, why pick it up if you don't want it. And if you must put it back why not pop it back where it belongs.

[kazza12345]

Having been both a customer and a checkout person id like to add mine to the list

1) i have a physical disability, so get really annoyed when the wheelchair tills are closed

2) i hate people who park in the disabled spaces when not entitled.  I hate it when parent child parking spaces are nearer the shop than disabled.  why?  does having children mean you lose the use of your legs?  its a lifestyle choice, people!  i dont chose to be disabled!

3)i cant agree with the basket in a trolley thing - if all your shopping is in a basket, you should be able to go to the basket checkout, some woman got so snotty with me the other day because my basket (of 5 things) was in a trolley because i couldnt lift it due to my disability.

 

oh god i sound like ive got a real chip on my shoulder!!  i am a nice person, honestly!

[curiosity]

 But anyway back to the main theme. My biggest gripe with Shop Assistants is when you look for something, you do all you can logically to establish whether you can find it in the shop, then decide to ask an assistant in case they might have the enthusiasm to find it out the back, and all they do is walk to the aisle you've already scoured and say "naw, if it's not there we haven't got it" I know this started as gripes at customers, but this is a two way experience people! Sometimes requiring a form of UN. I don't go to shops intentionally to let my children eat snacks, however most families spend very large amounts of money in things called supermarkets, and it's not a family fun day out, to keep it as smooth as possible you may have to feed or give drinks to kids who are sitting in queues their "paid for" refreshments being delayed by slow checkout people. At least we're paying, what's your problem, how does this affect your life? Is it other attributes of the people who have the confidence and common sense to do this that bother you? but this is something negative (& I must say picky) to focus on. I'd think about this. If it really is a problem, people should speak to their managers to rid Supermarkets of this crime againgst humanity. Get a life basically.

[fideldyfee]

I remember once when i used to work in a chemist (not a proper chemist, more like a "semi-chem ist") this woman came up to the counter with a bottle of cough medicine. She coughed and spluttered all over me while i served her and then as soon as she gave me her money she unscrewed the cap and started gulping down the medicine out of the bottle. Makes me giggle now, but at the time it was discgusting!

[Hermia]

My pet hate is the staff in my local Aldi who don't seem to have had any customer service training whatsoever. They don't speak at all except to tell you the total, the don't smile and they don't reply when you say "hello". I now enjoy saying "hello" to them in my sunniest voice to see whether I can break them!